Shiftphone

Germany Electronics & hardware

Family-run German maker of modular, repairable smartphones built for fairness and longevity, with no outside investors. Users can open and fix the devices themselves — a sustainable European alternative to sealed flagship phones.

Quick facts

Headquarters Falkenberg, Germany
Company SHIFT GmbH
Founded 2014
Ownership Independent
Hosting 🇩🇪 Germany, EU
Infrastructure Mixed infrastructure
Data jurisdiction EU
Open source No
GDPR Compliant
Pricing One-time purchase · from €333
Free tier No
Platforms Web, Android
Languages
ENDE
What people like

The modular design means you can genuinely open the phone and swap a broken screen or battery yourself, extending its life well past what a sealed flagship allows.

Worth knowing

Camera and performance specs trail flagship phones from Apple or Samsung, and the price is high for what's a mid-range spec sheet, reflecting the small-batch European manufacturing.

80 · Strongly European

This score rates data storage, ownership and jurisdiction. It says nothing about where a physical product is made, sourced or shipped from.

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Why does it score 80?

Legal jurisdiction
EU member-state HQ
Why this score?

Incorporated in Falkenberg, Germany – a full EU member state.

30/30
Ownership & control
Independent ownership
Why this score?

Family-owned by the Waldeck brothers, with no external investors.

25/25
Data sovereignty
Mixed infrastructure
Why this score?

Runs on a mix of infrastructure across Germany and the wider EU rather than servers it owns outright.

12/30
Accountability & trust
GDPR compliant
Why this score?

GDPR-compliant, but the hardware and software aren't open source, which keeps the accountability score more modest.

8/15
Independence bonus
Bootstrapped, no outside investors
+5
EuroPoints total
80/100
How we calculate EuroPoints →

See how they compare

Shiftphone
EuroPoints
80 Strongly European
100 Certified European
65 Mostly European
Legal jurisdiction
EU member-state HQ30/30
EU member-state HQ30/30
EU member-state HQ30/30
Ownership & control
Independent ownership25/25
Independent ownership25/25
Publicly traded, EU/EFTA HQ15/25
Data sovereignty
Mixed infrastructure12/30
Own infrastructure30/30
Mixed infrastructure12/30
Accountability & trust
GDPR compliant8/15
Partially open source + GDPR10/15
GDPR compliant8/15
Independence bonus
Bootstrapped, no outside investors5/5
Bootstrapped, no outside investors5/5
—
Headquarters
Falkenberg, Germany
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Founded
2014
2013
1991
Open source
No
Partial
No
Infrastructure
Mixed infrastructure
Own infrastructure
Mixed infrastructure
GDPR
✓
✓
✓
Free tier
✗
✗
✗
Pricing
One-time · from €333
Paid · from €649
One-time · from €149
Platforms
Web, Android
Android
Web, iOS, Android
Languages
en, de
en, nl, de, fr, es, it
en, nl, de, fr, es, it

What does it replace?