European alternatives to American programs and services

Which browser do you use? Given its market share, it's likely that you're using Chrome, which is owned by Google. The US government is forcing it to sell the browser, but until that happens, it remains in its portfolio. European alternatives include Norway's Vivaldi and Sweden's Mullvad Browser.

Vivaldi has been around for ten years and is the brainchild of founders Tatsuki Tomita and Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner. The latter was a co-founder of the equally famous Opera browser. Vivaldi, like Mullvad, is focused on user privacy and blocks ads and trackers by default. Mullvad encourages the use of a VPN for additional protection against tracking. They of course recommend their own, which in our experience is even among the best.

Then there's Gmail - by far the most widely used email provider in the world. But we have plenty of alternatives. The most famous are the Swiss Proton Mail and the German Tuta.

It is much harder to replace a search engine. Google has built a monopoly over the years, which it exploits diligently and is also Google's biggest earner. There are not many equivalent alternatives or they require much more customization. Startpage is the best known, but it was sold to an American advertising company years ago. Qwant, Ecosia, GOOD, swisscows and metaGer are owned by European companies and use a mix of Bing's and its own search index. Some are also inspired by the Brave browser, which focuses on privacy and data security.

We don't have much to worry about when it comes to music. Most of you already use Spotify, which is majority owned by Swedish entrepreneurs. If you're looking for an alternative to YouTube Music and Apple Music, you can also try France's Deezer and Germany's SoundCloud.

What about Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, can we replace them? Or Windows? These are programs and systems that are so deeply integrated into our lives and work that it is difficult to imagine how we could live without them. LibreOffice is an open source solution from a German student and also the most widely used alternative to Office. We also know OnlyOffice, Nuclino, Nextcloud Office, CryptPad and Collabora Online.

Linux is also always ready if you want to leave Windows (or MacOS) behind forever, but we also admit that the transition is not the easiest for the average user.

Even Android on a smartphone is difficult to replace. First, you have to have a phone that you can unlock the system bootloader for, and only then can you replace the default ROM with something like LineageOS. On the other hand, you can easily eliminate Google's mobile store and use Aurora Store, F-Droid, or Droid-ify instead.

What about social networks? Twitter or X can be replaced with open-source Mastodon or Bluesky, although the latter is still owned by an American company. Reddit's alternative is Lemmy, and Instagram's is Pixelfed.

There are also plenty of translators to choose from. Instead of Google Translate, start using the German translator DeepL, which is even better in most cases. The French have Reverso, the Italians have ModernMT, and the Swiss have Textshuttle, if you'd like to try them out.

YouTube is another example of a monopoly that's hard to beat. PeerTube is a French attempt at video sharing, but it's not nearly as convenient as YouTube.

For many, the indispensable Google Maps can be replaced with the Komoot program for hiking and HERE WeGo or TomTom GO for street navigation by car or on foot.

What about generative AI? Can it replace Gemini, ChatGPT, Copilot and others? French company Mistral has released its AI chatbot Le Chat. The free version is sufficient for basic use, but for more advanced features and unlimited use you will have to pay €14.99 per month. We also tested it in the editorial office and are very satisfied with its speed and accuracy. For most people, Le Chat will be a great alternative to ChatGPT and others.

You can see all European alternatives at https://european-alternatives.eu/.