Category: Database & Data Management
8 European alternatives to CockroachDB — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted.
CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database by Cockroach Labs (New York, US). In August 2024, Cockroach Labs announced the retirement of the free open-source/BSL Core edition, effective with v24.3 in November 2024. CockroachDB is now distributed exclusively under a proprietary enterprise license (source-available but not open source); a free tier exists for individuals and small businesses but all self-hosted use requires the enterprise license.
Facts
- Headquarters
- US (US)
- Category
- Database & Data Management
- Type
- Product
- GDPR-compliant
- Yes
- Open-source
- No
- Data hosting
- US, EU
Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to CockroachDB
- Meilisearch↗
Open-core search engine: the Community Edition is MIT-licensed and free to use, but the Enterprise Edition (sharding, advanced observability, analytics) has been under BUSL 1.1 since v1.19 (August 2025), requiring a commercial agreement for production use.
FR · commercial
Frequently asked questions
What is the best European alternative to CockroachDB?
It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to CockroachDB include CrateDB, DuckDB and MariaDB. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.
Are there open-source alternatives to CockroachDB?
Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to CockroachDB include CrateDB, DuckDB, MariaDB and TigerData. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.
Is CockroachDB GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?
CockroachDB is headquartered in US and hosts data in US, 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.