EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceLow-code / No-codeHeadquarters: US

Directus: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Directus is a headless CMS and data platform that wraps an existing SQL database with automatically generated REST and GraphQL APIs and a visual management Studio for non-technical users. It supports databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite and MS SQL Server, offers field-level access control and can be extended with custom endpoints, hooks and modules. Teams can run it on their own infrastructure or use the managed Directus Cloud.

Directus is developed by Monospace Inc., a US company. The code is source-available under the Monospace Sustainable Core License (MSCL), which is not an open-source licence: organisations below stated revenue and headcount thresholds can use it free of charge, while larger ones using advanced or enterprise features need a commercial licence. Self-hosting lets you decide where data lives, including inside the EU. Directus Cloud offers a Frankfurt region on the Professional and Enterprise tiers, and further European regions for Enterprise projects.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Directus pre-selected
Sovereignty score
57 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-210
    Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    Hosting inside and outside Europe (EU, US, OTHER)
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-380
    Closed source, but self-hostable: encryption keys and runtime under your own control
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
    Closed source: switching requires data migration
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-655
    Closed source, but self-hostable on your own infrastructure

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
HeadquartersUS (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decisionOnly for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Data hostingSelf-hosted, e.g. in EU, US, OTHER (your choice)Verified by hand
Open-sourceNoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantYesVendor-stated
Compliance documents1 published, see belowVendor-stated
Hosting signalCLOUDFLARENET - Cloudflare, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
CategoryLow-code / No-code
TypeProduct
Websitedirectus.io ↗

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 Directus

The European alternatives to Directus 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

26 European Low-code / No-code 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 Directus

Directus is headquartered in the United States. US vendors fall under the CLOUD Act and FISA 702: US authorities can compel access to data, even when that data sits in a European data centre. That is the core of the jurisdictional exposure in our model.

Directus runs on infrastructure you choose and control yourself. You decide where the data lives, including fully within the EU if you want — this is not a fixed hosting choice made by the vendor.

Directus is closed source, but you run the software yourself on your own infrastructure. The encryption keys and the runtime therefore stay under your own control, though you cannot audit or modify the source code. Ask about export options and open standards to limit software-level lock-in.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs Directus 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 Directus?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Directus include SeaTable, Make.com and Ninox. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Directus?

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

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

Directus is headquartered in US 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".

Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
directus.io/privacy

Provenance of the links above:Vendor-stated

Links checked on September 21, 2026.

Digital sovereignty in Low-code / No-code

Low-code / No-code: Low-code and no-code platforms for application development and automation. 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 Directus — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score