Forgejo Sovereignty: Beyond "Hosted in Switzerland"
Most Git hosting services — GitHub, GitLab.com, Bitbucket — run on US cloud infrastructure, governed by US law. Your source code, issues, CI/CD pipelines, and package registries are accessible under the CLOUD Act without Swiss judicial process.
Self-hosting Forgejo on Swiss infrastructure solves the data residency question — but sovereignty is more than where data is stored. The EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework defines eight dimensions that determine whether your provider is truly sovereign.
Why Forgejo is a strong choice for sovereignty
Forgejo is a community-governed, fully open-source software forge (GPLv3+), maintained under the Codeberg e.V. non-profit. Unlike GitHub (proprietary, Microsoft-owned) or GitLab.com SaaS (US-hosted), Forgejo gives you:
- No vendor lock-in — you can migrate between any Forgejo instance or fork the project
- Full code auditability — every line of Forgejo is inspectable and modifiable
- No corporate dependency — governed by a European non-profit, not a US corporation
- Lightweight and portable — single binary, runs on minimal infrastructure without heavy dependencies
VSHN operates Forgejo on Swiss infrastructure through Codey.ch (managed Forgejo platform) and custom deployments. Combined with VSHN's Swiss ownership and operations, this creates a fully sovereign development platform.
Forgejo sovereignty compared
| Dimension | GitHub (Microsoft) | GitLab.com SaaS | VSHN Managed Forgejo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Microsoft (USA) | GitLab Inc. (USA) | VSHN AG (Switzerland) |
| Governing law | US law | US law | Swiss law |
| CLOUD Act | Exposed | Exposed | Not exposed |
| Data location | USA (Azure) | USA (Google Cloud) | Switzerland (cloudscale.ch, Exoscale, or your choice) |
| Source code | Proprietary | Open core | Open source (Forgejo, GPLv3+) |
| Operations team | USA | USA | Switzerland (Swiss-only option) |
| Certifications | SOC 2, ISO 27001 | SOC 2 | ISO 27001, ISAE 3402 Type II |
VSHN sovereignty self-assessment
We applied the EU's Cloud Sovereignty Framework (v1.2.1, October 2025) to our own services. This framework was used to score providers in the EU's EUR 180M sovereign cloud tender in April 2026 — three pure-European providers achieved SEAL-3, while a consortium involving Google Cloud scored only SEAL-2.
This is a self-assessment, not a formal SEAL certification. We publish it for transparency so customers can evaluate our sovereignty profile using the same structured criteria the EU uses.
| # | Dimension | Weight | Assessment | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOV-1 | Strategic | 15% | Strong | Swiss AG, no foreign parent, all shareholders Swiss citizens (Commercial Register) |
| SOV-2 | Legal | 10% | Strong | Swiss law (GTC), no CLOUD Act, EU adequacy decision |
| SOV-3 | Data & AI | 10% | Strong | Swiss DCs by default. Sovereign key management via Managed OpenBao + Swiss HSM |
| SOV-4 | Operational | 15% | Strong | Swiss 24/7 ops, Swiss-only support option. All services on vanilla Kubernetes |
| SOV-5 | Supply Chain | 20% | Strong | Infrastructure-agnostic — customer chooses provider. Open-source software |
| SOV-6 | Technology | 15% | Strong | 100% open source. VSHN contributes to K8up (CNCF), Crossplane providers, Project Syn |
| SOV-7 | Security | 10% | Strong | ISO 27001, ISAE 3402 Type II, Swiss SOC. FINMA-regulated customers |
| SOV-8 | Environmental | 5% | Moderate | DC operators: Green Datacenter AG (ISO 22301/27001/27701), Exoscale sustainability. VSHN CSR policy |
Overall: SEAL-3 equivalent — the same level achieved by the winners of the EU's own sovereignty tender. No provider worldwide achieved SEAL-4, as it requires fully EU/EEA-sourced hardware supply chains and open-source foundations — structural gaps shared by every cloud provider.
Get a sovereignty assessment for your Git hosting
Hosting code on GitHub or GitLab.com and concerned about CLOUD Act exposure? We assess your sovereignty profile against the EU framework and plan a migration to Forgejo on Swiss infrastructure.