EU Sovereignty Score
Non-EU vendorRemote Desktop & SupportHeadquarters: US

Amazon WorkSpaces: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Amazon WorkSpaces is a managed cloud desktop service from Amazon Web Services that delivers secure cloud desktops and streamed applications to users wherever they are. It is offered as desktop-as-a-service and application streaming on AWS infrastructure, rather than as software that runs on the organisation's own servers.

Amazon Web Services, Inc. is a Delaware corporation wholly owned by Amazon.com, Inc., a US group headquartered in Seattle. The provider is therefore subject to US legal access regimes such as the CLOUD Act. Customers choose the region where their data is stored. AWS offers a data processing addendum with standard contractual clauses, but data can still be transferred outside the EEA, including to the United States. A European organisation should select an EU region and review the contractual and legal safeguards before use.

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Sovereignty score
27 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-210
    Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
  • Data residency SOV-350
    Hosting inside and outside Europe (EU, US, OTHER)
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-320
    Key management with a non-European vendor
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
    Closed source: switching requires data migration
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-615
    Closed source, runtime with the vendor

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked October 10, 2026
HeadquartersUS (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decisionOnly for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Sovereignty modelVendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hostingEU, US, OTHERVerified by hand
Open-sourceNoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantYesVendor-stated
CategoryRemote Desktop & Support
TypeProduct
Websiteaws.amazon.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Amazon WorkSpaces

The European alternatives to Amazon WorkSpaces come from our knowledge base of over 6,800 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

18 European Remote Desktop & Support vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

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Why digital sovereignty matters with Amazon WorkSpaces

Amazon WorkSpaces is headquartered in the United States. US vendors fall under the CLOUD Act and FISA 702: US authorities can compel access to data, even when that data sits in a European data centre. That is the core of the jurisdictional exposure in our model.

Amazon WorkSpaces hosts data in EU, US, OTHER. Exactly what stays within the EU — and what does not — is defined by the vendor's data processing agreement and sub-processor list, not by a setting you control yourself; check those documents for the precise scope, including backups, logs and support access.

Amazon WorkSpaces is closed source and hosted by the vendor. The encryption keys and the runtime sit with the vendor and switching requires data migration. Ask about bring-your-own-key, export options and open standards.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs Amazon WorkSpaces together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to Amazon WorkSpaces?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Amazon WorkSpaces include AnyDesk, DWService and FastViewer. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Amazon WorkSpaces?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Amazon WorkSpaces include DWService. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Amazon WorkSpaces GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Amazon WorkSpaces is headquartered in US and hosts data in EU, US, OTHER. The vendor states it is GDPR-compliant, but the data falls under non-EU jurisdiction. For full EU data residency the EU alternatives on this page usually offer more certainty.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on October 10, 2026.

Sources

Public sources used in the latest check of this record.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

No public compliance evidence has been recorded for this vendor yet. Do you know its DPA or subprocessor list? Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Digital sovereignty in Remote Desktop & Support

Remote Desktop & Support: Remote access, remote support and screen sharing. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

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8 European alternatives to Amazon WorkSpaces — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score