Non-EU vendorCloud Storage (Personal)Headquarters: NZ

Mega: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Mega is a cloud storage and collaboration service that started in New Zealand in 2013. It offers file storage and sharing with end-to-end encryption: files are encrypted on the user's device and Mega says it cannot decrypt them. Mega is available through a web client, apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and Huawei, browser extensions and the command-line tool MEGAcmd.

Mega Limited is based in Auckland, New Zealand, outside the EU. According to its privacy policy, files are stored on servers Mega owns and controls, in Europe or in countries the European Commission considers adequate, such as New Zealand, and not in the United States. The source code of the client apps is published under a custom licence, which is source-available rather than open source, and the server code is not published. For European organisations, storage may therefore be in Europe while the provider is subject to New Zealand law.

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

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Sovereignty score

42 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-250
Headquartered outside the EU (NZ)
Data residency SOV-350
Hosting inside and outside Europe (EU, OTHER)
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 9, 2026

Headquarters	NZ (OTHER)Verified by hand
Ultimate parent company	HKVerified by hand
EU adequacy decision	Yes — found adequate by the European CommissionVerified by hand
Sovereignty model	Vendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting	EU, OTHERVerified by hand
Open-source	NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Category	Cloud Storage (Personal)
Type	Product
Website	mega.io ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Mega

The European alternatives to Mega 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 Cloud Storage (Personal) 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 Mega

Mega 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. The ultimate owner is based in HK. Foreign control undermines part of the certainty a European headquarters offers.

Mega hosts data in EU, OTHER. 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.

Mega 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 Mega 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 Mega?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Mega include CloudMe, Cozy Cloud and Cryptee. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Mega?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Mega include Cozy Cloud, Cryptee, Filen and Internxt. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

Mega is headquartered in NZ (OTHER) and hosts data in EU, 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 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

Digital sovereignty in Cloud Storage (Personal)

Cloud Storage (Personal): Personal cloud storage — sync and share files. 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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