EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceCMSHeadquarters: AU

KeystoneJS: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

KeystoneJS (Keystone 6) is an open-source headless CMS and application platform for Node.js. You define your data models in TypeScript or JavaScript; Keystone generates a GraphQL API from them, with pagination, sorting, filtering and access control, plus an admin interface that follows your access rules. Database migrations are handled through Prisma, and the admin UI can be extended with custom React components. It is aimed at development teams building a bespoke backend for content or applications. It is self-managed software rather than a hosted service.

The project is maintained by Thinkmill, an Australian design and development consultancy, which also offers paid support. The code is licensed under the MIT licence. Because you run Keystone yourself, your hosting choice determines where data resides: with a European cloud provider or in your own data centre, full control stays with your organisation. There is no hosted service from the maker to which you entrust data. The source code is open to inspection, which limits dependence on a single supplier.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with KeystoneJS pre-selected
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Sovereignty score
79 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-250
    Headquartered outside the EU (AU)
  • 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
HeadquartersAU (OTHER)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decisionNo — no adequacy decisionVerified by hand
Sovereignty modelOpen-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hostingEUVerified by hand
Open-sourceYesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantYesVendor-stated
Hosting signalFASTLY - Fastly, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
CategoryCMS
TypeProduct
Websitekeystonejs.com ↗

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 KeystoneJS

The European alternatives to KeystoneJS 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

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 KeystoneJS

KeystoneJS is headquartered in AU, 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 KeystoneJS scores best on data residency.

KeystoneJS 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 KeystoneJS 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 KeystoneJS?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to KeystoneJS include TYPO3, Umbraco and Cockpit CMS. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to KeystoneJS?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to KeystoneJS include TYPO3, Umbraco, Cockpit CMS, Contao, Neos CMS, Plone and Primo. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

KeystoneJS is headquartered in AU (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

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/keystonejs/keystone/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.

Also in this category

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