EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceIoT & EmbeddedHeadquarters: DE

FROST-Server: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

FROST-Server (Fraunhofer Open Source SensorThings API Server) is server software implementing the OGC SensorThings API, a standard for exchanging sensor data and sensor metadata. You describe sensors, measured properties and observations and query them through a REST API with filtering; MQTT and output as CSV and GeoJSON are also available. Typical uses are smart cities, environmental monitoring and citizen science. The software runs in Docker or Tomcat with a PostgreSQL database.

FROST-Server is developed by Fraunhofer IOSB, part of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, and released under the LGPL-3.0-or-later licence. The code is on GitHub and mirrored on OpenCoDE. The project describes itself as an official reference implementation of the standard. You run the software on your own servers; there is no developer cloud, so sensor data stays under your control. The documentation covers deployment, base settings, authentication through plugins and database performance settings.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with FROST-Server pre-selected
MastodonLinkedInBlueskyXEmail
Sovereignty score
94 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-2100
    Headquartered in the EU: European law applies
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    EU-only hosting
  • 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-6100
    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 14, 2026
Headquarters
DE (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty model
Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting
EUVerified by hand
Open-source
YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
IoT & Embedded
Type
Product
Website
fraunhoferiosb.github.io ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to FROST-Server

The European alternatives to FROST-Server come from our knowledge base of over 9,300 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

111 European IoT & Embedded vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

Is FROST-Server one of many dependencies?

Score your whole stack in about three minutes. Free, no account needed.

Assess your stack →View a sample report (opens in a new tab)

Why digital sovereignty matters with FROST-Server

FROST-Server is headquartered in DE and therefore falls under European law: the GDPR, NIS2 and the Data Act. No foreign legislation can compel access to your data.

Data is hosted exclusively in the EU, so FROST-Server scores best on data residency.

FROST-Server 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 FROST-Server 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 FROST-Server?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to FROST-Server include 1NCE, Actility ThingPark and Ágata Technology. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to FROST-Server?

Our list of EU alternatives to FROST-Server is mostly commercial options. Browse the category on the map for open-source choices.

Is FROST-Server GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

FROST-Server is headquartered in DE (EU) and hosts data in EU. It is also open-source, so you can self-host it. That makes FROST-Server an EU-sovereign choice in its own right; the EU alternatives on this page are comparable European tools.

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 14, 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

In the changelog

Earlier changes to this page, as listed in the public changelog.

Digital sovereignty in IoT & Embedded

IoT & Embedded: Internet of Things platforms, embedded systems and industrial IoT solutions. 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

See all →
Open in the alternatives dashboardMissing a vendor? Submit itAre you this vendor? You can also become a sponsor on the IoT & Embedded page — with no effect on your score
8 European alternatives to FROST-Server — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score