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RunPod Alternative in Europe
RunPod rents out bare GPUs, in EU regions too, but under US law. HostYourAI delivers managed vLLM in a fully European chain.
RunPod is one of the best known names in GPU cloud: rent a GPU by the hour, drop a container on it, off you go. The company has EU regions and even published a press release about GDPR compliance. Yet articles titled "RunPod Alternatives for EU Data Residency" keep appearing, and that is no accident: read closely and you will see that an EU region at a US company is not the same thing as a European chain.
RunPod says it plainly in its own privacy policy: data is "necessarily accessed and processed in the U.S.". That is where the problem starts for European teams, however tidy the European datacenters may be.
What RunPod does well
Credit first. RunPod makes GPUs by the hour accessible at sharp rates, with a wide hardware selection and a smooth developer experience. If you want to manage your own stack, from CUDA version to serving layer, and jurisdiction plays no role for you, it is an excellent choice. It is an infrastructure product, and a good one.
EU Inference Router
‹ Insight 1 of 28 ›An EU region is not European jurisdiction
RunPod is and remains a US company, which means it falls under US law regardless of where the GPU physically sits. US authorities can compel access to data held by US companies, including data stored outside the United States. And the privacy policy is upfront about it: data is necessarily accessed and processed in the US. For a privacy officer who has to prove data residency, the story ends right there.
HostYourAI is a Dutch company and all inference runs in European datacenters, with no American cloud in the chain. You get a DPA, a public subprocessor list, the guarantee that your data is never used for training, and a 99.9% SLA.
from openai import OpenAI client = OpenAI( base_url="https://hostyourai.com/api/v1", api_key="hyai-...") client.chat.completions.create( model="llama-3.3-70b", messages=[{"role":"user","content":"Hallo!"}])
Bare GPUs versus managed vLLM
The second difference is work. At RunPod you rent a GPU and the rest is on you: install vLLM, match image and CUDA versions, estimate VRAM for your model, wire up health checks and restarts. HostYourAI takes over exactly that layer. You pick a model from the catalog, the platform selects suitable hardware, deploys vLLM and reports back when the endpoint is ready. You get an OpenAI compatible API instead of an SSH prompt.
If you would rather not run any instance at all, there is the shared Router: pay per token, models scale to zero when idle. Prepaid, no subscription; see the pricing page.
OpenAI and Anthropic compatible
Both the Router and every dedicated instance speak OpenAI's /v1/chat/completions format, including SSE streaming. There is also an Anthropic compatible /v1/messages endpoint with x-api-key authentication. Almost no GPU provider offers that: your Claude tooling works here without touching the SDK.
Migrating in three steps
- Create an API key. Register, top up your prepaid credit and generate a hyai key in the dashboard.
- Pick your shape. A model on the Router for pay-per-token, or a dedicated vLLM instance for a GPU that is yours alone.
- Point your client at the endpoint. Set your base_url to https://hostyourai.com/api/v1 and test in the Playground or with curl.
curl https://hostyourai.com/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hyai-..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "llama-3.3-70b",
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize this report."}]
}'More background lives in the guide Migrate your OpenAI client to the EU Router.
Questions about a RunPod alternative in Europe
Doesn't RunPod have EU datacenters?
It does, and they are fine datacenters. But the company falls under US law and its own privacy policy states that data is necessarily accessed and processed in the US. Real data residency requires a provider under European law.
Can I run my own model here, like on RunPod?
Yes. You deploy a dedicated instance with vLLM and choose the model yourself, including models outside the standard catalog. The difference: the platform handles the deployment and you get an API endpoint straight away.
Do I have to install or manage vLLM myself?
No. vLLM, hardware selection, health checks and endpoint readiness are part of the platform. You work on your application, not on the serving layer.
How do I pay?
Prepaid credit: per token on the Router or per hour on a dedicated instance. No subscription.
Will my existing OpenAI or Anthropic code work?
Yes. The API is OpenAI compatible, and a separate Anthropic compatible /v1/messages endpoint serves the Anthropic SDK.
Everything you need for AI
From model hosting to a customer-facing API, it is built for developers and businesses who want their AI running on infrastructure they actually control, inside the EU.
Your data and your models stay on European GPUs. GDPR-friendly by design.
Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek, Mistral, FLUX and plenty more. Pick one and it is warm in minutes, with no DevOps on your end.
Point your existing client at the Router and keep your tools. No rewrite, no lock-in.
From zero to a warm endpoint in minutes
No infra to manage. Pick a model, get an OpenAI-compatible URL, ship.
Pick a model
Choose from the Model Garden or paste any HuggingFace ID. Set the VRAM and pick an EU GPU.
Get your endpoint
We deploy vLLM, run readiness probes, and hand you a warm OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible URL plus an API key.
Route and ship
Point your client at the Router. It auto-routes to a warm instance, idles GPUs when nobody is online, and logs every request.
Private by Default
HostYourAI keeps your models, prompts and data on European GPUs. It is built for teams that care about compliance, reliability and real control.
GPUs and data residency inside Europe. Your prompts never leave the EU.
Run open-weight models with no black boxes or hidden telemetry.
GPUs idle when nobody is online, so you only pay for what you run.
Your infra, your keys, your models. Leave whenever you want.
Works with the tools you already use
The Router speaks the OpenAI and Anthropic APIs, so it drops straight into the clients and SDKs your team already runs. Just change the base URL.
Try HostYourAI for free
Frequently asked questions
Can I run this in the EU?
Yes. HostYourAI runs open models on GPUs in European datacenters via vLLM. Your prompts and outputs never leave the EU and there is no US cloud provider in the chain.
Is it GDPR-compliant?
Yes. All processing happens inside the EU, a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is available and the subprocessor list is public. Open weights also mean no training on your data.
Is the API OpenAI-compatible?
Yes. Point your existing OpenAI or Anthropic client at our Router (https://hostyourai.com/api/v1), change only the base URL and API key. No rewrite, no lock-in.
What does it cost?
Pay-as-you-go on one prepaid credit balance: the shared router per token or a dedicated GPU per hour. Free to start, no minimum, no fixed monthly fee.
Works with 390+ open models
Text and image models on dedicated EU GPUs. Every model tested on our own hardware.
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