EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceCAD & EngineeringHeadquarters: AT

OpenSCAD: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

OpenSCAD is free, open source software for creating solid 3D CAD models. Instead of drawing interactively, you write a script in OpenSCAD's own description language and the program compiles it into a model, so designs are parametric and easy to adjust. It uses constructive solid geometry (CSG) and extrusion of 2D outlines, imports 2D outlines and parameters from DXF files, and reads and writes STL and OFF files. It targets engineering and machine-part design rather than artistic animation. OpenSCAD runs as a desktop application on Linux, Windows and macOS.

OpenSCAD is licensed under the GNU General Public License. Marius Kintel is listed as its maintainer, the source code is on GitHub, and the first release dates from 2010. The application is built with Qt, CGAL and OpenCSG. Because it runs locally, models stay on the user's own systems and there is no vendor-hosted service to depend on. The sources consulted do not state where the project is based or name any company owning it, so a European organisation can use it without a commercial counterparty.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with OpenSCAD pre-selected
Sovereignty score
94 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-2100
    Headquartered in the EU: European law applies
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    EU-only hosting
  • 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 July 2, 2026
HeadquartersAT (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty modelOpen-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hostingEUVerified by hand
Open-sourceYesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantYesVendor-stated
Hosting signalFASTLY - Fastly, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
CategoryCAD & Engineering
TypeProduct
Websiteopenscad.org ↗

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 OpenSCAD

The European alternatives to OpenSCAD come from our knowledge base of over 6,200 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 OpenSCAD

OpenSCAD is headquartered in AT and therefore falls under European law: the GDPR, NIS2 and the Data Act. No foreign legislation can compel access to your data.

Data is hosted exclusively in the EU, so OpenSCAD scores best on data residency.

OpenSCAD 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 OpenSCAD 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 OpenSCAD?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to OpenSCAD 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 OpenSCAD?

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

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

OpenSCAD is headquartered in AT (EU) and hosts data in EU. It is also open-source, so you can self-host it. That makes OpenSCAD 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 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 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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8 European alternatives to OpenSCAD — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score