EU Sovereignty Score
EU sovereignSearch EnginesHeadquarters: CH

search.ch: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

search.ch is a Swiss search service that combines web search with a local telephone directory, maps and route planning, timetables, weather information and cinema and TV listings. It is available through the website and apps, and logging in is optional. The service is operated by Swisscom Directories AG in Zürich, which the privacy policy names as the controller.

For a European organisation, the Swiss seat is relevant, but the privacy policy also allows processors to be located in the EU and EEA and in the United States, so Switzerland, the EU and the US are all named. The policy refers to EU Standard Contractual Clauses and Binding Corporate Rules for transfers, but it names no data centres or hosting providers. A European user should confirm the hosting location and the processor arrangements before using the service for business purposes.

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Sovereignty score
59 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-2100
    Headquartered in Switzerland: Swiss law, recognised by the EU as adequate
  • Data residency SOV-350
    Hosting inside and outside Europe (CH, EU, US)
  • 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-645
    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 10, 2026
Headquarters
CH (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty model
Vendor-hosted (EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting
CH, EU, USVerified by hand
Open-source
NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
Search Engines
Type
Product
Website
search.ch ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to search.ch

The European alternatives to search.ch 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

15 European Search Engines 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 search.ch

search.ch 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.

search.ch hosts data in CH, 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.

search.ch 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 search.ch 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 search.ch?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to search.ch include Ecosia, Lilo and MetaGer. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to search.ch?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to search.ch include MetaGer and SearXNG. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is search.ch GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

search.ch is headquartered in CH (EFTA) and hosts data in CH, EU, US. That makes search.ch 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 10, 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 Search Engines

Search Engines: Search engines — privacy-friendly web searching. 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 search.ch — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score