EU Sovereignty Score
Non-EU vendorBrowserHeadquarters: US

Firefox: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Firefox is a web browser from Mozilla for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. It blocks trackers by default and offers tab groups, reader mode, picture-in-picture video, a customisable sidebar and a large catalogue of extensions. Bookmarks, passwords and history can be imported from another browser and synced between devices. Optional AI features can be turned off. You install Firefox as an app on your own device.

Firefox is developed by Mozilla Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, headquartered in San Francisco, USA. The source code is open source under the Mozilla Public License 2.0; the browser uses the Gecko engine, and WebKit on iOS. According to the privacy notice, browsing history, form data and cookies stay on your device. Data such as telemetry and account sync is sent to Mozilla servers, and Mozilla states that its servers are based in the United States. Google is the default search engine in most markets, which you can change. For a European organisation, this is an open-source browser from a US entity that has no shareholders.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Firefox pre-selected
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Sovereignty score
49 / 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-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 2, 2026
HeadquartersUS (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decisionOnly for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Sovereignty modelVendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hostingUSVerified by hand
Open-sourceYesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantYesVendor-stated
Hosting signalFASTLY - Fastly, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
CategoryBrowser
TypeProduct
Websitemozilla.org ↗

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 Firefox

The European alternatives to Firefox 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

18 European Browser 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 Firefox

Firefox 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.

Firefox 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.

Firefox 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 Firefox 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 Firefox?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Firefox include Falkon, Konqueror and LibreWolf. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Firefox?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Firefox include Falkon, Konqueror, LibreWolf, Midori, Mullvad Browser, Nyxt, Otter Browser and Pale Moon. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

Firefox is headquartered in US and hosts data in US. 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 2, 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
mozilla.org/en-US/security/bug-bounty/
security.txt
mozilla.org/.well-known/security.txt
Supported versions
support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-esr-release-cycle
Organisation behind the open-source project
Mozilla Corporation

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 Browser

Browser: Web browser — browsing, privacy, extensions, 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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8 European alternatives to Firefox — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score