EU Sovereignty Score
Non-EU vendorForms & SurveysHeadquarters: US

Google Forms: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Google Forms is an online tool for creating forms and surveys and for collecting and analysing the responses. It is part of Google Workspace. Users build questions with drag and drop, choose from templates, show questions based on earlier answers, create quizzes and customise colours, images and fonts. Responses appear as automatic charts and can be exported to Google Sheets. A form is shared by link or embedded on a website. It runs only as a web application.

Google is a US company and a subsidiary of Alphabet, so US jurisdiction, including the CLOUD Act, applies. Administrators of certain Workspace editions can choose to store data at rest in the United States or in Europe; according to Google, Google Forms is covered by this, but for storage only, not for processing. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Google Forms is not open source. A European organisation has to enable the region setting explicitly and check that its Workspace edition supports it.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Google Forms pre-selected
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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 (US, EU)
  • 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 8, 2026
HeadquartersUS (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decisionOnly for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Sovereignty modelVendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hostingUS, EUVerified by hand
Open-sourceNoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantNoVendor-stated
Hosting signalGOOGLE - Google LLC, US (US)Technically measured
CategoryForms & Surveys
TypeProduct
Websitedocs.google.com ↗

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 Google Forms

The European alternatives to Google Forms come from our knowledge base of over 6,200 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

41 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 Google Forms

Google Forms 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 Forms hosts data in US, EU. 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 Forms 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 Forms 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 Forms?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Google Forms include Tally, LamaPoll and Survio. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Google Forms?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Google Forms include Formbricks, LimeSurvey (self-host), CryptPad Forms, Nextcloud Forms and Framaforms. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

Google Forms is headquartered in US and hosts data in US, EU. Its GDPR compliance is limited or unclear. 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 8, 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 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 Google Forms — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score