Finnish hosting provider UpCloud positions itself as a high-performance, enterprise-grade VPS hosting provider with reliable NVMe storage and 24/7 technical support. The company's main slogan is European excellence. It's a rather bold statement, but I don't think EU citizens understand what I'm talking about, as such a concept doesn't exist, and many criticize the low quality of services and products in the EU.
The website loudly advertises a trial period and a €250 bonus upon registration. In fact, you receive nothing after registration. Perhaps after account verification. It's logical, since verification is required for the trial period. It's suggested to simply confirm your bank card. Unfortunately, I was unable to pass verification. As I understand it, the essence of "European superiority" can only be experienced by citizens of the countries that create this superiority, while other, less developed countries are not given the opportunity to experience such happiness. My European bank card was not accepted. Discrimination.
My initial impression turned out to be false. I immediately assumed it was just for the trial period. But let me pay, no problem. Unfortunately, the same verification prompt persisted. So, I was unable to get the 250 euros added to my balance or experience this "European superiority."
The Service is not designed to be 100% error-free or uninterrupted and therefore it is neither intended nor fit for purposes that require fail-safe performance
This clause of the contract wasn't cleared with the PR managers, as it directly contradicts the advertising slogans.
The rest of the agreement is fairly formulaic, but it's written quite competently—attractive to the client and fully protecting UpCloud's rights.
There are quite a few comparisons between UpCloud and the German company Hetzner. I assume these comparisons were initiated by UpCloud itself. And that makes sense. Hetzner was subsidized by the state for a long time; I don't know how it is now. But to me, this clearly indicated that the German government was directly pointing to the best European provider. Now, UpCloud claims "European superiority" and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification. In this case, the provider itself claims to be the best. And if you look at the advertising campaigns themselves, you get the impression that the EU is recommending UpCloud. This is disloyal advertising practice that misleads users.
The company claims to have its own data centers in 12 countries. Given its mere 10,000 clients, this is impractical. Of course, this means the servers are located in 12 countries and 15 data centers. This is another lie; there can be no talk of ownership.
Since we couldn't verify the quality of the services provided, we'll have to make do with the bare minimum—third-party reviews. A brief analysis reveals the following:
In fact, the term "European excellence" is simply defined as: "We do what we want and we don't owe you anything. Data security and reliability are zero."