EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceBusiness Email & GroupwareHeadquarters: CN

iRedMail: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

iRedMail is an open-source mail server solution that packages existing open-source components into a mail server that can be deployed within minutes. For accounts you can choose OpenLDAP, MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL; webmail and groupware come from Roundcube and SOGo, which also provides CalDAV, CardDAV and ActiveSync. SpamAssassin, ClamAV, SPF, DKIM and greylisting are included, along with a free web admin panel; iRedAdmin-Pro is a paid add-on. Supported systems include Debian, Ubuntu, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, FreeBSD and OpenBSD.

The software is released under GPL v3 and is installed and operated by the organisation itself on its own server; its author is Zhang Huangbin. The project site does not name a company or a place of establishment. Because iRedMail runs on your own infrastructure, your organisation decides in which region mail and accounts are stored, for example in the EU. The project also offers paid support and a hosted platform, iRedMail Easy. You remain responsible for security, updates and backups.

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Sovereignty score
79 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-250
    Headquartered outside the EU (CN)
  • 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
CN (OTHER)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision
No — no adequacy decisionVerified by hand
Sovereignty model
Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting
EUVerified by hand
Open-source
YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
Business Email & Groupware
Type
Product
Website
iredmail.org ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to iRedMail

The European alternatives to iRedMail 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

28 European Business Email & Groupware 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 iRedMail

iRedMail is headquartered in CN, outside the EU. Contracts and data therefore also fall under non-European law. The GDPR applies through contractual terms, but in a conflict with local legislation you have less certainty than with a European vendor.

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

iRedMail 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 iRedMail 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 iRedMail?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to iRedMail include Axigen, Benno MailArchiv and BlueMind. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to iRedMail?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to iRedMail include Benno MailArchiv, CipherMail, Dovecot and EGroupware. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is iRedMail GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

iRedMail is headquartered in CN (OTHER) 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".

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 Business Email & Groupware

Business Email & Groupware: Business email servers, groupware, calendar and contact management. 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 iRedMail — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score