EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceDatabase & Data ManagementHeadquarters: Netherlands

ThingsDB: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

ThingsDB is an open-source data platform from Cesbit B.V. that builds data storage and management into the programming language itself. The vendor describes it as a distributed interpreter for data-driven applications, with emphasis on high availability, scalability and event-driven programming. It is aimed at developers who want to build a backend without designing complex database schemas. Cesbit also offers support (weekday business hours, 24/7 on request), a two-day training, custom development and managed hosting of backends.

Cesbit is a Dutch software company; no parent company or majority owner is named. The source code of the database server sits in a GitHub repository that the vendor links to, under the GNU General Public License version 3. You can therefore run ThingsDB yourself and keep control of the data and its location. No location is stated for the managed hosting, so ask the vendor. The privacy policy names the GDPR as its framework and refers to agreements with external parties that process personal data.

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Sovereignty score
94 / 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-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-6100
    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 October 17, 2026
Headquarters
NetherlandsVerified by hand
Data hosting
Self-hosted, e.g. in the EU (your choice)Verified by hand
Open-source
YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
Database & Data Management
Type
Product
Website
thingsdb.io ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

European alternatives to ThingsDB

The European alternatives to ThingsDB come from our knowledge base of over 9,900 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

17 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 ThingsDB

ThingsDB is headquartered in the Netherlands 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 ThingsDB scores best on data residency.

ThingsDB 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 ThingsDB 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 ThingsDB?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to ThingsDB include Aiven, CYBERTEC PostgreSQL Enterprise Edition (PGEE) and dbSQWare. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to ThingsDB?

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

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

ThingsDB is headquartered in the Netherlands (EU) and hosts data in the EU. It is also open-source, so you can self-host it. That makes ThingsDB 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 17, 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

In the changelog

Earlier changes to this page, as listed in the public changelog.

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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8 European alternatives to ThingsDB (GDPR)