Non-EU vendorCybersecurityHeadquarters: GB

Darktrace: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Darktrace is a cybersecurity company whose Behavioral Defense Platform uses machine learning to detect and respond to threats. Its software learns what normal activity looks like for each network, device and user, and flags deviations. According to the vendor, it covers areas such as email, hybrid networks and AI systems, with use cases including ransomware, phishing, account takeover, insider threats and data loss.

Darktrace was founded in Cambridge in 2013 and is headquartered there, in the United Kingdom, which is outside the EU. Since October 2024 it has been owned by Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm based in the United States, so a US ultimate parent applies, relevant to the CLOUD Act. Its trust centre states that solutions are hosted on AWS, with the location depending on the customer's choice, including Ireland and the Netherlands. European organisations can therefore opt for EU hosting, but should confirm the chosen region and the sub-processors in the contract.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Darktrace pre-selected

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Sovereignty score

42 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-250
Headquartered outside the EU (GB)
Data residency SOV-350
Hosting inside and outside Europe (EU, US, OTHER)
Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-340
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-630
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

Headquarters	GB (OTHER)	Verified by hand
Ultimate parent company	US	Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision	Yes — found adequate by the European Commission	Verified by hand
Sovereignty model	Vendor-hosted (non-EU)	Verified by hand
Data hosting	EU, US, OTHER	Verified by hand
Open-source	No	Verified by hand
GDPR-compliant	Yes	Vendor-stated
Hosting signal	CLOUDFLARENET - Cloudflare, Inc., US (US)	Technically measured
Category	Cybersecurity
Type	Product
Website	darktrace.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 Darktrace

The European alternatives to Darktrace 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

93 European Cybersecurity 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 Darktrace

Darktrace is headquartered in GB, outside the EU. Contracts and data therefore also fall under non-European law. The GDPR applies through contractual terms, but in a conflict with local legislation you have less certainty than with a European vendor. The ultimate owner is based in US. Foreign control undermines part of the certainty a European headquarters offers.

Darktrace hosts data in EU, US, 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.

Darktrace 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 Darktrace 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 Darktrace?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Darktrace include DCSO, Elastic Security and Gatewatcher. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Darktrace?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Darktrace include Elastic Security and OpenCTI. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

Darktrace is headquartered in GB (OTHER) and hosts data in EU, US, 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 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: darktrace.com/legal/vulnerability-disclosure-policy
security.txt: darktrace.com/.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 Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity: Threat detection, endpoint protection, SIEM, vulnerability management. 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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