Non-EU vendorNotes & TasksHeadquarters: US

Evernote: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Evernote is a note-taking and task-management app that describes itself as a "second brain". Users organise notes in notebooks and spaces, search them, and combine them with tasks and a calendar. Evernote also offers a Web Clipper, document scanning, recording and transcription, real-time collaboration and AI features. Apps exist for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, along with a web client and browser extensions; data syncs through the vendor's cloud service.

Evernote is owned by Bending Spoons, an Italian company based in Milan. The privacy policy names Bending Spoons S.p.A. in Milan as data controller for personal use, while the website footer credits Bending Spoons US Inc. Synced data is nevertheless stored on servers in the United States: Evernote states that all data resides in the US and that the service is hosted entirely on Google Cloud Platform, with Google-managed keys for server-side encryption. The software is proprietary. For European organisations, the storage location rather than the owner's nationality therefore determines where the data resides.

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

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Sovereignty score

17 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-210
Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
Data residency SOV-30
No hosting in Europe (US)
Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-320
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-615
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 8, 2026

Headquarters	US (US)Verified by hand
Ultimate parent company	ITVerified by hand
EU adequacy decision	Only for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Sovereignty model	Vendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting	USVerified by hand
Open-source	NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	NoVendor-stated
Compliance documents	1 published, see belowVendor-stated
Hosting signal	GOOGLE-CLOUD-PLATFORM - Google LLC, US (US)Technically measured
Category	Notes & Tasks
Type	Product
Website	evernote.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 Evernote

The European alternatives to Evernote 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

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 Evernote

Evernote 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. The ultimate owner is based in IT, also within Europe.

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

Evernote 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 Evernote 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 Evernote?

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

Are there open-source alternatives to Evernote?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Evernote include Joplin, CryptPad, Nextcloud Notes, Trilium Notes (TriliumNext), Vikunja, Carnet and HedgeDoc. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

Evernote is headquartered in US and hosts data in US. Its GDPR compliance is limited or unclear. 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 8, 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: evernote.com/en-us/security

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.

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