EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceGIS & GeospatialHeadquarters: CA

PostGIS: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

PostGIS is an extension for the PostgreSQL relational database that stores, indexes and queries spatial data. It supports points, lines and polygons in two and three dimensions, a separate geography type for calculations on a spheroid, raster data and topology. It also provides functions for distances, areas, intersections and buffers. PostGIS works with tools such as QGIS, GeoServer, MapServer, ArcGIS and Tableau. You run it as part of your own PostgreSQL installation, on your own servers or with a hosting provider of your choice.

PostGIS is free software under the GNU General Public License (version 2 or later). It is not the product of a single company: the project is run by a Project Steering Committee and OSGeo. The first version appeared in 2001 at the Canadian consultancy Refractions Research in Victoria. Because the software itself does not process data outside your own database, you decide where the data resides and which jurisdiction applies, without depending on a vendor.

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Sovereignty score
79 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-250
    Headquartered outside the EU (CA)
  • 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-675
    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 9, 2026
Headquarters
CA (OTHER)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision
Yes — found adequate by the European CommissionVerified 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
ATLANTIC-NET-1 - Atlantic.net, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
Category
GIS & Geospatial
Type
Product
Website
postgis.net ↗

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 PostGIS

The European alternatives to PostGIS 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

45 European GIS & Geospatial 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 PostGIS

PostGIS is headquartered in CA, 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.

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

PostGIS 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 PostGIS 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 PostGIS?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to PostGIS include 52°North, Camptocamp and GRASS GIS. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to PostGIS?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to PostGIS include 52°North, Camptocamp, GRASS GIS, GeoServer, OpenLayers, QGIS, WhereGroup and lat/lon. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

PostGIS is headquartered in CA (OTHER) and hosts data in EU. 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 9, 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 GIS & Geospatial

GIS & Geospatial: Geographic information systems, map visualisation and spatial data analysis. 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 PostGIS — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score