this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
120 points (99.2% liked)

Buy European

6584 readers
959 users here now

Overview:

The community to discuss buying European goods and services.


Matrix Chat of this community


Rules:

  • Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. No direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments.

  • Do not use this community to promote Nationalism/Euronationalism. This community is for discussing European products/services and news related to that. For other topics the following might be of interest:

  • Include a disclaimer at the bottom of the post if you're affiliated with the recommendation.

  • No russian suggestions.

Feddit.uk's instance rules apply:

  • No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia.
  • No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
  • No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users.
  • Do not share intentionally false or misleading information.
  • Do not spam or abuse network features.
  • Alt accounts are permitted, but all accounts must list each other in their bios.
  • No generative AI content.

Useful Websites

Benefits of Buying Local:

local investment, job creation, innovation, increased competition, more redundancy.

European Instances

Lemmy:

Friendica:

Matrix:


Related Communities:

Buy Local:

Continents:

European:

Buying and Selling:

Boycott:

Countries:

Companies:

Stop Publisher Kill Switch in Games Practice:


Banner credits: BYTEAlliance


founded 5 months ago
MODERATORS
 

Over the past few months, I embarked on a rewarding digital journey to move away from US big tech and towards more European [EU], open source [FOSS], privacy-oriented [P], and decentralized [D] alternatives.

I'm sharing my experience here in case it can be useful to others, as well as to gather any additional thoughts or suggestions:

  • Desktop OS: Microsoft Windows 11 --> OpenSUSE Tumbleweed + KDE [EU][FOSS]
  • Web browser: Google Chrome --> Brave --> Vivaldi --> Mozilla Firefox + Strict privacy settings, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Conset-O-Matic [FOSS][P]
  • Email: Gmail --> Infomaniak Mail [EU][FOSS]
  • Calendar: Google Calendar --> Infomaniak Calendar [EU][FOSS] + OneCalendar [EU]
  • Files: Dropbox --> Infomaniak kDrive [EU][FOSS]
  • Photos: Google Photos --> Infomaniak kDrive [EU][FOSS]
  • Notes: Google Keep --> Notesnook [FOSS][P]
  • Social Media:
    • Facebook --> Nothing
    • Twitter/X --> Mastodon (mas.to) [EU][FOSS][D]
    • Reddit --> Lemmy (lemm.ee) [EU][FOSS][D]
  • AI Chatbot: OpenAI ChatGPT --> Mistral AI Le Chat [EU]
  • Videos: Youtube --> Unwatched [EU][FOSS][P]
  • Podcasts: Apple Podcasts --> Spotify --> Pocket Casts [FOSS]
  • Translate: Google Translate --> DeepL [EU]
  • Maps: Google Maps --> Organic Maps [EU][FOSS][P]
  • Weather: Apple Weather --> YR [EU]
  • Online payments: PayPal --> Revolut [EU]
  • Password manager: LastPass --> Mozilla Firefox --> Bitwarden [FOSS][P]
  • Online shopping: Amazon --> Cdiscount [EU]
  • Travel booking: Booking.com --> Direct booking

And here's the list of things I couldn't let go of:

  • Mobile OS: iOS | I have a business iPhone which is also my personal phone
  • Messaging: WhatsApp | The network effect is too big here: family, friends, local businesses, etc
  • Streaming services: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ | These come basically for free with my ISP and are too convenient for the moment (esp. w/ kids)
all 22 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Blaze@piefed.social 6 points 1 month ago

Thank you for sharing!

[–] vegantomato@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Email: Gmail --> Infomaniak Mail [EU][FOSS]

Requires a phone number. If you live in an EU country, that phone number will be connected to your real identity due to recent laws in the EU forcing telephone companies to identify their customers. An "Infomaniak" email will most likely be connected to the user's real identity.

From their website:

The free offer is available in the following countries: Suisse, France, Belgique, Luxembourg, Allemagne, Italie, Autriche, Espagne, Portugal, Monaco, Australie, Canada, Chili, Corée du Sud, Danemark, Estonie, États-Unis, Finlande, Grèce, Hongrie, Irlande, Islande, Israël, Japon, Lettonie, Lituanie, Mexique, Norvège, Nouvelle-Zélande, Pays-Bas, Pologne, République slovaque, République tchèque, Royaume-Uni, Slovénie, Suède, Turquie.

A telephone number corresponding to the country is required.

Not a good choice if you want anonymity.

[–] ceiron@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Well spotted - I’ll look into it. What do you use? A self-hosted email server/domain?

[–] exchange12rocks@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

mailbox.org - they even specifically state "there's no need for you to tell us your real name"

[–] klobuerschtler@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

I also use mailbox. It's fully hosted in the EU as well.

[–] vegantomato@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

For an anonymous email, Tuta should be good.

Protonmail is also an alternative, but that one requires you to have another email address iirc.

Both of these are European.

Be aware that if you use an email for personal business, like buying stuff online, your email address will be connected to your identity indirectly regardless. So it depends on what you are going to use it for. It might be that it won't matter (in your case) that the address is linked to your identity through the phone number if you are already linking it to yourself in other ways.

[–] Riptide889Try@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

I recommend using email aliases, such as SimpleLogin, addy

[–] kahdbrixk@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago

Perfect example for what I'm still pondering about. Maybe this will help my own journey.

I'll check out infomaniak!

[–] thatonecoder@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Good job! Also, just to clarify, there is bitwarden.eu (yes, it is official). Furthermore, uBlock Origin makes Privacy Badger useless.

[–] ceiron@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Indeed, my account and data are on the bitwarden.eu servers.

I’ll look into the functionality overlap between Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin - thanks.

[–] noodlejetski@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] ceiron@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don’t see Privacy Badger being mentioned on the don’t bother list though

[–] noodlejetski@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

third bullet point. or Ctrl+F.

[–] camilobotero@feddit.dk 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Did you try Joplin instead of Notesnook? It’s from France and completely FOSS and for free.

[–] ceiron@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

I’ll look at it again but IIRC the interface was a bit too complicated and feature-rich for what I needed. It looks like Joplin is a full-blown alternative to OneNote while I’m just after an app to manage a few to-do lists.

[–] InlineStyle@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

If you’re looking for a unified, European alternative for your digital life, you might want to check out InlineStyle.

It’s a small, user-funded platform (no ads, no tracking) that combines:

  • Video sharing (via PeerTube) — follow creators or publish your videos without YouTube
  • Music streaming (via Funkwhale) — upload your library or explore the Fediverse
  • Photo albums (via Immich) — sync your photos and manage your albums
  • Notes and documents — write in Markdown or collaborate on spreadsheets
  • Retro and indie games — play directly in your browser with cloud saves
  • Personal website + email — get your own @inlinestyle.it email and me.inlinestyle.it/yourname website

All open-source. All hosted in the EU.

We’d love to hear your thoughts! The goal is to build a real alternative, not a downgrade.

👉 https://www.inlinestyle.it/

[–] wulrus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Nice! And here I am, moving just 80 % of my Amazon purchases elsewhere and talking a lot about switching to Linux ...

I found Mastodon not viable. Here are my experiences with it: https://lemmy.world/post/22012649/13473693 (tl;dr: my instance was shut down, all accounts deleted).

Followed the BlueSky people eventually. I kept my Twitter account, although unused, but to be honest, any account that I need for vital information is also - or only - on BlueSky. I left one last pinned post on Twitter, urging people to at least mirror whatever they think they must post there to Mastodon or BlueSky, so they don't force others to stay, but I'm afraid those who still believe, after all that happened, that they can do more good than harm there will be hard to convince.