EU Sovereignty Score
EU sovereignRemote Desktop & SupportHeadquarters: FR

Shadow: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Shadow is a cloud PC service that streams a full Windows computer to the user's device over the internet. Programs run on remote hardware, and only the video stream and inputs travel over the network. It is offered on a subscription basis to consumers and professionals, and it is delivered as a hosted online service.

The service is operated and owned by SHADOW SAS, a French simplified joint-stock company registered in Paris. The company's website is hosted by Google Ireland. The privacy policy names a US affiliate, Shadow Global Corporation, as a recipient of personal data transferred outside the European Union, but the sources consulted do not state where streamed PC instances or stored data are located. The software is proprietary and not open source. A European organisation using the service for business data should ask for data-centre locations and transfer safeguards, because the privacy policy does not name the GDPR.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Shadow pre-selected
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Sovereignty score
71 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-2100
    Headquartered in the EU: European law applies
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    EU-only hosting
  • 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 11, 2026
Headquarters
FR (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty model
Vendor-hosted (EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting
EUVerified by hand
Open-source
NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
NoVendor-stated
Category
Remote Desktop & Support
Type
Product
Website
shadow.tech ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Shadow

The European alternatives to Shadow 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

18 European Remote Desktop & Support 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 Shadow

Shadow is headquartered in FR and therefore falls under European law: the GDPR, NIS2 and the Data Act. No foreign legislation can compel access to your data.

Data is hosted exclusively in the EU, so Shadow scores best on data residency.

Shadow 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 Shadow 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 Shadow?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Shadow include AnyDesk, DWService and FastViewer. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Shadow?

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

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

Shadow is headquartered in FR (EU) and hosts data in EU. That makes Shadow 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 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 Remote Desktop & Support

Remote Desktop & Support: Remote access, remote support and screen sharing. 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 Shadow — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score