EU Sovereignty Score
Non-EU vendorIoT & EmbeddedHeadquarters: US

Helium Network: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

The Helium Network is a decentralised wireless network. For the Internet of Things it offers a LoRaWAN network that sensors and devices reach through hotspots. There is also a mobile and Wi-Fi part. Participants place and run hotspots themselves and receive rewards in the HNT token. Businesses can configure existing sensors, devices and gateways to use the network. The network is delivered as a service through those hotspots and related cloud components.

The organisation behind it is Nova Labs, Inc., trading as Helium, a US company based in San Francisco. Its privacy policy states that information it collects is stored in the United States and that US law may not give the same protection as in the user's own country; the GDPR is not mentioned. Parts of the network are steered by a foundation (the Helium Foundation) and the community. For European organisations, the company-held account and business side falls under US jurisdiction, and coverage depends on hotspots run by participants.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Helium Network pre-selected
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Sovereignty score
17 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-210
    Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
  • Data residency SOV-30
    No hosting in Europe (US)
  • 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 13, 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
USVerified by hand
Open-source
NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
NoVendor-stated
Category
IoT & Embedded
Type
Product
Website
helium.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Helium Network

The European alternatives to Helium Network 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

90 European IoT & Embedded 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 Helium Network

Helium Network 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.

Helium Network hosts data outside the EU (US). Personal data therefore leaves the EU, which requires a transfer mechanism under the GDPR and pulls the data residency score down.

Helium Network 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 Helium Network 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 Helium Network?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Helium Network include 1NCE, Actility ThingPark and akenza. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Helium Network?

Our list of EU alternatives to Helium Network is mostly commercial options. Browse the category on the map for open-source choices.

Is Helium Network GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Helium Network is headquartered in US and hosts data in US. 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 13, 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 IoT & Embedded

IoT & Embedded: Internet of Things platforms, embedded systems and industrial IoT solutions. 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 Helium Network — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score