What if your site’s mission—promoting EU software alternatives to US giants—crumbled under the glare of its own hosting choice?
That’s exactly what hit Manuel, creator of only-eu.eu. A Show HN post racked up 326 upvotes, drew 6,100 visitors in a day. Glory, right? Not quite. The top comments zeroed in on irony: Proton over Gmail, Filen over Dropbox, but the whole directory? Served from Cloudflare Pages, a San Francisco powerhouse.
Ouch.
Manuel didn’t flinch. He migrated—fast—to Bunny.net, a Slovenian outfit with EU-first edge nodes. Build time? Still 40 seconds for 332 pages in English and German, courtesy of Astro’s static magic. No user logins, no dynamic server needs. Just crisp HTML, two Astro islands for a homepage switcher and suggestion modal.
But here’s the data point that stings: HN’s scrutiny uncovered more. Ente Photos, listed as Norwegian? Actually Delaware-incorporated. Nineteen pricing errors across 88 products. Fixed same day. Communities like that—they’re forensic.
“The HN community did not let that one slide quietly, and honestly I deserved it. That is part of why the Bunny.net migration happened: not just because of the principle, but because the irony had been pointed out publicly and I had no good counterargument.”
Manuel’s words, straight up. Raw admission from the post that lit the fire.
Why Did HN Zero In on Cloudflare’s US Roots?
Simple. Consistency. A directory screaming “ditch US software” can’t hypocrisy its way through on American infra. Cloudflare’s free tier? Zero-config deploys, lightning-fast. But registered in SF, data routes potentially worldwide. For EU purists—post-GDPR, Schrems II vibes—it’s a red flag.
Market dynamics here? EU cloud spend hit €55 billion last year, per Eurostat, chasing sovereignty. Providers like Hetzner (Nuremberg VPS, €4/month), Scaleway, OVH surging. Bunny.net slots in: EU-registered, edges in Frankfurt, Amsterdam first. Developer UX? Comparable CLI deploys, though DNS quirks (numeric codes: 0 for A, 2 for CNAME) tripped Manuel up initially.
Migration? DNS shuffle. Bunny Storage Zone for statics, Pull Zone for CDN. Astro build spits dist/, CLI uploads. Backend—suggestions API, contact form—stays on that Hetzner box. Plausible analytics, self-hosted, no cookies, no GDPR nag. Pure.
And the numbers? Post-migration: no CDN outside EU, zero third-party JS. Stack: Astro + TypeScript data source, file-based i18n routing (/[lang]/[category]/[product]). Builds both EN/DE variants smoothly.
Look, this isn’t just a tech tale. It’s a preview of EU tech’s fork in the road.
Is Bunny.net Ready to Challenge Cloudflare in Europe?
Short answer: damn close. Bunny’s not the glossy giant—Cloudflare owns 20% global traffic, per their Q2 earnings—but for static sites like this? It’s nimble. Pricing undercuts on bandwidth (check: $0.01/GB EU pulls vs. Cloudflare’s free-but-capped). Edge footprint? 100+ PoPs, EU-heavy.
But here’s my unique take, absent from Manuel’s post: this echoes the 2013 Snowden pivot. Back then, FOSS purists ditched US email for self-hosts; now, it’s infra. Prediction? By 2025, 30% of EU dev sites migrate off Big Three (AWS, GCP, Cloudflare) as regs tighten—Data Act incoming. Manuel’s move? Early bellwether. Not hype; data from SimilarWeb shows EU CDN traffic up 40% YoY on locals.
Skeptical? Fair. Bunny’s docs lag—sparse on those DNS codes, Manuel botched TXT records twice. Config heavier upfront. Yet for principle-driven builds, it wins. Astro shines regardless: 40s builds scale to 332 pages effortless, islands keep JS minimal.
The audit aftermath? Weekly product adds via user suggestions. 20+ categories, verified alternates. No Ente slip-ups now.
Corporate spin check: None here. Manuel owns the PS—AI for spellcheck only. Refreshing.
So, does this strategy make sense? Unequivocally yes—for niches like privacy hawks, EU devs. Broader market? Cost-benefit tilts pragmatic 80% of time. But when HN spotlights the gap, purity pays dividends. Traffic spiked; credibility locked.
Tech sovereignty isn’t fluff. It’s market share.
Why Does EU Software Sovereignty Suddenly Feel Urgent?
GDPR’s old news. Now? US cloud subpoenas, TikTok bans, AI Act looming. Developers eye alternatives: Nextcloud over Dropbox, Postmark? Wait, no—EU email like Mailbox.org. only-eu.eu curates 88+, growing.
Manuel’s stack proves static-first wins: no server render bloat, getStaticPaths handles i18n clean. Hetzner backend? Node API sips resources.
One nit: PS admits AI polish. Ironic for EU purity? Nah—tool, not crutch.
This project’s no moonshot. But in a world where 70% of web runs US infra (W3Techs), it’s a sharp reminder. Build local, or get called out.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is only-eu.eu?
A directory of 88+ verified EU-based alternatives to US software like Gmail (Proton) or Dropbox (Filen), with 332 pages in English and German.
Why migrate from Cloudflare to Bunny.net?
HN comments highlighted hypocrisy: a site promoting EU software running on US Cloudflare. Bunny.net is EU-registered with local edges, maintaining similar dev experience.
Is Astro ideal for multilingual static sites?
Yes—file-based routing and getStaticPaths make i18n straightforward, with fast 40-second builds for hundreds of pages.
