Why avoid Chinese tech companies?
Chinese law requires companies to cooperate fully with state intelligence agencies. There is no independent judiciary to challenge government data requests, and refusal is not an option.
National Intelligence Law
Article 7 of China's 2017 National Intelligence Law requires all Chinese organisations and citizens to support, assist and cooperate with state intelligence work.
State-mandated backdoors
Chinese cybersecurity regulations require technology companies to build government-accessible backdoors into their products and infrastructure.
CCP corporate oversight
The Chinese Communist Party maintains direct influence over major tech companies through party committees embedded in corporate structures.
Unlike US law, Chinese surveillance obligations have no judicial oversight and no legal avenue for challenge by foreign users.
Popular products to replace
What to switch, category by category
Twake Workplace
France EU
Open-source collaboration suite developed by French company Linagora. Combines Matrix-based messaging, cloud drive, mail, and calendar in one platform. EU-hosted and self-hostable.
Alternative to: Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Dingtalk
Team communication
Olvid
France EU
French end-to-end encrypted messenger certified by ANSSI, the French national cybersecurity agency. Unlike Signal, requires no phone number or personal data to register. Used by the French government, recommended by French Prime Minister for ministerial communications.
Alternative to: Imessage, Whatsapp, Signal, Telegram, Messenger, Wechat
Messaging & chat
Fluxer
Sweden EU
Fluxer is open-source chat, voice and video software from Sweden, built as an alternative to Discord. It began as one student's project and now has a small team. Self-hosting unlocks every premium feature for free.
Alternative to: Discord
Messaging & chat
Mastodon
Germany EU
German non-profit social network founded by Eugen Rochko in 2016. Federated and open-source, with no ads, no algorithms, and no single point of control. Used by 47M+ accounts across 80,000+ independent servers. Hosts the European Commission's official server.
Alternative to: X Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin
Social media & communities
Pixelfed
Open-source federated photo sharing platform built on ActivityPub. Choose a European instance or self-host for full data sovereignty. No ads, no algorithms, no data mining. Major EU-hosted instances include pixelfed.social and pixelfed.de. Available on iOS and Android.
Alternative to: Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok
Social media & communities
Mobilizon
France EU
French open-source federated event platform originally created by Framasoft and now maintained by French non-profit Kaihuri. Organise events and groups without ads, tracking, or data exploitation. Federated via ActivityPub: host your own instance or join an existing one.
Alternative to: Facebook, Meetup, Eventbrite
Social media & communities
MetaGer
Germany EU
A privacy-focused metasearch engine run by the German non-profit association SUMA-EV. It blends results from multiple sources, hides your IP behind an anonymising proxy, and is open source. No profiling, no ad-tracking.
Alternative to: Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu Search, Yandex Search
Search engines
Swisscows
Switzerland EFTA
Swiss search engine founded in 2014 by Andreas Wiebe, hosted in a high-security data center in a former military bunker in the Swiss Alps. No IP logging, no tracking cookies, no user profiling. Family-friendly content filtering built in by default.
Alternative to: Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu Search, Yandex Search
Search engines
Qwant
France EU
French privacy search engine founded in 2013. No user tracking, no data reselling. In 2024 partnered with Ecosia to build the European Search Perspective (EUSP), Europe's first independent search index. Acquired in 2023 by Octave Klaba, founder of OVHcloud.
Alternative to: Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu Search, Yandex Search
Search enginesTwake Workplace
France EU
Open-source collaboration suite developed by French company Linagora. Combines Matrix-based messaging, cloud drive, mail, and calendar in one platform. EU-hosted and self-hostable.
Alternative to: Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Dingtalk
Team communication
Stackfield
Germany EU
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.
Alternative to: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Dingtalk
Team communication
Wire
Switzerland EFTA
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.
Alternative to: Imessage, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Whatsapp, Wechat, Dingtalk
Team communication
Hetzner
Germany EU
Family-owned German cloud and dedicated server provider founded in 1997. Own data centres in Germany and Finland, no outside investors, no VC pressure, delivering reliable European infrastructure at unbeatable prices.
Alternative to: Heroku, Vercel, Netlify, Aws, Digitalocean, Linode, Alibaba Cloud
Hosting & cloud infrastructure
Bunny CDN
Slovenia EU
Slovenian content delivery network and cloud storage provider founded in 2017. Operates 120+ PoPs worldwide with European ownership and no ties to US Big Tech. Simple pricing, no hidden fees, GDPR-compliant infrastructure.
Alternative to: Akamai, Aws Cloudfront, Vercel, Netlify, Aws, Cloudflare, Fastly, Alibaba Cloud
Hosting & cloud infrastructure
Hetzner Object Storage
Germany EU
S3-compatible object storage launched by German cloud provider Hetzner in December 2024. Store data in certified European data centres in Falkenstein, Nuremberg, or Helsinki. From €4.99/month per TB with no egress charges within the EU network zone.
Alternative to: Aws, Google Cloud, Azure, Cloudflare, Alibaba Cloud
Hosting & cloud infrastructureStart 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.