EU Sovereignty Score
Non-EU vendorForms & SurveysHeadquarters: GB

Forsta: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Forsta is a platform for market research and for measuring customer, brand and employee experience. The HX Platform brings together different kinds of data, from surveys to qualitative research, and adds AI features for analysis. Forsta also provides services such as consulting, onboarding, participant management and technical assistance. According to its privacy notice, surveys run either in Forsta's own SaaS environments or on the customer's servers.

Forsta was acquired in 2022 by the US company Press Ganey, which is based in South Bend, Indiana, from the investors EQT and Verdane. At the time of the deal EQT described Forsta as headquartered in London. The privacy notice names Forsta AS as the controller for the EEA and Forsta Worldwide Ltd for the UK. Forsta Inc. participates in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and publishes a data processing agreement and a sub-processor list. European organisations should take into account that the parent company is American and should confirm the hosting location with the vendor.

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Sovereignty score
32 / 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-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 13, 2026
Headquarters
GB (OTHER)Verified by hand
Ultimate parent company
USVerified 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
NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
Forms & Surveys
Type
Product
Website
forsta.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Forsta

The European alternatives to Forsta come from our knowledge base of over 8,000 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

60 European Forms & Surveys 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 Forsta

Forsta 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.

Forsta 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.

Forsta 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 Forsta 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 Forsta?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Forsta include 123FormBuilder, AidaForm and Appinio. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Forsta?

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

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

Forsta 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 13, 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

Timeline

Dated changes in who controls this vendor or where it is based, newest first. Every line links to the public sources.

  1. · AcquisitionVendor-stated

    Acquired by Press Ganey (United States); the acquisition closed on 26 April 2022.

All ownership changes

Digital sovereignty in Forms & Surveys

Forms & Surveys: Online forms, surveys and feedback tools. 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 Forsta — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score