Sovereign Tech Directory

A curated directory for digital sovereignty in Europe. We help organisations and individuals discover software that respects privacy, keeps data in Europe, and avoids vendor lock-in.

sovereign-tech-directory.eu

What this project does

The directory evaluates European and sovereign software tools across transparent criteria:

• Data residency - Where is your data stored?
• Open source - Can you inspect and modify the code?
• Self-hosting - Can you run it on your own infrastructure?
• Open standards - Does it use interoperable formats?
• Data portability - Can you take your data and leave?
• Governance type - Is it community-driven, nonprofit, or company-backed?

Each tool receives a Sovereignty Score (0-10), computed deterministically from these criteria. The algorithm is fully documented in docs/sovereignty-score-v1.md.

Currently the directory includes 30 tools across 9 categories, from cloud storage (Nextcloud, ownCloud) to communication (Element, Threema) to development platforms (GitLab, Forgejo, Codeberg).

Tech stack

This is a static site with no backend, no database, and no tracking.

• Hugo - Static site generator
• Tailwind CSS - Styling
• Fuse.js - Client-side search
• YAML - Source of truth for all tool data
• GitHub Pages - Hosting

Getting started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• Go 1.26+
• Hugo Extended 0.156+

Setup

git clone https://github.com/WanielDeiss/std.git
cd std
npm install

Development

npm run dev

Opens a local server at http://localhost:1313/ with hot reload. Changes to tool data files automatically recompute sovereignty scores.

Build

npm run build

Test

npm test

Contributing

We welcome contributions from everyone - you don't need to be a developer. You can suggest tools, review existing data, report issues, or work on the codebase.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guide.

Project structure

data/tools/          # YAML files - one per tool (source of truth)
data/categories/     # Category definitions
content/en/          # Hugo content pages
layouts/             # Hugo templates
assets/              # CSS, JS, logos, flags
scripts/             # Build scripts (scoring, SEO checks, dev server)
docs/                # Architecture, scoring spec, development guide

Principles

• Curation over completeness - Fewer verified tools are better than many unvetted ones
• Transparency - Scoring criteria are fully visible and auditable
• Privacy - No cookies, no tracking, no analytics
• Simplicity - Static-first, minimal dependencies, progressive enhancement

License

See LICENSE for details.