Guides / Django hosting in the EU: choose your region with Django Cloud
Peter van Doorn
Django hosting in the EU: choose your region with Django Cloud
If your users or your client are in the EU, you will be asked where the data lives. The honest answer has several parts: where the app runs, where the database is, who runs the cloud, and what else touches the data. This guide covers all four for a Django app.
Where your app and database run
With Django Cloud you choose the AWS region per project. These European regions are available:
- Europe (Ireland),
eu-west-1 - Europe (London),
eu-west-2 - Europe (Paris),
eu-west-3 - Europe (Frankfurt),
eu-central-1 - Europe (Stockholm),
eu-north-1
Your app, its managed Postgres database and its queues are created in the region you pick. On the Self-hosted plan they are created in your own AWS account; on Fully managed, in a dedicated account that we set up for you.
What else is involved
- The build. Your code is built into a container image in a European region (Frankfurt) before it is deployed.
- DNS. AWS Lightsail DNS zones exist only in one region, US East (N. Virginia). A DNS zone holds domain records such as
www, not your application's data. If that matters to you, keep your DNS at your own provider and point it at the app. - The dashboard. Our own service handles your account, your project settings and billing. The Data Processing Agreement and the privacy policy list what we process and which sub-processors we use.
What "in the EU" does and does not mean
Choosing an EU region keeps your data stored in the EU. It does not change who the cloud company is. AWS is a US company, so questions about foreign government access still apply. We cover that in a separate guide.
A checklist for your client
- Choose an EU region for the app and the database.
- Sign a data processing agreement with every provider that touches personal data.
- Check email, error tracking and analytics tools: they often send data outside the EU.
- Keep backups in the same region, or another EU region.
- Write down the setup in a short record for the client's compliance team.
Or skip it
With Django Cloud you choose the AWS region per project: Ireland, London, Paris, Frankfurt or Stockholm. The app and its database run in your own AWS account on Self-hosted, or in a dedicated account we set up on Fully managed.
pip install djangocloud-cli
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