EU Sovereignty Score
Non-EU vendorOffice & ProductivityHeadquarters: US

Apple iWork: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Apple iWork is Apple's office suite, made up of Pages (word processing and page layout), Numbers (spreadsheets) and Keynote (presentations). The apps run natively on Mac, iPad and iPhone, and web versions are available through iCloud in a browser. All three support real-time collaboration, and Pages and Numbers also let people join from a PC. On macOS and iOS iWork has been free since 2017; extra content and AI features come with the Apple Creator Studio subscription. Documents are stored in iCloud Drive.

Apple is a publicly listed company headquartered in Cupertino, California, and iWork is proprietary software. Apple states that both Apple and third-party data centres may be used for iCloud; its documentation describes no choice of region. By default, iCloud data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with keys held by Apple. With the optional Advanced Data Protection, iWork documents are end-to-end encrypted, but shared iWork collaboration is not covered. As a US company, Apple is relevant for the CLOUD Act.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Apple iWork pre-selected
MastodonLinkedInBlueskyXEmail
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, 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 5, 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, OTHERVerified by hand
Open-sourceNoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantYesVendor-stated
CategoryOffice & Productivity
TypeProduct
Websiteicloud.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Apple iWork

The European alternatives to Apple iWork come from our knowledge base of over 6,200 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

30 European Office & Productivity vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

Is Apple iWork one of many dependencies?

Score your whole stack in about three minutes. Free, no account needed.

Assess your stack →View a sample report (opens in a new tab)

Why digital sovereignty matters with Apple iWork

Apple iWork 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.

Apple iWork hosts data in EU, 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.

Apple iWork 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 Apple iWork 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 Apple iWork?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Apple iWork include Ashampoo Office, Calligra Suite and Craft Docs. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Apple iWork?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Apple iWork include Calligra Suite, CryptPad, EGroupware, Euro-Office, eXo Platform and Framasoft (Framapad/Framacalc). These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Apple iWork GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Apple iWork is headquartered in US and hosts data in EU, 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 5, 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 Office & Productivity

Office & Productivity: Office software, word processing, spreadsheets and groupware. 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.

Also in this category

See all →
Open in the alternatives dashboardMissing a vendor? Submit itAre you this vendor? You can also become a sponsor on the Office & Productivity page — with no effect on your score
8 European alternatives to Apple iWork — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score