Self-hosted / open sourceBrowserHeadquarters: US

GNOME Web: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

GNOME Web, also known by its code name Epiphany, is the web browser of the GNOME desktop. It is designed for tight integration with the desktop and for a simple interface that keeps the focus on web pages. It renders with WebKitGTK, the GTK port of Apple's WebKit engine. Features include ad blocking, Google Safe Browsing, a Bubblewrap sandbox for tab processes, categorised bookmarks, a web application mode and experimental WebExtensions support. It is a Linux desktop application, available through distributions and Flathub.

GNOME Web is developed by the GNOME project and is open source under the GPL-3.0-or-later licence. The GNOME Foundation, a US 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Orinda, California, coordinates the wider GNOME project. There is no commercial owner. The browser runs locally on the device and is not a hosted service, so it involves no vendor-operated cloud for browsing itself.

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

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Sovereignty score

71 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-210
Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
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-675
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 9, 2026

Headquarters	US (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision	Only for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Sovereignty model	Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting	EUVerified by hand
Open-source	YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Compliance documents	1 published, see belowVendor-stated
Hosting signal	FASTLY - Fastly, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
Category	Browser
Type	Product
Website	apps.gnome.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 GNOME Web

The European alternatives to GNOME Web 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

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 GNOME Web

GNOME Web 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.

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

GNOME Web 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 GNOME Web 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 GNOME Web?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to GNOME Web include Ecosia Browser, Falkon and Iridium Browser. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to GNOME Web?

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

Is GNOME Web GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

GNOME Web is headquartered in US and hosts data in EU. 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 9, 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".

EU hosting documented: apps.gnome.org/Epiphany/

Provenance of the links above:Vendor-stated

Links checked on September 21, 2026.

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: security.gnome.org/
security.txt: gnome.org/.well-known/security.txt
Organisation behind the open-source project: GNOME Foundation

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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