European alternatives

What can you switch to?

Part of our work is continuously evaluating European services that can replace the American tools most companies rely on today. Here is our selection — services we have reviewed and recommend to our clients.

How we evaluate providers

When we assess a service as "European", we look at the entire chain — not just where the servers are located:

  • The company and its owners are based in the EU, EEA or EFTA
  • Core services run in European data centers — end to end
  • No American subcontractors in critical flows (e.g. CDN, auth, DDoS)
  • Data never leaves Europe, not even for backup or analytics

Where we draw the line

✗European company running on AWS EU region — still American ownership
✗API traffic passing through Cloudflare — data exposed to US jurisdiction
✗Login via Azure AD — authentication data handled by Microsoft
✓Service hosted in Hetzner's data center in Finland, with no American intermediaries

Labels

EU hostedCore services hosted on EU servers, operated by EU-based companies (incl. parent companies).
EEA hostedHosted in the EEA — EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Same data protection level as the EU.
EFTA hostedHosted in an EFTA country — typically Switzerland. Strong data protection, but outside EU jurisdiction.
Open sourceOpen source code you can audit and self-host. No vendor lock-in.
Free planOffers a free plan — good for testing before you commit.

Cloud & Infrastructure

Replaces: AWS, Azure, GCP

Hetzner

Germany

Affordable virtual and dedicated servers with data centers in Germany and Finland.

EU hosted

Cleura

Sweden

Swedish OpenStack-based cloud platform with data centers in Sweden.

EU hosted

OVHcloud

France

One of Europe's largest cloud providers with virtual servers, Kubernetes and object storage.

EU hosted

UpCloud

Finland

Finnish cloud platform with virtual servers, managed Kubernetes and object storage.

EU hosted

Scaleway

France

French cloud provider with servers, S3-compatible storage, DNS and managed Kubernetes.

EU hosted

Email

Replaces: Gmail, Outlook

Proton Mail

Switzerland

End-to-end encrypted email founded by CERN scientists.

EFTA hosted

Tuta Mail

Germany

Encrypted email, calendar and contacts with open source code.

EU hostedOpen sourceFree plan

Mailbox.org

Germany

German email service with webmail, calendar and contacts. Carbon-neutral servers.

EU hosted

Posteo

Germany

Ad-free email focused on sustainability and security.

EU hosted

File Storage & Collaboration

Replaces: Google Drive, Dropbox, SharePoint

Nextcloud

Germany

Self-hosted platform for file storage, document collaboration and video calls.

Open source

CryptPad

France

Encrypted document collaboration with zero-knowledge architecture.

EU hostedOpen sourceFree plan

Proton Drive

Switzerland

End-to-end encrypted file storage from Proton.

EFTA hostedFree plan

Tresorit

Switzerland

Security-focused file storage with automatic end-to-end encryption.

EFTA hosted

Team Communication

Replaces: Slack, Microsoft Teams

Element

Self-hosted

Decentralized communication based on the Matrix protocol with end-to-end encryption.

Open source

Wire

Switzerland

End-to-end encrypted communication from Switzerland with apps for all platforms.

EFTA hosted

Stackfield

Germany

German team communication with end-to-end encryption and integrated video/audio calls.

EU hosted

Mattermost

Self-hosted

Developer-focused team communication that can be self-hosted.

Open source

Video Conferencing

Replaces: Zoom, Google Meet

Whereby

Norway

Norwegian video conferencing — easy to use with no download required.

EEA hostedFree plan

OpenTalk

Germany

German video conferencing with breakout rooms and voting system. Open source.

EU hostedOpen sourceFree plan

Infomaniak kMeet

Switzerland

Swiss free service with no time or participant limitations.

EFTA hostedFree plan

Web Analytics

Replaces: Google Analytics

Plausible

Estonia

Lightweight, cookie-free analytics tool with open source code.

EU hostedOpen source

Matomo

Self-hosted

Self-hosted analytics platform with full control over your data.

Open source

Simple Analytics

Netherlands

Privacy-focused analytics without cookies or personal data.

EU hosted

Piwik PRO

Poland

Analytics with tag manager and customizable consent management.

EU hosted

AI & Language Models

Replaces: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude (US)

Mistral / Le Chat

France

European AI model and chat assistant with strong performance.

EU hosted

Berget AI

Sweden

Swedish AI infrastructure with GPU clusters in Swedish data centers.

EU hosted

Project Management

Replaces: Asana, Monday, Jira

OpenProject

Germany

Open source with Kanban boards, timelines, calendar and time tracking.

Open sourceFree plan

MeisterTask

Germany

Kanban-based project management with automation and time tracking.

Free plan

Taiga

Spain

Open source with dashboards, Kanban and issue tracking.

Open sourceFree plan

VPN

Replaces: NordVPN, ExpressVPN

Mullvad VPN

Sweden

Swedish VPN with 700+ servers in 38 countries. Open source.

Open source

Proton VPN

Switzerland

Swiss VPN with strong privacy focus and free plan.

EFTA hostedFree plan

Identity & Access

Replaces: Auth0, Okta

Keycloak

Self-hosted

Industry standard IAM with SSO, OAuth, LDAP and two-factor authentication.

Open source

ZITADEL

Switzerland

Swiss identity management with open source code and modern interface.

EFTA hostedOpen source

Hanko

Germany

Passkeys, SSO and two-factor authentication with privacy focus.

EU hostedOpen sourceFree plan

More alternatives

Our list focuses on what we recommend to Nordic businesses. For a broader catalog with hundreds of European alternatives across 60+ categories:

european-alternatives.eu

Need help switching?

We map your current IT landscape with AI agents and deliver a concrete plan with European alternatives — tailored to your business.

Contact us