EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceMaps & NavigationHeadquarters: FI

Valhalla (Mapzen): sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Valhalla is an open-source routing engine for OpenStreetMap data. Besides route calculation it provides distance matrices, isochrones, elevation sampling, map matching and tour optimisation, and it supports multimodal routes combining driving, walking, cycling and public transport. Its tiled data structure keeps memory use low and allows offline routing and regional extracts. Developers use it through an HTTP API, a C++ library, or Python and Node.js bindings. It is delivered as software that you build from source or run as a Docker image on your own infrastructure.

Valhalla is released under the MIT licence and developed as a community project on GitHub; it began as a component of Mapzen's mapping products, and Mapzen ceased operations in 2018. No vendor stands behind it, so the project has no corporate headquarters or foreign parent. Because you run the engine yourself, you decide where it is hosted and which data it processes, which makes it a suitable building block for a European routing service. A public demo server run by FOSSGIS e.V. is available under fair-use limits.

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 July 2, 2026
HeadquartersFI (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty modelOpen-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hostingEUVerified by hand
Open-sourceYesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantYesVendor-stated
Hosting signalGITHUB - GitHub, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
CategoryMaps & Navigation
TypeProduct
Websitegithub.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 Valhalla (Mapzen)

The European alternatives to Valhalla (Mapzen) 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

37 European Maps & Navigation vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

Is Valhalla (Mapzen) one of many dependencies?

Score your whole stack in about three minutes. Free, no account needed.

Why digital sovereignty matters with Valhalla (Mapzen)

Valhalla (Mapzen) is headquartered in FI 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 Valhalla (Mapzen) scores best on data residency.

Valhalla (Mapzen) 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 Valhalla (Mapzen) 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 Valhalla (Mapzen)?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Valhalla (Mapzen) include BRouter, calimoto and cartes.gouv.fr. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Valhalla (Mapzen)?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Valhalla (Mapzen) include BRouter and GraphHopper. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Valhalla (Mapzen) GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Valhalla (Mapzen) is headquartered in FI (EU) and hosts data in EU. It is also open-source, so you can self-host it. That makes Valhalla (Mapzen) 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 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 Maps & Navigation

Maps & Navigation: Maps, route planning and navigation services. 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

See all →
8 European alternatives to Valhalla (Mapzen) — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score