Netcup
Verified“EU-owned, EU-run, EU-iron — sovereign by construction.”
- Ownership
- 100% private, EU
- Core DCs
- DE / AT / NL
- Customers
- 200,000+
- Founded
- 2008 (GmbH)
87 = midpoint of Control 91 & Data 82
Sovereignty Quadrant
Control ↑ who owns & governs the company · Data → where your data lives. Every dot is a company — click to open it.
Every number below traces to 13 sourced facts across 9 independent sources, last verified 2026-06-12. 4 open questions hold confidence at 85% — they lower confidence, never the score.
Control ↑
Who legally and economically controls the company
Legal & Jurisdiction
92
Operating entity netcup GmbH is incorporated and run in Germany (Karlsruhe), registered at Amtsgericht Mannheim HRB 705547. Its ultimate parent, Anexia Holding GmbH, is Austrian. Both Germany and Austria are EU member states, so EU law (GDPR, courts) fully reaches every layer of the structure. Slightly short of 100 only because the controlling layer sits in a different EU country (AT) than the operating company (DE).
Why 92? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Operating company is a German GmbH registered in Mannheim
Northdata / German commercial register · as of 2026-06-12
netcup positions itself as Made-in-Germany hosting under European data-protection law
netcup Digital Sovereignty page · as of 2026-06-12
Ultimate parent is incorporated in Austria (also EU)
firmenabc.at / Austrian Firmenbuch · as of 2026-06-12
Control & Ownership
90
100% privately held within the EU with no foreign or public-market layer. Chain: netcup GmbH (DE) -> netcup Group GmbH (Klagenfurt, AT) -> Anexia Holding GmbH (AT) -> Alexander Windbichler, an Austrian individual, as sole 100% shareholder. Both voting control and economic majority sit entirely in the EU; there is no listing venue. Not a perfect 100 only because control concentrates in a single private owner via a holding rather than being EU-domiciled at the operating level.
Why 90? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
netcup Group GmbH is a 100% subsidiary of Anexia Holding GmbH
firmenabc.at (netcup Group GmbH) · as of 2026-06-12
Anexia Holding's sole shareholder is an Austrian individual
evi.gv.at (Austrian commercial register portal) · as of 2026-06-12
netcup became part of the Anexia group in 2016 as a strategic alliance
Anexia blog (acquisition announcement) · as of 2026-06-12
Data →
Where your data lives and who can reach it
Data & Infrastructure
80
Core European footprint is in EU data centers — Nuremberg (DE), Vienna (AT), Amsterdam (NL) — on the Anexia-group backbone rather than a US hyperscaler, with ISO 27001/27701 certification and an explicit CLOUD-Act-free pitch for EU regions. Held back from the top band because netcup also offers selectable non-EU regions (Manassas/Virginia USA and Singapore), and because some footprints run in Anexia Group facilities rather than buildings netcup itself owns. For a customer pinned to an EU region this scores higher; the global default range pulls it to 80.
Why 80? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
European infrastructure is in EU data centers on the Anexia backbone
netcup Data Center page · as of 2026-06-12
Explicitly markets EU hosting as outside the US CLOUD Act / Patriot Act
netcup Digital Sovereignty page · as of 2026-06-12
Also offers selectable non-EU regions
netcup Server Locations page · as of 2026-06-12
Holds information-security and privacy certifications
netcup About page · as of 2026-06-12
Operations & People
85
Headquartered and operationally centered in Karlsruhe, Germany, with managing directors who are Austrian/German and a customer base of 200,000+ served from EU facilities; reporting and pricing are in EUR. Leadership and strategic direction tie into the Austrian Anexia group, and netcup operates support/infrastructure beyond the EU (US, Singapore), so it is strongly EU-centered but not exclusively EU-bounded.
Why 85? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany with 200,000+ customers
netcup About page · as of 2026-06-12
Managing directors of the German entity are Austrian/German
netcup About page · as of 2026-06-12
Group is led from Austria via Anexia
Anexia blog (acquisition announcement) · as of 2026-06-12
Aligned to the EU Commission’s official Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL, Jun 2026) →
What we don’t know
4 open questions — they lower confidence, never the score
- ?
Where exactly is a typical German web-hosting customer's data stored by default, and can it leave the EU?
netcup markets EU-only data residency, but it also sells US (Virginia) and Singapore regions; the default vs opt-in boundary determines the true infra exposure for any given product.
- ?
Does netcup own the Nuremberg data-center building, or lease/operate within an Anexia Group facility?
Distinguishes true owned EU iron from EU-located leased space; affects how 'own datacenter' should be read.
- ?
Revenue, employee count and audited financials of netcup GmbH
Financials are paywalled in the registers; scale and independence within the Anexia group can't be fully quantified.
- ?
Any non-EU sub-processors or support entities (e.g. Anexia's New York office) touching customer data
Could introduce indirect non-EU access paths even for EU-hosted workloads.
EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens
SEAL was designed for cloud providers; this is an analogous sovereignty mapping for netcup, not a formal certification or audit.
Strategic
Privately EU-owned (DE operating co, AT holding, sole Austrian owner); no US or public-market dependency in the control chain.
Legal & jurisdictional
Every entity sits in the EU (Germany + Austria); fully reachable by GDPR and EU courts, no foreign incorporation layer.
Data & AI
Core data residency in EU DCs (DE/AT/NL) with explicit CLOUD-Act-free positioning; caveat is optional US/Singapore regions.
Operational
HQ and operations in Karlsruhe, EUR-denominated, EU leadership; minor non-EU group presence via Anexia.
Supply chain
Runs on the Anexia group backbone and facilities; some footprints in Anexia DCs rather than netcup-owned buildings, plus non-EU sites.
Technological
Anexia group has built homegrown KVM virtualization (off VMware), reducing US-vendor lock-in, but underlying hardware/silicon remains globally sourced.
Security & compliance
ISO 9001/14001/27001/27701 cited; named data-protection officer and Art. 28 GDPR data-processing agreements offered.
Environmental sustainability
Claims 100% green electricity and holds ISO 14001; no independently verified PUE/emissions figures reviewed here.
EU alternatives
German-owned hosting with large owned DCs in Germany and Finland; a direct EU-sovereign peer to netcup.
Large German cloud/hosting provider and EU-listed; broader feature set but a publicly traded ownership profile rather than private.
French, family-controlled, Euronext Paris-listed hyperscale-scale EU cloud; stronger if you need a larger sovereign cloud platform.
How the method works
Methodology v2 (provisional): the score is the midpoint of two axes — Control (who owns and governs the company) and Data (where your data lives and who can reach it). Each axis is scored only on verified evidence; unknowns reduce confidence, never the score. Every input below is sourced; the weights and judgments are open to challenge.
Spotted an error? Every claim is sourced — challenge it and we correct the record.
- 2026-06-12 — Initial golden profile, authored from primary sources (human + AI review).
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Verified 2026-06-12 · Human + AI joint review (sources independently checked) · Methodology