EU sovereignBrowserHeadquarters: CH

Safe Exam Browser: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Safe Exam Browser is a locked-down browser environment for online examinations, developed and maintained by ETH Zurich IT Services. The software temporarily turns an examination computer or tablet into a secure workstation: it blocks system functions, other websites and applications, and displays only the exam page of the learning management system. It runs on Windows, macOS and iOS and works with Moodle, ILIAS, OpenOlat, Open edX and Canvas, as well as other web-based e-assessment systems.

SEB does not send personal data to a central server and is not connected to web analytics or tracking services; it is not a cloud service. The institution decides where exam content is stored, usually in its own learning management system, and the optional SEB Server component can be installed on self-operated servers. The software is released under the Mozilla Public License, but the Windows version includes a binary security module that is not open source. For European institutions this means a client developed in Switzerland with no vendor cloud behind it, and control over exam data stays with the institution.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Safe Exam Browser pre-selected

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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	Browser
Type	Product
Website	safeexambrowser.org ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Safe Exam Browser

The European alternatives to Safe Exam Browser come from our knowledge base of over 7,800 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

20 European Browser 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 Safe Exam Browser

Safe Exam Browser 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.

Safe Exam Browser 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.

Safe Exam Browser 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 Safe Exam Browser 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 Safe Exam Browser?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Safe Exam Browser include Ecosia Browser, Falkon and Iridium Browser. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Safe Exam Browser?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Safe Exam Browser include Falkon, Iridium Browser, Konqueror, LibreWolf, Midori, Mullvad Browser and Nyxt. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Safe Exam Browser GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Safe Exam Browser is headquartered in CH (EFTA) and hosts data in CH. That makes Safe Exam Browser 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

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".

We found none of these signals on the vendor's own site when we checked.

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

Checked on October 12, 2026. What is the Cyber Resilience Act?

Digital sovereignty in Browser

Browser: Web browser — browsing, privacy, extensions, sync. 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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