Self-hosted / open sourcePersonal Backup & SyncHeadquarters: DE

Pika Backup: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Pika Backup is a free backup app for the GNOME desktop on Linux, aimed at people who want to protect personal data without complicated configuration. It is built on BorgBackup and creates local or remote backups, runs them on a schedule (from monthly to hourly), encrypts the archives and skips data that has already been backed up. Files can be recovered through the file browser. It targets personal data, not complete system recovery.

Pika Backup is open-source software (GPL-3.0) and is maintained as part of the GNOME project, not by a commercial company. It comes with no cloud service of its own. Backups go to storage that you choose, such as a local drive or an online service, so where the data ends up and under which jurisdiction depends entirely on that choice. A drive or provider located in the EU therefore keeps the data in the EU.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Pika Backup 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
Sovereignty model	Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting	EUVerified by hand
Open-source	YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Hosting signal	FASTLY - Fastly, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
Category	Personal Backup & Sync
Type	Product
Website	apps.gnome.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 Pika Backup

The European alternatives to Pika Backup 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

19 European Personal Backup & Sync vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

Is Pika Backup 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 Pika Backup

Pika Backup 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.

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

Pika Backup 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 Pika Backup 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 Pika Backup?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Pika Backup include Acronis True Image, Ashampoo Backup and Backup4all. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Pika Backup?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Pika Backup include BorgBackup, Cryptomator and FreeFileSync. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Pika Backup GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

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

Personal Backup & Sync: Personal backup tools, file synchronisation 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 Personal Backup & Sync page — with no effect on your score