France Identité vs IT-Wallet: Complete Comparison

Head-to-Head Comparison

Winner by Category

Architecture and Technical Approach

France and Italy represent two Mediterranean EU powerhouses taking different but equally ambitious approaches to the EUDI Wallet. France Identité uses a cloud-based architecture backed by ANSSI certification, storing credentials in government-approved cloud infrastructure while using the smartphone as the primary interaction device. The FranceConnect ecosystem provides the authentication backbone, giving France a unified digital identity layer across all government services.

Italy's IT-Wallet takes a mobile-first approach, designed to integrate smoothly with the existing SPID and CIE infrastructure. AgID manages the technical development, building on Italy's extensive experience with digital identity at scale. The IT-Wallet architecture emphasizes smartphone-native functionality, using device capabilities for biometric verification and secure credential storage.

Both countries have chosen to build their EUDI Wallets on top of proven national digital identity systems rather than starting from scratch. France builds on FranceConnect, Italy builds on SPID. This pragmatic approach reduces risk and accelerates deployment by using existing user bases and tested infrastructure.

Security Models Compared

France's security model centers on ANSSI certification, with cloud-based credential storage protected by government-grade encryption and access controls. France Identité uses biometric verification during enrollment to bind digital identity to physical identity, and the cloud architecture enables centralized security monitoring and rapid threat response. The FranceConnect protocol ensures mutual authentication between users and relying parties.

Italy's security builds on the SPID tiered assurance model, offering three levels of identity assurance depending on the transaction risk. For high-assurance EUDI operations, Italy can use the CIE (electronic identity card) with NFC capabilities, providing hardware-backed security similar to other EU implementations. AgID coordinates security standards across the multiple SPID identity providers, ensuring consistent protection.

Both countries must meet eIDAS 2.0 Level of Assurance High for their EUDI Wallet implementations. France achieves this through its cloud-based ANSSI-certified infrastructure, while Italy achieves this through its CIE hardware element combined with SPID Level 3 authentication.

User Experience and Adoption

The adoption picture is nuanced. France Identité is already live and actively scaling, giving France real-world operational experience and user feedback. French citizens can already use the wallet for identity verification and government service access, with the user base growing rapidly toward the 5 million target.

Italy has the larger existing digital identity user base by far, with 37 million SPID users. This provides an enormous foundation for IT-Wallet adoption once the EUDI features are fully rolled out. Italy's mobile-first design philosophy means the transition from SPID to IT-Wallet should feel natural for existing users, with the wallet adding credential management on top of familiar authentication flows.

Both countries benefit from strong government commitment to digital services and populations that are increasingly comfortable with mobile-based identity solutions. The main difference is timing: France is further along in actual EUDI deployment, while Italy has the larger potential user base ready to onboard.

Cross-Border Interoperability

France and Italy share strong economic and cultural ties, with significant tourism and business travel between the two countries. Cross-border interoperability between France Identité and IT-Wallet is essential for smooth travel, business operations, and access to services. Under eIDAS 2.0, both wallets must accept credentials from the other country.

The standardized credential formats defined in the EU Architecture Reference Framework ensure that cloud-based French credentials and mobile-first Italian credentials are equally valid at the verification layer. Both countries participate in the EU Large Scale Pilots, testing cross-border scenarios that will validate interoperability before full rollout.

For the millions of tourists traveling between France and Italy each year, EUDI Wallet interoperability will streamline hotel check-ins, car rentals, age verification, and access to public services in either country.

Which Should You Choose?

Use the wallet provided by your country of residence. French residents use France Identité; Italian residents will use IT-Wallet. Both wallets work across all EU member states.

France leads in deployment maturity with a live wallet actively scaling to millions of users. Italy leads in potential reach with 37 million SPID users ready for the EUDI transition. Both implementations demonstrate strong government commitment and build pragmatically on existing national digital identity infrastructure.