[HacktionLab] Alternatives to big tech for personal use?

[brentc]

Thanks all!

Yes, riseup is good and generally well regarded. It doesn't do full 
cloud drive and online office suite though afaik.

I also want non-US for efficiency/sustainability (as well as more 
political reasons)- makes technical sense to use a UK/EU location if I'm 
based in that area.

Proton mail does seem ok, but I get the impression their politics are 
more libertarian than liberal? E.g. CEO making statements apparently a 
bit republican supporting. I'd be curious as to others' thoughts here? 
Tricky area. I would also need to figure out how to calm down their 
adverts for themselves on their UI.

Mailbox.org might be worth a spin.

Cheers

On 26/12/2025 17:58, Patrice Riemens wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Being on puscii, which is a very small, hackers run ISP, I do not use riseup, but many friends are - to their full satisfaction. It's a bit the 'Isp of records' ;-) in some demographies. That is is US- based with all the consequences does not seem to be a drawback. But if you are paranoid about anything US related (aren't we all? ;-) I always advise Sswitzerland-based protonmail - in conjunction with an own mailer, type Thunderbird (here's a piece of 'do as I say, not as I do advice  ;-) Protonmail free has a rather limited storage.
>
> Cheers to all & best wishes for a rather anxiogenous 2026!
> p+2D!
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chris Clemson" <Chris.Clemson at GoGreenIT.net>
> To: hacktionlab at lists.aktivix.org
> Sent: Friday, 26 December, 2025 15:23:55
> Subject: Re: [HacktionLab] Alternatives to big tech for personal use?
>
> Hi!
>
> Have you tried https://riseup.net/?
>
> I've not used it, but it has been around for a while.
>
> There's a list of disroot-like services here, which might help:
> https://alternativeto.net/software/disroot/
>
> Let us know if you try any of them.
>
> On 24/12/2025 11:03, brentc wrote:
>> Hello
>>
>> I'd love to find something like Google suite that isn't Google. I use
>> alternatives for more activist stuff but keep coming back to Google
>> for general use. Any (constructive) thoughts or pointers?
>>
>> I guess looking for something in between weak activist offerings and
>> big tech. If something like a non-profit non-US Mozilla offered an
>> awesome product, that would be lovely, but I don't see it.
>>
>> Specifically, for me, I need the typical 'personal productivity'
>> services- email, todo lists, calendars, drive/docs/sheets with decent
>> editing and features, and sharing (with people who don't have an
>> account). I'd rather not use multiple services, want uptime and
>> backups handled, and if it's green hosted and a non-profit oriented,
>> bonus. It should probably be UK/EU region. I don't want to host my own
>> stuff. I'll pay for the right thing. Honestly, for personal use, I
>> probably want some balance of encryption/security with features,
>> noting I'll have to trust the provider anyway.
>>
>> I've tried disroot. It's quite good to be fair, but still limited
>> feature-wise, and more worryingly, couldn't get issues sorted with
>> support (which is a common thing with smaller outfits in my
>> experience, that I don't want to deal with). I don't like protonmail.
>> There's mailbox.org but tradeoffs are they're a company albeit seem
>> alright, and their website gives me the creeps.
>>
>> Maybe I ask for the currently impossible.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Brent
>>
>>
>>
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