Non-EU vendorMaps & NavigationHeadquarters: IN

LocationIQ: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

LocationIQ offers geocoding, mapping and routing APIs for websites and apps, positioned as an alternative to Google Maps. Its map data is based on OpenStreetMap. Developers use the cloud APIs to convert addresses into coordinates, display maps and calculate routes.

The website names Unwired Labs (India) Pvt. Ltd. as the operating company, so the provider is based in India. The homepage advertises data centres in the US and EU and links to a page on its DPA and GDPR terms. The vendor does not say which data centre serves which customers, or whether a self-hosted version exists. European organisations should therefore fix the processing region in the contract, take the Indian operator into account, and compare the service with self-hosted or EU-operated alternatives built on OpenStreetMap.

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

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Sovereignty score

42 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-250
Headquartered outside the EU (IN)
Data residency SOV-350
Hosting inside and outside Europe (EU, US)
Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-340
Key management with a non-European vendor
Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
Closed source: switching requires data migration
Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-630
Closed source, runtime with the vendor

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 11, 2026

Headquarters	IN (OTHER)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision	No — no adequacy decisionVerified by hand
Sovereignty model	Vendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting	EU, USVerified by hand
Open-source	NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Category	Maps & Navigation
Type	Product
Website	locationiq.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to LocationIQ

The European alternatives to LocationIQ 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

37 European Maps & Navigation 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 LocationIQ

LocationIQ is headquartered in IN, 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.

LocationIQ hosts data in EU, US. Exactly what stays within the EU — and what does not — is defined by the vendor's data processing agreement and sub-processor list, not by a setting you control yourself; check those documents for the precise scope, including backups, logs and support access.

LocationIQ is closed source and hosted by the vendor. The encryption keys and the runtime sit with the vendor and switching requires data migration. Ask about bring-your-own-key, export options and open standards.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs LocationIQ 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 LocationIQ?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to LocationIQ include BRouter, calimoto and cartes.gouv.fr. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to LocationIQ?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to LocationIQ include BRouter and GraphHopper. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

LocationIQ is headquartered in IN (OTHER) and hosts data in EU, US. 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 11, 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 Maps & Navigation

Maps & Navigation: Maps, route planning and navigation services. 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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