EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceDocument Management (DMS)Headquarters: NZ

Koha: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Koha is an integrated library system for libraries of all sizes. It covers acquisitions, circulation, cataloguing, serials management, authorities, flexible reporting, label printing, multi-format notices and offline circulation. It is server software written in Perl that runs on Linux, typically Debian, with Apache and MariaDB or MySQL. Libraries install it themselves or buy hosting and support from companies listed on the project website.

Koha is free software under the GNU GPL, version 3 or later, developed by a community of libraries, volunteers and support companies. The Koha name and logos are held in custody by the Horowhenua Library Trust in New Zealand. The community is setting up a Koha Charitable Foundation, planned under the Open Library Foundation; its first board has been formed. Because you can run Koha on your own servers, patron and loan data stay under your control; hosted offerings come from third-party companies, not from a single vendor.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Koha pre-selected
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Sovereignty score
77 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-250
    Headquartered outside the EU (NZ)
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    No hosting in Europe (OTHER)
  • 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-665
    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
NZ (OTHER)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision
Yes — found adequate by the European CommissionVerified by hand
Sovereignty model
Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting
OTHERVerified by hand
Open-source
YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
Document Management (DMS)
Type
Product
Website
koha-community.org ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Koha

The European alternatives to Koha 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

58 European Document Management (DMS) 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 Koha

Koha is headquartered in NZ, 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.

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

Koha 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 Koha 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 Koha?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Koha include agorum, AMAGNO and Archifiltre. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Koha?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Koha include agorum, Archifiltre, asalae and BlueSpice. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

Koha is headquartered in NZ (OTHER) and hosts data in OTHER. 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 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 Document Management (DMS)

Document Management (DMS): Document management systems, archiving, workflows and digital records. 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 Koha — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score