EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceGIS & GeospatialHeadquarters: EU

JOSM: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

JOSM (Java OpenStreetMap Editor) is an extensible desktop editor for OpenStreetMap data, written in Java 11 or later. Mappers use it to create and correct map data, and it can be extended with plug-ins. The program runs locally on the user's computer. The project site lists the stable version 19613 and a development version 19647; the site was last modified on 19 September 2026.

JOSM has no legal entity of its own. The project server is sponsored by FOSSGIS e.V., but that is a hosting sponsor, not the owner of the project. According to the developers' guide, seven developers with commit rights to the source code were active in recent months. Those who state a location in their public profiles list France, Austria, Germany, Poland and Ukraine, so all are in Europe. The software is licensed under the GPL, and the project site says it uses no tracking and no advertising. Because you run the editor yourself, no data processing by the developers is needed.

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Sovereignty score
94 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-2100
    Headquartered in the EU: European law applies
  • 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-6100
    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 14, 2026
Headquarters
EU (EU)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
GIS & Geospatial
Type
Product
Website
josm.openstreetmap.de ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to JOSM

The European alternatives to JOSM come from our knowledge base of over 8,400 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

75 European GIS & Geospatial 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 JOSM

JOSM is headquartered in EU and therefore falls under European law: the GDPR, NIS2 and the Data Act. No foreign legislation can compel access to your data.

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

JOSM 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 JOSM 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 JOSM?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to JOSM include 3Dsurvey, 52°North and Airbus Defence & Space. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to JOSM?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to JOSM include 52°North, Camptocamp, Clearance and CloudCompare. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

JOSM is headquartered in EU (EU) and hosts data in EU. It is also open-source, so you can self-host it. That makes JOSM an EU-sovereign choice in its own right; the EU alternatives on this page are comparable European tools.

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 14, 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

In the changelog

Earlier changes to this page, as listed in the public changelog.

Digital sovereignty in GIS & Geospatial

GIS & Geospatial: Geographic information systems, map visualisation and spatial data analysis. 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.

Also in this category

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8 European alternatives to JOSM — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score