Sovereign alternatives to everyday digital tools. What works, what doesn't, and where Village helps.
Governments and organisations across Europe are choosing sovereign digital tools. This guide helps you make informed choices too.
These take less than 5 minutes each. No technical skills needed.
Three strong options. Firefox: the only non-Chromium browser β important for web diversity, local AI features. Vivaldi: extreme customisation, Norwegian company, European jurisdiction. Brave: most aggressive privacy defaults, blocks 4M+ trackers daily, 30% less RAM than Chrome.
Step-by-step guide βProxies actual Google results with zero tracking β same search quality without surveillance. Netherlands-based under GDPR. Unlike DuckDuckGo (US-based, Bing index), Startpage gives you Google's relevance from European jurisdiction.
Step-by-step guide β89% accuracy in 2025 testing β outperforms Google at 57% on verb valency. Consistently rated best for European language pairs. Supports 28+ languages. Google still leads for Asian and African languages.
Step-by-step guide βXChaCha20 encryption with Argon2 key derivation β more modern than AES-256/PBKDF2. Zero-knowledge architecture verified by Cure53 audit. ISO 27001 + SOC 2 Type 2 certified. Unblemished breach record. Free tier available.
Step-by-step guide βThese take 1-2 hours. Straightforward once you start.
The clear market leader for sovereign email. End-to-end encrypted by default. Calendar, Drive, VPN, Pass bundled into one suite. Swiss jurisdiction. Free plan available, Mail Plus from β¬3.99/mo. Search is limited β can't search encrypted message bodies.
Step-by-step guide βTwo tools for two jobs. Signal for personal messaging: gold standard encryption, collects only phone number + last connection date. 40-70M users, UX nearly identical to WhatsApp. Village Chat for community coordination: group threads, file sharing, encrypted DMs. Getting contacts to switch is the hard part β WhatsApp has 3 billion users.
Step-by-step guide βNo account needed. No download β runs in your browser. Free forever. End-to-end encryption available. France is building its sovereign videoconferencing on similar technology. Can lag on spotty connections. Zoom still leads for breakout rooms and large webinars.
Step-by-step guide βEnd-to-end encrypted file storage β files and metadata encrypted client-side before upload. Integrates with Proton Mail ecosystem. Free tier: 5GB. Pricier per GB than commodity storage. Less flexible than self-hosted Nextcloud. No real-time collaboration like Google Docs.
Step-by-step guide βThese require meaningful effort but are achievable. Plan a weekend.
OnlyOffice for collaboration: best MS Office file compatibility (.docx renders correctly). Web-based, self-hostable. LibreOffice for desktop: power-user features, open standard ODF format. Germany's Schleswig-Holstein migrated 44,000 employees to this stack. Neither matches Google Docs' real-time collaboration UX.
Step-by-step guide βZero-knowledge encryption β all photos encrypted on your device before upload. Available on Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, and web. Open source, independently audited. Shared albums for family. Nothing yet matches Google Photos' AI-powered search β that is the trade-off for real encryption.
Step-by-step guide βEnd-to-end encrypted. Clean interface. Easiest switch if already on Proton Mail. Significant limitations β no shareable calendars without losing encryption, no file attachments, no offline access, no scheduling links. All calendar alternatives are feature-limited vs Google.
Step-by-step guide β100% offline maps β all features work without connectivity. No ads, no tracking. Excellent for hiking, cycling, driving navigation. 13 releases in 2025. Business info often outdated, no real-time traffic, no Street View, no transit in many cities. A partial replacement.
Step-by-step guide βSome services have no credible sovereign replacement. Here's what you can do.
Content library is irreplaceable. Use FreeTube (desktop app, no tracking), Invidious (web frontend, works with Tor), or NewPipe (Android). These let you watch YouTube without being tracked. PeerTube exists as federated alternative but has tiny content. There is no sovereign YouTube.
Step-by-step guide βProfessional network monopoly. XING exists but only in Germany/Austria/Switzerland. No global alternative. Recommendation: minimise usage rather than delete if career-critical. Limit profile information. Access via browser with tracker blocking, not the mobile app.
The social graph has no equivalent. But ask: what do you actually use it for? Group organising β Village replaces this. Keeping up with family β Village stories and galleries. Doom-scrolling β consider quitting. Marketplace β no good alternative exists.
Learn more β7 categories where Village is the community-level alternative.
Community messaging with Matrix-based encryption. Not a WhatsApp replacement β a group coordination tool.
Jitsi-based video calls with your branding, moderation controls, and usage analytics.
Community file storage with managed backups. Not a personal cloud drive β shared resources for your group.
Collabora-based document viewing and basic editing. For full office work, pair with OnlyOffice.
Community gallery with AI tagging and face detection. Not a personal photo backup service.
Community event scheduling. For personal calendars, use Proton Calendar.
The organising layer that replaces Facebook Groups. Stories, governance, member coordination.
Village doesn't try to replace every product on this page. It replaces the tools your community needs to communicate, organise, and share β privately, on your terms.