Everything you use has a European alternative.

Datadog 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

World-class observability, world-class invoice.

• Zabbix Latvian open-source monitoring, free and enterprise-grade. 🇱🇻
• Checkmk Munich-built monitoring with excellent auto-discovery. 🇩🇪
• Icinga German open-source monitoring with a strong plugin ecosystem. 🇩🇪

Microsoft Teams 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

The chat app that arrived whether you asked for it or not.

• Element Matrix-based, federated, self-hostable, sovereign-ready. 🇬🇧
• Nextcloud Talk Chat, calls and screen sharing on infrastructure you control. 🇩🇪
• Stackfield German alternative combining chat, tasks and files. 🇩🇪
• alfaview Karlsruhe video conferencing built for large organisations. 🇩🇪

Amazon 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

The everything store, and everyone's competitor.

• bol The Benelux marketplace, roughly Amazon's local equivalent. 🇳🇱
• OTTO Hamburg's century-old retailer, now Germany's number two marketplace. 🇩🇪
• Allegro Poland's dominant marketplace, older than Amazon itself. 🇵🇱
• Alza Czech electronics and general retailer across Central Europe. 🇨🇿

Wayfair & Ashley Furniture 🇺🇸🇺🇸 US · non-EU

American furniture retail, shipped a long way.

• IKEA Älmhult, Sweden. You already know. 🇸🇪
• JYSK Danish, 3,000 stores across Europe. 🇩🇰
• home24 Berlin online furniture. 🇩🇪
• HAY Copenhagen design at reachable prices. 🇩🇰

Outlook.com 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Microsoft's consumer webmail, bundled into the Windows account.

• mailbox.org Drop-in IMAP/SMTP replacement with a full groupware suite. 🇩🇪
• Tuta Encrypted mailbox with its own apps on all platforms. 🇩🇪
• Infomaniak kMail Swiss mail with a generous free tier (outside the default EU scope). 🇨🇭
• Posteo Minimal, cheap, and audited German mail. 🇩🇪

Microsoft 365 / Office 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Word, Excel and friends, now rented rather than owned.

• LibreOffice The Document Foundation's free desktop suite; opens and saves Microsoft formats. 🇩🇪
• ONLYOFFICE Riga-built suite with the best OOXML fidelity of the open-source options. 🇱🇻
• Collabora Online Cambridge-based LibreOffice-in-the-browser, self-hostable. 🇬🇧
• Nextcloud Office Documents, files and collaboration on your own server. 🇩🇪

Jack Daniel's & Jim Beam 🇺🇸🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Tennessee and Kentucky, on every back bar in Europe.

• Jameson Midleton, County Cork. Triple-distilled Irish. 🇮🇪
• Becherovka Karlovy Vary herbal bitters, recipe from 1807. 🇨🇿
• Absolut Åhus, Sweden. Everything made in one town. 🇸🇪
• Metaxa Greek brandy blended with muscat wine, since 1888. 🇬🇷

Okta / Auth0 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Single sign-on, single foreign dependency.

• Ory Munich open-source identity infrastructure; self-host or EU cloud. 🇩🇪
• Univention Corporate Server Bremen-built identity and domain management for the public sector. 🇩🇪
• IDnow Munich identity verification meeting German regulatory standards. 🇩🇪
• ZITADEL Swiss open-source identity platform (outside the default EU scope). 🇨🇭

Amazon Web Services 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

The default cloud, and the default lock-in.

• Hetzner German servers at prices that make US clouds look like a rounding error. 🇩🇪
• OVHcloud Europe's largest hoster, with full sovereign-cloud offerings. 🇫🇷
• Scaleway French cloud with managed Kubernetes, object storage and GPUs. 🇫🇷
• IONOS Cloud German enterprise cloud with ISO-certified EU data centres. 🇩🇪

Amazon Kindle 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

E-books you licence rather than own.

• tolino German bookseller alliance's reader; open EPUB, buy from any member shop. 🇩🇪
• Vivlio French e-reader and store backed by independent booksellers. 🇫🇷
• Legimi Polish subscription with its own hardware. 🇵🇱

Microsoft Windows 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

The desktop, with telemetry and a Microsoft account requirement.

• Ubuntu Canonical's London-run distribution; the most common Linux desktop. 🇬🇧
• openSUSE German-rooted distribution with the excellent YaST admin tooling. 🇩🇪
• Zorin OS Dublin-built and deliberately designed to feel like Windows. 🇮🇪
• Linux Mint The friendliest landing spot for someone leaving Windows. 🇮🇪

Timberland, Merrell & Crocs 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 US · non-EU

American footwear for European terrain.

• Birkenstock German since 1774, and the actual original of the shape. 🇩🇪
• MEINDL Kirchanschöring, boots since 1683. Resoleable. 🇩🇪
• LOWA Jetzendorf, Bavaria. Still made in Europe. 🇩🇪
• SCARPA Asolo, Veneto. Mountaineering boots. 🇮🇹

Figma 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Collaborative design, single point of failure.

• Penpot The credible open-source Figma alternative; self-host the whole thing. 🇪🇸
• Linearity Curve German vector design with strong prototyping and export. 🇩🇪

Temu / Shein / AliExpress 🇨🇳 CN · non-EU

Very cheap, very far away, very much under DSA investigation.

• Allegro Polish marketplace with EU consumer protection actually applying. 🇵🇱
• Alza Czech retailer with real warranties and local returns. 🇨🇿
• OTTO German marketplace with vetted sellers. 🇩🇪
• eMAG Romanian marketplace covering South-Eastern Europe. 🇷🇴

Procter & Gamble cleaning brands 🇺🇸🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Ariel, Fairy, Lenor, Flash — one Cincinnati company.

• Henkel (Persil) Düsseldorf since 1876. Persil, Pril, Somat, Bref. 🇩🇪
• Frosch Werner & Mertz, Mainz. Recycled bottles, plant-based surfactants. 🇩🇪
• Ecover Malle, Belgium. The original green cleaning brand. 🇧🇪
• Sonett Baden-Württemberg, fully biodegradable, no enzymes. 🇩🇪

Trek, Specialized & Cannondale 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 US · non-EU

American bikes, in the continent that races them.

• Canyon Koblenz. Direct-to-consumer, which is why the prices work. 🇩🇪
• Cube Waldershof, Bavaria. 🇩🇪
• Bianchi Treviglio, 1885 — the oldest bicycle maker still in production. 🇮🇹
• Pinarello Treviso. Tour de France winners. 🇮🇹

Visa / Mastercard 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Two American companies sitting between Europe and its own money.

• Wero The pan-European wallet from 16 banks and payment providers. 🇧🇪
• iDEAL The Dutch bank-transfer standard, now folding into Wero. 🇳🇱
• Bancontact Payconiq Belgium's domestic card and QR payment scheme. 🇧🇪
• BLIK Poland's phone-based payment system, used by most of the country. 🇵🇱

Adobe Photoshop 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

The industry standard, now rented monthly forever.

• Affinity Photo Nottingham-built professional editor; one purchase, no subscription. 🇬🇧
• Krita Dutch foundation's free painting and illustration studio. 🇳🇱
• darktable German open-source RAW workflow, a real Lightroom replacement. 🇩🇪
• Photopea Czech browser-based editor that opens PSD files directly. 🇨🇿

Uber 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Ride-hailing, and a long European court record.

• Bolt Tallinn-built ride-hailing, scooters and food across 45 countries. 🇪🇪
• FREENOW Hamburg platform that mostly dispatches licensed taxis. 🇩🇪
• Heetch French ride-hailing focused on the suburbs the others skip. 🇫🇷
• Liftago Czech taxi app with transparent driver pricing. 🇨🇿

Firebase 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Backend-as-a-service, backed by Google's roadmap.

• Aiven Helsinki-run managed Postgres, Kafka, Redis and more, in any EU region. 🇫🇮
• Clever Cloud Managed databases and add-ons alongside your app. 🇫🇷
• Nhost Swedish open-source Firebase alternative on Postgres and GraphQL. 🇸🇪
• Scaleway Managed Postgres, serverless SQL and object storage. 🇫🇷

Nike & Under Armour 🇺🇸🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Oregon and Baltimore, worn by most of Europe.

• adidas Herzogenaurach, Bavaria. The three stripes. 🇩🇪
• PUMA The same town, founded by the other brother. 🇩🇪
• Hummel Danish since 1923, and unusually vocal about ethics. 🇩🇰
• Joma Toledo, Spain. Football kit across southern Europe. 🇪🇸

Headspace / Calm 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Mindfulness by subscription, mental-health data abroad.

• 7Mind Berlin meditation app, partly reimbursed by German health insurers. 🇩🇪
• Petit BamBou French meditation with the largest francophone library. 🇫🇷
• Balloon German guided meditation and sleep courses. 🇩🇪
• Meditopia Istanbul-built meditation in 10+ languages. 🇹🇷

Google Workspace 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Mail, docs and drive for companies, hosted entirely by Google.

• Nextcloud Self-hosted or EU-hosted files, docs, talk, calendar and mail. 🇩🇪
• Open-Xchange Cologne groupware powering many European ISP mail platforms. 🇩🇪
• Twake Workplace LINAGORA's French open-source workplace suite. 🇫🇷
• Infomaniak kSuite Swiss full workplace suite (outside the default EU scope). 🇨🇭

WordPress.com / Squarespace CMS 🇺🇸 US · non-EU

Open-source software, commercially hosted governance drama included.

• TYPO3 German enterprise CMS, standard across public sector and universities. 🇩🇪
• Contao German open-source CMS with strong accessibility support. 🇩🇪
• Kirby Berlin file-based CMS; no database, buy the licence once. 🇩🇪
• Webnode Czech hosted CMS for simpler sites. 🇨🇿