Compare / Unkey vs Scaleway Instances
Unkey vs Scaleway Instances
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — Unkey checked 2026-08-06, Scaleway checked 2026-08-06.
The short version
Unkey wins more of our comparison points, but Scaleway Instances still fits if eU projects that want real cloud ergonomics — hourly billing, CLI, Terraform, managed databases — without a US hyperscaler describes you.
Price Unkey
Unkey is cheaper at most of the stages we model.
Ease Unkey
Unkey is easier to get running: connect GitHub for automatic builds and branch previews, or deploy a Docker image from the Unkey CLI.
Control Scaleway Instances
Scaleway Instances gives you more control over the stack — the flip side of the convenience trade.
Features Unkey
Unkey comes out ahead on 5 of the 15 features we track, versus 4.
What developers say about this matchup
We couldn't find a substantive first-person discussion comparing this exact pair. We leave the section empty instead of filling it with vendor marketing or generic SEO comparisons.
At a glance
| Unkey | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Production APIs that want hosting, gateway policies, API keys, rate limits, and request analytics in one place. | EU projects that want real cloud ergonomics — hourly billing, CLI, Terraform, managed databases — without a US hyperscaler. |
| How deploys work | Connect GitHub for automatic builds and branch previews, or deploy a Docker image from the Unkey CLI. | Spin up an instance from the console or the scw CLI, then manage it like any VPS; Terraform and cloud-init are first-class. |
| The tradeoff | It is a young, API-specific platform with metered billing, ephemeral storage, and no managed database. | À la carte pricing makes the real cost higher than the sticker, and account verification can be painful. |
| Free tier | None | None |
What you'd realistically pay
Unkey Scaleway Instances
| Project stage | Unkey | Scaleway Instances | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | ≈$5/mo Starter — The $5 minimum includes $5 of usage, enough for a small, lightly used API. | ≈€10.42/mo DEV1-S + IPv4 + 10 GB volume — ~€6.55 instance (2 shared vCPU, 2 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€0.95 block storage. Ex-VAT, ~730h/month. | Unkey |
| Steady traffic | ≈$18/mo Starter + usage — About 0.5 active vCPU and 1 GB of memory running continuously before egress or active-key charges. | ≈€24.92/mo PLAY2-NANO + IPv4 + 20 GB volume — ~€20.10 instance (2 shared vCPU, 4 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€1.90 block storage. | Unkey |
| Growing | ≈$50/mo Business — The $50 minimum becomes usage credit and raises per-instance limits to 16 vCPU and 32 GB of RAM. | ≈€45/mo PLAY2-MICRO + IPv4 + 20 GB volume — ~€40.20 instance (4 shared vCPU, 8 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€1.90 block storage. | ≈ Tie |
Unkey pricing notes
- Usage rates are $0.000006944 per vCPU-second, $0.000003472 per GB-second of memory, $0.00000006 per GB-second of ephemeral disk, and $0.05 per GB of egress.
- API-key authentication through the gateway adds $0.002 per active key each month. The plan minimum is included usage credit rather than an extra charge on top.
- Log retention is 3 days on Starter, 7 days on Pro, and 14 days on Business.
Scaleway Instances pricing notes
- Hourly billing (~730 h/month), ex-VAT, with no egress fees — bandwidth is an unmetered per-instance speed.
- Flexible IPv4 €0.004/h (~€2.92/month); IPv6 is free. Block Storage 5K is €0.000130/GB/h (~€0.095/GB/month).
- Savings Plans (12/36-month commitment) take up to 25% off compute.
- New Professional accounts with a payment method get €100 in credit.
Our ratings
Ease of use Unkey
Pricing clarity Unkey
Free tier
Scaling Unkey
Control Scaleway Instances
Feature by feature
Unkey wins 5, Scaleway Instances wins 4, with 6 even.
Deploy workflow
| Unkey | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | Yes Connect GitHub; pushes to the default branch deploy production automatically. | No Not on Instances — bring your own CI, or use Scaleway’s separate serverless products. |
| Preview deploys | Yes Non-default branches and pull requests receive isolated preview deployments. | No Nothing built in. |
| Official CLI | Yes The Unkey CLI deploys local build contexts or pre-built container images. | Yes The scw CLI covers instances, volumes, IPs, and snapshots. |
| Instant rollbacks | Yes Rollbacks atomically switch traffic to a previous immutable deployment. | Partial Snapshots and images restore machines; no deploy-level rollback. |
Platform
| Unkey | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Custom apex domains and subdomains include automatic TLS; plan limits apply. | Yes Point DNS at the server; TLS is yours via certbot or a proxy. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | No The global gateway routes API traffic but is not a static-asset caching CDN. | Partial Edge Services adds a CDN in front of load balancers and object storage; nothing automatic on a bare instance. |
| Serverless functions | No Applications run as container instances rather than per-request functions. | No Not on Instances — Scaleway sells separate Serverless Containers and Functions products. |
| Docker containers | Yes Build from a Dockerfile or deploy a pre-built image from a registry. | Yes Docker-ready images or install it yourself. |
| SSH / shell access | No The documented workflow exposes logs and metrics, not an interactive SSH shell. | Yes Full root SSH. |
| EU hosting region | Yes European deployment regions are available; Starter includes three regions and paid upgrades unlock all. | Yes Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw, and Milan — EU-only by design. |
Runtime & operations
| Unkey | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | Yes Horizontal autoscaling adjusts instance count from configured minimums and maximums based on CPU load. | No Manual resizing on Instances; autoscaling lives in the serverless products. |
| Scale to zero | Partial Preview environments sleep automatically when idle; apps can also be stopped and started manually. | Partial A fully powered-off (archived) instance stops compute billing, but IPs and volumes keep billing. |
| Scheduled jobs | No There is no documented first-class scheduler for cron jobs. | Yes Classic cron on the box. |
| Managed database | No No managed database is included; connect an external database service. | Yes Managed PostgreSQL/MySQL from ~€11.40/month plus storage; Redis and MongoDB too. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Yes Runtime logs, CPU and memory metrics, request analytics, and gateway decisions appear in the dashboard. | Partial Cockpit collects instance metrics and logs into managed Grafana; app-level instrumentation is yours. |
Watch out for
Unkey
- Unkey only launched public app hosting in 2026, so its production track record is much shorter than established platforms such as Heroku, Render, or Railway.
- The monthly plan price is a minimum with matching usage credit, not a compute bundle: CPU, memory, ephemeral disk, egress, and active keys are metered separately.
- Storage is ephemeral and there is no managed database, so persistent data must live with another provider.
Scaleway
- List prices exclude storage and public IPv4: add ~€2.92/month for a flexible IPv4 and ~€0.095/GB/month for block storage.
- Scaleway raised prices across Stardust, PLAY2, PRO2, BASIC3, and storage on 1 June 2026.
- "Standby" bills as a running instance; only a full power-off (archive) stops compute billing — and IPs and volumes keep billing regardless.
- Automated KYC can freeze accounts (sometimes with servers running) until you re-verify with ID and selfie.
- The famous €0.43/month Stardust instances are chronically out of stock.
Read the full reviews: Unkey and Scaleway. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.