Is KI BMS subject to the CLOUD Act?

No. The CLOUD Act compels US-based companies (or US subsidiaries) to hand over data they control, regardless of where it physically lives. KI BMS has no US entity, no US contracts, and no US-controlled infrastructure in the data plane. Stripe processes payment data and is US-headquartered, but that boundary is well-defined: payment metadata only, never your records.

Where exactly is my data stored?

On dedicated servers we operate ourselves, physically located in Germany. The audit log, attachments, embeddings - everything in the data plane - lives there. Backups stay within the same EU jurisdiction in different physical locations and roll off on a 30-day window. We deliberately do not name the exact data centre - knowing the rack does not buy the customer anything and would make operator changes a public event.

Do you log IPs or session metadata to a US service?

No third-party analytics, no Google Analytics, no Meta pixel, no third-country tag manager. The first-party device + session ledger lives in our own Postgres + Redis - same EU boundary as the rest of the data plane. Logs are operational only and rotate at 30 days.

What happens if I'm a customer outside the EU?

You can use KI BMS from anywhere. The data still lives in the EU; the request travels from your location to our servers and back. That's a posture choice on our side, not a geo-restriction on yours.

KI BMS

Pricing

Compare

KI BMS: the EU alternative to Factorial

Same job, hosted in the EU. KI BMS runs in Germany under German law - your data stays in EU jurisdiction end to end.

EU alternative

ATS

Comparison

HR suite

Julia YukovichCo-Founder + CEO

·April 16, 2026·

2 min read

If your reason for moving off Factorial is data sovereignty, the comparison gets simpler. KI BMS is hosted in Germany on infrastructure we operate ourselves - no US-headquartered company in the request path. The CLOUD Act does not reach what physically lives here.

At a glance

Factorial is a strong pick if you want an HR platform for all personnel admin - time tracking, absence, documents, payroll handoff and a recruiting module on top. For 20-200-person companies without dedicated HR software, that's a sensible consolidation. KI BMS is right when recruiting is your bottleneck and you want KI pre-sort with reasoning, a real pipeline and a German careers page instead of a platform's generalist recruiting tab. The most common 2026 architecture: Factorial for HR admin, KI BMS for recruiting in parallel.

EU jurisdiction

What 'EU-hosted' actually means here, end to end

KI BMS runs on dedicated machines we operate ourselves, physically located in Germany. There is no US-headquartered subprocessor in the request path - the data plane (your records, your files, your audit log) lives entirely in EU jurisdiction. Two third parties exist outside that boundary: Stripe (payment information only, under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework) and the mail relay for transactional email. Neither sees your records. Factorial's setup is the variable - if their primary infra is US-based, the CLOUD Act applies regardless of what their privacy page claims.

KI BMS vs Factorial: EU comparison

	Ours KI BMS	Theirs Factorial
Hosted in Germany		EU hosting
Time tracking + absence
Documents + payroll handoff
Recruiting module	Specialist	Module
KI fit-score with reasoning		KI features present, recruiting depth limited
Multi-voice scorecards		Limited
Careers page included		Basic page
GDPR auto-anonymisation		Manual
Starting price	€0 / €1 / €10 per month	Per employee, module-dependent
Contract model	Monthly cancellation	Annual contract typical

When to pick which

Pick KI BMS when

Recruiting is your bottleneck - 5+ open roles or 100+ applications per quarter, and the generalist module no longer suffices.

You want KI pre-sort with reasoning and structured scorecards, not 'another recruiting tab in the platform'.

You already run Factorial (or another HR platform) and just need a better ATS alongside.

Pick Factorial when

You don't have HR software yet and want to consolidate time tracking, absence, documents and payroll handoff first.

Recruiting is small - 1-4 roles a year, the module needs to suffice, not shine.

A single platform is politically easier to procure than two specialists.

EU-jurisdiction questions

Specific to where the data lives, who can subpoena it, and what crosses borders.

Start with KI BMS

Free plan, no credit card. We host in Germany. Export + delete are self-serve.

Written by

Julia Yukovich

Co-Founder + CEO

Julia is one of the Co-Founders. She handles design, product direction, and most of the support replies that arrive in the morning.

julia.yukovich at aicuflow dot comLinkedIn