EU sovereignFintech & NeobanksHeadquarters: CH

Relai: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Relai is a Bitcoin-only app for buying, saving and self-custody of bitcoin, offered in Switzerland and the EU. Users can make one-time purchases and set up recurring savings plans. The app is a self-custodial wallet, so the provider does not hold users' bitcoin. It is delivered as a mobile app by Relai AG, whose holding company Relai Holding AG is also based in Zurich.

Relai AG is a member of the Swiss self-regulatory organisation VQF. Its EU entity, Relai EU SASU in Paris, is registered as a crypto-asset service provider under MiCA with the French AMF. The privacy policy states that personal data is stored and processed on servers in Switzerland, which the European Commission recognises as ensuring an adequate level of data protection. The policy refers to the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection rather than the GDPR. Ownership is not described on the website. For a European organisation, the Swiss hosting location is a point to weigh against its own requirements.

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Sovereignty score

67 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-2100
Headquartered in Switzerland: Swiss law, recognised by the EU as adequate
Data residency SOV-380
Hosting in Switzerland only (recognised by the EU as adequate)
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 12, 2026

Headquarters	CH (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty model	Vendor-hosted (EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting	CHVerified by hand
Open-source	NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	NoVendor-stated
Category	Fintech & Neobanks
Type	Product
Website	relai.app ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Relai

The European alternatives to Relai come from our knowledge base of over 8,000 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

144 European Fintech & Neobanks 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 Relai

Relai 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.

Relai hosts data in Switzerland only. Switzerland is not part of the EU or the EEA, so the GDPR does not apply there directly; the European Commission does recognise Swiss data protection as adequate, so personal data can go there without extra safeguards. Our model therefore scores it between EU hosting and hosting outside Europe. If you require strictly EU hosting, take this into account.

Relai 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 Relai 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 Relai?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Relai include 1822direkt, ActivoBank and Air Bank. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Relai?

Our list of EU alternatives to Relai is mostly commercial options. Browse the category on the map for open-source choices.

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

Relai is headquartered in CH (EFTA) and hosts data in CH. That makes Relai 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 12, 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 Fintech & Neobanks

Fintech & Neobanks: Digital banks, neobanks, money transfers and fintech services. 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.

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