EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceWhiteboarding & Visual CollaborationHeadquarters: CH

OpenBoard: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

OpenBoard is open-source software for an interactive whiteboard in education. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Teachers use it with an interactive display or projector to write and draw, show material and run lessons. The software is installed locally on the computer and does not depend on a vendor cloud service. It therefore fills the same role as commercial classroom whiteboard software such as SMART Notebook.

According to the project page, OpenBoard is currently maintained by the Public Education Department (DIP) of the Swiss canton of Geneva. The University of Lausanne, which released the first version of its predecessor Uniboard in 2003, supports the project with logistics and funding. The source code is published on GitHub under the GPL-3.0 licence. There is no foreign parent company, and the software runs without an account at a provider, so data stays on the school's own devices unless the school chooses a storage location itself. The project page does not name a formal legal entity such as a foundation or association.

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Sovereignty score
94 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-2100
    Headquartered in Switzerland: Swiss law, recognised by the EU as adequate
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    Hosting in Switzerland only (recognised by the EU as adequate)
  • 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-6100
    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 12, 2026
Headquarters
CH (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty model
Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting
CHVerified by hand
Open-source
YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
NoVendor-stated
Category
Whiteboarding & Visual Collaboration
Type
Product
Website
openboard.ch ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to OpenBoard

The European alternatives to OpenBoard come from our knowledge base of over 7,800 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

20 European Whiteboarding & Visual Collaboration 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 OpenBoard

OpenBoard is headquartered in Switzerland and falls under Swiss law, including the revised Swiss data protection act. Switzerland is not an EU member, but the European Commission recognises its level of data protection as adequate. Its Swiss headquarters does not by itself bring it under US legislation such as the CLOUD Act.

OpenBoard hosts data in Switzerland only. Switzerland is not part of the EU or the EEA, so the GDPR does not apply there directly; the European Commission does recognise Swiss data protection as adequate, so personal data can go there without extra safeguards. Our model therefore scores it between EU hosting and hosting outside Europe. If you require strictly EU hosting, take this into account.

OpenBoard 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 OpenBoard 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 OpenBoard?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to OpenBoard include Beekast, Classroomscreen and Collaboard. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to OpenBoard?

Our list of EU alternatives to OpenBoard is mostly commercial options. Browse the category on the map for open-source choices.

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

OpenBoard is headquartered in CH (EFTA) and hosts data in CH. It is also open-source, so you can self-host it. That makes OpenBoard an EU-sovereign choice in its own right; the EU alternatives on this page are comparable European tools.

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 12, 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 Whiteboarding & Visual Collaboration

Whiteboarding & Visual Collaboration: Infinite-canvas whiteboards for brainstorming, workshops and visual planning. 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 OpenBoard — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score