The Netherlands punches well above its weight in European internet infrastructure. A country of 18 million people hosts one of the world’s most important internet exchange points, a dense cluster of submarine cable landings, 129 operational data centres, and over $19.7 billion in new investment planned for 2026 to 2031. For businesses targeting Northern and Western European audiences, the Netherlands offers connectivity, compliance and competitive pricing that few markets match.
Each pin marks a data centre location for providers serving the Netherlands. Click a pin to see the provider.
AMS-IX: The Netherlands’ Internet Exchange
Amsterdam is home to AMS-IX, the Amsterdam Internet Exchange, one of the world’s leading internet exchange points and the foundation of the Netherlands’ claim as Europe’s internet hub. On 15 April 2026, AMS-IX set a new peak traffic record of 15 terabits per second, up from 14 Tbit/s in December 2024 and 12 Tbit/s in early 2024. Over 2025, the platform processed 35.66 exabytes of traffic, a 4% increase on the prior year. The number of 400G ports on the platform grew 65% over the past year, reflecting the capacity demands of AI and cloud services. AMS-IX now connects more than 900 networks on its Amsterdam platform alone.
To put those numbers in context: 15 terabits per second is enough to simultaneously stream 4K video to more than 3 million people. AMS-IX is accessible from more than 800 locations worldwide via remote peering, which means networks don’t need to be physically present in Amsterdam to benefit from the exchange. That reach is part of what makes Dutch hosted infrastructure consistently fast for audiences across Northern and Western Europe. For a server in Amsterdam, the latency profile to London, Brussels, Berlin and Copenhagen is among the best available anywhere on the continent.
Amsterdam’s Data Centre Landscape
Amsterdam hosts 120 data centres operated by 46 providers, making it one of the densest data centre markets in Europe. The major operators include Equinix, Digital Realty, NorthC, Global Switch, EdgeConneX, Switch Datacenters and Iron Mountain. The Netherlands market stood at $11.25 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach $18.96 billion by 2031 at a 9.1% annual growth rate. IT load capacity is projected to more than double from 1,090 megawatts in 2025 to 2,410 megawatts by 2030.
Amsterdam’s data centre market is constrained in a way that Frankfurt and Paris are not. The city imposed a moratorium on new hyperscale data centre development. Projects above 70MW or 10 hectares are banned in most of the Netherlands, with limited exceptions for northern regions. Amsterdam and Haarlemmermeer municipalities imposed fresh restrictions in December 2023, and a further moratorium in April 2025 prohibiting new data centre construction in those areas. The reason is power grid capacity: TenneT and regional grid operators cannot support the pace of new development without grid upgrades that will take years.
The practical result is that existing Amsterdam facilities with grandfathered permits command premium pricing due to scarcity. Equinix, Digital Realty and Iron Mountain are redirecting new capacity investment to Middenmeer, Rotterdam and Hollands Kroon. Equinix is developing a 150MW campus at Flevokust Haven in Lelystad, a €1.5 billion project across three buildings. For hosting customers buying shared or VPS hosting, this has no direct impact. The providers they use are already operating established infrastructure.
Groningen and Eemshaven: The Northern Expansion
While Amsterdam’s development is constrained, the northern Netherlands is emerging as a major alternative. Groningen and Eemshaven sit directly adjacent to 700MW of offshore wind capacity, offering green power purchase agreements that Amsterdam cannot match. Eemshaven is a submarine cable landing station with direct connections to AMS-IX and DE-CIX, providing the same connectivity advantages as Amsterdam at lower cost and with fewer development restrictions.
NorthC, the largest regional data centre company in the Netherlands, operates two facilities in Groningen. One of them is notable: it is the first data centre in Europe to use green hydrogen fuel cells for emergency power supply, replacing the diesel generators that are standard across the industry. Cloud86, the Dutch managed WordPress host reviewed on this site, operates its own servers in the QTS data centre in Groningen, a former Google facility repurposed for commercial hosting. The Groningen market is set to be a significant beneficiary of the Amsterdam moratorium as operators follow the power.
Dutch Hosting Providers
The Netherlands has a strong domestic hosting industry. TransIP, founded in Leiden and now part of the Cronos Group, is the country’s best known web hosting provider and operates infrastructure across two Dutch availability zones: Amsterdam and Delft/Alblasserdam. TransIP built its own control panel rather than using cPanel, offers strong Dutch language support, and covers shared hosting, VPS and public cloud. Restore points are kept for 10 to 30 days depending on plan, with hourly snapshots for the most recent day. For Dutch businesses that want a local provider with a complete platform and no US parent company, TransIP is the natural starting point.
Antagonist is a smaller Dutch provider with a reputation for clean infrastructure, transparent pricing and strong WordPress performance. Cloud86, based in Drachten, Friesland, runs managed WordPress hosting from the former Google data centre in Groningen and ranks consistently among the fastest shared hosting providers in independent benchmark testing. Leaseweb operates two Amsterdam facilities with AMS-IX peering, an AWS compatible API and a 100% uptime SLA. These are providers with genuinely local infrastructure and local governance, not international brands with a Netherlands checkbox on their data centre list.
GDPR and the AVG
The Netherlands applies GDPR as the AVG, Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming. The Dutch Data Protection Authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, enforces the regulation actively. As of 1 January 2026, the Dutch Energy Act entered into force, modernising the country’s energy data framework and establishing new rules for data processing in the energy sector with clear GDPR alignment.
For businesses hosting in the Netherlands, the GDPR compliance picture is the same as across the EU. Dutch incorporated, Dutch operated providers are outside the reach of US law including the CLOUD Act. International providers running Amsterdam servers but incorporated in the US still require Standard Contractual Clauses for data transfers. If data sovereignty matters, choose a provider whose legal entity is in the Netherlands or the EU.
Renewable Energy and Sustainability
Around 90% of Dutch Data Center Association member data centres operate on renewable energy. The Netherlands’ target is 70% renewable electricity by 2030, supported primarily by offshore wind in the North Sea. Groningen’s proximity to 700MW of offshore wind makes it particularly well positioned for providers needing green power purchase agreements. The moratorium on Amsterdam development has an unintended sustainability benefit: it forces new capacity toward locations with better renewable energy access and more efficient cooling conditions than central Amsterdam.
NorthC’s green hydrogen emergency power system in Groningen is the most visible innovation in this space, eliminating the diesel backup generation that remains the largest source of data centre emissions in markets where grid reliability is high. The Netherlands’ flat, windy geography and North Sea access make it well suited to wind energy integration, which will increasingly define the sustainability profile of Dutch data centre infrastructure over the next decade.
Recomended Web Hosting Providers in the Netherlands
The following hosting companies offer web hosting in the Netherlands. Each has been independently reviewed on TopSiteHosters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Amsterdam have a data centre moratorium?
Amsterdam and the wider Netherlands imposed restrictions on new hyperscale data centre development because the power grid cannot support the pace of new builds without major upgrades. Projects above 70MW or 10 hectares are banned in most of the country. Amsterdam and Haarlemmermeer added further local restrictions in 2023 and 2025. This doesn’t affect existing data centres or standard hosting customers. The major providers are already operating established infrastructure. New large scale development is shifting to Groningen, Rotterdam and other regions with better grid capacity.
Which Dutch hosting provider is best for a small business?
TransIP is the most complete Dutch native option, with shared hosting, VPS and cloud under one platform, strong Dutch language support and no US parent company. Antagonist is a strong alternative for WordPress with clean infrastructure and transparent pricing. Cloud86 is worth considering if WordPress performance is the priority. It ranks among the fastest shared hosts in independent testing and runs on a former Google data centre in Groningen. For most Dutch small businesses, TransIP or Antagonist are the natural starting points.
Does GDPR apply differently in the Netherlands?
No. The Netherlands applies GDPR as the AVG under the same rules as the rest of the EU. The Dutch Data Protection Authority enforces it actively. What matters for compliance is whether your provider is incorporated and operated in the EU. A Dutch incorporated provider with Dutch operations is outside US CLOUD Act jurisdiction, while a US incorporated provider running Amsterdam servers still requires Standard Contractual Clauses.
What is AMS-IX and why does it matter for hosting?
AMS-IX is the Amsterdam Internet Exchange, one of the world’s largest internet exchange points. It connects more than 900 networks and peaked at 15 terabits per second in April 2026. Hosting on infrastructure connected to AMS-IX means your data travels over one of the most well connected routing points in Europe, resulting in low latency for audiences in the UK, Germany, Belgium, France and Scandinavia. It’s the primary reason Amsterdam has historically been such a popular hosting location.
Are Dutch data centres environmentally sustainable?
Around 90% of Dutch Data Center Association member facilities operate on renewable energy. The Netherlands’ offshore wind capacity is expanding rapidly in the North Sea, and Groningen’s proximity to 700MW of wind farms makes northern Netherlands particularly well positioned for green power. NorthC’s Groningen data centre became the first in Europe to use green hydrogen fuel cells for emergency backup power. The Amsterdam development moratorium is also redirecting capacity toward more energy efficient locations with better renewable access.