Non-EU vendorDesignHeadquarters: GB

diagrams.net: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

diagrams.net, also known as draw.io, is a free diagramming tool for flowcharts and technical and business diagrams. It runs in the browser without sign-up or as a desktop application, supports real-time collaboration, and saves diagrams as editable XML files that can be exported as SVG, PNG, JPEG or PDF. Files can be stored locally or in Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, GitHub or GitLab. Integrations exist for Confluence, Jira, Nextcloud, MediaWiki, Notion and VS Code.

The tool is developed by draw.io Ltd (formerly JGraph Ltd), registered in England and Wales, so the vendor sits outside the EU. The source code is published on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 licence, although the project does not accept outside pull requests. It can be self-hosted with an official Docker image. According to the vendor's privacy policy, diagram content is generally not sent to its servers and personal data is not stored or transmitted outside the UK. Where diagrams end up depends on the storage you choose.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with diagrams.net pre-selected

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Sovereignty score

57 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-250
Headquartered outside the EU (GB)
Data residency SOV-30
No hosting in Europe (OTHER)
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-665
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

Headquarters	GB (OTHER)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision	Yes — found adequate by the European CommissionVerified by hand
Sovereignty model	Vendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting	OTHERVerified by hand
Open-source	YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Compliance documents	1 published, see belowVendor-stated
Hosting signal	CLOUDFLARENET - Cloudflare, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
Category	Design
Type	Product
Website	drawio.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 diagrams.net

The European alternatives to diagrams.net come from our knowledge base of over 6,800 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

32 European Design 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 diagrams.net

diagrams.net 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.

diagrams.net hosts data outside the EU (OTHER). Personal data therefore leaves the EU, which requires a transfer mechanism under the GDPR and pulls the data residency score down.

diagrams.net 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 diagrams.net 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 diagrams.net?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to diagrams.net include ArtFlow, Artweaver and Capture One. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to diagrams.net?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to diagrams.net include darktable and Excalidraw. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is diagrams.net GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

diagrams.net is headquartered in GB (OTHER) and hosts data in 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".

Security page / trust center: drawio.com/trust/

Provenance of the links above:Vendor-stated

Links checked on September 22, 2026.

Digital sovereignty in Design

Design: Graphic design — photo editing, illustration, desktop publishing. 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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