EU Sovereignty Score
EU sovereignVirtualisation & ContainersHeadquarters: CH

APPUiO (VSHN): sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

APPUiO is a Kubernetes-based container hosting platform that relies on Red Hat OpenShift. Teams can run containerised software written in languages such as PHP, Python, Java, Go or Rust and add services such as databases, caches and queues. Projects and environments are separated for access control and billing, ordering is self-service, builds and deployments can be automated, and security features include SELinux, Let's Encrypt and two-factor authentication. It is a managed platform and a product of VSHN AG.

VSHN is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and APPUiO states that data can be stored in ISO-certified data centres in Switzerland. Switzerland is not an EU member state but belongs to EFTA. VSHN says open standards and open source are the basis of the platform and publishes open-source projects such as K8up and Project Syn; whether APPUiO itself is open source is not stated. For a European organisation this means a Swiss-operated service built on OpenShift, with hosting in Switzerland.

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Sovereignty score
67 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-2100
    Headquartered in Switzerland: Swiss law, recognised by the EU as adequate
  • Data residency SOV-380
    Hosting in Switzerland only (recognised by the EU as adequate)
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-360
    Key management with a European vendor
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
    Closed source: switching requires data migration
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-655
    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 9, 2026
HeadquartersCH (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty modelVendor-hosted (EU)Verified by hand
Data hostingCHVerified by hand
Open-sourceNoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantYesVendor-stated
Hosting signalCLOUDSCALE - cloudscale.ch AG, CH (CH)Technically measured
CategoryVirtualisation & Containers
TypeProduct
Websiteappuio.ch ↗

The hosting signal shows the network that serves the vendor's website, often a CDN, and not necessarily where the service or your data is hosted. How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to APPUiO (VSHN)

The European alternatives to APPUiO (VSHN) 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

20 European Virtualisation & Containers 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 APPUiO (VSHN)

APPUiO (VSHN) is headquartered in Switzerland and falls under Swiss law, including the revised Swiss data protection act. Switzerland is not an EU member, but the European Commission recognises its level of data protection as adequate. Its Swiss headquarters does not by itself bring it under US legislation such as the CLOUD Act.

APPUiO (VSHN) hosts data in Switzerland only. Switzerland is not part of the EU or the EEA, so the GDPR does not apply there directly; the European Commission does recognise Swiss data protection as adequate, so personal data can go there without extra safeguards. Our model therefore scores it between EU hosting and hosting outside Europe. If you require strictly EU hosting, take this into account.

APPUiO (VSHN) 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 APPUiO (VSHN) 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 APPUiO (VSHN)?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to APPUiO (VSHN) include Gardener, Giant Swarm and Harvester. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to APPUiO (VSHN)?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to APPUiO (VSHN) include Gardener, Giant Swarm, Harvester, IncludeOS, K3s, Kamaji, Kubermatic and Linbit DRBD/LINSTOR. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is APPUiO (VSHN) GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

APPUiO (VSHN) is headquartered in CH (EFTA) and hosts data in CH. That makes APPUiO (VSHN) an EU-sovereign choice in its own right; the EU alternatives on this page are comparable European tools.

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 9, 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

Cyber Resilience Act

Public signals that relate to the EU Cyber Resilience Act. They do not count towards the score. A missing line means "not found publicly".

Report a vulnerability
kb.vshn.ch/kb/security_vulnerability_process.html
security.txt
vshn.ch/.well-known/security.txt

For products in scope of the CRA, CE marking is required from 11 December 2027; this cannot be checked yet.

Checked on October 9, 2026. What is the Cyber Resilience Act?

Digital sovereignty in Virtualisation & Containers

Virtualisation & Containers: Virtualisation platforms, container management, Kubernetes distributions and hypervisors. 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 APPUiO (VSHN) — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score