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European alternatives to Google, Apple, Dropbox and 120 US apps

only-eu.eu

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Re: European alternatives to Google, Apple, Dropbox and 120 US apps

#161

Post by koonsolo »

croes wrote: post #73
cromka wrote: post #62

"Europe does it better". Sorry, but as an European who roots for EU very much, I found that branding laughable, because it's absolutely not true at all. Those Eurooean alternatives are absolutely of significantly worse quality almost across the board, simply because there's less money thrown at them. It's also making it sound pretty, disingenuous, and adding to ongoing gamification of relationship with the US. "Europ…

> because of the obvious better privacy, openness and standards compliance, as mandate by our regulations. So Europe does it better. Maybe you just have the wrong metric in mind. And given the amount of problems exist with Office, Outlook etc. I‘m not even sure if Europe is worse on the quality site. People are just used to US software faults.

I recently tried to replace Dropbox with Filen. Filen supports full encryption, so like you say better on privacy.

Then I mounted it as a drive on my MacBook, and moved some backup files there. The move took a while, and after it, no backups on my MacBook, and no backups on Filen. Just nothing, no log of it, nothing.

Going to stay with Dropbox.

So in this case, Europe definitely does not do it better.

Edit: I also tried to replace Sendgrid. All European alternatives are crazy expensive, so not going to replace that either.

Instead of focussing on old tech, and keep running behind US and China, maybe we should jump on the next boat.

Re: European alternatives to Google, Apple, Dropbox and 120 US apps

#162

Post by broken-kebab »

efilife wrote: post #101
broken-kebab wrote: post #98

I think we have enough petty chauvinisms, there's no need to breed an EU variety. Europe does it better? Dunno, European gov'ts are full of ideas about backdooring, with one of those failing by just one vote recently. Also the website is impractical, it simply groups brands vs brands without much detail.

> there's no need to breed an EU variety. So you want most of the internet controlled by US? I'm not exactly keen on giving my info to a foreign country when I can pick something in the EU > European gov'ts are full of ideas about backdooring, America has an ongoing scandal about surveillance cameras

Non sequitur. I'm sure I can pick something in the EU when it serves me better, completely without making silly statements.

Your own rights and consumer interests are absent in your mental model where the internet is a sort of transatlantic battle (which it isn't) where as good peasants we must support our overlords against their high chieftains. The only logical outcome of accepting it is farther segmentation of the internet into Russia/Iran/China-style separate networks, all of them comparably restrictive. in fact, you are deeply interested in presence of competing options, including competition of jurisdictions. Cause wrt rights reality is that Eastern side of the pond can be better in some areas, and worse in others. So you better choose providers judging them by the value (counting limits they are bound by their jurisdictions).

Also such frame of mind is destructive for the EU foundations itself cause why shouldn't then a Frenchman be obliged to choose French over German? European identity is a shaky thing.

>America has an ongoing scandal about surveillance cameras

Sorry I'm not going to disregard a possibility of outlawing of e2e because there's a scandal in the US.

Re: European alternatives to Google, Apple, Dropbox and 120 US apps

#163

Post by vldszn »

madman_max wrote: post #155
vldszn wrote: post #22

I’m working on a free and open-source invoice generator: https://easyinvoicepdf.com - No sign-up, works entirely in-browser - Live PDF preview + instant download - VAT EU support - Shareable invoice links - Multi-language (10+) & multi-currency (100+) - Multiple templates (incl. Stripe-style) - Mobile-friendly - QR code support GitHub: https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf Would love feedback, contributions, or…

Like the idea of open source but is browser based application is enough to serve the purpose? I actually built one for german market. I can give you my learnings or recommendations if you want.

Can you please share a link to your app?

Re: European alternatives to Google, Apple, Dropbox and 120 US apps

#164

Post by jwr »

monegator wrote: post #160
jwr wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found it impossible to add a European project to it.

Bottom of the page: "Any suggestions? Sign up for an account to suggest changes or new products." (granted: what on earth do i need an account for, that can't be done with a form or an email?)

Have you tried? I have. I just checked: my product has been "Waiting for review" since July 15, 2025.

No wonder us Europeans get laughed at when it comes to speed and execution.

Re: European alternatives to Google, Apple, Dropbox and 120 US apps

#165

Post by AndrianV »

madman_dev wrote: post #2

Hi HN, I built only-eu.eu, a curated bilingual (DE/EN) directory of European alternatives to common US software and services. Motivation: The CLOUD Act creates a structural difference between US and European cloud providers that's separate from GDPR. European companies can't be compelled by US federal courts to hand over data regardless of server location. For companies and individuals who care about this, finding ve…

[dead]

Re: European alternatives to Google, Apple, Dropbox and 120 US apps

#166

Post by xigoi »

MidnightRider39 wrote: post #102
outsidein wrote: post #36

The affiliate information shows that it the website shows mostly / only affiliate offers, and omits (intentionally?) much better a lternatives like posteo.de for email. Listed vendors like OVHcloud must follow the US cloud act, so not really independent from US. Just advertising, no real privacy focused.

Posteo is really good - switched there years ago from gmail and never looked back.

Posteo does not allow custom domains, which is an immediate nope from me. E-mail is the last place where I want vendor lock-in.

Re: European alternatives to Google, Apple, Dropbox and 120 US apps

#167

Post by cromka »

hulitu wrote: post #85
cromka wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia is definitely not unquestionably European.

Going to school helps.

Sure. Kazakhstan is also in Europe. Do you consider it European? Do you now understand where lies the problem with the use of "unquestionably" in this context?

If not, maybe going to school would help?

Re: European alternatives to Google, Apple, Dropbox and 120 US apps

#168

Post by cromka »

dj_mc_merlin wrote: post #94
hulitu wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going to school helps.

No, I agree with him. Everyone knows Russia has territory inside Europe. Does that make it European? Post-Ukraine not a lot of people would call it European. It's just a word at the end of the day, the politics are more important to people that geography since both are made up. Why does Europe end at the Ural mountains? Because we said so.

Even better, Kazakhstan is also in Europe. Hard to find anyone who'd classify it as such, though.

Re: European alternatives to Google, Apple, Dropbox and 120 US apps

#169

Post by yreg »

fosron wrote: post #77
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their parent company, Nord Security, is based in the Netherlands.

And parent of that, Tesonet Global, is based in Lithuania

Yes, either you consider them based in EU (because they are) – then why are they on this list?

Or you consider them to be EU-Panama which to try to protect user privacy – then why are they on this list?

Re: European alternatives to Google, Apple, Dropbox and 120 US apps

#170

Post by cromka »

croes wrote: post #73
cromka wrote: post #62

"Europe does it better". Sorry, but as an European who roots for EU very much, I found that branding laughable, because it's absolutely not true at all. Those Eurooean alternatives are absolutely of significantly worse quality almost across the board, simply because there's less money thrown at them. It's also making it sound pretty, disingenuous, and adding to ongoing gamification of relationship with the US. "Europ…

> because of the obvious better privacy, openness and standards compliance, as mandate by our regulations. So Europe does it better. Maybe you just have the wrong metric in mind. And given the amount of problems exist with Office, Outlook etc. I‘m not even sure if Europe is worse on the quality site. People are just used to US software faults.

> So Europe does it better

Better software pertains to quality of software, as long as software exists, not one's privacy. So while the latter is increasingly important, let's not bend the reality, OK?

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