Moving to European and CANZUK tech: a quick overview
This post introduces my ongoing move towards using more European and CANZUK tech, and less tech from other regions (primarily, getting away from American big tech). The post covers what, why, and a quick overview of the changes I've made so far.
This is a movement that's existed for far longer than I've been paying attention. I made a start in spring 2025, but really pressed the accelerator in January 2026, making me a relative newcomer.
Why move
There are three broad reasons to move to European tech:
- Privacy: this is a longstanding concern with tech from other jurisdictions. Europe has some of the strongest privacy protections, and the big tech firms (Google, Meta, Microsoft, AWS etc.) are notorious for profiting from user data.
- Ethics/personal principles: this has several sub-reasons, such as wanting to support European industry, boycotting the big tech firms, or boycotting the USA.
- Resiliance and stability: the unreliability of the USA raises concerns about reliance on American tech.
While I care about all three, Trump's threats towards Greenland, and the rising risks in relying on US tech, caused me to accelerate the project. It went from something I looked at occasionally, making a few easy switches, to a much bigger push. I moved all key services over the course of a week.
For anyone thinking this is paranoid: maybe. I hope so. I really really hope so. But I'm not the only one thinking this way: the example I've been using when explaining my thinking is "What if Trump decided to apply pressure to Europe by blocking Gmail access?" A week or two after I started seriously considering this, something similar showed up in a Wall Street Journal article:
The worst-case scenario for European officials? A White House executive order that cuts off the region’s access to data centers or email software that businesses and governments need to function.
If you prefer your news in podcast form, this short (~11 minute) episode from The Guardian gives a very good overview of the concerns and the current situation of European tech: Is it time to break up with US tech?.
In January 2026, we can't go a day without some news outlet or other reporting on European concerns, and moves towards tech independence. If I'm paranoid, it's a widely shared anxiety.
Even if this turns out to be uneccessary, if American tech never becomes unreliable, the effort isn't wasted: privacy and supporting European businesses are good reasons to move. I've just done the move a little faster than previously planned.
Terms
There are quite a few communities and movements with different definitions of which geographies and what types of switch are valid. So I'm going to define my terms:
- Europe: for this project, Europe includes the EU, EEA, and the UK.
- CANZUK: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom.
Priorities
My top priority is reliability, so I'm emphasising a full move away from the USA wherever possible. This means I favour services running on European datacentres (in other words, I'm avoiding European companies who rely on American infrastructure). I'm also favouring open source tech. I'm happy to support Europe and CANZUK: what Mark Carney recently described as the middle powers who need to work together.
Switches
I switched browser and search engine in spring 2025, and started dual booting Linux (though remained primarily on Windows). The rest of the switches were done in January 2026.
| Service | Previously used | Replaced with | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows | Linux Mint | Yes, Donald Trump has done what 13 years of gentle mockery from tech colleagues didn't manage: I've finally moved to Linux as my primary OS. I'm dual booting with Windows for now, but next time I replace my laptop, I won't bother with Windows. |
| Browser | Google Chrome | Vivaldi | An open source browsers, developed in Norway, based on Chromium. |
| Search engine | Ecosia | A German search engine that directs its profits to environmental causes. | |
| Domain registrar & DNS | Cloudflare | Infomaniak | Swiss company, Swiss datacentres. An emphasis on digital sovereignty and green tech. |
| Website hosting | Cloudflare Pages | Hetzner | A German company with several European datacentres. |
| Version control | GitHub | A mix of local-only git, syncing through pCloud, and Codeberg for public repos | |
| Deployments | Automatic deploys from GitHub to Cloudflare Pages | rsync / Codeberg | My local version control and deployment setup is fine for my personal websites. I plan to use Codeberg for collaborative projects, but haven't explored it yet. |
| Email, Calendar, Contacts | Infomaniak | Infomaniak provide a generous free email with every domain. I'm happy with the setup for myself, but I'm not confident recommending them to everyone: there's a rather gnarly confusion around organisations and multiple users, and their docs are badly out of date, so if I was trying to do a setup for a whole family or company, I'm be nervous. However, as a solo individual, it's a solid and very price-competitive option. | |
| File backups and syncs | Google Drive | pCloud | I found pCloud a few years ago, and liked it enough to buy a lifetime subscription. They're a Bulgarian-Swiss company. If signing up, be careful to choose European not American servers. It's also worth looking at reviews: while I've been very happy with pCloud, they have a distinctly mediocre rating on Trustpilot, mostly due to customer service issues. |
| Password manager | Dashlane | Proton Pass (referral link: you get two free weeks, I get credits towards my subscription) | Swiss company. There's a free tier, and migrating from Dashlane was very easy: export logins as spreadsheet, import into Proton. |
| Authenticator | Google Authenticator | Proton Pass | |
| Documents and spreadsheets | Google Docs and Sheets | Libre Office and VS Codium/Nano/? | Libre Office is a good replacement for larger docs and sheets. I'm not completely settled on lightweight editor for quick shareable notes, but will probably just do Markdown notes in VSCodium, Nano, or another editor. Easy sharing is one thing I haven't figured out yet. |
| Coding / text editor | VS Code | VSCodium | VSCodium is a fork of VS Code, with the Microsoft tracking removed. |
There were a few cases where I was already using European or CANZUK tech:
| Service | Using | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Digital design | Canva | Australian |
| Music streaming | Deezer | French. And unlike Spotify, it clearly tags AI generated music |
| Analytics | Plausible | A privacy-respecting lightweight analytics tool from Estonia. I've used this for years: it's far more user-friendly than Google's analytics offerings. |
| Accounting software | FreeAgent (referral link: we both get 10% off) | UK company, but sadly running on American datacentres in Ireland. |
Pending
The key thing I haven't switched yet is messenger apps: I'm currently split between WhatsApp and Signal (which is at least open source and privacy-focused), depending on who I'm talking to. Much as I would like to try Threema, if I can't persuade friends off WhatsApp to Signal, the chances of getting anyone onto an app with a one-off payment seem low.
I also haven't switched my AI or gaming options, but they're a nice-to-have, so from a resilience point of view they feel less urgent.
And I haven't begun to tackle my phone . . .
Resources and tips
If you're looking to make your own switches, European Alternatives can help you discover options. There are also many Reddit communities dedicated to aspects of this switch, including r/BuyUK, r/BuyFromEU, r/BuyCanadian, r/degoogle, and r/selfhosted.
I'm aware Reddit is an American platform, and this brings me to the first tip: don't be perfectionist. This is a potentially never-ending project, and being a purist about it will either burn you out or cause you to be a dickhead to people on Reddit. Do what you can.
Second tip: think about your priorities. You might choose to tackle different services first, or move to different options, depending on whether your priority is privacy, resilience, or supporting industry in a specific country.
Third: accept that it's going to be a long process. Technically, I did most of it in a week, but I'd spent quite a lot of time beforehand researching options, and that's the part that takes the most time.
And fourth: get your own domain name, and use it for email. In other words, instead of being janesmith@gmail.com, be jane@smith.co.uk (or whatever domain you like - try to avoid .com though). This will be a painful move now (a lot of logins to update, though you can tackle them gradually, and forward your old email to your new one). However, if you need to move again, it will make life much easier, as you simply switch providers with no change in email address.
Wrap up
This hopefully won't be the last blog post on this topic. At the very least, I want to write up my static site setup on Hetzner. And if I ever fully wrap my brain around Infomaniak, I'll be sure to share.
If you're making your own switches: good luck!