EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceCMSHeadquarters: US

Grav (self-host): sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Grav is a free, open-source flat-file content management system written in PHP and built on components such as Symfony and Twig. Content is stored as Markdown files rather than in a database, so no SQL is required. Grav is aimed at developers and small to mid-sized websites, and is simple to install. You add plugins and themes through its package manager, GPM. According to its makers, Grav 2 offers a REST API for headless use and a rebuilt administration interface, Admin 2.0.

Grav is a self-hosted product: you run it on an ordinary web server with PHP, at a shared-hosting provider, on a VPS or locally. The applicable jurisdiction therefore depends on the hosting provider you choose. The software is released under the MIT licence, and its source code is public on GitHub. Andy Miller is the original creator and lead developer; according to the project, server and update costs are funded by donations through Open Collective. There is no mandatory vendor cloud service, so you decide where your data is stored.

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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 4, 2026
HeadquartersUS (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decisionOnly for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Data hostingSelf-hosted, e.g. in EU (your choice)Verified by hand
Open-sourceYesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantYesVendor-stated
Compliance documents1 published, see belowVendor-stated
Hosting signalCLOUDFLARENET - Cloudflare, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
CategoryCMS
TypeProduct
Websitegetgrav.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 Grav (self-host)

The European alternatives to Grav (self-host) 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

39 European CMS 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 Grav (self-host)

Grav (self-host) 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 Grav (self-host) scores best on data residency.

Grav (self-host) 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 Grav (self-host) 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 Grav (self-host)?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Grav (self-host) include Ametys, Bolt CMS and caisy. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Grav (self-host)?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Grav (self-host) include Ametys, Bolt CMS, Cockpit CMS, Contao and django CMS. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Grav (self-host) GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Grav (self-host) 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 4, 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".

Security page / trust center
learn.getgrav.org/17/security

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
github.com/getgrav/grav/security/policy
Supported versions
github.com/getgrav/grav/security/policy

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 CMS

CMS: Content management systems — websites, headless CMS, digital experience 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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8 European alternatives to Grav (self-host) — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score