Non-EU vendorDatabase & Data ManagementHeadquarters: US

Google Cloud SQL: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Google Cloud SQL is a managed relational database service on Google Cloud. It supports MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQL Server and is intended for organisations that want to run a database without administering servers themselves. According to the documentation, Google handles provisioning, backups, replication and high availability, while the customer manages the data and access to it. Cloud SQL is delivered only as a cloud service and forms part of the wider Google Cloud platform.

Google LLC is part of Alphabet Inc., which is headquartered in the United States. The service is therefore subject to US law such as the CLOUD Act, even when data is stored in Europe. When creating an instance the customer chooses a region; European options include Belgium, Frankfurt, the Netherlands, Paris and Warsaw, and the location cannot be changed afterwards. Google offers a Cloud Data Processing Addendum under which Google acts as processor. For a European organisation the region choice therefore matters for data residency, but not for the jurisdiction of the provider.

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Sovereignty score

27 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-210
Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
Data residency SOV-350
Hosting inside and outside Europe (EU, CH, US, OTHER)
Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-320
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-615
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 11, 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	Vendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting	EU, CH, US, OTHERVerified by hand
Open-source	NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Category	Database & Data Management
Type	Product
Website	cloud.google.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Google Cloud SQL

The European alternatives to Google Cloud SQL 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

13 European Database & Data Management 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 Google Cloud SQL

Google Cloud SQL 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.

Google Cloud SQL hosts data in EU, CH, US, OTHER. Exactly what stays within the EU — and what does not — is defined by the vendor's data processing agreement and sub-processor list, not by a setting you control yourself; check those documents for the precise scope, including backups, logs and support access.

Google Cloud SQL 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 Google Cloud SQL 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 Google Cloud SQL?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Google Cloud SQL include Aiven, ArangoDB and DuckDB. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Google Cloud SQL?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Google Cloud SQL include DuckDB, Elastic, Firebird SQL and Meilisearch. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Google Cloud SQL GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Google Cloud SQL is headquartered in US and hosts data in EU, CH, US, 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 11, 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 Database & Data Management

Database & Data Management: Database systems, data warehousing, managed database services and data platforms. 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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