European Company Websites Predominantly Use US-Headquartered Infrastructure Vendors

European Company Websites Predominantly Use US-Headquartered Infrastructure Vendors

Key Finding

European companies rely heavily on US‑headquartered infrastructure vendors for their public web presence: Cloudflare is the top internet‑facing provider in every surveyed country, and US vendors collectively serve the majority of sites in the UK and the Netherlands and the plurality in Italy, Spain, and France.

Study Scope and Methodology

  • Dataset: 19,450 apex and www DNS records from companies registered in Germany, Poland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
  • Timeframe: 28 April 2026 – 29 June 2026.
  • Vendor Attribution: DNS A/AAAA responses were mapped to the announcing autonomous system (AS) using Routeviews‑derived BGP data (iptoasn.com). The AS operator name was matched against a keyword list (Cloudflare, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Fastly, Akamai, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify). All unmatched ASes fell into an "Other / regional" bucket.
  • US‑Headquartered Definition: The eight vendors above are incorporated in the United States, regardless of where their edge POPs or data centres reside.
  • Counting Rules: Each company counted once per vendor; IPv4 and IPv6 entries for the same vendor were de‑duplicated.

"Vendor classification is by AS operator name, not by IP geolocation." – CipherCue methodology note

Results by Country

Country Companies Analyzed US‑HQ Vendor Share Cloudflare Share Amazon Share Other US‑HQ Other / Regional
United Kingdom 918 67.5 % (620) 290 115 215 298
Netherlands 2,241 53.6 % (1,201) 825 150 226 1,040
Italy 2,350 48.4 % (1,138) 663 227 248 1,212
Spain 1,427 44.6 % (637) 329 128 180 790
France 2,504 44.2 % (1,107) 706 173 228 1,397
Germany 5,679 31.0 % (1,763) 1,017 390 356 3,916
Poland 4,331 18.8 % (813) 660 69 84 3,518

Interpretation

  • The UK and the Netherlands are the only markets where US vendors have a clear majority.
  • In Italy, Spain, and France, US vendors hold a plurality (44 %‑48 %).
  • Germany and Poland show the lowest US share, reflecting strong domestic hosting ecosystems (e.g., Hetzner, IONOS in Germany; Home.pl, NetArt in Poland).
  • Cloudflare is the single largest provider in every country, outpacing all other US vendors and all regional hosts combined.

What the Study Measures

  • Internet‑Facing Vendor: The AS that answers DNS queries for the apex or www domain, i.e., the entity that serves traffic at the edge.
  • Excludes: Physical data‑centre location, origin hosting provider behind CDNs, sub‑domain services (e.g., SaaS APIs), and any contractual sub‑processor arrangements.

"For CDN and proxy providers such as Cloudflare, this identifies the internet‑facing serving vendor, not necessarily the origin hosting provider." – CipherCue

Limitations and What Is Not Captured

  • Physical Geography: The study does not reveal where the underlying data resides; a Cloudflare‑fronted site may be hosted on a European server.
  • Sub‑Processor Chains: No insight into EU‑based sub‑processors that US vendors might employ.
  • Service‑Specific Configurations: Tenancy models, regional data‑plane isolation, or control‑plane jurisdiction are outside the scope.
  • Other SaaS Stacks: Email, IAM, EDR, DNS, and endpoint management are not examined.

Community Reactions

  • Nuanced Dependency: Some commenters note that many US vendors operate EU data centres under EU law, and that Europe also depends on US technology in other sectors (e.g., chip lithography from ASML, networking equipment from Nokia/Ericsson).

    "A lot of these US vendors have data centers in the EU operating under EU law via legal entities in the EU..." – @jillesvangurp

  • Alternative Measurements: A separate analysis of API sub‑domains (excluding CDN front‑ends) found European providers like OVH and Hetzner to dominate, suggesting the CDN‑focused view may overstate US reliance.

    "I did a similar study... the conclusion was the opposite: European companies are more likely to be using OVH and Hetzner than AWS/Azure." – @AznHisoka

  • Market Fragmentation: Critics argue that aggregating diverse economies into a single “European market” masks significant differences in vendor ecosystems and lock‑in risks.

    "This tries to capture Europe as a single coherent market, which it is not… Vendor lock‑in is real." – @karambahh

  • Strategic Implications: Several comments highlight that sovereignty discussions often start too late in the stack; organizations should first map the vendors already front‑ending their public sites before tackling deeper data‑plane concerns.

    "The practical point is not that every European company should leave US infrastructure tomorrow..." – article excerpt, echoed by @embedding‑shape.

Implications for Stakeholders

  • European Infrastructure Vendors: The map shows a clear market opportunity to capture edge and CDN traffic currently dominated by Cloudflare.
  • Policymakers: The base rate of US vendor exposure provides a quantitative starting point for regulatory assessments of ICT supply‑chain resilience.
  • Procurement Teams: Before negotiating cloud regions or sub‑processor clauses, teams should inventory which US vendors already sit in front of their public web assets.

Conclusion

The CipherCue study demonstrates that, despite strong domestic hosting sectors in Germany and Poland, US‑headquartered infrastructure vendors—led by Cloudflare—serve the majority or plurality of primary European company websites in six of seven surveyed markets. While the analysis is limited to DNS‑level attribution and does not capture origin hosting or sub‑processor relationships, it offers a concrete baseline for discussions about digital sovereignty, supply‑chain risk, and the competitive landscape for European cloud and edge providers.

Sources