Category: IoT & Embedded
8 European alternatives to EMQX — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted.
Chinese open-source (Apache 2.0) MQTT broker (Hangzhou) with 20M+ downloads and 1,500+ enterprise customers.
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Facts
- Headquarters
- CN (OTHER)
- EU adequacy decision
- No — no adequacy decision
- Sovereignty model
- Open-source, distributed
- Category
- IoT & Embedded
- Type
- Product
- GDPR-compliant
- Yes
- Open-source
- Yes
- Data hosting
- EU, OTHER
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
Sovereignty profile of EMQX
How this vendor scores on the five dimensions of the Digital Sovereignty Heatmap: 0 is sovereign, 100 is high exposure. These are the same scores the assessment uses.
| Jurisdictional exposure (JES) | Headquartered outside the EU (CN) | 50 |
|---|---|---|
| Data residency (DRS) | EU and non-EU hosting (EU, OTHER) | 0 |
| Cryptographic key sovereignty (CKS) | Self-hostable: encryption keys under your own control | 10 |
| Platform lock-in (PLS) | Open source: low switching costs | 20 |
| Source & runtime sovereignty (SRS) | Source code auditable, forkable and self-hostable | 25 |
| Average | 21 |
Why digital sovereignty matters with EMQX
EMQX is headquartered in CN, 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.
EMQX hosts data in EU, OTHER. Exactly what stays within the EU — and what does not — is defined by the vendor's data processing agreement and sub-processor list, not by a setting you control yourself; check those documents for the precise scope, including backups, logs and support access.
EMQX 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 EMQX together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.
Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to EMQX
The European alternatives to EMQX come from our knowledge base of over 3,600 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.
- Actility ThingPark↗
French LPWAN platform (Paris) managing 35,000+ LoRaWAN gateways globally.
FR · commercial
- Beckhoff Automation↗
German family-owned industrial automation manufacturer headquartered in Verl, offering PC-based control technology, I/O terminals, motion control and the EtherCAT fieldbus standard for embedded/industrial IoT applications. Independent, ~5,450 employees, €1.24B 2025 turnover.
DE · commercial
- Bosch IoT Suite↗
IoT platform by Bosch for device management, data integration and digital twins
DE · commercial
- Cumulocity↗
Enterprise IoT platform for device management, data analysis and smart rules
DE · commercial
- Eclipse IoT↗
Open-source IoT framework under the Eclipse Foundation with tools like Mosquitto and Hono
BE · open-source
- Eurotech Everyware↗
Italian IoT platform for edge computing and industrial applications
IT · commercial
Frequently asked questions
What is the best European alternative to EMQX?
It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to EMQX include Actility ThingPark, Beckhoff Automation and Bosch IoT Suite. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.
Are there open-source alternatives to EMQX?
Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to EMQX include ChirpStack, Eclipse IoT and FIWARE. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.
Is EMQX GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?
EMQX is headquartered in CN (OTHER) and hosts data in EU, OTHER. 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.
Digital sovereignty in IoT & Embedded
IoT & Embedded: Internet of Things platforms, embedded systems and industrial IoT solutions. 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
- ifm moneoEUDE
- KEBAEUAT
- Kontakt.ioEUPL
- KPN ThingsEUNL
- Siemens Industrial EdgeEUDE
- Siemens Mendix for IoTEUNL
How sovereign is your whole stack?
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