Criteria

Listing Requirements

To maintain our commitment to digital sovereignty, privacy, and compliance with European standards, all submissions for listing on European Alternative (https://european-alternative.org) must meet the following eligibility conditions.

Geographic Qualification of Companies

Primary Requirement:
Only businesses that are officially registered and operate within one of the following regions are eligible:

• European Union (EU)

• European Economic Area (EEA)

• European Free Trade Association (EFTA)

• Countries under the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA)

This requirement applies to both the entity offering the service and, where applicable, its parent or holding company. If your organization is part of a corporate group, the ultimate controlling entity must also reside within one of the above regions.

Eligible Examples

• Nextcloud GmbH
  Registered in Germany (EU member). Operates entirely within the EU.
  ➝ Meets both registration and operational requirements.

• Infomaniak SA
  Based in Switzerland (EFTA member). Owns and manages its own hosting infrastructure in EFTA territory.
  ➝ Fully compliant under EFTA criteria.

• Framsoft SAS
  Registered and operating in France (EU). Offers digital services hosted in EU data centers.
  ➝ Clearly eligible.

• Codeberg e.V.
  Non-profit association registered in Germany (EU). Provides a Git hosting platform for developers.
  ➝ Legal entity under EU law, meeting eligibility.

• Creoline S.R.L.
  Headquartered in Romania (EU). All digital operations and infrastructure are located in Romania.
  ➝ Fulfills regional and operational criteria.

Not Eligible Examples

• ExampleTech Inc.
  Registered in Delaware, USA. Claims EU compliance, but uses US-based infrastructure.
  ➝ Ineligible due to non-European registration.

• XYZ Hosting Ltd.
  Registered in the UK (post-Brexit, no longer part of EU/EEA/EFTA). Uses EU servers, but is not a qualified legal entity.
  ➝ Ineligible due to location of incorporation.

• CloudStart EU (subsidiary of a US company)
  Operating from Germany but owned by a parent company based in California, USA.
  ➝ Disqualified due to parent company being outside eligible regions.

• EuroProxy SL
  Registered in Spain (EU), but core infrastructure runs on AWS (US-owned), and business operations rely on US-based billing.
  ➝ Hosting and operational dependencies violate regional compliance.

Infrastructure & Hosting Compliance

To ensure data sovereignty and minimize reliance on non-European jurisdictions, the following infrastructure rules apply:

• Hosting infrastructure must be physically located within the EU, EEA, or EFTA.

• Hosting providers must own and directly manage their infrastructure in those regions.

Disqualified Hosting Setups:

• Providers using leased infrastructure from companies headquartered outside Europe (e.g., Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure).

• Services routing data through or relying on non-European platforms for core functionality (e.g., US-based CDN services or login handlers).

Qualified Hosting Setups:

• Independently-operated hosting platforms that own their hardware and data centers within eligible European countries.

• European companies offering hosting exclusively via EU-based infrastructure.

Types of Hosting Services Accepted

We welcome a broad spectrum of hosting services, including but not limited to:

• Cloud infrastructure platforms

• Virtual Private Servers (VPS)

• Container orchestration solutions (e.g., managed Kubernetes or Docker)

• Managed databases

• Object storage services

• Specialized hosting, such as WordPress hosting

Fees and Listing Costs

There is no cost associated with being listed. Our platform remains free for all eligible services and projects.

Open Source Software Projects

We also highlight open-source projects designed for self-hosting. These are exempt from our location-based criteria, provided that users can deploy and operate them independently.

Typical Examples:

• Jitsi: Secure, self-hosted video conferencing

• Gitea: Lightweight Git service for self-hosted development

Open-source tools must be straightforward to install and operate without reliance on proprietary, external infrastructure.

Hosting Labels and Service Badging

To provide transparency to users, we assign special labels to services that meet stringent geographic and operational criteria.

“EU Hosted” Label

This badge is awarded when all of the following conditions are met:

• The service is physically hosted on infrastructure within EU, EEA, or EFTA countries.

• The service provider is a legal entity based in the same regions (including any parent or holding companies).

• No core functionalities rely on infrastructure or service providers from outside these zones.

Not Eligible Examples:

• Service routes user traffic through a third-party provider in the US for analytics or caching.

• The login or authentication system is hosted on infrastructure managed by a US company.

• The core application uses non-European CDN or cloud services, even if front-end servers are EU-based.

Eligible Example:

• A managed cloud provider using its own data centers in Finland, operated by a company headquartered in the EU, without relying on any US-based services.

EEA and EFTA Hosted Labels

Services based in EEA or EFTA countries receive corresponding labels if they meet the same technical and operational criteria described above.

Example:

• A Swiss-based service hosted entirely within EFTA countries, such as in Zurich, with no reliance on third-country infrastructure, qualifies for the “EFTA Hosted” label.

Special Considerations & Exceptions

We recognize that certain international providers may offer dedicated, fully EU-compliant infrastructure specifically for European clients. These cases will be reviewed individually. However, they must still adhere strictly to our regional hosting and operational requirements.

Reporting Ineligible Listings

Our goal is to maintain a high standard of trust and accuracy. If you discover a listed service that appears to violate our eligibility criteria, please let us know. Submissions can be reviewed and, if necessary, delisted based on further investigation.