Privacy-friendly Tech Alternatives

Last Update: February 23, 2025

This page contains an ever-growing list of privacy-friendly alternatives to Big Tech solutions. It will be updated on an ongoing basis.

VPN

Mullvad VPN

Alternative to: NordVPN, SurfShark

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://mullvad.net/en/

Source Code: https://mullvad.net/en/open-source

Audited: Yes

Payment methods: Cash, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Monero, bank wire, credit card, PayPal, Swish, Eps transfer, Bancontact, iDEAL, and Przelewy24

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

ProtonVPN

Alternative to: NordVPN, SurfShark

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://protonvpn.com/

Source Code: https://github.com/ProtonVPN

Audited: Yes

Payment methods: Credit/debit card, PayPal

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

Browser

Brave

Alternative to: Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://brave.com/

Source Code: https://github.com/brave

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

Librewolf

Alternative to: Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://librewolf.net/

Source Code: https://codeberg.org/librewolf

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux

Tor

Alternative to: Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://www.torproject.org/

Source Code: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/team

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux

Firefox

Alternative to: Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

Source Code: https://github.com/mozilla

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

Email Provider

mailbox.org

Alternative to: Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail

Open Source: Mostly

Website: https://mailbox.org/

Audited: Yes

Payment methods: Credit card, PayPal, Bank transfer

Available for: Web client or third party email clients like Thunderbird

Posteo

Alternative to: Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://posteo.de/en

Audited: Yes

Payment methods: Bank transfer, cash, PayPal or with a credit card

Available for: Web client or third party email clients like Thunderbird

Disroot

Alternative to: Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://disroot.org/en

Audited: No info

Payment methods: Donations via Liberapay, Patreon, PayPal, Stripe, Cryptocurrency or bank transfer

Available for: Web client or third party email clients like Thunderbird

Email Clients

Thunderbird

Alternative to: Outlook

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://github.com/thunderbird

Audited: Yes

Payment methods: Donations via credit card, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and by bank transfers through SEPA, iDEAL and ACH

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android

Photo Cloud Storage

Ente.io

Alternative to: Apple Photos/iCloud, Google Photos, Dropbox

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://ente.io/

Source Code: https://github.com/ente-io

Audited: Yes

Payment methods: Stripe supports all major prepaid and credit card providers for the Web, Desktop and Android versions.

On iOS, the billing platforms provided by the app store.

Also PayPal and crypto currencies.

Available for: Web App, Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

Password Manager

KeePassXC

Alternative to: 1Password, Apple Passwords

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://keepassxc.org/

Source Code: https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc

Audited: Yes

Payment methods: Donations via PayPal, Patreon, GitHub Sponsorships, LiberaPay, Open Collective and Cryptocurrencies

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux

KeePassDX

Alternative to: 1Password, Apple Passwords

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://www.keepassdx.com/

Source Code: https://github.com/Kunzisoft/KeePassDX/releases

Payment methods: Donations via PayPal, Google Pay, LiberaPay and Cryptocurrencies

Available for: Android

KeePassium

Alternative to: 1Password, Apple Passwords

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://keepassium.com/

Source Code: https://github.com/keepassium/KeePassium

Payment methods: Billing by the app store.

Available for: iOS

Bitwarden

Alternative to: 1Password, Apple Passwords

Open Source: Yes

Website: https://bitwarden.com/

Source Code: https://github.com/bitwarden/

Payment methods: Credit/debit card, PayPal, bank account (for US citizens) and Bitcoin. Wire transfers and corporate checks for business subscriptions.

Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Web Browser Extensions

Self-hosted option

...but what about...?

There are some popular services that I don't list here for a reason. I will address why in the future.