My curated list of alternative software and services
Published on 26 February 2026 by Andrew Owen (5 minutes)
Last year, The Times of India published an article documenting what it described as the most significant recent acquisitions of five major tech companies. Some have claimed that such acquisitions are stifling innovation. Cory Doctrow has gone further, coining a word to describe a patterned decline in the quality of online platforms. My own view is that competition is good for business and alternatives are good. I’m based in Europe, so where possible, I’ve listed European suppliers. Sometimes the most practical alternative is the open-source version of the software you’re already using. But in some instances, you’re better off sticking with the solution from one of the big tech companies; for cost or compatibility reasons (GitHub comes to mind), or because it’s where your community is (Twitch for example). I’ve been buying Apple products and services since 1993, so I’ll mainly list those; I’m sure you can mentally substitute Outlook for Apple Mail, OneDrive for iCloud and so on.
| Product / Service | Solution | Alternative | Company | Country | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple AI | Large language model | Lumo AI | Proton AG | Switzerland | Free (paid plans available) | |
| Apple Mail | Email client | Betterbird | community-driven | Spain | Free | Based on Thunderbird. There is a Proton Mail client for mobile (free) and desktop (paid) platforms. |
| Apple Maps | Navigation | HERE WeGo | Here Technologies | Netherlands | Free | Majority owned by Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Intel. |
| Apple Music | Music streaming | Deezer | Access Industries | France | Free (ad-supported) | There are reasons to avoid Spotify even though it’s Swedish. |
| Apple TV | Film and television streaming | LaCinetek | La Cinémathèque des cinéastes | France | Rental / Subscription | Films released before 2010 selected by directors. |
| Discovery+ | Documentary streaming | Arte | ARTE | France/Germany | Free | English subtitles. |
| Document360 | Online documentation | docStatic | Source Solutions, Inc. | Ireland | Free | Based on Docusaurus and TinaCMS. |
| Facetime | Video calls | Skred | France en Ligne | France | Free | No phone number required. |
| GarageBand | Digital audio workstation | Zrhythm | Alexandros Theodotou | Cyprus | Free (v1, up to 25 tracks) | v2 is $25. |
| GoDaddy | Domain name registration | Joker.com | Computer Service Langenbach GmbH | Germany | Lowest fee around €2 | I’ve been using Joker.com since the 1990s. |
| Google Search | Web search | DuckDuckGo | DuckDuckGo | USA | Free | Private search from many sources excluding Google. |
| Google Translate | Machine translation | DeepL | DeepL SE | Germany | Free plan available | Developer API available. |
| Grammarly | Grammar and spelling checker | LanguageTool | LanguageTooler GmbH | Germany | Free plan available | Multilingual. |
| iCloud | Cloud storage | Proton Drive | Proton AG | Switzerland | Free (5 GB) | pCloud has an EU server based in Luxembourg. |
| iCloud Mail | Proton Mail | Proton AG | Switzerland | Free (paid plans available) | Free mobile app. | |
| Illustrator | Vector image editor | Affinity | Serif (Canva) | UK (Australia) | Free (registration required) | macOS, Windows (Android and iOS in development). For Linux, try InkScape. |
| iMovie | Video editing | DaVinci Resolve | Blackmagic Design | Australia | Free (up to 4K resolution) | Pro version is not a subscription. |
| InDesign | Desktop publishing | Affinity | Serif (Canva) | UK (Australia) | Free (registration required) | macOS, Windows (Android and iOS in development). |
| Photo sharing | pixelfed.de | decentralized | Germany | Free | Pixelfed is a federated service like Mastodon. | |
| iWork | Office suite | LibreOffice | The Document Foundation | Germany | Free | iWork comprises Keynote, Numbers and Pages. Collabora Office is LibreOffice for iOS without the database. |
| LastPass | Password manager | Proton Pass | Proton AG | Switzerland | Free | There’s also 1Password (Canadian). |
| Microsoft Authenticator | Two factor authentication | Proton Authenticator | Proton AG | Switzerland | Free | |
| Messages | Instant messenger | Skred | France en Ligne | France | Free | No phone number required. |
| Netlify | Jamstack hosting | statichost | statichost.eu | Sweden | Free (10GB bandwidth, 100 build minutes / month) | Pay-as-you-go pricing. |
| PayPal | Money transfer | Wero | seven European banks | Europe | Cost varies by Payment Service Provider (PSP) | Revolut is part of the scheme. |
| Photoshop | Raster image editor | Affinity | Serif (Canva) | UK (Australia) | Free (registration required) | macOS, Windows (Android and iOS in development). For Linux, try Krita. |
| Safari | Web browser | Mullvad Browser | Mullvad | Sweden | Free | Based on Firefox. |
| Micro-blogging | hostux.social | decentralized | France | Free | A federated Mastodon server. | |
| YouTube | Video Sharing | Dailymotion | Canal+ | France | Free | For video sharing, try Vimeo. |
| VSCode | Text editor | VSCodium | community-driven | global | Free | No telemetry but fewer plugins. |
You’ll note that Proton AG features heavily in the list. It’s a privacy-focussed technology company based in Switzerland (outside the EU). It’s majority owned by the non-profit Proton Foundation. As a Mac user, I evaluated the value propositions of pCloud and Proton Drive. The former is cheaper but less secure, and the Finder integration doesn’t work reliably on the latest macOS. The Proton Unlimited plan (€9.99/month) includes 500 GB of secure storage, a bitcoin wallet, calendar, password manager and VPN. Ultimately, I think that’s pretty good value for money. If you do want to use pCloud on macOS, you’ll probably want to install CloudMounter. It’s a €30 annual subscription but there’s a seven day free trial, which was useful for getting my data off of DropBox, OneDrive and Google Drive.
I’ll leave you with a longer list of acquisitions to reflect on.