Self-hosted / open sourceCAD & EngineeringHeadquarters: US

MATLAB & Simulink: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

MATLAB is a programming and numeric computing environment for algorithm development, data analysis and visualisation. Simulink is a graphical block-diagram environment for modelling and simulating systems that span several domains, and for generating code for deployment. Both are developed by MathWorks. The software is installed on Windows, macOS and Linux; MATLAB Online is also offered as a web version.

The MathWorks, Inc. is headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, United States. According to its privacy policy, MathWorks complies with the GDPR, with The MathWorks GmbH in Munich as its GDPR representative, and participates in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. For MATLAB Online, Simulink Online and MATLAB Drive, files are stored with a third-party infrastructure vendor whose location is not stated. With locally installed use, computation and data stay on the organisation's own systems, but the vendor remains American.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with MATLAB & Simulink pre-selected

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Sovereignty score

55 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-210
Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
Data residency SOV-3100
No hosting in Europe (US)
Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-380
Closed source, but self-hostable: encryption keys and runtime under your own control
Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
Closed source: switching requires data migration
Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-645
Closed source, but self-hostable on your own infrastructure

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	US (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision	Only for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Data hosting	Self-hosted, e.g. in US (your choice)Verified by hand
Open-source	NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Category	CAD & Engineering
Type	Product
Website	mathworks.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to MATLAB & Simulink

The European alternatives to MATLAB & Simulink 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

68 European CAD & Engineering 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 MATLAB & Simulink

MATLAB & Simulink is headquartered in the United States. US vendors fall under the CLOUD Act and FISA 702: US authorities can compel access to data, even when that data sits in a European data centre. That is the core of the jurisdictional exposure in our model.

MATLAB & Simulink runs on infrastructure you choose and control yourself. You decide where the data lives, including fully within the EU if you want — this is not a fixed hosting choice made by the vendor.

MATLAB & Simulink is closed source, but you run the software yourself on your own infrastructure. The encryption keys and the runtime therefore stay under your own control, though you cannot audit or modify the source code. Ask about export options and open standards to limit software-level lock-in.

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

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to MATLAB & Simulink include ACCA software, ALLPLAN and AUCOTEC Engineering Base. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to MATLAB & Simulink?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to MATLAB & Simulink include Blender. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is MATLAB & Simulink GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

MATLAB & Simulink is headquartered in US and hosts data in 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 CAD & Engineering

CAD & Engineering: Computer-aided design, 3D modelling and engineering simulation software. 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.

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