Self-hosted / open sourceStorage & BackupHeadquarters: DE

ownCloud: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

ownCloud is an open-source platform for file sharing and collaboration. Its products include Infinite Scale, the newer generation with a three-tier architecture separating storage, backend and frontend, and ownCloud 10. Organisations run ownCloud on their own servers, in a data centre of their choice or in a hybrid setup; there is also ownCloud.online, a SaaS option that the vendor says is hosted entirely in Germany. Integrations exist with Microsoft 365 and with Collabora Online and ONLYOFFICE for joint document editing.

ownCloud GmbH is based in Germany. Since its acquisition by the US company Kiteworks, announced in 2023, it has been part of that group, so its ultimate parent is in the United States, which is a CLOUD Act signal. Kiteworks has stated that ownCloud and Infinite Scale will continue under the same open-source licences. Organisations that self-host ownCloud on European infrastructure keep control of their data and can inspect the source code; with the SaaS option, German hosting determines where data is stored, but the provider's ownership remains relevant to a risk assessment.

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

Mastodon LinkedIn Bluesky X Email

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

Headquarters	DE (EU)Verified by hand
Ultimate parent company	USVerified by hand
Sovereignty model	Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting	EUVerified by hand
Open-source	YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Hosting signal	kues-data - KUES DATA GmbH, DE (DE)Technically measured
Category	Storage & Backup
Type	Product
Website	owncloud.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 ownCloud

The European alternatives to ownCloud 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

32 European Storage & Backup vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

Is ownCloud one of many dependencies?

Score your whole stack in about three minutes. Free, no account needed.

Assess your stack →View a sample report (opens in a new tab)

Why digital sovereignty matters with ownCloud

ownCloud is headquartered in DE and therefore falls under European law: the GDPR, NIS2 and the Data Act. No foreign legislation can compel access to your data. The ultimate owner is based in US. Foreign control undermines part of the certainty a European headquarters offers.

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

ownCloud 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 ownCloud 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 ownCloud?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to ownCloud include Acronis, Atempo and Bacula Systems. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to ownCloud?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to ownCloud include Bacula Systems, Bareos and BorgBackup. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

ownCloud is headquartered in DE (EU) and hosts data in EU. It is also open-source, so you can self-host it. That makes ownCloud 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 Storage & Backup

Storage & Backup: Business storage, backup solutions, object storage and data recovery. 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

See all →

Open in the alternatives dashboard Missing a vendor? Submit it Are you this vendor? You can also become a sponsor on the Storage & Backup page — with no effect on your score