EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceCloud Storage (Personal)Headquarters: EU

transfer.sh: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

transfer.sh is a server for sharing files from the command line. You upload a file with a curl command and receive a download link. Options include a maximum number of downloads, a retention period in days and password-based encryption. Supported storage is Amazon S3, Google Drive, Storj and the local file system. The project provides the server software for running your own instance, including as a Docker image.

The code is released under the MIT licence and maintained by a small group of developers. The project began under the GitHub organisation DutchCoders (Netherlands); one of the current maintainers is based in Germany. No company is named as owner. The maintainers advise hosting your own instance and recommend using password encryption only on a server you control, so that your files stay with you.

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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 14, 2026
Headquarters
EU (EU)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision
No — no adequacy decisionVerified by hand
Sovereignty model
Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting
EUVerified by hand
Open-source
YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
Cloud Storage (Personal)
Type
Product
Website
github.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to transfer.sh

The European alternatives to transfer.sh come from our knowledge base of over 8,400 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

30 European Cloud Storage (Personal) 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 transfer.sh

transfer.sh is headquartered in EU 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 transfer.sh scores best on data residency.

transfer.sh 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 transfer.sh 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 transfer.sh?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to transfer.sh include CloudMe, Cozy Cloud and Cryptee. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to transfer.sh?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to transfer.sh include Cozy Cloud, Cryptee, Filen, FileSender and Internxt. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is transfer.sh GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

transfer.sh is headquartered in EU (EU) and hosts data in EU. It is also open-source, so you can self-host it. That makes transfer.sh 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 14, 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 Cloud Storage (Personal)

Cloud Storage (Personal): Personal cloud storage — sync and share files. 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 transfer.sh — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score