Framasoft
Verified“EU non-profit, EU-owned machine. The reference case.”
- Structure
- Non-profit
- Services
- 26 services
- Reach
- 6.5M visits/mo
- Staff
- ~10 + 35 members
94 = midpoint of Control 97 & Data 91
Sovereignty Quadrant
Control ↑ who owns & governs the company · Data → where your data lives. Every dot is a company — click to open it.
Every number below traces to 14 sourced facts across 6 independent sources, last verified 2026-06-12. 3 open questions hold confidence at 88% — they lower confidence, never the score.
Control ↑
Who legally and economically controls the company
Legal & Jurisdiction
97
French loi-1901 non-profit, incorporated and operated entirely within France; EU law applies directly with no foreign parent or offshore entity to shield it.
Why 97? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Framasoft is a French not-for-profit association under the 1901 law, declared at the sub-prefecture of Arles on 2 December 2003.
Framasoft Legals · as of 2026-06-12
Its registered office is at 10 bis rue Jangot, 69007 Lyon, France, under SIRET 500 715 776.
Framasoft Legals · as of 2026-06-12
The association is registered in the French national registry (RNA 0132007842 / SIREN 500715776).
Pappers entreprise registry · as of 2026-06-12
It is recognized as being of general interest, allowing tax-deductible donations under French law.
Framasoft Association · as of 2026-06-12
Control & Ownership
96
As a non-profit association there is no equity, no voting shares and no listing; control rests entirely with its ~35 French members and four co-chairs, so there is nothing for a foreign entity to acquire.
Why 96? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Framasoft is governed by ~35 members with four co-chairs (Antoine Duparray, Christelle Thomas, Brume, Quentin Theuret) and a director (Thomas Citharel).
Framasoft Association · as of 2026-06-12
As a loi-1901 association it has no share capital, no shareholders and no listing venue; control cannot be bought or transferred to investors.
Framasoft Legals · as of 2026-06-12
Roughly 94% of income comes from individual donations, so it is not financially controlled by a corporate sponsor or VC.
Framasoft homepage · as of 2026-06-12
Data →
Where your data lives and who can reach it
Data & Infrastructure
88
User data lives on self-managed servers at EU-owned, EU-headquartered providers (Hetzner DE, OVHcloud + Ikoula FR) rather than a US hyperscaler, putting it outside CLOUD Act reach; small deductions for self-disclosed US ancillary processors (PayPal, Akismet).
Why 88? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Framasoft's website and core services are hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH, a German company based in Gunzenhausen, Germany.
Framasoft Legals · as of 2026-06-12
Its GDPR subprocessor register lists Hetzner (Germany) and OVH (Roubaix, France) as hosting providers, both EU-owned.
Framasoft GDPR subprocessors register · as of 2026-06-12
The only US-law data touchpoints are ancillary and self-disclosed: PayPal (donation processing) and Akismet/Automattic (spam filtering, data may go to US servers under SCCs).
Framasoft GDPR subprocessors register · as of 2026-06-12
Newsletter delivery uses Mailjet (Sinch, Sweden) with data centers in Frankfurt (Germany) and Saint-Ghislain (Belgium).
Framasoft GDPR subprocessors register · as of 2026-06-12
Operations & People
95
Entirely France-centered: Lyon HQ, ~10 French-based employees, French leadership, euro accounting and a primarily French-speaking user base.
Why 95? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Framasoft is based in Lyon, France, with about 10 employees and 700 contributors.
Framasoft Association · as of 2026-06-12
It operates 26 ethical online services receiving about 6.5 million visits per month, supported by 10,428 donors.
Framasoft homepage · as of 2026-06-12
The association was founded in 2004 (rooted in a 2001 project) and operates in euros, reporting accounts publicly since 2009.
Wikipedia: Framasoft · as of 2026-06-12
Aligned to the EU Commission’s official Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL, Jun 2026) →
What we don’t know
3 open questions — they lower confidence, never the score
- ?
Exact 2024/2025 total revenue and audited expense breakdown in euros.
Donation thresholds (200k floor / 400k target) are public, but the precise booked annual revenue is not fully confirmed from a single primary source, slightly limiting financial-stability detail.
- ?
Whether any user-facing service still routes through a US-controlled CDN or anti-abuse layer beyond Akismet.
Core hosting is EU-owned, but a hidden US edge dependency could marginally lower the infra score; the published subprocessor list suggests not.
- ?
Current physical-server vs VM split and whether all data centers are in EU territory.
Reports cite ~68 physical servers and ~61 VMs across Hetzner/OVH/Ikoula, but exact data-center geography per service is not individually documented.
EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens
The EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL) is designed to rate cloud providers, not non-profit service operators — this is an analogous mapping for comparison, not a certification Framasoft holds or sought.
Strategic
Mission is EU digital sovereignty and de-Googlification; no foreign strategic dependency or owner.
Legal & jurisdictional
French loi-1901 association, fully under EU/French law, no foreign parent or offshore entity.
Data & AI
User data on EU-owned hosts (Hetzner DE, OVH/Ikoula FR); free/open-source stack, no US AI dependency.
Operational
Run entirely from Lyon by EU-based staff; euro accounting; self-managed servers.
Supply chain
Almost entirely EU suppliers, but donations via PayPal (US) and spam filtering via Akismet (US) remain self-disclosed exceptions.
Technological
100% free/open-source software it develops or self-hosts (PeerTube, Framapad), avoiding proprietary US platforms.
Security & compliance
Publishes a detailed GDPR subprocessor register and status page; small team means limited formal certifications (e.g. not a certified health-data host).
Environmental sustainability
Hetzner uses renewable (hydro/wind) energy, but no independent published sustainability audit for Framasoft's own footprint.
EU alternatives
Already a benchmark EU-sovereign, public-interest provider — the reference case rather than something to replace.
German open-source self-hostable cloud suite; strong EU-sovereign peer for collaboration/file storage.
Federation of trusted small EU ethical hosts (co-founded by Framasoft) offering the same free services closer to users.
How the method works
Methodology v2 (provisional): the score is the midpoint of two axes — Control (who owns and governs the company) and Data (where your data lives and who can reach it). Each axis is scored only on verified evidence; unknowns reduce confidence, never the score. Every input below is sourced; the weights and judgments are open to challenge.
Spotted an error? Every claim is sourced — challenge it and we correct the record.
- 2026-06-12 — Initial golden profile, authored from primary sources (human + AI review).
Report Incorrect Data
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Verified 2026-06-12 · Human + AI joint review (sources independently checked) · Methodology