Non-EU vendorIoT & EmbeddedHeadquarters: KR

Samsung SmartThings: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

SmartThings is Samsung's smart home platform. Through the SmartThings app and cloud service you connect devices from Samsung and other brands, control them remotely and set up routines that make devices work together automatically. The app supports hubs, lighting, sensors, smart plugs, cameras and thermostats, and certain Samsung televisions include a built-in SmartThings Hub that supports Matter, Thread and Zigbee. A Samsung Account is required to use it.

SmartThings is offered by Samsung Electronics, headquartered in South Korea, so it is not subject to a European legal order. Samsung's general privacy policy names South Korea as the main destination for personal data; processing may also take place in the EEA, the United States and other countries, with standard contractual clauses used for transfers out of the EEA. The platform is proprietary and depends on Samsung's cloud service. European organisations and households that want to keep home data within the EU should check this before adopting it.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Samsung SmartThings pre-selected

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Sovereignty score

42 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-250
Headquartered outside the EU (KR)
Data residency SOV-350
Hosting inside and outside Europe (OTHER, EU, US)
Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-340
Key management with a non-European vendor
Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
Closed source: switching requires data migration
Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-630
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 11, 2026

Headquarters	KR (OTHER)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision	Yes — found adequate by the European CommissionVerified by hand
Sovereignty model	Vendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting	OTHER, EU, USVerified by hand
Open-source	NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Category	IoT & Embedded
Type	Product
Website	samsung.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Samsung SmartThings

The European alternatives to Samsung SmartThings 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

62 European IoT & Embedded 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 Samsung SmartThings

Samsung SmartThings is headquartered in KR, 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.

Samsung SmartThings hosts data in OTHER, EU, US. Exactly what stays within the EU — and what does not — is defined by the vendor's data processing agreement and sub-processor list, not by a setting you control yourself; check those documents for the precise scope, including backups, logs and support access.

Samsung SmartThings 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 Samsung SmartThings 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 Samsung SmartThings?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Samsung SmartThings include 1NCE, Actility ThingPark and akenza. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Samsung SmartThings?

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

Is Samsung SmartThings GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Samsung SmartThings is headquartered in KR (OTHER) and hosts data in OTHER, EU, US. 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 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

Digital sovereignty in IoT & Embedded

IoT & Embedded: Internet of Things platforms, embedded systems and industrial IoT solutions. 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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