Self-hosted / open sourceDesktop OSHeadquarters: GB

Raspberry Pi OS: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Raspberry Pi OS is the official operating system for Raspberry Pi computers. The project describes it as based on the Debian Linux distribution, with support for a large number of Debian packages, and the company states that its in-house software team updates it continuously. Users usually write the image to a microSD card with Raspberry Pi Imager, a tool that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. The system is installed and run on the user's own Raspberry Pi hardware.

Raspberry Pi Ltd is registered in England, with its registered office in Cambridge, and is controlled by Raspberry Pi Holdings PLC, which has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2024. The company is therefore British and outside the EU and the EEA, but it is not owned by a non-European parent. Raspberry Pi says it aims to open-source as much code as possible; the website, however, does not state a licence covering the operating system as a whole. Because the system runs on the user's own hardware, data protection depends mainly on the chosen configuration.

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Sovereignty score

77 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-250
Headquartered outside the EU (GB)
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 11, 2026

Headquarters	GB (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	OTHERVerified by hand
Open-source	YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	NoVendor-stated
Category	Desktop OS
Type	Product
Website	raspberrypi.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Raspberry Pi OS

The European alternatives to Raspberry Pi OS 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 Desktop OS 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 Raspberry Pi OS

Raspberry Pi OS is headquartered in GB, 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.

Raspberry Pi OS 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.

Raspberry Pi OS 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 Raspberry Pi OS 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 Raspberry Pi OS?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Raspberry Pi OS include Alpine Linux, Devuan and /e/OS. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Raspberry Pi OS?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Raspberry Pi OS include Alpine Linux, Devuan, /e/OS, EndeavourOS, KDE neon, Linux Mint, Mageia and Manjaro. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Raspberry Pi OS GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Raspberry Pi OS is headquartered in GB (OTHER) and hosts data in OTHER. Its GDPR compliance is limited or unclear. 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 11, 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

Cyber Resilience Act

Public signals that relate to the EU Cyber Resilience Act. They do not count towards the score. A missing line means "not found publicly".

security.txt: raspberrypi.com/.well-known/security.txt

For products in scope of the CRA, CE marking is required from 11 December 2027; this cannot be checked yet.

Checked on October 11, 2026. What is the Cyber Resilience Act?

Digital sovereignty in Desktop OS

Desktop OS: Desktop operating system — daily work platform. 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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