European survey tool: empirio.ai as an EU alternative

If you’re looking for a survey tool, you quickly end up with the big names from the US. They’re well known and look good, but your survey data, and often the AI processing too, then sits outside Europe. European alternatives, whatever the field, usually put their focus on data protection instead. In return, you often have to do without innovation and a modern interface.

empirio.ai does things differently. We combine both: a modern survey tool from Germany, where your survey data and the AI features stay in the EU. The UK isn’t part of the EU, but UK data protection law recognises EU countries as providing an adequate level of protection. That means you can use a European survey tool from the UK without putting extra transfer safeguards in place. In this post we show you what digital sovereignty means for surveys and why empirio.ai is a very good European alternative to the well-known survey tools.

How empirio.ai handles data protection in detail is explained in our post How to create GDPR-compliant surveys with empirio.ai.

Digital sovereignty in the EU for online surveys

Digital sovereignty means that Europe can act independently in the digital world. The European Commission takes this to mean developing and controlling key technologies, data and infrastructure itself, while relying less on providers outside the EU. You can read more on the European Commission’s page Strengthening Europe’s Tech Sovereignty.

Day to day, this means you decide where your data is stored and who can access it. That matters in the UK just as much as in the EU, even though the UK has its own data protection rules under the UK GDPR.

Why surveys are particularly sensitive

In a survey, people trust you with their opinions, their experiences and sometimes very personal details. That might be feedback from employees, information about their health or answers for a dissertation. Precisely because this data can reveal so much about individuals, it should be clear which country it’s stored in and which law applies to it. That’s why many businesses, universities and clubs deliberately choose a survey tool from Europe.

EUSurvey: the EU’s own survey tool

The EU even runs its own survey tool, EUSurvey. It comes from the European Commission, is free of charge and open source, and is designed for public consultations and internal surveys. In our view, though, the EUSurvey interface doesn’t feel very modern and it isn’t particularly intuitive to use.

If you’re after a European survey tool with a modern design, AI features and live results, empirio.ai is a very good alternative to EUSurvey. empirio.ai is also listed on European Alternatives, a directory of digital services from Europe.

European survey tool: empirio.ai at a glance

empirio.ai is a European survey tool that combines a modern design with data storage and AI in the EU. Here’s what speaks for empirio.ai:

1. A survey tool from Germany, continuously developed since 2018
2. Your survey data stays in the EU
3. The AI models run in the EU
4. Modern design instead of a plain form look
5. Start for free without cutting corners on data protection

Below we go through the five points one by one, so you know exactly what’s behind each of them.

1. A survey tool from Germany, continuously developed since 2018

empirio.ai is run by a company based in Germany. Since 2018, more than 100,000 people have trusted us with their surveys, from students to clubs and businesses. For you, that means your contract is with a provider in the EU and German law applies to the contract.

That might sound like a formality, but it makes a difference day to day. Questions about data protection, the data processing agreement or an invoice are handled by a provider that works under the GDPR every day. If you’re in the UK, it’s also worth knowing that our data processing agreement covers the UK GDPR where applicable.

2. Your survey data stays in the EU

All survey data, including your participants’ answers, is processed and stored on servers in the European Union. That means European data protection law applies to it throughout, and there’s no transfer to the US to assess or explain for your stored responses.

For UK users there’s a second point. UK law recognises all EU and EEA countries as providing an adequate level of data protection. According to the ICO, you don’t need extra safeguards or a transfer risk assessment when you rely on these adequacy regulations. You should still check your provider with reasonable care, and that’s exactly what our documents are for.

We’re open about which service providers we use to run the platform and where they’re based. You’ll find everything in our privacy policy and in the data processing agreement. You get the agreement automatically when you sign up, even on the free plan.

3. The AI models run in the EU

Many survey tools store and process survey data in Europe, but send your content to a language model in the US as soon as you use the AI. For many providers, that’s exactly where the European solution ends.

At empirio.ai, the AI features we offer ourselves process your content exclusively on infrastructure within the European Union. Your inputs and survey data aren’t used to train AI models. So you can let the AI draft a questionnaire or analyse responses without the data leaving the EU.

4. Modern design instead of a plain form look

European doesn’t have to mean old-fashioned. A survey that looks good and is easy to fill in is more likely to be completed. That’s why we put a lot of work into the editor and into how your surveys look.

• The AI editor drafts a questionnaire for you from a short description.
• You can match colours, logo and template to your own design in a few clicks.
• You decide whether all questions appear on one page, each question appears on its own or several questions are shown per page.
• Question types such as matrix, ranking, NPS and rating scales are included from the start.
• You see responses live in the dashboard, not just in a spreadsheet later on.

If you work with surveys a lot, you can now also use the editor with keyboard shortcuts. With a wide range of integrations, you can also connect empirio.ai to tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, n8n or Zapier. Whether you use them is up to you, as nothing is sent to external services automatically.

5. Start for free without cutting corners on data protection

With some providers, the data processing agreement or a European server location is only available on a paid plan. At empirio.ai, these are part of the basic package.

• The data processing agreement applies from the moment you sign up.
• Survey data is processed and stored in the EU.
• Two-factor authentication is included on all plans.
• You can export or delete responses and entire surveys yourself at any time.

So you can try empirio.ai at your own pace, without having to choose between a low-cost start and a European solution.

Checklist: how to spot a European survey tool

An EU flag on the homepage doesn’t tell you much. These five questions help you quickly find out how European a survey tool really is and whether it works for you in the UK:

• Where is the provider based? A company based in the EU is directly subject to European law.
• Where is the survey data? Make sure it’s not only stored but also processed in the EU. EU and EEA countries are covered by UK adequacy regulations, so you don’t need extra transfer safeguards for them.
• Where does the AI run? Ask where your content goes when you use AI features and whether it’s used to train models.
• Which service providers are involved? A trustworthy provider names its sub-processors openly.
• Do you get the data processing agreement at no extra cost and does it cover the UK GDPR? It shouldn’t be tied to an expensive plan.

Which data protection rules apply to your survey is explained in our guide to data protection in surveys. For a comparison of different providers, take a look at our overview of the best survey tools compared.

How empirio.ai compares directly with the well-known US tools is something we show you in separate articles: empirio.ai as a Google Forms alternative, as a SurveyMonkey alternative and as a Microsoft Forms alternative.

If you want to get started straight away, you can create your survey here.