EU Sovereignty Score
EU sovereignCloud Storage (Personal)Headquarters: CH

Proton Drive: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Proton Drive is an encrypted cloud storage service from Proton for individuals and organisations. It stores files, backs up photos and lets you share files through links that can be password-protected and set to expire. The service also includes online editors for documents and spreadsheets. You use Proton Drive in the browser, through desktop apps for Windows and macOS, and through mobile apps. According to Proton, files and file names are encrypted on your own device before upload, so that Proton itself cannot access them.

Proton AG is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and is governed by Swiss law; Proton Europe sàrl in Luxembourg acts as its EU representative. Proton states that its servers are owned and operated by Proton and located in Switzerland and Germany. Switzerland is not an EU member state. The source code of all Proton Drive apps, including the desktop and mobile apps, is public and can be inspected. Proton does not say whether the server-side code is public as well. The service is hosted by Proton.

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Sovereignty score
69 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-2100
    Headquartered in Switzerland: Swiss law, recognised by the EU as adequate
  • Data residency SOV-390
    Hosting in the EU and Switzerland
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-360
    Key management with a European vendor
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
    Closed source: switching requires data migration
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-655
    Closed source, runtime with the vendor

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
CH (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty model
Vendor-hosted (EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting
CH, EUVerified by hand
Open-source
NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Compliance documents
1 published, see belowVendor-stated
Hosting signal
PROTON - Proton AG, CH (CH)Technically measured
Category
Cloud Storage (Personal)
Type
Product
Website
proton.me ↗

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 Proton Drive

The European alternatives to Proton Drive 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

22 European Cloud Storage (Personal) 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 Proton Drive

Proton Drive is headquartered in Switzerland and falls under Swiss law, including the revised Swiss data protection act. Switzerland is not an EU member, but the European Commission recognises its level of data protection as adequate. Its Swiss headquarters does not by itself bring it under US legislation such as the CLOUD Act.

Proton Drive hosts data in the EU and in Switzerland. Switzerland is covered by a European Commission adequacy decision, so personal data can go there without extra safeguards. If you require strictly EU hosting, check the data processing agreement for which data is stored in Switzerland.

Proton Drive is closed source and hosted by the vendor. The encryption keys and the runtime sit with the vendor and switching requires data migration. Ask about bring-your-own-key, export options and open standards.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs Proton Drive 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 Proton Drive?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Proton Drive include CloudMe, Cozy Cloud and Cryptee. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Proton Drive?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Proton Drive include Cozy Cloud, Cryptee, Filen and Internxt. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Proton Drive GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Proton Drive is headquartered in CH (EFTA) and hosts data in CH, EU. That makes Proton Drive 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 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".

EU hosting documented
proton.me/privacy

Provenance of the links above:Vendor-stated

Links checked on September 22, 2026.

Digital sovereignty in Cloud Storage (Personal)

Cloud Storage (Personal): Personal cloud storage — sync and share files. 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 Proton Drive — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score