EU Sovereignty Score
EU sovereignRecruitment & ATSHeadquarters: SE

Varbi: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Varbi is a recruitment and applicant tracking system that lets employers publish vacancies, receive and manage applications and follow the hiring process. It is offered as a subscription-based online service (SaaS) and used through a web browser, without on-premises server infrastructure. The product originates in Sweden and is part of the Grade group.

The operating company, Grade Varbi AB, is registered in Sweden. Grade acquired Varbi in 2021 through its predecessor HR-Friend, which was later renamed Grade. The sources consulted do not establish whether a later transaction changed the ownership of Varbi itself. They also do not state where applicant data is hosted or which sub-processors are used. A European organisation should confirm these points and the data processing agreement before using the system for candidate data.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Varbi pre-selected
MastodonLinkedInBlueskyXEmail
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
HeadquartersSE (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty modelVendor-hosted (EU)Verified by hand
Data hostingEUVerified by hand
Open-sourceNoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantNoVendor-stated
CategoryRecruitment & ATS
TypeProduct
Websitevarbi.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Varbi

The European alternatives to Varbi 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

40 European Recruitment & ATS vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

Is Varbi one of many dependencies?

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

Assess your stack →View a sample report (opens in a new tab)

Why digital sovereignty matters with Varbi

Varbi is headquartered in SE 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 Varbi scores best on data residency.

Varbi 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 Varbi 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 Varbi?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Varbi include Adeptiq, Altamira Recruiting and Beetween. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Varbi?

Our list of EU alternatives to Varbi is mostly commercial options. Browse the category on the map for open-source choices.

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

Varbi is headquartered in SE (EU) and hosts data in EU. That makes Varbi 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 Recruitment & ATS

Recruitment & ATS: Recruitment, applicant tracking systems and talent management. 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 →
Open in the alternatives dashboardMissing a vendor? Submit itAre you this vendor? You can also become a sponsor on the Recruitment & ATS page — with no effect on your score
8 European alternatives to Varbi — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score