EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceDesignHeadquarters: VN

Pencil: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Pencil is a free tool for drawing diagrams and prototyping user interfaces. Designers and developers use it to make sketches and mockups. The current version is a desktop application built on Electron, and documents are stored in its own file format. A new version 3 has been released which, according to the source readme, replaces the older Mozilla XULRunner platform.

Pencil is developed by Evolus, a Vietnamese limited liability company that also offers custom software and medical management software. The source code is on GitHub under the GPL-2.0 licence; the latest code changes date from June 2026, while the latest tagged release, 3.1.1, dates from 2023. Because it is a local app, your files stay on your own device and no cloud account is needed. For a European organisation this means control over the files, but the maintainer is based outside the EU.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Pencil pre-selected
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Sovereignty score
77 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-250
    Headquartered outside the EU (VN)
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    No hosting in Europe (OTHER)
  • 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-665
    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 14, 2026
Headquarters
VN (OTHER)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision
No — no adequacy decisionVerified by hand
Sovereignty model
Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting
OTHERVerified by hand
Open-source
YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
Design
Type
Product
Website
pencil.evolus.vn ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Pencil

The European alternatives to Pencil come from our knowledge base of over 8,400 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

38 European Design 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 Pencil

Pencil is headquartered in VN, 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.

Pencil hosts data outside the EU (OTHER). Personal data therefore leaves the EU, which requires a transfer mechanism under the GDPR and pulls the data residency score down.

Pencil 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 Pencil 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 Pencil?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Pencil include ArtFlow, Artweaver and Calaméo. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Pencil?

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

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

Pencil is headquartered in VN (OTHER) and hosts data in 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 14, 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

In the changelog

Earlier changes to this page, as listed in the public changelog.

Digital sovereignty in Design

Design: Graphic design — photo editing, illustration, desktop publishing. 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 Pencil — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score