EU Sovereignty Score
Non-EU vendorIdentityHeadquarters: US

Microsoft Entra: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Microsoft Entra is a family of identity and network access products from Microsoft. Its foundation, Microsoft Entra ID, is a cloud identity and access management service that handles authentication and policy enforcement for users, devices, applications and resources. Other products cover identity governance, risk protection, private and internet access, external identities and identities for AI agents. Every Microsoft 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM Online tenant is already a Microsoft Entra tenant.

Microsoft is a US company, so Entra falls under US law, including the CLOUD Act, which can apply to data held outside the United States. For public cloud tenants, Microsoft stores directory data in the geographic location selected at tenant creation. For customers in Europe, most data is stored in Europe, and for EU and EFTA tenants within the EU Data Boundary, with some documented exceptions such as security signals and optional features. Entra is proprietary and delivered only as a Microsoft-operated cloud service.

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Sovereignty score
27 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-210
    Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
  • Data residency SOV-350
    Hosting inside and outside Europe (US, EU, APAC)
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-320
    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-615
    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 July 2, 2026
Headquarters
US (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision
Only for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Sovereignty model
Vendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting
US, EU, APACVerified by hand
Open-source
NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Hosting signal
AKAMAI-AS - Akamai Technologies, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
Category
Identity
Type
Product
Website
microsoft.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 Microsoft Entra

The European alternatives to Microsoft Entra 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

58 European Identity 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 Microsoft Entra

Microsoft Entra 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.

Microsoft Entra hosts data in US, EU, APAC. 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.

Microsoft Entra 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 Microsoft Entra 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 Microsoft Entra?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Microsoft Entra include NEVIS Security, WALLIX and Zitadel. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Microsoft Entra?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Microsoft Entra include Zitadel, Evolveum midPoint, Hanko, Kanidm and LemonLDAP::NG. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Microsoft Entra GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Microsoft Entra is headquartered in US and hosts data in US, EU, APAC. 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 July 2, 2026.

Sources

This record was checked via the vendor's website and legal notice during the full audit of June and July 2026. Source links have been recorded per record since 20 September 2026.

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 Identity

Identity: Identity and access management — SSO, MFA, directory 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.

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