2025 barometer for municipalities in Vaud

The 2025 barometer on digital sovereignty and compliance in Vaud municipalities reveals interesting progress, but also areas requiring vigilance. The topics analysed concern:

• the CMS used,
• cookie management,
• the country where websites are hosted,
• and the storage of administrative emails.
  

These results show that, although good practices are already in place, many municipalities can go further to strengthen their digital independence and legal compliance.

CMS used

The majority of municipalities have opted for local solutions rather than major international CMSs (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla!). This choice reflects a desire to adapt to the specific needs of local authorities.

However, some solutions such as Wix remain limited: if the subscription is cancelled, the website may disappear. In the long term, this type of dependency poses a risk.

Websites hosting

Almost all municipalities host their websites in Switzerland, which is excellent news. Local services are efficient, secure and tailored to the needs of public administrations.

Cookies management

Today, 83% of local authorities place at least one cookie without asking visitors for their consent, mainly via Google Analytics or other American services (Google Maps, Google Fonts, Google Calendar, Cloudflare). This raises legal issues and questions of public trust.

Email storage

52% of municipalities use Microsoft, whose data centres in Switzerland remain subject to US legislation. This means that, despite local hosting, data may be accessible from abroad.

However, 135 municipalities have already opted for Swiss providers, a choice that clearly strengthens digital sovereignty.

Conclusion: an opportunity for municipalities in the canton of Vaud

The 2025 barometer shows that municipalities in Vaud have already taken several steps towards greater digital sovereignty. However, there is still room for improvement, particularly with regard to cookie management and email sovereignty.

Switzerland has all the resources it needs to guarantee modern, secure and sovereign digital services. Our mission is to help municipalities take full advantage of them.