European alternatives to Microsoft Teams
Microsoft's chat-meetings-and-files hub, bundled with Microsoft 365 and pushed hard into every workplace. It runs on Microsoft's US-governed cloud, subject to the CLOUD Act.
Company information about Microsoft Teams
- Company
- Microsoft Corporation
- Headquarters
- Redmond, United States
- Founded
- 2017
- Data jurisdiction
- United States
- Ownership
- Publicly traded
- GDPR
- No
- Open source
- No
- Infrastructure
- Own infrastructure
Why people switch away from Microsoft Teams
Bundling ruled anti-competitive
The EU opened a formal antitrust probe in 2023, after a Slack complaint, into Microsoft bundling Teams with Office; in 2025 Microsoft agreed to unbundle it worldwide to avoid a fine reaching $24.5 billion.
No end-to-end encryption by default
Standard Teams meetings and chats aren't end-to-end encrypted by default, leaving Microsoft technically able to access content that legal requests can also reach.
Answers to US law
Microsoft is a US company, so Teams data sits under the CLOUD Act, well outside GDPR's reach.
Everyday annoyances
- Pre-installed whether wanted or not. Teams has long shipped pre-installed and pre-configured across Windows and Microsoft 365, whether or not an organisation asked for it.
- Notification overload. Channels, chats, calls and @mentions generate a steady stream of alerts that's easy to let pile into hundreds unread.
- Encourages meeting fatigue. Recording, transcription and Copilot summaries lower the friction of scheduling yet more meetings, feeding the always-in-a-call culture many teams complain about.
- Desktop app runs heavy. The client has a long-running reputation for high memory use and sluggish performance, especially on older hardware.
- Confusing free vs paid tiers. Free accounts cap meeting length and lack key admin controls, and the line between personal, free and business tiers isn't always obvious.
European alternatives to Microsoft Teams
German all-in-one collaboration platform combining team chat, project management, video conferencing, and document editing. All data stored exclusively in Germany with end-to-end encryption. ISO 27001 certified. Used by 10,000+ companies.
Swiss end-to-end encrypted messaging and collaboration platform for enterprise and government use. Backed by Schwarz Group (Lidl/Kaufland), hosted in the EU, and used by security-conscious organisations across Europe.
European secure communications platform built on the open Matrix protocol. Used by NATO, the EU, French and German governments, and 47M+ users across 80,000+ deployments. Self-hostable with full end-to-end encryption.
Norwegian browser-based video conferencing tool founded as appear.in inside Telenor. No app download needed, permanent room links, and a clean API for embedding video into products.
Open-source browser-based video conferencing with no account or download needed. Originally founded in France, now owned by US company 8x8. Self-host for full data sovereignty.
Want more options? Browse all European Team communication alternatives →
Slack 
Discord 
DingTalk 
iMessage 
WhatsApp 
WeChat 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 already exists.
Pick Europe.
Why avoid United States-owned services?
CLOUD Act
Forces US companies to hand over data stored anywhere in the world upon government request, including data on European servers.
FISA Section 702
Authorises mass surveillance of non-US persons using data held by US tech platforms, without a warrant or notification.
GDPR vs US law conflict
EU courts have repeatedly found that US surveillance law conflicts with European fundamental rights. Schrems I and II both invalidated EU-US data transfer agreements.