Non-EU vendorMessagingHeadquarters: GB

SimpleX Chat: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

SimpleX Chat is a messenger that uses no user identifiers, not even random ones. Contacts and groups are stored on your device rather than in a server database. Messages are end-to-end encrypted and travel through relay servers over one-way queues; according to the project, they stay on a relay only until received. The app offers messaging, secret groups, multiple chat profiles and audio and video calls, and is available for Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS and Android.

SimpleX Chat is operated by SimpleX Chat Ltd, registered in London in the United Kingdom. The software is open source under AGPLv3. No single party controls the network: anyone can run their own servers and still communicate with others. The preset servers are operated by SimpleX Chat Ltd and Flux; under the privacy policy, messages may pass through servers in any country where these operators have facilities. For a European organisation, running its own servers gives more certainty about location.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with SimpleX Chat pre-selected

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Sovereignty score

79 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-250
Headquartered outside the EU (GB)
Data residency SOV-3100
EU-only hosting
Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-390
Self-hostable: encryption keys under your own control
Freedom from lock-in SOV-680
Open source: low switching costs
Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-675
Source code auditable, forkable and self-hostable

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 July 2, 2026

Headquarters	GB (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	EUVerified by hand
Open-source	YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Hosting signal	FASTLY - Fastly, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
Category	Messaging
Type	Product
Website	simplex.chat ↗

The hosting signal shows the network that serves the vendor's website, often a CDN, and not necessarily where the service or your data is hosted. How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to SimpleX Chat

The European alternatives to SimpleX Chat 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

21 European Messaging 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 SimpleX Chat

SimpleX Chat is headquartered in GB, 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.

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

SimpleX Chat is open source. You can audit the source code, self-host the software and keep the encryption keys under your own control. Switching is easier because data and software are not tied to a single party.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs SimpleX Chat 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 SimpleX Chat?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to SimpleX Chat include Conversations (XMPP), Delta Chat and Dino. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to SimpleX Chat?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to SimpleX Chat include Conversations (XMPP), Delta Chat, Dino, Olvid, Quicksy, Tox and Wire. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is SimpleX Chat GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

SimpleX Chat is headquartered in GB (OTHER) and hosts data in EU. 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 July 2, 2026.

Sources

This record was checked via the vendor's website and legal notice during the full audit of June and July 2026. Source links have been recorded per record since 20 September 2026.

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 Messaging

Messaging: Personal messaging — chat, group conversations, media 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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