An Aiven alternative for EU Postgres
Both are European companies running managed Postgres. Aiven sells fixed plans on the cloud of your choice; HostStack sells a flat-priced database and the platform your app runs on.
By Michael Michelsen, Founder of HostStack · Updated October 2026
Aiven prices checked 12 October 2026 against its public pricing pages.
The short answer
This is the comparison where incorporation does not decide it. Aiven Oy is Finnish, HostStack’s operator is Danish, and neither has a US parent. What differs is how much database you are buying. Aiven is a mature, multi-cloud data platform — Postgres, MySQL, Valkey, Kafka, ClickHouse, OpenSearch — with point-in-time recovery, read replicas and PgBouncer. HostStack’s Postgres is simpler and has none of those three yet.
It also costs much less at the same size. A 4 GB HostStack Pro database is €50/mo with HA available at no extra cost; Aiven’s single-node Startup-4 is $75/mo in its cheapest Frankfurt region, and Business-4 with a standby is $180–$330/mo. HostStack also runs the app beside the database, on the same invoice.
Choose Aiven if you need recovery to the minute, replicas in another region, Kafka or ClickHouse, or a database on a specific cloud. Choose HostStack if a nightly backup is an acceptable recovery point and you would rather pay for one platform than assemble two.
HostStack or Aiven? Pick by workload
| Your app | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Data that cannot lose more than a few minutes of writes | Aiven | Point-in-time recovery on every plan from Startup up. HostStack restores from a nightly dump. |
| Read replicas, or a copy in another region | Aiven | Aiven replicas can sit in other regions and clouds. HostStack has no read replicas yet. |
| Kafka, ClickHouse or OpenSearch beside Postgres | Aiven | Aiven runs them as managed services. HostStack does not offer them. |
| An app and its Postgres, one team, one invoice | HostStack | Services, workers, cron and previews run beside the database, which is linked by DATABASE_URL. |
| Production Postgres with failover on a tight budget | HostStack | A 4 GB three-node cluster is €50/mo; the cheapest Aiven Business-4 in an EU region is $180/mo. |
| A database that must live on a particular cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP) | Aiven | Aiven runs on the cloud you pick. HostStack runs on Hetzner only. |
Where HostStack differs from Aiven
- A 4 GB Postgres for €50/mo with 40 GB storage, against $75/mo for Aiven Startup-4 (one node) and $180–$330/mo for Business-4 with a standby
- Three-node Patroni HA on the €15 Standard and €50 Pro plans at no extra cost (beta, enabled per team). On Aiven, a standby starts with the Business plan
- Run the application too: web services, workers, cron jobs and a preview environment per pull request, beside the database on one EUR invoice
- Linking a database to a service injects DATABASE_URL on the next deploy — no credentials copied between two vendors
- Runs on Hetzner hardware in Helsinki under a Danish operator, so no US-incorporated cloud sits underneath. On Aiven that depends on the cloud you pick
- A free Starter Postgres per user that does not expire. Aiven’s free plan may be powered off when it sees no activity
Features: HostStack vs Aiven
| Feature | HostStack | Aiven |
|---|---|---|
| Managed PostgreSQL | Versions 15–18 | |
| Legal incorporation | EU (Denmark) | EU (Aiven Oy, Finland) |
| Infrastructure underneath | Hetzner (DE), Helsinki | AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, DigitalOcean, UpCloud or OVH |
| High availability | 3-node Patroni on Standard/Pro, no add-on (beta) | Business (1 standby) and Premium (2 standbys) |
| Point-in-time recovery | 2 / 14 / 30 days (Startup / Business / Premium) | |
| Backups | Nightly dump, last 7 kept off-site | Kept 2 / 14 / 30 days on Startup / Business / Premium; a single backup below that |
| Read replicas | Yes, including other regions | |
| Connection pooling (PgBouncer) | Startup+ | |
| In-place major version upgrade | Up to 1 GB | |
| Other engines | MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis | MySQL, Valkey, Kafka, ClickHouse, OpenSearch and more |
| Run your application | Web services, workers, cron, previews | Aiven Runtime (GA Sept 2026, AWS and Google Cloud) |
| EU regions | Helsinki | Many, across six clouds |
| Bring your own cloud | Own hardware | BYOC (by deal) |
| Terraform | Provider (preview) | Provider + Kubernetes operator |
| Billing | Flat monthly, EUR | Hourly, USD |
Pricing: HostStack vs Aiven
| Tier | HostStack | Aiven |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 1 Starter Postgres per user (512 MB, 5 GB), no expiry | Free plan: 1 GB RAM, 1 GB storage; may be powered off when idle |
| Cheapest paid Postgres | €4/mo Micro (256 MB, 1 GB) | $5/mo Developer (1 GB RAM, 8 GB) |
| 4 GB, single node | €50/mo Pro (2 vCPU, 40 GB) | Startup-4 (2 CPU, 80 GB): $75/mo Frankfurt, $110/mo UpCloud Helsinki |
| 4 GB with automatic failover | €50/mo Pro — 3-node HA, no add-on (beta) | Business-4: $180/mo DigitalOcean Frankfurt, $295/mo AWS Frankfurt, $330/mo Azure Frankfurt |
| Three nodes | Same €50/mo | Premium-4: $270–$495/mo in Frankfurt depending on cloud |
| Network traffic | 200 GB/team free, then €0.01/GB | Not charged separately |
What a month costs: worked examples
List prices before tax, in each provider's own currency. Aiven figures checked 12 October 2026.
A production database with failover
4 GB of memory, a standby that takes over automatically, under 40 GB of data, in an EU region.
| Line item | HostStack | Aiven |
|---|---|---|
| Database | €50 Pro, three-node Patroni cluster (beta) | $180 Business-4 on DigitalOcean Frankfurt (two nodes, 80 GB) |
| Recovery point | Up to 24 hours (nightly dump) | Minutes (14 days of point-in-time recovery) |
| Connection pooler | Pool in your app | PgBouncer included |
| Total / month | €50 | $180 |
HostStack is far cheaper, and Aiven’s extra money buys something real: recovery to the minute, a pooler, twice the storage and an HA option that is out of beta. If your data cannot lose a day, that is worth paying for.
A small SaaS: app plus database
One 512 MB web app and a 1 GB Postgres for a side project or an early product.
| Line item | HostStack | Aiven |
|---|---|---|
| App | €5 Micro service (512 MB, always on) | Aiven Runtime (pricing not published) or another host |
| Database | €7 Starter (512 MB, 5 GB) or €15 Standard (1 GB, 20 GB) | $5 Developer (1 GB RAM, 8 GB) |
| Total / month | €12–€20, one invoice | $5 plus wherever the app runs |
Aiven’s Developer plan is a cheap database on its own. The difference is the app: on HostStack it runs beside the database on the same bill, on Aiven it needs Runtime or a second provider.
When NOT to choose HostStack
Aiven is the better fit in some cases. Here's when we'd tell you so.
Your recovery point objective is minutes, not a day. Aiven has point-in-time recovery from the Startup plan up; HostStack restores from nightly dumps.
You need read replicas, or a replica in another region or cloud.
You run Kafka, ClickHouse, OpenSearch or Flink alongside Postgres and want one vendor for all of them.
Your database has to live on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, or in your own cloud account (BYOC).
You need certifications HostStack does not hold: Aiven lists ISO 27001, 27017, 27018 and 27701, an ISAE 3000 Type 2 report, HIPAA and PCI DSS.
Migrate from Aiven
Aiven concepts, translated
| On Aiven | On HostStack |
|---|---|
| Aiven service (PostgreSQL) | A managed database in a project, on the project’s private network. Managed databases |
| Plan (Hobbyist, Startup, Business, Premium) | Size: Micro, Starter, Standard or Pro. HA is a property of Standard and Pro, not a separate plan. Pricing |
| Service URI | Injected into linked services as DATABASE_URL, plus host, port, user and password under the link’s alias. Injected variables |
| Public access and IP filter | External access with mandatory TLS and an allowlist of up to 50 ranges. Off by default. External access |
| PgBouncer connection pool | None yet. Keep a small pool in the app (pg.Pool, SQLAlchemy). |
| Point-in-time recovery | Nightly dumps, the last seven kept off-site; restore one or download it. Backups |
| avn CLI, Terraform provider | The hoststack CLI and TypeScript SDK; the Terraform provider is in preview. CLI |
Open a HostStack account
Sign up with an email — no card needed to try it. Create a project in the Helsinki region.
Create the database
Create a managed PostgreSQL of the same major version as your Aiven service, sized to it — Standard (€15) or Pro (€50) if you want the three-node cluster.
Move the data
Turn on external access, then pipe pg_dump from your Aiven service URI into the new database. Note any extensions you use first; PostGIS and pgvector need the matching image.
Point the app at it
If the app moves too, link the database to its service so DATABASE_URL is injected on the next deploy. If it stays where it is, use the external connection URL over TLS.
Cut over and power off
Stop writes on Aiven, run a final dump and restore, switch the connection string, then power off the Aiven service once you have checked the data.
Reference for the move: environment variables (including hoststack env import for a .env export), managed databases, the CLI and, to script the whole thing, the TypeScript SDK.
Frequently asked questions
Is Aiven an EU company?
Yes. Aiven Oy is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, and its terms are governed by Finnish law, so on incorporation Aiven and HostStack (MICCI, Denmark) are in the same position. The difference is underneath: Aiven runs on the cloud you pick — AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, DigitalOcean, UpCloud or OVH — so the infrastructure provider may be a US company even when Aiven is not. Choosing an UpCloud or OVH region keeps both layers European. HostStack runs on Hetzner hardware in Helsinki.
Is HostStack cheaper than Aiven for PostgreSQL?
For the same memory, yes, by a wide margin. A 4 GB HostStack Pro database is €50/month with 40 GB storage and a three-node HA cluster available at no extra cost. Aiven Startup-4 (2 CPU, 4 GB, 80 GB, one node) is $75/month in its cheapest Frankfurt region, and Business-4, which adds a standby for automatic failover, is $180–$330/month in Frankfurt depending on the cloud. Aiven’s price buys things HostStack does not have yet: point-in-time recovery (14 days on Business), read replicas, PgBouncer, and twice the storage.
Does HostStack have point-in-time recovery like Aiven?
No. HostStack takes a nightly dump and keeps the last seven off-site, so the worst case is a day of writes. Aiven keeps point-in-time recovery for 2 days on Startup, 14 on Business and 30 on Premium. If your recovery point has to be minutes, Aiven is the better choice today.
Can I run my application on Aiven?
Aiven made Aiven Runtime generally available in September 2026: you git push a repository with a Containerfile or Compose file and Aiven builds and runs it next to your Aiven databases, on AWS or Google Cloud. HostStack has run web services, workers, cron jobs and preview environments beside its databases from the start, on the same invoice, with managed Postgres from €4/month.
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