Privacy-Respecting European Tech Alternatives
Illustration: Jonah Aragon / Privacy Guides
There is a growing sentiment that the US shouldn't be relied upon for the technologies that many people and businesses use every day. Lately, the US has been unilaterally cutting off access to critical technologies to European countries, prompting calls for "radical action" to bolster European tech stacks from EU lawmakers.
At Privacy Guides, we generally value technical guarantees over matters like jurisdiction. There is simply no alternative to privacy technologies like strong end-to-end encryption when it comes to protecting your information.
That being said, the United States certainly does not have a monopoly on the best technologies, and many of our favorite recommended tools come from Europe and all over the world. Tools from the European Union also generally benefit from much stronger data protection laws, thanks to the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
If supporting the European tech industry is something that is important to you, here's a non-exhaustive list of some of our favorites. We have many more recommendations throughout our website if you are interested in learning more about privacy-respecting tech alternatives!
Email Services
Many people and businesses are tied to Google's Gmail or Microsoft's Outlook products, but there are far more secure and private alternative email providers out there!
Tuta 
Based in Hanover, Germany, Tuta is an email service with a focus on security and privacy through the use of encryption. Tuta has been in operation since 2011.
Free accounts start with 1 GB of storage.
Proton Mail 
Based in Geneva, Switzerland, Proton Mail is an email service with a focus on privacy, encryption, security, and ease of use. They have been in operation since 2013.
The Proton Mail Free plan comes with 500 MB of Mail storage, which you can increase up to 1 GB for free.
Office Suites
Of course, email isn't the only thing offered by solutions like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Many people use their entire suite of productivity tools to manage their businesses and collaborate with others.
Luckily, there are plenty of alternatives that incorporate strong encryption and can even be self-hosted, which will not only decrease your reliance on the traditional Big Tech companies, but keep your data far more secure as well.
CryptPad 
Developed and hosted by XWiki in Paris, France, CryptPad is a complete online office suite with applications including Documents, Rich Text, Spreadsheets, Code/Markdown, Kanban, Slides, Whiteboard and Forms.
CryptPad is a private-by-design alternative to popular office tools. All content on this web service is end-to-end encrypted and can be shared with other users easily.
We recently did a full review of CryptPad, which you should definitely check out if you might be interested in switching!
Nextcloud
Nextcloud comes from German startup Nextcloud GmbH, and offers a complete cloud drive alternative to Google Drive or OneDrive.
Nextcloud is a suite of free and open-source client-server software for creating your own file hosting services on a private server you control.
LibreOffice
LibreOffice is developed by The Document Foundation based in Berlin, Germany. It's a free and open-source office suite with extensive functionality.
Web-based editors aren't for everyone. If you need a full-fledged office suite that runs locally on your computer, LibreOffice is a fantastic alternative to Microsoft Office.
Search Engines
One of the most frequently used tools on the internet is the venerable search engine. Switching from Google to an alternative is one of the biggest impact approaches to improving your privacy that you can make.
Startpage 
Headquartered and developed in the Netherlands, Startpage is one great alternative to Google you could consider:
Startpage is a private search engine. One of Startpage's unique features is the Anonymous View, which puts forth efforts to standardize user activity to make it more difficult to be uniquely identified. The feature can be useful for hiding some network and browser properties. However, unlike the name suggests, the feature should not be relied upon for total anonymity.
It is worth noting that since 2020, Startpage has been a subsidiary of American company System1. Their operations and employees remain in the Netherlands, and you can choose to utilize only European servers if you wish.
Web Browsers
Web browsers are historically very tricky to build, and the three major browser engines, Chromium, Gecko (Firefox), and WebKit (Safari) are all primarily developed by American companies. This is a space that could certainly use improvement.
Mullvad Browser 
One of our recommended browsers is spearheaded by Swedish VPN company Mullvad, although it's worth noting that its development is somewhat reliant on American non-profits Mozilla and the Tor Project, being a Tor Browser fork.
Mullvad Browser is a version of Tor Browser with Tor network integrations removed. It aims to provide to VPN users Tor Browser's anti-fingerprinting browser technologies, which are key protections against mass surveillance programs. It is developed by the Tor Project and distributed by Mullvad, although it does not require the use of Mullvad's VPN.
Maps & Navigation
Mapping and location apps like Google Maps can track your every move, and that data is used by tech companies for a wide variety of purposes, including for military and defense. The best mapping apps for your privacy can be used completely offline:
Organic Maps 
Based in Estonia, Organic Maps is an open source, community-developed map display and satnav-style navigation app for walkers, drivers, and cyclists. The app offers worldwide offline maps based on OpenStreetMap data, and navigation with privacy — no location tracking, no data collection, and no ads. The app can be used completely offline.
OsmAnd
Based in the Netherlands, OsmAnd is an offline map and navigation application based on OpenStreetMap, offering turn-by-turn navigation for walking, cycling, driving, as well as public transport. It is open-source and does not collect any user data.
Password Managers
KeePassXC
KeePassXC is a community fork of KeePassX, a native cross-platform port of KeePass Password Safe, with the goal of extending and improving it with new features and bug fixes to provide a feature-rich, cross-platform, and modern open-source password manager.
We recently published an article on securely using KeePassXC with a YubiKey!
Proton Pass
Proton Pass is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted password manager developed by the Swiss company Proton AG, the team behind Proton Mail. It securely stores your login credentials, generates unique email aliases, and supports and stores passkeys.
Instant Messengers
Switching off of WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or iMessage in favor of a more private instant messenger is an excellent way to safeguard your chats.
Element 
Element is based in the United Kingdom, which is of course no longer in the European Union. However, it is a trusted messaging platform by the French government, and the German military, among many other organizations in Europe and around the world looking for sovereignty from Big Tech messaging platforms like Slack and Google Messages.
Element is the flagship client for the Matrix protocol, an open standard for secure decentralized real-time communication.
Messages and files shared in private rooms (those which require an invite) are by default E2EE, as are one-to-one voice and video calls.
SimpleX
Another open-source option from the United Kingdom, SimpleX chat has very strong security features, and can be entirely self-hosted anywhere in the world if you prefer the assurances a custom server can bring.
SimpleX Chat is an instant messenger that doesn't depend on any unique identifiers such as phone numbers or usernames. Its decentralized network makes SimpleX Chat an effective tool against censorship.
Briar 
Briar is an open source project not legally incorporated in any jurisdiction, although it has received funding from European initiatives like NGI and the NLnet Foundation, and includes many Europeans in their voluntary board and team.
Briar is an encrypted instant messenger that connects to other clients using the Tor Network, making it an effective tool at circumventing censorship. Briar can also connect via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth when in local proximity. Briar’s local mesh mode can be useful when internet availability is a problem.
More Services...
Looking for more? Here's a short (and non-exhaustive) list of other recommendations of ours which are based in Europe:
- VPN Services: Mullvad and Proton VPN
- DNS Providers: dns0.eu, Mullvad DNS, and Quad9
- Calendars: Tuta and Proton Calendar
- Notes Apps: Joplin and Crypt.ee
- Pastebins: PrivateBin
- Linux Distros: openSUSE
If you're in Europe and looking to build or host your own European technology, there are also plenty of alternatives to the typical American IT providers. Topics like cloud computing platforms, web analytics services, and content delivery networks are currently out of scope for what we cover here at Privacy Guides, but European Alternatives is one great resource for finding more services like these.
At the end of the day, we trust all of our recommended privacy tools to keep you safe from prying eyes, but there are many valid reasons you may prefer to stick to the European market.
Join our forum to comment on this article.
Thank you for reading, and please consider sharing this post with your friends.
Privacy Guides is an independent, nonprofit media outlet. We don't have ads or sponsors, so if you liked this work your donation would be greatly appreciated.
Have a question, comment, or tip for us? You can securely contact us at @privacyguides.01 on Signal.