Why I built PickEurope
Europe makes incredible products that could replace Big Tech, and reclaim our digital independence.
For centuries, Europe has been one of the driving forces of technological advancement. Companies like Mercedes-Benz, Philips, Siemens and Airbus shaped entire industries. All around the world, kids dream of driving a red Ferrari. Today, ASML makes the machines that print every modern chip on earth. Spotify reinvented how we listen to music. Adyen powers payments for some of the world's biggest brands. There is still a lot to love about Europe.
But something shifted. Gradually, Europe became more reliant on businesses and services from outside. It felt harmless, using Google, buying from Amazon, running on American cloud infrastructure. It was convenient, cheap, and available. But convenience has a cost. Manufacturing moved abroad. All major tech platforms came from Silicon Valley. Online marketplaces consolidated into a handful of global giants, with Google giving us the ads for the stuff we can buy on Amazon. And because most of these companies operate outside Europe, we have very little influence over how they handle data, taxes, labour, or competition.
Maybe it's time to make Europe great again.
Why European alternatives matter
Your data stays in Europe
Your email, your files, your AI tools, the systems your business runs on... if these run on US data centers, you depend on the US government. They can reach your data today. And if our alliance with the US breaks, that dependence becomes a serious risk. European data centers give you stronger privacy, less exposure to geopolitical tension, and the protection of European law.
Better for the European economy
When we give away our data, use American and Chinese products, and hire companies from outside Europe, we make Europe weaker. We lose local businesses, jobs, and tax money that should support our own governments. If we chose European products first, we would build a strong market for European companies. That means more jobs, lower taxes, and more investments in Europe.
Sometimes European is simply better
European products might be cheaper, offer better privacy, work in our native languages, support local payment systems. They are often better for the environment too. Sometimes an app or services solves a problem that Americans wouldn't even recognize. We are different in Europe, and sometimes we need tools that are built different.
Less dependency
Relying on a handful of foreign platforms is a risk. In 2025, the US placed sanctions on Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Soon after, his Microsoft email stopped working and his bank accounts were closed. A US company shut off a top European official's email because the US government told it to. This can happen to you too. You can be locked out of your Google or Instagram account, with no clear reason and almost no way to appeal.
How EuroPoints Are Calculated
The question is not whether a company calls itself European. It is whether European law applies to it, whether Europeans control it, where your data actually lives, and whether the company is transparent about all of the above.
EuroPoints tiers
Legal home
| HQ in EU member state | 30 |
| HQ in EFTA (CH, NO, IS) | 25 |
| HQ in United Kingdom | 18 |
| European-founded, HQ moved outside | 10 |
| Non-European HQ | 0 |
Ownership & control
| Independent / non-profit / cooperative | 25 |
| + bootstrapped bonus | +5 |
| VC-backed, EU parent | 18 |
| VC-backed, no known parent | 15 |
| VC-backed, non-EU parent | 10 |
| Private equity | 8 |
| Acquired by / corporate, non-EU | 0 |
Where your data lives
| Own servers / own datacentres | 30 |
| EU-based provider (Hetzner, OVH, Scaleway) | 25 |
| Mixed, mostly EU | 18 |
| Mixed | 12 |
| EU servers, US cloud provider (CLOUD Act risk) | 10 |
| Data stored outside Europe | 0 |
| US data jurisdiction penalty | −5 |
Openness & trust
| Open source + GDPR documented | 12 |
| GDPR documented + audit bonus | up to 15 |
| Open source only | 8 |
| Partial open source + GDPR | 10 |
| GDPR documented only | 8 |
| No transparency | 0 |
Spot a mistake?
Companies change ownership, move servers and change the way they handle data surprisingly fast. If you spot something outdated or incorrect, please tell me about it.
Who I am
Hi, I'm Daniel Koster.
I built this website to help people find European alternatives, and help the greater European cause.
I don't think every American company is bad. I don't think being European makes something automatically better. And I'm not holier than the Pope myself. I still use international products and services every day. But I would like to see a change, which is exactly why I built PickEurope: a curated, transparent place to discover European alternatives that are actually worth considering.
For long, we assumed the global system would stay stable and friendly, and that we had a strong ally in the United States. But recent years have shown that handing over key parts of our economy and our governance leaves us exposed.
The Trump administration has imposed tariffs, used surveillance on European civilians, supported extremist movements and openly questioned alliances we thought were permanent. It has come to the point that we are genuinely asking ourselves whether the United States is still our ally, or a risk we can no longer ignore.
Russia started a war on European soil and continues to threaten neighbouring countries. China floods European markets with subsidised products while operating under a regime with no real democratic accountability.
These are not abstract concerns. They are reasons to take European alternatives seriously.
If you support what I'm building, I'd love to hear from you.
Start somewhere.
Switching everything overnight is not realistic. Start where it matters most: your email, your cloud storage, your business tools. Replace one thing at a time.
The European alternative probably already exists. It's time to start using it.