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

CloudCompare: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

CloudCompare is open-source software for viewing, editing and processing 3D point clouds and triangular meshes. It was originally designed to compare two point clouds, such as laser scanner data, or a point cloud and a mesh, using an octree structure that also copes with very large clouds. Besides the full application there is ccViewer, a lighter viewer. CloudCompare runs as a desktop application on Windows, macOS and Linux and is used for work such as surveying, construction and heritage documentation.

The project has no legal entity. Its creator and administrator lists France as the location on their public profile, and a second core member also lists France. The software may be used for any purpose, including business, under the GPL licence. Because it runs locally on your own computer, your scans and files stay with you; CloudCompare does not offer a hosted service.

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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
FR (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty model
Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting
EUVerified by hand
Open-source
YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
GIS & Geospatial
Type
Product
Website
cloudcompare.org ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to CloudCompare

The European alternatives to CloudCompare 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

75 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 CloudCompare

CloudCompare 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 CloudCompare scores best on data residency.

CloudCompare 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 CloudCompare 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 CloudCompare?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to CloudCompare include 3Dsurvey, 52°North and Airbus Defence & Space. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to CloudCompare?

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

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

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

Also in this category

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