EU sovereignGIS & GeospatialHeadquarters: DE

GAF: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

GAF is a German Earth observation company based in Munich, with an office in Neustrelitz. It offers satellite data reception and distribution, radar and interferometry solutions, mapping and monitoring services, and data analytics. Its product line includes agricultural monitoring applications, an elevation data suite and geographic information tools for public authorities and companies. Services are delivered as data products, project work and software development.

GAF is a GmbH registered at the Munich District Court, and its shares are held by e-GEOS S.p.A., an Italian company owned by Telespazio and the Italian Space Agency. The Italian ownership makes GAF a German company with an Italian parent. The company's website does not state where customer data is hosted or describe a data processing agreement. For a European organisation, GAF is a European option for satellite data and geo-information services, an alternative to non-European providers such as Planet, subject to contract terms.

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

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Sovereignty score

71 / 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-360
Key management with a European vendor
Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
Closed source: switching requires data migration
Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-655
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 12, 2026

Headquarters	DE (EU)Verified by hand
Ultimate parent company	ITVerified by hand
Sovereignty model	Vendor-hosted (EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting	EUVerified by hand
Open-source	NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	NoVendor-stated
Category	GIS & Geospatial
Type	Product
Website	gaf.de ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to GAF

The European alternatives to GAF come from our knowledge base of over 7,800 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

57 European GIS & Geospatial 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 GAF

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

Data is hosted exclusively in the EU, so GAF scores best on data residency.

GAF 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 GAF 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 GAF?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to GAF include 52°North, Airbus Defence & Space and Camptocamp. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to GAF?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to GAF include 52°North and Camptocamp. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

GAF is headquartered in DE (EU) and hosts data in EU. That makes GAF 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 12, 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

Digital sovereignty in GIS & Geospatial

GIS & Geospatial: Geographic information systems, map visualisation and spatial data analysis. 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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