EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceCDN, DNS & DomainsHeadquarters: AT

Caddy: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Caddy is a web server and reverse proxy that enables HTTPS automatically by default: it obtains and renews TLS certificates itself, including for localhost and internal addresses through a local CA. It also offers load balancing with health checks, a static file server, a JSON configuration API and the readable Caddyfile format. The server has no runtime dependencies and is extended through modules. It is server software that you download and run yourself, for all major platforms.

According to the project site and README, Caddy is a project of ZeroSSL, which HID Global describes as based in Austria; HID Global acquired ZeroSSL in 2024 and is part of the ASSA ABLOY Group. Caddy is open source under the Apache License 2.0 and relies on sponsors. Because you host the software yourself, traffic and certificates stay on your own infrastructure. Note that automatic certificate issuance goes through ACME certificate authorities, ZeroSSL among them.

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Sovereignty score
94 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-2100
    Headquartered in the EU: European law applies
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    EU-only hosting
  • 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-6100
    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 14, 2026
Headquarters
AT (EU)Verified by hand
Ultimate parent company
SEVerified by hand
Sovereignty model
Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting
EUVerified by hand
Open-source
YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
CDN, DNS & Domains
Type
Product
Website
caddyserver.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Caddy

The European alternatives to Caddy come from our knowledge base of over 8,400 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 CDN, DNS & Domains 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 Caddy

Caddy is headquartered in AT and therefore falls under European law: the GDPR, NIS2 and the Data Act. No foreign legislation can compel access to your data. The ultimate owner is based in SE, also within Europe.

Data is hosted exclusively in the EU, so Caddy scores best on data residency.

Caddy 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 Caddy 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 Caddy?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Caddy include Bunny.net, CDNsun and ClouDNS. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Caddy?

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

Is Caddy GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Caddy is headquartered in AT (EU) and hosts data in EU. It is also open-source, so you can self-host it. That makes Caddy 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 14, 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

In the changelog

Earlier changes to this page, as listed in the public changelog.

Digital sovereignty in CDN, DNS & Domains

CDN, DNS & Domains: Content delivery networks, DNS services and domain registration. 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

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