Form backend data residency in Europe

Where your data lives

Every place Formward keeps or sends data, including the ones that are not in the EU:

The canonical, current list of processors is in our sub-processor register. Backups and encryption are described on the security page, and the legal detail is in the privacy policy and the DPA.

How one submission moves

A contact form on your site, followed from the submit button to deletion:

1. The visitor's browser posts the form to forms.formward.eu, which runs on our server in Sweden. The IP address is turned into a keyed hash on arrival.
2. If you switched on Cloudflare Turnstile for the form, the widget in the visitor's browser talks to Cloudflare first, and our server sends Cloudflare the token (not the IP address) to check it. Without Turnstile, Cloudflare is not involved.
3. The submission is saved in the PostgreSQL database in Sweden. Uploaded files are saved on the same server.
4. On Professional and Business, Mistral AI in France scores and summarises the text, unless you switched AI off for the form.
5. Mailjet sends the notification email from its EU data centre to the address you set. Where that mailbox is hosted is up to you.
6. Anything you connected, such as a webhook, Slack, Google Sheets or Baserow, receives a copy at the address you configured.
7. Retention deletes the submission and its files when the period ends (fixed at 30 days on Free). Copies in encrypted backups expire as the backups rotate, within 30 days.

Each form's data-flow map in the dashboard lists the outside destinations that form has switched on. Webhooks and file uploads are Professional and Business features; see plans.

Why residency in Europe matters

Form submissions usually contain personal data. When the form backend is a US service running on US infrastructure, that personal data is stored or processed outside the EU, and you have to govern an EU-US transfer under Chapter V of the GDPR and account for US surveillance law (the issue at the heart of the Schrems II ruling). Keeping the data in the EU/EEA removes that transfer question for Formward's own processing. Any destination you add outside the EU is still yours to assess, and the rest of the GDPR (lawful basis, privacy notice, retention) still applies.

Hosted in Europe is not the same as owned in Europe

Short answer: a US-owned company can be compelled under the US CLOUD Act to hand over data it holds, wherever in the world the servers are. So “we have an EU region” on a US-parented cloud narrows the question - it does not close it. Formward's submission path runs on European companies as well as European servers: Hostup AB (Sweden) for hosting and database, Mistral AI (France) for AI enrichment, and Mailjet (France, part of the Swedish Sinch group) for notification email.

This is a statement about whose law reaches the data, not a promise of immunity from lawful process - a Swedish provider answers to Swedish and EU courts. It is also why our two US-owned touchpoints are documented rather than hidden: Cloudflare Turnstile is off unless you enable it and receives challenge data only, and Stripe bills paying customers through its Irish entity but never receives submission content. The full picture is in the sub-processor register.

Europe versus US-hosted form tools

Frequently asked questions

Where does Formward store form-submission data?

Submissions, account data, file attachments, and backups are stored in Sweden on infrastructure operated by Hostup AB. The application and PostgreSQL database run on EU infrastructure. There is no US-based or non-EU cloud for submission data.

Does any submission data leave the EU/EEA?

Not in Formward's own processing: we store and process form-submission data, and the personal data of the people who fill in your forms, inside the EU/EEA. It does leave where you send it - a notification or autoresponder mailbox hosted outside the EU, Google Sheets sync, or a webhook URL you configure. Every sub-processor that receives submission content is located in the EU: hosting, notification email, and when enabled, AI enrichment via Mistral AI (France).

Are backups also kept in Europe?

Yes. We take regular encrypted backups of the PostgreSQL database and keep them within the EU (Sweden). Data may persist in encrypted backups for a limited period after deletion before being overwritten on the normal rotation cycle.

What about the US touchpoints I have heard about?

There are two, and neither receives form-submission content. Cloudflare Turnstile is an optional anti-bot challenge that is off unless you enable it per form; when it is on, Cloudflare in the US sees challenge data from the visitor's browser. Stripe Payments Europe, Limited (Ireland) bills paying customers and may transfer some billing data to Stripe in the US under SCCs and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Both are documented in our transfer-impact statement at formward.eu/compliance/transfers.

Is an EU region on AWS, Google Cloud or Azure the same as EU data residency?

Not quite. Those providers are US-owned, and under the US CLOUD Act a US-parented company can be compelled to produce data it holds regardless of where the servers are. An EU region narrows the question; it does not close it. Formward's submission path runs on European providers: Hostup AB (Sweden) and Mistral AI (France) are European companies, and Mailjet (France) belongs to the Swedish Sinch group. This is about whose law reaches the data, not immunity from lawful process: a Swedish provider answers to Swedish and EU courts.

Can I keep all submission data inside the EU?

Yes. Leave Cloudflare Turnstile off, send notifications to a mailbox hosted in the EU, and connect only webhooks, sheets or tools that run in the EU. Formward's own storage, email delivery and AI then stay in the EU. Billing for your own subscription still runs through Stripe, separately from submission data.

Do I need to configure anything to get EU data residency?

No. EU data residency for submission data is the default on every form and every plan, including the free plan. There is no region setting to choose.