Alternatives to Google
There are other lists like this on this website but just about all of them give terrible recommendations like Firefox (paid by Google), Brave (based on Chromium), and ProtonMail. This list covers true alternatives to Google that are completely dependant from Google.
Google Search
Never use search engines that only use Google results (Startpage).
Searx is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from more than 70 search services. Users are neither tracked nor profiled. Additionally, searx can be used over Tor for online anonymity.
Why use Searx?
- Searx may not offer you as personalised results as Google, but it doesn't generate a profile about you
- Searx doesn't care about what you search for, never shares anything with a third party, and it can't be used to compromise you
- Searx is free software, the code is 100% open and you can help to make it better. See more on GitHub
If you do care about privacy, want to be a conscious user, or otherwise believe in digital freedom, make Searx your default search engine or run it on your own server
Technical details - How does it work?
Searx is a metasearch engine, inspired by the seeks project. It provides basic privacy by mixing your queries with searches on other platforms without storing search data. Queries are made using a POST request on every browser (except chrome*). Therefore they show up in neither our logs, nor your URL history. In case of Chrome* users there is an exception, Searx uses the search bar to perform GET requests. Searx can be added to your browser's search bar; moreover, it can be set as the default search engine.
YaCy is a free search engine that anyone can use to build a search portal for their intranet or to help search the public internet. When contributing to the world-wide peer network, the scale of YaCy is limited only by the number of users in the world and can index billions of web pages. It is fully decentralized, all users of the search engine network are equal, the network does not store user search requests and it is not possible for anyone to censor the content of the shared index.
Google Chrome
UnGoogled Chromium and Bromite are not allowed because they are still based on Chromium. Other than the added privacy, using them would be no different from using Google Chrome.
Gnuzilla is the GNU version of the Mozilla suite, and GNU IceCat is the GNU version of the Mozilla Firefox browser. Its main advantage is an ethical one: it is entirely free software. While the principal source code from the Mozilla project is free software, the distribution contains various problematic files, the EULA they require for use of their binaries is troublesome, and they distribute and recommend non-free software as plug-ins. In addition, GNU IceCat includes some privacy protection features, included in a separate addon.
Pale Moon is an Open Source, Goanna-based web browser available for Microsoft Windows and Linux (with other operating systems in development), focusing on efficiency and customization.
Pale Moon offers you a browsing experience in a browser completely built from its own, independently developed source that has been hard forked off from Firefox/Mozilla code, with carefully selected features and optimizations to improve the browser's speed*, resource use, stability and user experience, while offering full customization and a growing collection of extensions and themes.
Main features: Optimized for modern processors Based on the Unified XUL Platform (UXP) containing our own optimized layout and rendering engine (Goanna) Safe: forked from mature Mozilla code and regularly updated with the latest security patches Secure: Additional security features and security-aware development Supported by our user community, and fully non-profit Privacy-aware: zero ads; no telemetry, spyware or data gathering Familiar, efficient, fully customizable interface Support for full themes: total freedom for any element's design Support for easily-created lightweight themes (skins) Smooth and speedy page drawing and script processing Superior gradients and fonts Will continue to support NPAPI plugins like Flash and Java Support for a growing number of Pale Moon exclusive extensions Extensive and growing support for existing web standards
Pale Moon will continue to provide grouped navigation buttons of a decent size, a bookmarks toolbar that is enabled by default, tabs next to page content by default (easily switchable) and not in the least a functional status bar and more freedom in customization, to name a few things.
This project is community-supported to benefit the development of not only a web browser but any other application that builds on the freely available XUL platform we are developing and using.
The Tor software protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location, and it lets you access sites which are blocked.
The Tor Browser lets you use Tor on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux without needing to install any software. It can run off a USB flash drive, comes with a pre-configured web browser to protect your anonymity, and is self-contained.
Chrome OS
Only distros that do not use Systemd are included because Systemd defaults to Google's DNS servers.
Devuan is the base GNU/Linux distribution aiming to replace Debian in order to preserve Init Freedom and avoid the systemd lock-in. Devuan is developed by and for Veteran Unix Admins.
Artix Linux is a fork (or continuation as an autonomous project) of the Arch-OpenRC and Manjaro-OpenRC projects. Artix Linux offers a lightweight, rolling-release operating system featuring the OpenRC init software. Three editions of Artix are available, a minimal Base system, an edition featuring the i3 window manager and an edition which runs the LXQt desktop.
Gentoo Linux is a versatile, fast, highly configurable and completely free Linux and FreeBSD distribution geared towards developers and network professionals.
Gentoo is a rolling release distro (continuously developing, doesn't have versions) where mostly all parts of the system are being compiled from source.
Gmail
Even when using a different provider, sending emails to users with Gmail accounts will still compromise your setup since Google can still read them. Always encrypt with GPG.
Posteo is an independent email service provider. Based in Berlin since 2009. With focus on security, privacy, and sustainability. They offer ad free paid email accounts for individuals and businesses.
In 2022, Posteo had more than 500,000 active mail accounts
Strength: • Very strong privacy and encryption. Including both data and payment. • Powered by Roundcube. Which is Libre Source (Open Source). If you are not familiar with "Libre Source", it means this software has both stronger security & stronger privacy. Because its code is publicly available for review and contributions on GitHub at https://github.com/roundcube/roundcubemail/ • Attractive GNU General Public License version 3. This means the software code of this extension is owned and supported by a friendly not-for-profit community. Instead of a for-profit corporation. https://github.com/roundcube/roundcubemail/blob/master/LICENSE • Two-factor authentication (TFA). Video at https://posteo.de/en/blog/help-video-how-to-additionally-secure-your-account-with-two-factor-authentication • Wide selection of theme. Including dark. Video at https://posteo.de/en/blog/new-at-posteo-many-colors-and-dark-mode • 2 GB storage. Can be increased to 20 GB. • Attachment up to 50MB • Two alias addresses included. Can be increased to 20 for an additional charge of 0.10 EUR per alias per month. • IMAP or POP3. So you are free to use any email software to your liking. Such as, but not limited to Thunderbird. • Address book • Calendar • Customized filters • Unlimited filter addresses • Multilingual. English, French, German. Including both the interface and documentation. • Easy migration from other suppliers to Posteo • Forwarding and autoreply • Country codes: posteo.co.uk, posteo.de, posteo.net, posteo.org, and more • Self-financed. Posteo does business sustainably. They are free of debts and loans. There are no investors. So they are free from external interference. • In 2022, Posteo had more than 500,000 active mail accounts. Source at https://posteo.de/en/site/transparency_report • Ad-free • Multiple payment options to choose from
Challenge: • Can not yet receive email at a custom domain name
Riseup is an organization which provides online communication tools for people and groups working on liberatory social change. We are a project to create democratic alternatives and practice self-determination by controlling our own secure means of communications.
Email
We provide secure and private email accounts, accessible via the web, shell, IMAP, or POP. Get help on mail. Login to webmail. Request an account. Reset lost password. Change my settings.
Mailing Lists
We provide mailing lists for activist organizations. Get help on lists. Login to lists. Request a list. Subscribe. Unsubscribe.
New Services
We are testing VPN, Chat, etherpad and file sharing services. These services are still under development, and may be unreliable at times. If you want to help test them, please give them a try.
Disroot is a platform that offers federated web services to the public. It combines free encrypted email with secure cloud services, including an online office suite.
Services provided:
YouTube
Proxies such as Invidious (dead), FreeTube, and NewPipe are not included.
PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform developed as an alternative to other platforms that centralize our data and attention, such as YouTube, Dailymotion or Vimeo. But one organization hosting PeerTube alone may not have enough money to pay for bandwidth and video storage of its servers, all servers of PeerTube are interoperable as a federated network, and non-PeerTube servers can be part of the larger Vidiverse (federated video network) by talking our implementation of ActivityPub. Video load is reduced thanks to P2P (BitTorrent) in the web browser via WebTorrent.
Video streaming Just upload your videos, and be sure they will stream anywhere. Add a description, some tags and your video will be discoverable by the entire video fediverse, not just your instance. You can even embed a player on your favorite website!
Keep in touch with video creators Follow your favorite channels from PeerTube or really any other place. No need to have an account on the instance you watched a video to follow its author, you can do all of that from the Fediverse (Mastodon, Pleroma…), or just with RSS.
An interface to call home Be it as a user or an instance administrator, you can decide what your experience will be like. Don't like the colors? They are easy to change. Don't want to list videos of an instance but let your users subscribe to them? Don't like the regular web client? All of that can be changed, and much more. No UX dark pattern, no mining your data, no video recommendation bullshit.
Communities that help each other In addition to visitors using WebTorrent to share the load among them, instances can help each other by caching one another's videos. This way even small instances have a way to show content to a wider audience, as they will be shouldered by friend instances. Content creators can get help from their viewers in the simplest way possible: a support button showing a message linking to their donation accounts or really anything else.
Google Drive
No alternatives here. You don't need cloud storage. Get into the habit of storing everything locally and use USB drives for backups. You don't have to trust anyone.
Google Docs/Sheets/Slides
Don't even bother storing your documents in the cloud.
LibreOffice is a free and open-source office suite that is compatible with other major office suites, and is available on all operating systems. It is an independently-developed version of the OpenOffice.org suite.
The office suite includes:
LibreOffice - Writer, a word processor with similar functionality and file support to Microsoft Word . It has extensive WYSIWYG word processing capabilities, but can also be used as a basic text editor.
LibreOffice - Calc , a spreadsheet program, similar to Microsoft Office Excel . It has a number of unique features, including a system which automatically defines series of graphs, based on information available to the user.
LibreOffice - Impress , a presentation program resembling Microsoft Powerpoint . Presentations can be exported as SWF files, allowing them to be viewed on any computer with Adobe Flash installed.
LibreOffice - Draw , a vector graphics editor and diagramming tool similar to Microsoft Office Visio . It provides connectors between shapes, which are available in a range of line styles and facilitate building drawings such as flowcharts. It also includes features similar to desktop publishing software such as Scribus and Microsoft Office Publisher .
LibreOffice - Math , an application designed for creating and editing mathematical formulae. LibreOffice - Base , a database management program, similar to Microsoft Office Access .
Google Maps
Paper maps still exist.
OpenStreetMap is a project aimed squarely at creating and providing free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. It is a free editable map of the whole world. It is made by people like you. It allows you to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth.
Google Play Store
You really should root your phone if you
The F-Droid Repository is an easily-installable catalogue of free and open source apps for Android. With F-Droid, it's easy to browse and install apps on your device, and keep track of updates. You can also browse the repository with a web browser, and download the app directly from there, if you can’t or don’t want to run the F-Droid client on your device.
All applications in the default repository must be Free and Open Source software – for example, released under a GPL or Apache license. Every effort is made to verify that this is actually the case, both by visual inspection of the source, and by building the application from the published source.
Software that reports user activity without permission (e.g. via Google Analytics) or tracks user behaviour (e.g. most advertising platforms) is specifically excluded from FDroid’s own repository, as is software with the primary purpose of interacting with a non-Free network service. You are, of course, free to set up your own repository for this kind of software – the server source is available, and the client will allow addition or removal of repositories as you see fit.
F-Droid originated as a fork of Aptoide. F-Droid can be installed from its website or from within Aptoide, but it is not available for download in Google Market.
Blogger
The best alternative would be to get your own domain and host your own website.
Create your own free website, and connect with others you by following their sites. You get 1 GB of space to make whatever you’d like with HTML, CSS, JS, image, text, and web font files.
Google Calendar
Once again, no alternatives here. Just go to the store and buy a paper calendar and use that instead.
Google Translate
Ask someone who actually knows the language or learn the language yourself. Digital translators will never be as good as human translators.
Comments on 'Alternatives to Google'
Neocities uses reCAPTCHA
Only comment I can make after reading this
HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
So many of these aren't "alternatives" at all. You want the convenience of a digital calendar that you can view wherever, whenever, and can make changes to? Too bad. Use a paper one. No, I don't care if there are actual digital calendars that are alternatives to Google Calendar that are privacy-focused. Use a paper one! What? You won't? God dammit, Google tracks you! I'm sure that makes you feel bad!
Same thing with translators. Can't learn a language, because it's too hard? Can't get a translator because they either cost money or you're talking to people digitally? Too bad!
Also, also, the fact that Google funds Firefox isn't good enough to justify not using it. Every anti-privacy and anti-consumer global conglomerate funds Linux!
[Edited by tier50obby, December 20]