Layerbase databases now run in Europe
Layerbase now has a second region for shared databases. Alongside US East in Ashburn, Virginia, you can create a database in EU West, in France. It is open to every plan, Free included, and it costs the same as US East.
Until now every Free, Solo and Pro database ran in Virginia. If your app or your users are in Europe, that meant every query crossed the Atlantic and back. You can now put the database on the same side of the ocean as the traffic.
Why it matters
A page load is rarely one query. An ORM rendering a list runs several in sequence, and a request that opens a transaction, does a couple of lookups and writes a row runs more. Each one waits for a full round trip to the database. When the app server is in Frankfurt or Paris and the database is in Virginia, that round trip is an ocean crossing, and it adds up on every request. Caching hides some of it on reads and none of it on writes.
The fix is to run the database near the app. I don't have a measured number for you from a European vantage point yet, so I won't quote one. The thing to know is that the gain comes from the app and the database being close to each other. If your app servers are in Europe, create the database in EU West. If they are in the US, keep it in US East even when your users are in Europe, because the app to database hop is the one that repeats.
What is stored where
This is the part to read carefully.
- In the EU: a database you create in EU West runs on a server in France, and its backups go to object storage restricted to the EU jurisdiction.
- In the United States: your account record, team records, the control-plane records that describe your databases (names, engines, hostnames, status) and operational logs. That is true whichever region your databases run in.
So EU West is a European location for your data and backups. It is not full EU data residency. We don't offer EU-only processing or a contractual residency guarantee, and this launch doesn't change that. If you need those for compliance, EU West on its own does not get you there. Managed DuckLake storage is also not tied to a database region. The data residency page lists every piece and where it lives.
How to choose the region
The region is set when you create a database. You can pick it from every place you create one:
- Dashboard. The create form has a Region picker.
- CLI. From version 2.5.0, pass
--region:
lbase cloud create my-app-db --engine postgresql --region eu-west- Layerbase Desktop. Version 0.40.0 and later shows the same Region picker on Deploy to Cloud.
- MCP. The
create_databasetool takes aregionargument, for exampleeu-west. See the MCP docs.
The picker starts on a sensible default. If you already have databases, it starts on the region of your newest one, so a new database lands next to the rest of your stack. If you are new and visiting from Europe, it starts on EU West. You can change it either way before you create.
If you run the CLI, update it with npm i -g layerbase. Older CLI and Desktop versions don't offer a region and create in US East.
Existing databases stay put
Nothing you already have moves. A database stays in the region it was created in. If you want an existing database in EU West, create a new one there and move the data yourself with your usual dump and restore. Try that on a copy first, and check that your app has the new connection string before you switch traffic over.
Dedicated servers
Dedicated servers are unchanged. They are still offered in US East (Virginia), US West (Oregon) and São Paulo, and EU West is a shared region only for now.
Getting started
Create a database and choose EU West in the Region picker. The regions docs cover the details.
Keep reading
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