What happened to datenschutzexperte.de?

The brand no longer stands on its own: the domain redirects to the Proliance site, and the provider dates the rebrand to 2025 on its own facts page. So if you were looking for a comparison against datenschutzexperte.de, this is the current one. For your own due diligence that means: refer to today's company and brand name in tenders and contracts, and check whether older quotes, references or reviews still relate to the previous market presence.

Is CIVAC an alternative to Proliance?

Only in part. If you are looking for software your own appointed officers work in, the offerings are comparable. If instead you want to place the data protection officer role entirely outside the company, you are comparing a service with a product — an external officer is then the more direct route, and CIVAC offers that too, but as a separate engagement alongside the licence. The real difference is breadth: CIVAC is built for every mandatory officer role, not for data protection and adjacent topics alone.

Why do you not quote the other provider's prices?

Because third-party prices change, so a copied figure would sooner or later become an untrue statement — and comparative advertising with untrue statements is unlawful. What is verifiable and stable is the shape of the model, and that we do describe: a monthly subscription in packages tiered by company size and depth of support, alongside one-off setup and audit fees. The authoritative source for actual amounts is always the provider's own public pricing page. Our own price we state concretely: EUR 49 per officer role per month.

Does Proliance also cover occupational safety or fire safety?

In the provider's publicly visible solution overview at the time this page was written, data protection, information security, whistleblower protection, AI governance, training and EU representation were listed; roles from occupational, fire or environmental safety were not named there. That is an observation on a given date and no proof of the opposite — portfolios change, and the current position should be checked with the provider. For CIVAC: 77 officer roles in the data model, version 1 instantiated for the data protection officer.

Can I keep an external officer and still use CIVAC?

Yes. The appointment under Art. 37 GDPR and the tool the work happens in are two separate decisions. Many companies keep their external data protection officer and use CIVAC for the remaining roles — occupational safety, fire safety, hazardous substances, anti-money-laundering, the internal reporting channel — because no specialist tool exists there. You can also give the external officer access to the workspace so that tasks, deadlines and evidence converge in one place. In that case, settle roles and access rights in the data processing agreement.

Where does the information about Proliance on this page come from?

Exclusively from the provider's own publicly accessible pages — imprint, company and facts page, solution overview, platform and pricing pages — retrieved in August 2026. We reproduce them as the provider's statements, not as our own assertions. Where we could not verify something, we wrote nothing: on storage location, data centre, the provider's own certifications, minimum term and notice period we deliberately make no statement. Portfolios and prices change; check the current position with the provider before deciding.

All comparisons

Provider comparison

CIVAC and Proliance compared

Proliance is a Munich-based provider offering the external data protection officer as a service alongside its own platform; by its own account the company has been on the market since 2017 and has traded under the Proliance brand since 2025, previously as datenschutzexperte.de. CIVAC is not a service provider with software attached but a workplace for appointed officers — across every role, at a publicly stated price per role. This page compares what can be compared objectively: role coverage, the type of pricing model, the operating model, and how your data is handled.

Criteria at a glance

Criterion	CIVAC	Proliance
Category	A software workspace for appointed officers. The substantive work stays with your people; having us supply an officer is a separately engaged service.	The provider publicly describes its offering as a platform combined with personal expert advice; the external data protection officer is listed as a named product.
Officer roles covered	77 officer roles in the data model — from data protection and information security through occupational safety, fire safety and hazardous substances to immission control, dangerous goods and radiation protection. Version 1 is instantiated for the data protection officer.	The public solution overview lists data protection, information security, whistleblower protection, AI governance, training and EU representation. Roles from occupational, fire or environmental safety are not listed there (as of August 2026).
Pricing model	EUR 49 per officer role per month, publicly stated. Each further role is added individually; officers we supply are priced individually.	A monthly subscription in tiered packages scaled by company size and depth of support. The tiers are publicly visible; alongside them, one-off setup and audit fees are stated, and some packages are on request.
Operating model	Default is self-operation: your own appointed officers work in the workspace. Optionally we supply certified officers from our team and partner network who run the same platform for you.	The provider supplies the person: the external data protection officer is taken on, and higher packages describe shorter response times and a dedicated contact.
Software component	Six areas in one interface — tasks, trainings, audits, documentation, checks and settings — with 905 templates and recurring cycles.	The provider describes its own platform with modules for, among others, records of processing, technical and organisational measures, impact assessments, breaches, policies, training and a whistleblowing system.
Getting started	Create an account, pick a role, start working. No sales call in front of it.	The publicly described route is selecting a support package and contacting the provider.
Data residency	Processing and storage exclusively in the EU (Google Cloud Frankfurt region). Sub-processors, encryption and the deletion concept are disclosed in our trust centre.	Storage location, sub-processors and the provider's own certifications should — as with any vendor — be checked in the Art. 28 GDPR data processing agreement. We make no statements about third parties here.
Stated target group	Companies that fill more than one officer role in-house and want a shared workplace rather than a separate silo per role.	By its own description the offering addresses small and medium-sized enterprises; the package tiers are keyed to headcount.

About these statements: All statements about third parties rest on publicly available information published by the respective provider at the time this page was written (August 2026) and may have changed since. We compare only characteristics that can be verified from such sources; where we lacked evidence, we describe the category rather than the individual company. We deliberately do not quote third-party prices — the provider's current price list always governs. Trade and company names mentioned belong to their respective owners; they are named for identification only.

A service and a tool solve different problems

Engaging an external data protection officer primarily buys a qualified person and their willingness to take on the role. The software that comes with it is a means to an end: it structures the provider's work and gives you visibility. Licensing a workspace buys the opposite: the tool is the point, and the expertise comes from your own appointed officers. That distinction is not a value judgement — it is the starting point for any sensible selection.

The practical test is simple: is the role already filled in-house? If it is, a service package pays for capacity you already hold. If it is not, and you do not intend to build it, engaging an external officer is the shorter route — and Art. 37(6) GDPR expressly permits it. CIVAC covers both cases but keeps them apart: the licence at the stated monthly price, and the supply of an officer as a separate engagement.

The gap widens with every further appointment duty

As long as data protection is the only thing to organise, both routes work. Once further appointment duties appear, the picture shifts. Depending on thresholds and activities, the occupational safety specialist and occupational physician follow from the Occupational Safety Act, safety representatives from sec. 22 SGB VII, then fire safety, hazardous substances, dangerous goods, immission control, waste, water protection or radiation protection, plus anti-money-laundering under sec. 7 GwG, the internal reporting channel under the Whistleblower Protection Act and the human rights officer under sec. 4 LkSG.

All of these roles produce the same kind of work: recurring deadlines, instruction sessions, inspections, documentation, evidence for inspectors. Providers whose publicly described portfolio sits in data protection, information security and whistleblower protection do not cover that work for the remaining roles — they serve a different domain. A company with several roles filled then accumulates one specialist tool per role. That is where CIVAC starts: one data model for 77 roles, shared task, training and audit logic, one evidence trail.

What we deliberately do not claim

On several points that regularly matter in a selection process we found no publicly verifiable information and therefore make no statement: storage location and data centre, the provider's own certifications, minimum contract term and notice period. That is not a criticism — it simply means we do not know and will not guess. Ask these points directly and have them written into the contract.

Nor do we assess the substantive quality of the advice. It could not be verified objectively and therefore does not belong in a comparison table. And we quote no third-party prices: the provider publishes its own tiers, and that list is the only reliable source — a figure copied by us would be wrong by the next price update at the latest.

When each model fits

CIVAC fits when …

you have — or will soon have — more than one officer role in-house and do not want a silo per role.
the role is filled internally and you need structure, deadline monitoring and evidence rather than the person.
you prefer a stated price per role over a support package with a setup fee.
you want to start without a sales call and test the software against your own tasks.
tasks, trainings, audits and documentation should be evidenced from a single source.

An external officer as a service fits when …

you want the role placed outside the company because nobody internally has — or should build — the expertise.
a conflict of interest under Art. 38(6) GDPR rules out every eligible internal candidate.
your need is clearly confined to data protection and adjacent topics.
you want fixed response times and a named contact guaranteed by contract.
you want to avoid the special dismissal protection an internal officer carries under sec. 38(2) BDSG.

Frequently asked

What happened to datenschutzexperte.de?: The brand no longer stands on its own: the domain redirects to the Proliance site, and the provider dates the rebrand to 2025 on its own facts page. So if you were looking for a comparison against datenschutzexperte.de, this is the current one. For your own due diligence that means: refer to today's company and brand name in tenders and contracts, and check whether older quotes, references or reviews still relate to the previous market presence.
Is CIVAC an alternative to Proliance?: Only in part. If you are looking for software your own appointed officers work in, the offerings are comparable. If instead you want to place the data protection officer role entirely outside the company, you are comparing a service with a product — an external officer is then the more direct route, and CIVAC offers that too, but as a separate engagement alongside the licence. The real difference is breadth: CIVAC is built for every mandatory officer role, not for data protection and adjacent topics alone.
Why do you not quote the other provider's prices?: Because third-party prices change, so a copied figure would sooner or later become an untrue statement — and comparative advertising with untrue statements is unlawful. What is verifiable and stable is the shape of the model, and that we do describe: a monthly subscription in packages tiered by company size and depth of support, alongside one-off setup and audit fees. The authoritative source for actual amounts is always the provider's own public pricing page. Our own price we state concretely: EUR 49 per officer role per month.
Does Proliance also cover occupational safety or fire safety?: In the provider's publicly visible solution overview at the time this page was written, data protection, information security, whistleblower protection, AI governance, training and EU representation were listed; roles from occupational, fire or environmental safety were not named there. That is an observation on a given date and no proof of the opposite — portfolios change, and the current position should be checked with the provider. For CIVAC: 77 officer roles in the data model, version 1 instantiated for the data protection officer.
Can I keep an external officer and still use CIVAC?: Yes. The appointment under Art. 37 GDPR and the tool the work happens in are two separate decisions. Many companies keep their external data protection officer and use CIVAC for the remaining roles — occupational safety, fire safety, hazardous substances, anti-money-laundering, the internal reporting channel — because no specialist tool exists there. You can also give the external officer access to the workspace so that tasks, deadlines and evidence converge in one place. In that case, settle roles and access rights in the data processing agreement.
Where does the information about Proliance on this page come from?: Exclusively from the provider's own publicly accessible pages — imprint, company and facts page, solution overview, platform and pricing pages — retrieved in August 2026. We reproduce them as the provider's statements, not as our own assertions. Where we could not verify something, we wrote nothing: on storage location, data centre, the provider's own certifications, minimum term and notice period we deliberately make no statement. Portfolios and prices change; check the current position with the provider before deciding.