EU Sovereignty Score
EU-hosted, non-EU parentGIS & GeospatialHeadquarters: DE

UP42: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

UP42 is an Earth observation data platform developed in Berlin. Through one account and API, users search satellite and aerial imagery from several providers, task new acquisitions, manage the data and run processing algorithms. The platform is offered as a cloud service and includes a catalogue of data providers, among them Airbus, Planet and ICEYE. It is aimed at organisations that analyse and process satellite imagery.

UP42 GmbH is registered in Berlin. The company was previously part of Airbus Defence and Space. In July 2025 Neo Space Group, a company of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), completed its acquisition. Ownership therefore sits with a Saudi state investment fund, a foreign jurisdiction for European customers. This matters for public-sector or regulated use. Hosting locations are not stated on the website. UP42 is not open source.

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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
HeadquartersDE (EU)Verified by hand
Ultimate parent companySAVerified by hand
Sovereignty modelVendor-hosted (EU)Verified by hand
Data hostingEUVerified by hand
Open-sourceNoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantYesVendor-stated
CategoryGIS & Geospatial
TypeProduct
Websiteup42.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to UP42

The European alternatives to UP42 come from our knowledge base of over 6,200 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

45 European GIS & Geospatial 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 UP42

UP42 is headquartered in DE and therefore falls under European law: the GDPR, NIS2 and the Data Act. No foreign legislation can compel access to your data. The ultimate owner is based in SA. Foreign control undermines part of the certainty a European headquarters offers.

Data is hosted exclusively in the EU, so UP42 scores best on data residency.

UP42 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 UP42 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 UP42?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to UP42 include 52°North, Airbus Defence & Space and Camptocamp. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to UP42?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to UP42 include 52°North and Camptocamp. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is UP42 GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

UP42 is headquartered in DE (EU) and hosts data in EU. That makes UP42 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 GIS & Geospatial

GIS & Geospatial: Geographic information systems, map visualisation and spatial data analysis. 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 UP42 — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score