EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceGIS & GeospatialHeadquarters: US

Apache Sedona: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Apache Sedona is an open-source cluster computing system for processing large spatial datasets on Apache Spark and Apache Flink. It adds spatial SQL functions, spatial joins, raster and vector data readers and GeoParquet support, and can be used from Python, Scala and Java. Sedona is distributed as a library and runs on the user's own Spark clusters or managed platforms, so there is no vendor-hosted service. It is developed under the Apache Software Foundation and replaces proprietary spatial big-data stacks such as Esri GeoAnalytics.

The Apache Software Foundation is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so the project's governance sits in the United States. The code is licensed under the Apache License 2.0, which permits self-hosting and modification. Because Sedona runs on infrastructure chosen by the user, data stays wherever that infrastructure is. For a European organisation the main sovereignty choice is the Spark or cloud platform underneath it. Sedona itself provides no service and no data processing agreement; obligations for personal data rest with the operator.

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Sovereignty score
69 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-210
    Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    No hosting in Europe (US)
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-390
    Self-hostable: encryption keys under your own control
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-680
    Open source: low switching costs
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-665
    Source code auditable, forkable and self-hostable

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 12, 2026
Headquarters
US (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision
Only for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Sovereignty model
Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting
USVerified by hand
Open-source
YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
NoVendor-stated
Category
GIS & Geospatial
Type
Product
Website
sedona.apache.org ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Apache Sedona

The European alternatives to Apache Sedona come from our knowledge base of over 7,800 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

57 European GIS & Geospatial 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 Apache Sedona

Apache Sedona 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.

Apache Sedona hosts data outside the EU (US). Personal data therefore leaves the EU, which requires a transfer mechanism under the GDPR and pulls the data residency score down.

Apache Sedona is open source. You can audit the source code, self-host the software and keep the encryption keys under your own control. Switching is easier because data and software are not tied to a single party.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs Apache Sedona 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 Apache Sedona?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Apache Sedona include 52°North, Airbus Defence & Space and Camptocamp. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Apache Sedona?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Apache Sedona include 52°North and Camptocamp. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Apache Sedona GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Apache Sedona is headquartered in US and hosts data in US. Its GDPR compliance is limited or unclear. 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 12, 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 GIS & Geospatial

GIS & Geospatial: Geographic information systems, map visualisation and spatial data analysis. 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 Apache Sedona — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score