AWS has no data centers in most of Africa causing high latency (200-400ms) making it unsuitable for applications serving African users. African cloud providers offer data centers and CDN within Africa providing 50-80% lower latency, simple pricing in local currencies, support for African payment methods, and data residency compliance. Here are the best AWS alternatives for hosting in Africa.
AWS has no data centers in Africa (except planned South Africa region) causing major latency issues. Typical latency from African cities to nearest AWS regions: Lagos to Ireland = 180-250ms, Nairobi to Bahrain = 150-200ms, Cairo to Italy = 80-120ms. This makes AWS unsuitable for real-time applications, gaming, video streaming, and applications serving African users. Additional challenges include: complex pricing making cost estimation difficult for African startups, no support for African payment methods requiring USD credit cards, billing only in USD requiring forex exposure, data sovereignty issues with data stored outside Africa, high bandwidth costs for serving African users, and customer support in US/European timezones. African cloud providers offer data centers and CDN Points of Presence within Africa providing 50-80% lower latency (20-80ms for in-country traffic), simple transparent pricing in local currencies, support for local payment methods including mobile money, predictable costs suitable for startups, data residency compliance for African regulations, and local support teams understanding African infrastructure challenges.
African payment platforms offer better coverage, lower fees, and support for local payment methods that your customers actually use. Start integrating today and see the difference.
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