Gcore

What Is Gcore?

The edge infrastructure market has long been dominated by American companies. Cloudflare, Akamai, and AWS CloudFront collectively control the vast majority of CDN and edge compute spending. For European organisations with data sovereignty requirements, that concentration creates a structural problem: critical infrastructure running through US-headquartered providers subject to the CLOUD Act. Gcore offers an EU-headquartered alternative that competes on performance, not just compliance.

Founded in Luxembourg in 2014, Gcore (formerly G-Core Labs) operates a global edge platform spanning 210+ points of presence across six continents with over 200 Tbps of network capacity. The platform bundles CDN, cloud compute, DDoS protection, web application security, and video streaming into a single offering. With 14,000+ peering partners and sub-30ms average global latency, Gcore targets the same enterprise workloads as Cloudflare and Akamai — but from an EU legal base.

The company raised its first external funding in July 2024: a $60 million Series A led by Wargaming America, Constructor Capital, and HRZ Development. Prior to that round, Gcore had grown entirely on revenue. The team numbers roughly 600 employees across four offices, with the legal entity (G-Core Labs S.A.) headquartered in Contern, Luxembourg.

Key Features

CDN with Global Reach

Gcore's CDN is the platform's flagship. With 210+ PoPs and a single global rate (no per-region pricing surprises), it delivers static assets, dynamic content, and large files with sub-30ms average latency worldwide. The free tier includes 1 TB of traffic per month — enough for most personal projects and small applications. Paid plans scale on a pay-as-you-go basis starting at $2.95. Advanced caching rules, custom SSL certificates, and image optimisation are available on higher tiers. For video-heavy applications, the CDN integrates directly with Gcore's streaming platform.

Always-On DDoS Protection

DDoS mitigation is built into every layer of the platform. Network-level (L3/L4) protection is always on and handles volumetric attacks using the full 200+ Tbps of scrubbing capacity. Application-layer (L7) protection filters sophisticated HTTP floods and slowloris attacks. Cloud compute instances get DDoS protection at no extra charge by default. The standalone DDoS protection product supports dedicated IP protection for on-premise infrastructure. Gcore processes attack traffic within its own network rather than routing through third-party scrubbing centres, reducing latency during mitigation.

WAAP (Web Application and API Protection)

Gcore's WAAP product combines four security functions: web application firewall (WAF), application-layer DDoS protection, bot management, and API security. The WAF inspects traffic against OWASP Top 10 rules and custom rule sets. Bot management distinguishes between legitimate crawlers and malicious automation. API security monitors endpoints for abuse patterns and anomalous request volumes. Packaging all four into a single product simplifies security architecture compared to assembling point solutions from different vendors.

Cloud Compute and GPU Infrastructure

Beyond edge services, Gcore operates cloud compute across multiple regions. Virtual instances start from EUR 3.70/month, with bare metal servers from EUR 155.99/month. Managed Kubernetes is available for container orchestration. The AI-focused tier offers NVIDIA A100 and H100 GPUs on both bare metal and virtual machines, with per-minute billing starting from EUR 1.43/hour. High-bandwidth InfiniBand networking connects GPU nodes for distributed training workloads. This positions Gcore as one of the few EU-headquartered providers offering enterprise GPU cloud for AI.

Video Streaming

The integrated streaming platform handles live and video-on-demand (VOD) delivery. It accepts RTMP, SRT, HLS, WebRTC, and UDP Multicast inputs, transcodes in real time, and delivers to audiences of up to 100 million concurrent viewers using the CDN backbone. Latency to end viewers stays under 4-5 seconds, with quality support up to 4K/8K. Gaming companies, media organisations, and live event producers are the primary audience for this capability.

Pricing

Gcore's pricing varies significantly by product line. The CDN free tier (1 TB/month, no credit card) makes experimentation accessible. Paid CDN pricing starts at $2.95 on a pay-as-you-go model. Cloud compute pricing is usage-based with per-minute billing, making it predictable for variable workloads.

Enterprise pricing is custom and includes dedicated support, SLAs, advanced DDoS configurations, and negotiated traffic rates. The GPU cloud pricing (from EUR 1.43/hour for A100 instances) is competitive against Hetzner's GPU offerings but above OVHcloud's entry-level GPU pricing.

The main criticism: unlike Cloudflare's generous free tier that includes basic WAF and unlimited CDN for one site, Gcore's free offering is limited to CDN traffic. DDoS protection beyond the default cloud instance coverage, WAAP, and streaming all require paid plans or enterprise agreements. For budget-conscious startups, this limits the platform's accessibility.

EU Compliance & Privacy

Gcore's compliance posture is strong. The company is legally domiciled in Luxembourg (EU member state), holding ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification and PCI DSS compliance. GDPR compliance covers all data processing, with EU data regions available for customers who need to guarantee data residency.

The EU headquarters is a genuine structural advantage over Cloudflare (San Francisco), Akamai (Cambridge, MA), and AWS (Seattle). European customers subject to GDPR or sector-specific regulations avoid the legal complexity of US provider data access under the CLOUD Act. For government, healthcare, and financial services workloads, this distinction matters during procurement and compliance review.

Who It's Best For

European enterprises with data sovereignty requirements in regulated sectors — finance, healthcare, government. The EU headquarters and ISO 27001 certification satisfy procurement teams that US-based CDN providers cannot.

Media and gaming companies needing low-latency content delivery and live streaming at scale. The integrated CDN and streaming platform eliminates the need to stitch together separate vendors.

AI teams needing EU-based GPU compute for training and inference. Gcore's A100/H100 offerings with per-minute billing provide flexibility without long-term commitments.

Security-conscious organisations wanting CDN, DDoS protection, WAF, and bot management from a single EU provider rather than a multi-vendor security stack.

The Verdict

Gcore delivers enterprise-grade edge infrastructure from an EU legal base — a combination that remains genuinely rare. The 210+ PoP CDN matches Cloudflare on performance, the integrated DDoS and WAAP products consolidate security, and the GPU cloud offering targets the growing AI infrastructure market. The trade-offs are real: documentation lags behind Cloudflare, the developer ecosystem is smaller, there are no serverless edge functions, and pricing beyond the CDN free tier is enterprise-oriented. For organisations where EU data sovereignty is a hard requirement, Gcore removes a compliance headache that no US-based competitor can address at the infrastructure level.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Gcore GDPR compliant?

Yes. Gcore is headquartered in Luxembourg, an EU member state. The company holds ISO 27001 and PCI DSS certifications and offers EU data processing regions. All services comply with GDPR requirements for data handling and privacy.

Does Gcore have a free tier?

Yes, for CDN. The free plan includes 1 TB of traffic per month with free SSL and basic DDoS protection. No credit card is required. Cloud compute, GPU, and enterprise DDoS products are paid only.

How does Gcore compare to Cloudflare?

Gcore matches Cloudflare on CDN performance (210+ PoPs, sub-30ms latency) and adds cloud compute, GPU infrastructure, and video streaming that Cloudflare lacks. Cloudflare offers serverless Workers, a larger free tier with built-in WAF, and a much bigger developer community. Gcore's key differentiator is its EU headquarters, which provides structural GDPR advantages for European businesses.

What DDoS protection does Gcore offer?

Always-on mitigation across L3, L4, and L7 backed by 200+ Tbps of network capacity. Cloud instances receive free DDoS protection by default. The WAAP product adds WAF, bot management, and API security. Dedicated IP protection is available for on-premise infrastructure.

Can I run AI workloads on Gcore?

Yes. Gcore offers NVIDIA A100 and H100 GPUs on bare metal and virtual machines with per-minute billing from EUR 1.43/hour. High-bandwidth InfiniBand networking supports distributed training. GPU infrastructure is available in multiple European and global regions.