Self-hosted / open sourceDesktop OSHeadquarters: DE

KDE neon: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

KDE neon is a Linux distribution from the KDE community that delivers the latest KDE software, such as the Plasma desktop, Qt and KDE applications, soon after release. It is based on Ubuntu long-term-support (LTS) releases with additional KDE package repositories on top. The User Edition is the stable branch with packages that have passed quality assurance; the Testing, Unstable and Developer editions carry beta or nightly builds, and the Developer Edition also includes development libraries. It supports x86-64 and AArch64, and you install it yourself on your own hardware.

KDE is supported legally and financially by KDE e.V., a non-profit registered association under German law with headquarters in Berlin. The software is open source under licences such as LGPL-2.1 and GPL-2. Because KDE neon is built on Ubuntu LTS, it depends on that upstream for its base system. Data you process on KDE neon stays on your own systems, so you decide where it is stored.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with KDE neon pre-selected

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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 July 2, 2026

Headquarters	DE (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty model	Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting	EUVerified by hand
Open-source	YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Hosting signal	HETZNER-AS - Hetzner Online GmbH, DE (DE)Technically measured
Category	Desktop OS
Type	Product
Website	neon.kde.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 KDE neon

The European alternatives to KDE neon 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

22 European Desktop OS vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

Is KDE neon one of many dependencies?

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Why digital sovereignty matters with KDE neon

KDE neon is headquartered in DE 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 KDE neon scores best on data residency.

KDE neon 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 KDE neon 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 KDE neon?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to KDE neon include Alpine Linux, Devuan and /e/OS. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to KDE neon?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to KDE neon include Alpine Linux, Devuan, /e/OS, EndeavourOS, Linux Mint, Mageia, Manjaro and NixOS. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is KDE neon GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

KDE neon is headquartered in DE (EU) and hosts data in EU. It is also open-source, so you can self-host it. That makes KDE neon 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 July 2, 2026.

Sources

This record was checked via the vendor's website and legal notice during the full audit of June and July 2026. Source links have been recorded per record since 20 September 2026.

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

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: kde.org/info/security/

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 Desktop OS

Desktop OS: Desktop operating system — daily work platform. 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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