Non-EU vendorDatabase & Data ManagementHeadquarters: GB

SurrealDB: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

SurrealDB is a multi-model database that combines relational, document, graph, vector and time-series data in one engine and queries them with a single language, SurrealQL, including within one ACID transaction. It includes built-in authentication, row- and field-level permissions and live queries. SurrealDB is available as a self-hosted installation, as an embedded database inside an application, and as a managed service, SurrealDB Cloud, where customers choose the cloud provider and region.

The company, SurrealDB Ltd, is based in the United Kingdom (Altrincham, Cheshire). The engine is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1: it is free to use, modify and self-host, but restricted from being offered to third parties as a database service, and each version converts to Apache 2.0 no later than four years after release. SDKs and tools are open source under Apache 2.0 or MIT. For a European organisation, self-hosting makes it possible to keep data entirely under its own control; with SurrealDB Cloud, the chosen region determines where the data is located.

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

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Sovereignty score

52 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-250
Headquartered outside the EU (GB)
Data residency SOV-3100
EU-only hosting
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 9, 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	NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Hosting signal	AMAZON-02 - Amazon.com, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
Category	Database & Data Management
Type	Product
Website	surrealdb.com ↗

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 SurrealDB

The European alternatives to SurrealDB 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

13 European Database & Data Management 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 SurrealDB

SurrealDB 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 SurrealDB scores best on data residency.

SurrealDB 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 SurrealDB 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 SurrealDB?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to SurrealDB include Aiven, ArangoDB and DuckDB. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to SurrealDB?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to SurrealDB include DuckDB, Elastic and Firebird SQL. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

SurrealDB 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 October 9, 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 Database & Data Management

Database & Data Management: Database systems, data warehousing, managed database services and data platforms. 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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