All these European alternatives are great if you want to depend less on the US

You may or may not have realized it, but chances are that many of the apps and services you use every day are owned by a large US company. Precisely for this reason, more and more users are thinking in switching to services of European origin, thus depending less on the US.

Is it possible? The reality is that there are many quality European services that are a real alternative and are very worthwhile. There is a lot of work pending if you plan to reduce your dependence on American services to a minimum, but let’s start with four basic ones: cloud storage, email, VPN and cloud office automation.

European alternatives to Gmail

Are you looking for a European email service? Yes, most people choose Gmail, but we have options if we don’t want to depend on Google for our email:

• Proton Mail: Proton has its email service, very much in line with its cloud storage. It has end-to-end and zero-knowledge encryption, so not even the company itself will be able to access our information. It starts at a very reasonable price (2.99 euros per month), but right now we have the same promo to try the service for 1 euro per month for the first month.

• Tuta Mail: We have an alternative of German origin that also works with renewable energy. It also offers very good security, as well as protection against spam, phishing and tracking. It has a free option if we want to try the service, although it is a bit limited. Part of 3.60 euros per month.

• mailbox: Another service of German origin is Mailbox, which in addition to offering email, has an assortment of various functions (including video calls). The most basic service offered by Mailbox costs 1 euro per month.

European alternatives to Google Drive or iCloud

The cloud has become an oasis where we can save our photos, videos and files to free up our equipment. The most popular or used are usually Google Drive, Dropbox or iCloud, although there are quite interesting European alternatives:

• Internxt: Internxt, a company of Spanish origin, offers end-to-end encryption and is open source, so anyone can access it. This service is committed to an annual modality that starts from the 16 euros per year, although it also has lifelong plans.

• Proton Drive: Another quite notable alternative is with Proton, which offers a service with end-to-end encryption and with a lot of control over the files we store, as well as the links to share them that we can create. It has a fairly reasonable price, although right now there is an active promotion that allows us to get a month to try Proton Drive for 1 euro.
• pCloud: Of Swiss origin, pCloud is another European cloud storage alternative. It has a very intuitive interface and has a native application on practically all operating systems. This service is part of the 4.99 euros per monthalthough it also has annual and lifetime options.

European alternatives to Google Docs

Online office automation is very useful, especially when it comes to working collaboratively. Yes, we also have several very interesting options of European origin:

• OnlyOffice: a very useful service that is characterized above all by a very intuitive interface to use. It offers the possibility of hosting it in our own cloud with services such as OnwCloud or Nextcloud and, being open source, anyone can audit it. It has a free plan.
• Nextcloud Office: This service also offers a very good online document editing experience, both alone and collaboratively. Yes indeed: here we do not have a free plan.
• Proton Docs: This company also offers office automation among its services, which is doubly useful: it is easy to use and very secure. In addition, it is included in Proton Drive or even Proton Unlimited, which is this company’s package that includes both 500 GB of cloud storage and Docs, VPN, password manager and your email. This last service is on sale right now: it goes on 8.99 euros per month in its annual mode (so we will pay a total of 107.88 euros).

European alternatives to IPVanish

More and more people use a VPN to protect your Internet traffic and your VPN. There are several of the best VPNs that are of American origin, although not all. We have European alternatives that are safe and work well:

• Mullvad VPN: With more than 700 servers distributed in 38 countries, Mullvad VPN is one of the best European alternatives if we are looking for a VPN. It costs only 5 euros per month, regardless of whether we want a month, a year or a decade.

• Goose VPN: It is a smaller alternative, but Goose VPN is also a very interesting European service that can come in handy if we are looking for one of these tools. It offers 24/7 support and unlimited devices and is priced at 4.99 euros per month if we choose your annual subscription. It is worth noting that it offers a lifetime subscription for 159 euros.
• Proton VPN: Proton also has VPN, one that is open source and allows any user to access it. One of the best things about this service is that it has a free option, which is interesting if we want to try it before subscribing. Its price right now is 2.99 euros per month if we opt for its annual subscription.
• NordVPN: We leave one of the most recognized VPNs for last, which is also one of the best we can currently use. Right now it is on sale with a discount of more than 70% if we choose its two-year plan, one that also comes with 3 extra months. In other words: we have 27 months of NordVPN since 3.09 euros per month (or a total of 83.43 euros).

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Images | Alexey Larionov on UnsplashJose García, Proton, Tuta Mail, Mullvad VPN

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