Leviia

What Is Leviia?

European data sovereignty stopped being a niche concern the moment procurement teams realised that an AWS region in Frankfurt does not put their data beyond the reach of US law. The CLOUD Act lets American authorities compel US-headquartered providers to hand over data regardless of where it physically sits. That gap has driven a wave of European alternatives — OVHcloud, Scaleway, Cubbit, and a clutch of smaller "souveraineté numérique" specialists in France. Leviia is one of the sharpest-positioned of them.

The company sells S3-compatible object storage, called Storag3, from Leviia SAS in Montévrain, east of Paris. Brothers William Méauzoone (CEO) and Arnaud Méauzoone (CTO) began building the company in 2019, incorporated the SAS in late 2020, and launched the object-storage line in February 2023. The pitch is uncomplicated: keep every byte in France, under French law, at a flat EUR 9.99 per terabyte per month with no egress fees. Back that with certifications that hyperscaler marketing cannot casually match.

Scale is modest and the company is candid about it. Roughly 33 staff serve around a million individual users and about a thousand business clients, with a EUR 3 million round from Xavier Niel's personal holding in 2022 as the main outside capital. What Leviia lacks in size it partly offsets with credibility: the Île-de-France region adopted it to centralise data for 550,000 secondary-school students, replacing a Microsoft deployment.

Key Features

How does Leviia store data across French data centres?

Storag3 spreads data across three data centres inside France, using erasure coding and geo-replication rather than storing single copies. Erasure coding splits each object into fragments with parity, so the platform can rebuild data even if hardware fails, and Leviia advertises 99.999999999% — eleven nines — of durability. The infrastructure expanded to include Free Pro facilities alongside OVHcloud in 2024, keeping everything on French soil throughout.

Encryption is applied server-side with AES-256 and in transit over HTTPS. Object versioning and object locking are both supported, so a backup written under a retention lock resists deletion or tampering — the immutability pattern that ransomware recovery depends on. What Leviia does not document in depth is lifecycle automation or tiered cold storage, so the feature surface is narrower than a hyperscaler's.

What certifications does Leviia hold, and why do they matter?

Two certifications carry the compliance case: ISO/IEC 27001 for information security and HDS — Hébergeur de Données de Santé — for hosting health data. HDS matters because it is a French regulatory requirement for handling patient data, and holding it opens doors in healthcare that generic providers cannot walk through. ISO 27001 gives procurement teams the independent audit trail that Storadera, a cheaper Estonian rival, notably lacks at the vendor level.

One certification is absent and worth naming. Leviia is not SecNumCloud-qualified, the French state's highest sovereignty label, which some public-sector and sensitive contracts mandate. The company markets heavily on sovereignty, so buyers should confirm whether their tender specifically requires SecNumCloud before assuming Leviia clears every bar.

How does the S3 API and backup-vendor support work?

Storag3 speaks the S3 API, which means the standard toolchain connects without custom work — rclone and the AWS CLI copy data across with an endpoint swap and a credential pair. That compatibility also underpins Leviia's strongest ecosystem: backup software. Veeam, Rubrik, Commvault, Atempo, Bacula, Synology, Dell ECS, and Iperius are all certified against Storag3, so an existing backup job usually just needs repointing.

The backup-target use case is clearly where Leviia expects most volume, and the vendor list is genuinely broad for a company this size. What you will not find is an application marketplace, a native CDN, or the sprawling integration catalogue that surrounds AWS. For teams whose need is a compliant, immutable backup destination in France, that focus is a feature rather than a shortfall.

What else does Leviia offer beyond object storage?

Object storage is one of three product lines, which sets Leviia apart from single-purpose rivals. Leviia Drive is a Nextcloud-based file sync and share service starting around EUR 9 per month, aimed at replacing consumer cloud drives with a French-hosted alternative. A companion suite, Leviia Next, launched in early 2026 as a Microsoft 365-style collaboration tool, with a Pro tier from roughly EUR 8 per user per month plus EUR 15 per TB of storage.

That breadth lets an organisation consolidate storage, file sharing, and collaboration with one sovereign vendor — the substitution the Île-de-France region made against Microsoft. The trade-off is that none of these lines is as mature or as deep as the incumbent it replaces, so buyers are choosing sovereignty and consolidation over feature parity.

Pricing

Storag3 pricing is flat and predictable, with one significant string attached. Storage costs EUR 9.99 per TB per month with no egress fees, no API-request fees, and no early-deletion penalty. But it is sold against a reserved capacity with a 10 TB minimum and a one-year contract. A 15-day free trial requires no credit card, though the trial project is still bound by that 10 TB floor. This is not a service you dip into for a few gigabytes.

Against pay-as-you-go rivals, the commitment is the real cost. Backblaze B2 runs about $6.95 per TB with no minimum and free egress via CDN partners, and Wasabi sits at $7.99 per TB, both below Leviia's headline rate. Scaleway, a fellow French provider, charges roughly EUR 16 per TB for multi-AZ standard storage but imposes no 10 TB floor. Leviia is therefore neither the cheapest per terabyte nor the most flexible on commitment.

Where Leviia wins is against AWS S3, which lists near EUR 22-23 per TB before egress — and egress on a fully retrieved dataset can dwarf the storage bill. For a French organisation moving 10 TB or more of backups into a sovereign, certified home, EUR 9.99 per TB with predictable, egress-free billing is a defensible number. Below that volume, or where flexibility matters, Backblaze or Wasabi make more sense.

EU Compliance & Privacy

Sovereignty is the entire proposition, and Leviia backs it more thoroughly than most. Data stays in three French data centres, Leviia SAS is 100% French-owned by its founders, and no US entity sits anywhere in the ownership chain. That structure, the company argues, places customers outside the CLOUD Act's reach. For an EU buyer whose concern is not just where data sits but whose law can compel its disclosure, that distinction from an AWS or Azure EU region is the whole point.

The certifications give the claim teeth. ISO/IEC 27001 provides an independent security audit, and HDS extends the offer into regulated health data — a genuine differentiator that few S3 alternatives, European or otherwise, can offer. GDPR compliance follows naturally from French jurisdiction and French-only hosting, with no transatlantic transfer to paper over.

Two honest limits belong in the same breath. Leviia is not SecNumCloud-qualified, so the very highest French state-sensitivity contracts may still exclude it. And at around 33 employees, Leviia cannot match a hyperscaler's security headcount or 24/7 operations depth, which risk-averse enterprises should weigh against the sovereignty upside.

Who It's Best For

French organisations with data-sovereignty mandates who need storage that is provably outside US legal reach. The all-French ownership, hosting, and ISO 27001 plus HDS certification make Leviia one of the cleanest sovereign options available.

Healthcare and public-sector bodies handling regulated data. HDS certification and the Île-de-France reference deployment show Leviia can meet requirements that stop generic providers at the door.

Teams consolidating storage, backup, and collaboration with one French vendor. Storag3, Drive, and Next together let an organisation replace a patchwork of US services, as several public bodies have chosen to do.

Leviia is a weaker fit for small or highly variable workloads, where the 10 TB minimum and annual contract are simply too rigid — Backblaze or Wasabi serve those better. Global applications needing storage outside France, and buyers requiring SecNumCloud qualification or a hyperscaler's service breadth, should look elsewhere.

The Verdict

Leviia is one of the most credible sovereign object-storage providers in France, and a genuine option for any European organisation that treats CLOUD Act exposure as a real risk rather than a hypothetical. All-French ownership and hosting, ISO 27001 and HDS certification, flat egress-free pricing, and a broad backup-vendor ecosystem give it a compliance story most S3 alternatives cannot tell. The constraints are equally concrete: a 10 TB minimum with a one-year contract, a per-TB price above Backblaze and Wasabi, France-only regions, a young product, and no SecNumCloud qualification. For French and EU buyers moving serious volumes of regulated or sovereignty-sensitive data, Leviia earns its shortlist place; for small, flexible, or global workloads, cheaper and looser options fit better.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Leviia GDPR compliant and where is my data stored?

Leviia stores all data in France, across three data centres, and is operated by Leviia SAS, a 100% French-owned independent company. Because there is no US parent and data never leaves French jurisdiction, Leviia markets the service as shielded from the US CLOUD Act. It is GDPR compliant and holds two independent certifications: ISO/IEC 27001 for information security and HDS (Hébergeur de Données de Santé) for hosting health data. Note that Leviia is not SecNumCloud-qualified, so buyers needing that specific French state qualification should confirm requirements first.

How does Leviia compare to AWS S3?

Leviia trades AWS's global scale for French sovereignty and predictable pricing. Storag3 costs a flat EUR 9.99 per TB/month with no egress or request fees, against AWS S3 Standard at roughly EUR 22-23 per TB plus separate, often large, egress charges. AWS spans 30-plus global regions and an enormous service ecosystem — compute, databases, CDN, serverless — that Leviia does not offer. Leviia keeps all data in France under ISO 27001 and HDS certification with no US CLOUD Act exposure. For French organisations that prioritise data sovereignty and want to avoid egress bills, Leviia is compelling; for a global, multi-service cloud platform, AWS is a different proposition.

Does Leviia have a free tier, and what does it cost?

There is no permanent free tier, but Leviia offers a 15-day free trial with no credit card required. Storag3 object storage then costs a flat EUR 9.99 per TB per month with no egress, API-request, or early-deletion fees. The main catch is the commitment: a 10 TB minimum capacity and a one-year contract, which is heavier than the pay-as-you-go terms of Backblaze B2 or Wasabi. Leviia also sells Leviia Drive file sync from around EUR 9/month and the Leviia Next collaboration suite for teams.

Can I migrate from AWS S3 or another provider to Leviia?

Yes. Storag3 exposes a standard S3-compatible API, so migration tools such as rclone and the AWS CLI copy buckets across with an endpoint and credential change. Leviia is also certified with major backup platforms — Veeam, Rubrik, Commvault, Atempo, Bacula, Synology, and Dell ECS — so many organisations simply repoint an existing backup job at Leviia. The 10 TB minimum means migration suits mid-sized and larger data sets rather than small trials.

What makes Leviia a sovereign cloud provider?

Leviia is a French company, 100% French-owned by its founders, storing all data exclusively in French data centres under French law — the combination it markets as digital sovereignty. Because no US entity owns or operates the service, Leviia argues its customers fall outside the reach of the US CLOUD Act, unlike EU-region deployments of American hyperscalers. Public bodies have taken this seriously: the Île-de-France region adopted Leviia to centralise data for 550,000 secondary-school students, replacing a Microsoft solution. Leviia is not, however, SecNumCloud-qualified, which some French state contracts require.