What are EU Alternatives to Secureframe or Sprinto?

Secureframe and Sprinto are established compliance automation platforms, but both are headquartered outside the EU (Secureframe in the US, Sprinto with roots in India) and were built around SOC 2. For European companies that creates a familiar friction: data residency and sovereignty, GDPR accountability, EU-specific standards, and the question of who actually carries legal responsibility. This page is an honest look at where each tool fits and why Kertos is the option most strongly aligned with European requirements.

Why European companies look for an EU alternative

• Data sovereignty is now a procurement question: buyers and legal teams increasingly ask not just where data is hosted, but who controls the company holding it.
• EU frameworks are becoming mandatory: NIS2, the EU AI Act, TISAX and C5 are on more companies' agendas, not just SOC 2.
• GDPR accountability stays with you: a non-EU vendor's legal exposure becomes your risk to assess.
• Local practice matters: European auditors, language and authorities call for a partner who knows the European context first-hand.

What Secureframe and Sprinto do well

• Strong SOC 2 and ISO 27001 workflows. Both have mature modules with pre-built control mappings, automated evidence collection from cloud providers, and guided certification workflows. For a startup pursuing its first SOC 2 Type II, they cut prep time significantly.
• Broad integrations. AWS, GCP, Azure, GitHub, Jira, Okta and similar, which automates a lot of the evidence gathering.
• Sprinto is budget-friendly. One of the more affordable options, popular with seed and Series A companies.
• Secureframe is well established. A recognised mid-market platform with a solid track record on US-centric frameworks.

Where they fall short for EU organizations

• Data residency vs sovereignty. Even where an EU hosting region is offered, a non-EU parent company remains reachable under laws like the US CLOUD Act. EU residency alone does not deliver sovereignty.
• EU framework depth. Both centre on SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Coverage of NIS2, the EU AI Act, TISAX and C5 is limited or absent, and GDPR tends to be handled at a high level.
• Software without responsibility. Self-service tooling automates the work but does not interpret European requirements or carry legal accountability.
• Local audit practice and language. European auditors, authorities and German-language documentation expectations call for local expertise these tools do not provide.

Why Kertos is a strong EU alternative

Kertos was built for European requirements rather than adapted to them. Three points make the difference:

• A founding team with legal depth: the founding team includes a German lawyer (Dr. Kilian Schmidt), so requirements are interpreted in a legally sound way, not only automated.
• Certified European experts: accredited specialists work alongside customers, own the compliance topic, and can take on external CISO and DPO mandates.
• European by design: made in Germany, EU co-financed, hosted on European infrastructure, so data residency and sovereignty are the foundation, not an add-on.

Instead of self-service software alone, Kertos combines the agentic platform KAIA with human expertise, and covers ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 42001, GDPR, NIS2, the EU AI Act, SOC 2, TISAX and C5 in one place. The results: a 100% audit pass rate, roughly 80% less manual compliance effort, 98% customer satisfaction, and customers such as AskUI reaching ISO 27001 certification in 8 to 10 weeks.

Kertos compared to Secureframe and Sprinto

Who should choose Secureframe or Sprinto

They remain a good fit if you are a startup outside the EU that primarily needs SOC 2 or ISO 27001, you are optimising for cost (Sprinto especially), and you have no near-term need for EU-specific frameworks or EU data sovereignty.

Who should choose Kertos

Kertos is the better fit if you are based in the EU or serve European customers, need NIS2, the EU AI Act, TISAX, C5 or deeper GDPR alongside ISO 27001 and SOC 2, require genuine EU data sovereignty rather than only EU hosting, or want certified experts owning the work rather than pure self-service software.

What Kertos' European customers say

"The fact that it's fully hosted in Germany and built for EU regulations gave me a lot of confidence over other service providers in this space."

Verified G2 review

"As a European company, we value having a partner from Europe that understands requirements and challenges first-hand, while easily measuring up to US compliance products."

Verified G2 review

"We switched to Kertos because it's exactly what a European startup needs. It helped us implement compliance in a European way, and GDPR in particular is now easy to integrate into our daily routine, without the headache."

Michael M., Senior DevSecOps Engineer & Information Security Officer (G2 review)

"Full automation, hundreds of integrations, and the same technical strength but with local expertise. The personal support is always there when we need it."

Verified G2 review

Verified reviews from the Kertos G2 profile (4.8/5).

Frequently asked questions

Is Kertos a good alternative to Secureframe?

For European organizations, yes. Secureframe is strong on SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Kertos is built for European standards, hosted in the EU, and covers the wider EU framework stack (NIS2, EU AI Act, TISAX, C5) with certified expert support alongside the software.

Is Kertos a good alternative to Sprinto?

Sprinto is a cost-effective SOC 2-focused tool, but it is headquartered outside the EU. European companies that need EU data sovereignty and native coverage of EU frameworks often prefer an EU-native platform such as Kertos.

Where is Kertos data hosted?

On European AWS infrastructure, with the company made in Germany and co-financed by the EU. Data residency and GDPR alignment are built in rather than configured afterwards.

Which frameworks does Kertos cover that SOC 2-focused tools may not?

Alongside SOC 2 and ISO 27001, Kertos covers GDPR, NIS2, the EU AI Act, ISO 42001, ISO 27701, TISAX and C5, which matters for European and regulated companies.