Self-hosted / open sourceBrowserHeadquarters: GB

Waterfox: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Waterfox is a free, open source web browser based on Firefox. It uses the same Gecko engine, so Firefox WebExtensions work, and it is available for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. Waterfox includes ad blocking that is on by default, private tabs alongside regular tabs, tree tabs, private DNS through an Oblivious HTTP relay and extensive customisation options. According to Waterfox, it has no telemetry and no data collection.

Waterfox was founded in 2011 by Alex Kontos, was owned by the US advertising company System1 from 2019 to 2023 and has been independent again since July 2023. Development and operations sit with BrowserWorks Ltd, a London-based company that Waterfox says is wholly owned by Kontos. The United Kingdom is outside the EU. The licence is MPL-2.0. Funding comes from search partnerships, an optional subscription and donations. The browser runs locally, but some requests, such as updates, search suggestions and DNS, go to external services, which the privacy policy describes.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Waterfox pre-selected

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Sovereignty score

79 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-250
Headquartered outside the EU (GB)
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-675
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 9, 2026

Headquarters	GB (OTHER)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision	Yes — found adequate by the European CommissionVerified by hand
Sovereignty model	Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting	EUVerified by hand
Open-source	YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Hosting signal	CLOUDFLARENET - Cloudflare, Inc., US (US)Technically measured
Category	Browser
Type	Product
Website	waterfox.net ↗

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 Waterfox

The European alternatives to Waterfox come from our knowledge base of over 6,800 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

18 European Browser 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 Waterfox

Waterfox is headquartered in GB, outside the EU. Contracts and data therefore also fall under non-European law. The GDPR applies through contractual terms, but in a conflict with local legislation you have less certainty than with a European vendor.

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

Waterfox 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 Waterfox 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 Waterfox?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Waterfox include Falkon, Konqueror and LibreWolf. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Waterfox?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Waterfox include Falkon, Konqueror, LibreWolf, Midori, Mullvad Browser, Nyxt, Otter Browser and Pale Moon. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

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

Waterfox is headquartered in GB (OTHER) and hosts data in EU. The vendor states it is GDPR-compliant, but the data falls under non-EU jurisdiction. For full EU data residency the EU alternatives on this page usually offer more certainty.

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 9, 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

Cyber Resilience Act

Public signals that relate to the EU Cyber Resilience Act. They do not count towards the score. A missing line means "not found publicly".

Organisation behind the open-source project: BrowserWorks Ltd

For products in scope of the CRA, CE marking is required from 11 December 2027; this cannot be checked yet.

Checked on October 9, 2026. What is the Cyber Resilience Act?

Digital sovereignty in Browser

Browser: Web browser — browsing, privacy, extensions, sync. 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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