Orbifs vs SharePoint
Orbifs is a European alternative to SharePoint: same cloud & hosting use case, headquartered in Norway and governed by EU GDPR, while SharePoint (Microsoft) is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Virtual project drive for CAD, BIM, point-cloud and media files: local-feeling access on Windows and macOS, safe file locking, immutable version recovery, EU-hosted.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
SharePoint is Microsoft's document management and intranet platform, bundled into Microsoft 365 subscriptions and used by most large organisations for file storage, team sites and workflows. Microsoft is headquartered in the US, so data held in SharePoint falls within reach of the US CLOUD Act.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
Orbifs vs SharePoint at a glance
| Orbifs | SharePoint | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Norway | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | United States |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need cloud & hosting built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem |
Choose Orbifs if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with SharePoint if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Microsoft ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
About Orbifs
Orbifs turns terabytes of heavy project files into an ordinary drive on Windows and macOS. CAD, BIM, point-cloud and media files stream on demand from a virtual project drive, so nobody waits for a full sync, fights a VPN, or overwrites a colleague's work with a stale copy.
Native desktop clients mount the drive like a local disk. Safe file locking keeps a single writer on Revit, ArchiCAD or AutoCAD models while everyone else reads, and a LAN cache (beta) brings office-network speed to large opens. Admins get audit export, and the Business plan adds SSO/SAML.
Key benefits:
- Virtual drive files appear local on Windows and macOS with no sync conflicts
- File locking one writer at a time on CAD and BIM models
- Immutable recovery roll back ransomware or accidental deletes from protected versions
- LAN cache office-network speed for heavy file opens (beta)
- Team plans 1 to 15 TB and 5 to 50 seats, from 69 euros per month
- Admin controls audit export on every plan, SSO/SAML on Business
Orbifs stores data in France on OVHcloud infrastructure, replicated across multiple EU data centres and governed by European law. The company behind it, Archi Systems AS, is based in Oslo, Norway (EEA), so GDPR applies by default and there is no US CLOUD Act exposure; a signable DPA and a CSA STAR Level 1 self-assessment are published.
Ideal for architecture and BIM studios, surveyors, contractors and media teams that want Dropbox-simple access to files far too heavy for Dropbox.
Why choose Orbifs over SharePoint?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. SharePoint is headquartered in the United States, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Orbifs removes that overhead. As a Norway-based provider, it operates under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.