Hygraph
✓ Verified by EU AltsGraphQL-native headless CMS — a German alternative to Contentful.
Overview
Hygraph is a Berlin, Germany-based European company building cms and developer tools software since 2017. Despite its EU base, EU Alts has verified that Hygraph independently owned, with its ultimate ownership based in Germany, and hosts customer data with AWS (Amazon Web Services) — inferred from region-naming conventions and an S3 integration mention, not explicitly named as vendor in Multi-region including EU (Frankfurt, Germany), but underlying cloud vendor is US-owned, so it may still fall under the reach of the US CLOUD Act — worth weighing against WordPress.com and WP Engine on this specific point.
Why European teams pick Hygraph
Teams in Europe still consider Hygraph for its cms product and Germany presence, operating since 2017, but unlike a fully EU-owned provider, Hygraph independently owned, with its ultimate ownership based in Germany, and hosts customer data with AWS (Amazon Web Services) — inferred from region-naming conventions and an S3 integration mention, not explicitly named as vendor in Multi-region including EU (Frankfurt, Germany), but underlying cloud vendor is US-owned — so it does not fully avoid US CLOUD Act exposure the way some other alternatives to WordPress.com and WP Engine do.
See more EU cms tools or browse other startups from Germany.
About
Hygraph (formerly GraphCMS) is a German headless CMS founded in Berlin in 2017, built around a GraphQL-native API. It supports complex, federated content schemas, content federation (embedding data from external APIs into the content layer), and granular role-based access control. Hygraph stores data in Germany under GDPR compliance with a DPA available for all paid plans. It is particularly popular for enterprise content management use cases where content must be federated across multiple data sources or delivered to multiple frontends and channels simultaneously. Hygraph is a strong EU alternative to Contentful (US) for teams that prioritise EU data residency and a GraphQL-first API.
Details
- Founded
- 2017
- Headquarters
- Berlin, Germany
- Ownership
- Independently owned (Germany)
- Hosting
- AWS (Amazon Web Services) — inferred from region-naming conventions and an S3 integration mention, not explicitly named as vendor, Multi-region including EU (Frankfurt, Germany), but underlying cloud vendor is US-owned
- CLOUD Act
- Exposed
- Company size
- 51–200 employees
Categories
Other EU startups like Hygraph
- Unchained Engine Switzerland — Open-source headless e-commerce framework for Node.js, self-hostable and Swiss-made.
- Codebahn Sweden — Codebahn is managed Git and CI for European teams.
- Curity Sweden — Swedish identity and API access platform. OAuth and OpenID Connect infrastructure for organisations where security and control are non-negotiable.
- Hanko Germany — Open-source passkey and passwordless authentication from Kiel, Germany. Made and hosted in Europe, with self-hosting available.
- cidaas Germany — German cloud identity and access management (CIAM) platform — made and hosted in Germany, with dedicated German server locations for regulated sectors.
- Ploq The Netherlands — Ploq is EU-built webhook infrastructure: retries, event filtering, and health monitoring, GDPR-compliant end to end. SDKs for Node.js and Java, a WordPress plugin, and a forkable Mac/Windows app for sending and receiving events.
Frequently asked questions
What is Hygraph?
Hygraph (formerly GraphCMS) is a German headless CMS founded in Berlin in 2017, built around a GraphQL-native API. It supports complex, federated content schemas, content federation (embedding data from external APIs into the content layer), and granular role-based access control. Hygraph stores data in Germany under GDPR compliance with a DPA available for all paid plans. It is particularly popular for enterprise content management use cases where content must be federated across multiple data sources or delivered to multiple frontends and channels simultaneously. Hygraph is a strong EU alternative to Contentful (US) for teams that prioritise EU data residency and a GraphQL-first API.
What does Hygraph do?
Hygraph is graphql-native headless cms — a german alternative to contentful. It is listed under cms and developer tools on EU Alts because its core functionality serves teams looking for a European cms tool with EU data residency, typically as a switch away from WordPress.com and WP Engine.
Is Hygraph a good European cms alternative?
Hygraph is a fit for European businesses evaluating cms options where data residency and GDPR alignment matter — typical buyers include EU-based SaaS teams, public-sector projects, regulated industries (healthcare, finance, legal), and any organisation that needs to demonstrate that customer data does not leave the EU. It also overlaps with developer tools use cases.
Is Hygraph GDPR compliant?
Hygraph is headquartered in Berlin, Germany and processes user data under the GDPR by default. Customer data processing is supervised by Germany's data protection authority, the Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit (BfDI). However, EU Alts has verified that Hygraph independently owned, with its ultimate ownership based in Germany, and hosts customer data with AWS (Amazon Web Services) — inferred from region-naming conventions and an S3 integration mention, not explicitly named as vendor in Multi-region including EU (Frankfurt, Germany), but underlying cloud vendor is US-owned, which means — unlike a fully EU-owned provider — it may still be reachable under the US CLOUD Act, similar to WordPress.com and WP Engine in that respect.
How do teams switch from WordPress.com to Hygraph?
Teams evaluating a move from WordPress.com and WP Engine to Hygraph should note: Hygraph independently owned, with its ultimate ownership based in Germany, and hosts customer data with AWS (Amazon Web Services) — inferred from region-naming conventions and an S3 integration mention, not explicitly named as vendor in Multi-region including EU (Frankfurt, Germany), but underlying cloud vendor is US-owned, so this switch narrows but may not fully close the US CLOUD Act gap. Weigh that against the cms workflow fit before treating it as a complete Schrems II fix.
Where is Hygraph based?
Hygraph is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. The company was founded in 2017. Its main website is https://hygraph.com.