EU data residency
Form backend data residency in Europe
Data residency is a simple question with awkward answers for most form tools: where does the data physically live? With Formward, the answer is Europe. The application is self-hosted in Sweden, submissions and backups stay in the EU, and every sub-processor that touches submission data is in the EU/EEA. There is no region toggle to set - EU residency is the default on every plan.
Formward stores and processes your form-submission data - and the personal data of the people who fill in your forms - in the EU/EEA. On our side the only third-country touchpoints are optional Cloudflare Turnstile (off unless you enable it) and Stripe for billing of paying customers, neither of which receives form-submission content. Data does leave the EU wherever you send it yourself: a notification or autoresponder mailbox hosted outside the EU, Google Sheets sync, or a webhook URL. Those destinations are yours to choose and to assess.
Where your data lives
Every processor that handles form-submission data, and where it sits:
| Data | Location | Processor |
|---|---|---|
| Submissions, account data, file attachments, backups | Sweden (EU) | Hostup AB |
| Notification email delivery | France (EU) | Mailjet (Sinch) |
| Optional AI enrichment (paid plans) | France (EU) | Mistral AI |
The canonical, current list - including the billing sub-processor - is in our sub-processor register.
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 the submission data entirely - there is no third-country transfer to assess.
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-owned providers as well as European servers: Hostup AB (Sweden) for hosting and database, Mailjet by Sinch (Sweden) for notification email, and Mistral AI (France) for optional AI enrichment. None of them has a US parent.
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 processes the paying customer's billing details but never submission content. The full picture is in the sub-processor register.
Europe versus US-hosted form tools
Formward
- Submission data stored in Sweden.
- EU-owned, not just EU-hosted: no US parent on the submission path.
- EU-only sub-processors for submission data.
- Backups kept within the EU.
- No Chapter V transfer in Formward's processing.
Typical US-hosted form tool
- Data stored or processed in the US.
- An EU region on a US-owned cloud is still within reach of the US CLOUD Act.
- Sub-processors may include US providers.
- Backups may reside outside the EU.
- EU–US transfer governance required.
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 personal 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 touches submission data - hosting, notification email, optional AI enrichment - is located in the EU.
- 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. Stripe processes the paying customer's own billing data to run subscription payments. Both are covered by Article 46 safeguards and documented in our transfer-impact statement.
- 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-owned providers - Hostup AB (Sweden), Mailjet by Sinch (Sweden) and Mistral AI (France) - none of which has a US parent. This is about whose law reaches the data, not immunity from lawful process: a Swedish provider answers to Swedish and EU courts.
- 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.
Keep your form data in Europe
Start free with 100 submissions a month. EU data residency on every plan, with no region to configure.