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

madman_dev

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 verified European alternatives is surprisingly hard. Most "alternatives" sites are US-focused. Technical implementation: Static Astro site, hosted on Cloudflare Pages. 326 pages, fully bilingual. Search via Fuse.js. Product suggestion form via Cloudflare Worker into n8n webhook. No cookies. Currently covers: cloud storage, email, VPN, password managers, office suites, browsers, search engines, video conferencing, messaging, social media, photo backup, project management, notes and knowledge tools, analytics, hosting, AI tools, smartphones, sport and fashion, cosmetics, audio hardware, e-commerce, freelance platforms, website builders. Monetized via affiliate links (clearly labeled). Most products have no affiliate relationship and are listed purely on merit. Happy to hear what I got wrong or am missing. Also: You can suggest a product on the page, if you got something, feel free to use that button.

hvb2

Is this just to plug the site? What's unique about this, there's quite a few others already?

smarx007

Spotify is already European...

Galanwe

Pretty much the answer is Proton (mail, storage, password manager, VPN calendar, etc)

monegator

what was wrong with https://european-alternatives.eu/ ?

Remi_Etien

Interesting list. One thing I've noticed while talking to founders across Europe: the adoption gap often isn't about features but discoverability and network effects. A European tool can be technically superior but loses because everyone's already on the US alternative. For early validation work especially, the switching cost rarely justifies the gains unless there's a specific regulatory or latency requirement. Worth considering what actual lock-in exists vs perceived lock-in.

agrishin

Do they really match full functionality and user experience though?

iLoveOncall

Most of those are not at all alternatives but rather "solutions roughly in the same domain space that might have a 10% overlap". Klarna has nothing in common with Paypal, bare metal hosting is not at all an alternative to AWS, PeerTube has nothing in common with Netflix, etc.

medvidek

Is it only me, or does the logo in the header really look like someone forgot a zero in the number of pixels when running some compression tool?

sneela

Uhhh, I don't think Ente is Norwegian? Yeah, they have an office in Norway, but I remember them starting from India --- Ente means 'mine' in Malayalam, a language spoken in Kerala, South India. https://only-eu.eu/en/categories/foto-backup/ente-photos/ Also, their LinkedIn page shows that their HQ is Dover, Delaware, USA: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ente-com/about/ https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ente-technologies Which is interesting.

vldszn

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 ideas for other templates/features. 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. PS: e-invoice is wip (Ksef, XRechnung, Factur-X)

neya

Home page boldly claims: EuRopE dOeS iT BeTtEr. There is literally a story trending on HN right now: Proton built Proton Meet to escape the CLOUD Act. They built it on CLOUD Act infrastructure. Their website promises "not even government agencies" can access your calls. The company routing them hands your call records to the government when asked. Proton hid them from their privacy policy. This superiority complex needs to stop. Source: https://www.sambent.com/proton-meet-isnt-what-they-told-you/

_imnothere

Did you mean: _Alternatives with age verification_?

deaux

It's so funny to see all of these websites generated by American LLMs hosted on American clouds. Footer "Made in Europe" needs a change to "Prompted in Europe", a la Apple's "Designed in California". I'm a big proponent _and practitioner_ of moving away from US-controlled services. I urge people to do so at any opportunity I get and have already moved many things over. Any new project I undertake uses non-US services wherever possible. But this vibecoded slop doesn't help much. If you want to actually be helpful, contribute to any of the 50 websites about the exact same concept that have been posted on HN over the last year.

austinwade

This is so funny

outsidein

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.

yreg

NordVPN claims to operate under Panama jurisdiction (but is otherwise still based in Europe). The specific reason why they want to operate under Panama law is that there's no mandatory data retention. So it seems misguided to claim that purely-EU-based alternatives to NordVPN are 'safer' and 'more private' than Nord due to the location alone.

miyuru

only-eu.eu registered on Porkbun LLC and hosted on Cloudflare, Inc https://whois.eurid.eu/en/search/?domain=only-eu MX points to route1.mx.cloudflare.net as well. they should use their own product before giving others advice.

R_Spaghetti

why is it hosted by cloudflare (us company) in stead of http://bunny.net ? https://info.addr.tools/only-eu.eu

i_love_retros

Trump is destroying America and I'm running out of popcorn.