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European Alternatives

european-alternatives.eu

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Re: European Alternatives

#71

Post by u8080 »

s_dev wrote: post #46
troupo wrote: post #37

Last time this came up I decided to try Scaleway which is at the top of their "cloud computing" list. "European alternative" that doesn't know that European addresses have non-ASCII characters: https://x.com/dmitriid/status/1835649083345649780

I'm sure there are much bigger and more worthwhile criticisms to be had than this. It's something they should fix and if they did would you suddenly switch to Scaleway? I think you would consider other factors first. A good critique for example is OVH lost a lot of customer data due to a fire. Where was the redundancy? That would make me think twice before switching to OVH.

Hetzner/Linode were MITMing their client(jabber.ru): https://notes.valdikss.org.ru/jabber.ru-mitm/

Re: European Alternatives

#72

Post by ben_w »

pjmlp wrote: post #41
pjc50 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open source generally meets the needs of the first two. There's barely any proprietary toolchains left in common use; maybe Oracle Java is one of the last? Hardware you can buy from China. Distant, predictable authoritarianism that doesn't make annoying social media posts is sadly preferable to .. whatever is going on over there.

Only if there are European resources to keep the lights on. Java is FOSS by the way, however it is also a good example, its runtime capabilities isn't the product of long nights and weekends.

Keeping the lights on is sufficient for the immediate concerns.

We can worry about feature growth later, if at all. It may be age finally changing my preferences, but so much of what I've seen sold as "new" in tech in recent years has been either worse than what I already had or a reinvention of something that already existed. Like, contactless payments were already a thing before they were available in phones, and social media didn't start with FB and twitter, and Apple's API updates in the last few years feel like as much of a downgrade to me as their icons seem to be to UI blogs.

Re: European Alternatives

#73

Post by vldszn »

s_dev wrote: post #62
vldszn wrote: post #59

I submitted my project EasyInvoicePDF (a free & open-source invoice generator) a couple of months ago to European Alternatives but never heard back unfortunately. The project has no backend and is purely browser-based, but I’m based in Europe and developing the project here, so I consider it a European project =) App: https://easyinvoicepdf.com/?template=stripe GitHub: https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf

It's a cool project but it is 'niche'. I think the purpose of the site is more about the alternatives to 'large players', platforms and infrastructure companies. Still Constantin Graf should have clarified out of politeness but possibly he's busy or doesn't have time to respond to every email. However I'd point out there is a market for European 'Product Hunt' that would include more of these smaller projects.

Thanks for the comment. I hadn’t thought about this before, but it makes sense - I agree.

About European Product Hunt - very good idea.

I was thinking recently that we need more European social networks, messengers, etc.

It’s a very good time to build imo =)

Re: European Alternatives

#74

Post by reconnecting »

vldszn wrote: post #59

I submitted my project EasyInvoicePDF (a free & open-source invoice generator) a couple of months ago to European Alternatives but never heard back unfortunately. The project has no backend and is purely browser-based, but I’m based in Europe and developing the project here, so I consider it a European project =) App: https://easyinvoicepdf.com/?template=stripe GitHub: https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf

Same here.

Open-source security framework (1). Applied 16 August 2025. Company registered in Switzerland (EFTA). No reply.

However, European Alternatives is a personal (sole proprietorship) website and has nothing to do with Europe, despite the name and style, which are slightly misleading as they mimic official EU website aesthetics.

1. GitHub: https://github.com/tirrenotechnologies/tirreno

Re: European Alternatives

#75

Post by retired »

robin_reala wrote: post #57
retired wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been around 300 million years since the UK drifted away from continental Europe but it is still very much part of it!

The British isles were still connected to the continent 20k years ago.

Technically they reconnected 31 years ago with the tunnel.

Re: European Alternatives

#76

Post by tene80i »

gtirloni wrote: post #49

This is nice but if Europe doesn't fix their tech salaries situation (half US' in most cases, if not lower), I don't think it's sustainable.

But why? What's unsustainable about an email service, for example, run by competent European engineers at European salaries?

Re: European Alternatives

#77

Post by u8080 »

nazgob wrote: post #70
u8080 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech jobs in IT in Moscow are paid(net) relatively similar to what you could get in EU.

So not US salaries.

Indeed, but cost of life is different as well. People usually compare US Bay area net salaries to Western EU salaries - but there are so many different things to consider as well(rent, insurances, taxes, etc) which imo spoils any constructive comparasion.

Re: European Alternatives

#78

Post by lostmsu »

Tade0 wrote: post #67
gtirloni wrote: post #49

This is nice but if Europe doesn't fix their tech salaries situation (half US' in most cases, if not lower), I don't think it's sustainable.

I wouldn't want US salaries with US costs of living. Also working for companies located in Ireland[0] or Switzerland you can have your US salary, it's just that the pool of jobs is limited. [0] Provided it's a company in the first of Ireland's two economies.

Not sure about Ireland, but Switzerland used to be true, but now it is also far behind since 5+ years.

See, Google Zurich vs Seattle

https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/greater...

https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/greater...

Hm, after carefully reviewing the entries seem more or less the same, Zurich slightly lower.

Re: European Alternatives

#79

Post by kuon »

gtirloni wrote: post #49

This is nice but if Europe doesn't fix their tech salaries situation (half US' in most cases, if not lower), I don't think it's sustainable.

I might get lower salary, but if I break my leg I pay nothing and I am paid during my leave.

Re: European Alternatives

#80

Post by ben_w »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #43
nolok wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of things wrong is impressive You're confusing Europe and the EU You're forgetting about Ireland and Malta You're thinking that because the UK left the EU it will change the main language countries use to speak to each others

> You're forgetting about Ireland and Malta In both countries English is only one of the official languages.

Mae hyn yn wir o fewn y DU hefyd.

:P

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