EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceNotes & TasksHeadquarters: FR

Carnet: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Carnet is an open-source note-taking app with a full editor: formatting, folders, keywords, search, audio recording and to-do lists. Notes can be imported from Google Keep (desktop app only). Carnet is available for Android (via F-Droid and Google Play), Linux and macOS, and as a web app inside Nextcloud. The Nextcloud app is listed in the Nextcloud App Store and runs on your own Nextcloud server; the clients synchronise through Nextcloud or ownCloud. The project documentation describes the app as still in beta.

Carnet is not hosted in the cloud by a single vendor: you run it on a Nextcloud or ownCloud server of your choice. The Nextcloud app is published under the AGPL-3.0 and the clients under the GPL-3.0, so the source code can be inspected. Where your notes are stored depends on the server you run Nextcloud on; with a European host or your own server, the data stays under your control. The optional PIN lock in the Android app does not encrypt notes. The domain getcarnet.app now belongs to an unrelated service.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Carnet pre-selected
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 9, 2026
HeadquartersFR (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty modelOpen-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hostingEUVerified by hand
Open-sourceYesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantYesVendor-stated
Compliance documents1 published, see belowVendor-stated
Hosting signalAMAZON-02 - Amazon.com, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
CategoryNotes & Tasks
TypeProduct
Websiteapps.nextcloud.com ↗

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 Carnet

The European alternatives to Carnet 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

25 European Notes & Tasks 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 Carnet

Carnet is headquartered in FR and therefore falls under European law: the GDPR, NIS2 and the Data Act. No foreign legislation can compel access to your data.

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

Carnet 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 Carnet 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 Carnet?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Carnet include Anytype, Bear and Capacities. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Carnet?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Carnet include CryptPad, HedgeDoc and Joplin. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

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

EU hosting documented
getcarnet.app/mentions-legales

Provenance of the links above:Vendor-stated

Links checked on September 21, 2026.

Digital sovereignty in Notes & Tasks

Notes & Tasks: Note-taking apps and task management — write, organise, sync. 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 Carnet — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score