This guide is designed for anyone looking to take greater control of their digital life by choosing open-source solutions developed and maintained within Europe. It highlights projects that promote transparency, reduce reliance on non-European tech ecosystems, and align with Europe’s strong commitment to privacy and data protection. The goal is to support digital autonomy in Europe while uplifting the local developers and communities who build trustworthy, user-centric software.
This repository contains a build file to generate FLOSS release binaries of Microsoft's Visual Studio Code - Open Source ("Code - OSS") project, the open source core of the proprietary 
Visual Studio Code.
A free Git source code hosting service with the objective to give the open-source code that is running our world a safe and friendly home, and to ensure that code remains free and secure forever.
It's quick, easy, free & fast - just put your open source project's homepage, developer blog or web experiment into a Git repository at Codeberg, and we'll do the rest.
Beyond coding. We forge. Forgejo is a self-hosted lightweight software forge. Easy to install and low maintenance, it just does the job.
Open source, peer-to-peer collaboration on Git enables decentralized, censorship-resistant code sharing, local-first autonomy, and modular workflow independence.
sourcehut is a network of useful open source tools for software project maintainers and collaborators, including git repos, bug tracking, continuous integration, and mailing lists.
Tangled is a new social-enabled Git collaboration platform, built on top of the AT Protocol. We envision a place where developers have complete ownership of their code, open source communities can freely self-govern and most importantly, coding can be social and fun again.
Free open-source 3D software for modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, rendering, compositing, video editing, and simulation.
A versatile open-source 3D CAD modeler with modular architecture, suitable for engineering applications across multiple platforms, supporting Python scripting.
KiCad is an open source software suite for electronic design automation (EDA) - designing schematics of electronic circuits and printed circuit boards (PCB). KiCad is developed by Jean-Pierre Charras. And features an integrated environment between schematic capture, bill of...
LibreCAD is an open source 2D CAD application for Windows, Apple and Linux. It is based on Qt, which is a leading cross-platform application and UI development framework.
OpenSCAD is a software for creating solid 3D CAD objects. It is free software and available for Linux/UNIX, MS Windows and MacOS.
A fully featured, user friendly, open source Geographic Information System (GIS) with similar power to ArcGIS and MapInfo.
Privacy-first AI assistant with chat, writing, transcription, summarization, email, and document tools, hosted in Switzerland and compliant with strict data privacy laws.
Spotify, native and fast. One lightweight Rust app for your whole library, local playback, and Spotify Connect on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Feeder is a fully free/libre feed reader. It supports all common feed formats, including JSONFeed. It doesn't track you. It doesn't require any setup. It doesn't even need you to create an account!
Experience YouTube ad-free on desktop with enhanced privacy. FreeTube prevents Google tracking and works seamlessly across Windows, Mac, and Linux.
FreshRSS is a free, self-hosted RSS aggregator. It is quite lightweight, fast (it can manage +100k articles without complaining) and powerful (e.g. shortcuts, filters, responsive design, multi-views, multi-themes, multi-users, statistics, provides a Google Reader API, WebSub...
Block ads, cookies, popups & other trackers. Ghostery sets you up for a private, transparent, and fast internet.
HaGeZi DNS offers free, non-commercial public DNS resolvers designed and operated by a private individual for the European community. It provides robust DNS-based blocking of ads, trackers, scam, phishing, fake, and malware domains - helping users achieve greater privacy and...
Konsole is a terminal to run a command shell. It provides a command line interface for directly controlling your computer.
Self-hosted Speedtest for HTML5. Easy setup, examples, configurable, mobile friendly. Supports PHP, Node, Multiple servers, and more.
Lichess is the most complete chess experience, with a simple interface that focuses on the game, a massive array of game-related tools, and a huge, worldwide community.
Free open-source tool offers secure, end-to-end encrypted file and message sharing over local networks across major desktop and mobile operating systems.
Privacy-first AI assistant with zero-access encryption, no logging or profiling, open-source code, and user-controlled conversations, subject to GDPR regulations.
Lutris is an open source gaming platform for GNU/Linux. It allows you to gather and manage (install, configure and launch) all your games acquired from any source, in a single interface.
MariaDB is a backward compatible, drop-in replacement of the MySQL® Database Server. It includes all major open source storage engines.
Free the internet from data collection with Mullvad VPN – a service that helps keep your online activity, identity, and location private. Only €5/month.
Lightweight and open-source app for YouTube, PeerTube, SoundCloud, and more. No Google Account needed, supports 4K and background audio streaming with downloads.
The NoScript Firefox extension provides extra protection for Firefox, Seamonkey and other mozilla-based browsers: this free, open source add-on allows JavaScript, Java, Flash and other plugins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice (e.g. your online bank).
openHAB is a Java-based open-source home automation platform that integrates and combines a vast range of different smart home systems and technologies into one single solution.
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...
Open-source web analytics tool prioritizing privacy, with no cookies and full compliance with GDPR, CCPA, PECR. Fast, lightweight design.
Swiss-based VPN that ensures online privacy with a high-speed network, advanced encryption, and no-logs policy, offering a free version. Supports multiple platforms and unblocks content worldwide.
The Cloud Native Application Proxy Simplify networking complexity while designing, deploying, and operating applications.
High-performance native desktop launcher enabling fast keyboard access to system actions, development of extensions in C++ or server-side React.
XCP-ng is a high-performance, enterprise-level hypervisor with a rich ecosystem and is the result of massive cooperation between individuals and companies. All commercial features are enabled with no commitment required to a support agreement.
xPrivo is a free, open-source, private AI chat assistant that focuses entirely on keeping you anonymous while helping tackle your most complex questions.
YunoHost is a Debian GNU/Linux based distribution packaged with free software that automates the installation of a personal web server. The purpose of YunoHost is to allow users to easily host their own web services by enabling a simple point-and-click web interface for...
*Loops and Pixelfed are Canadian, but they are the best FOSS alternatives to Instagram and Tiktok.
Comments
Thanks for this list! A few more for consideration (which I am using myself):
Thanks for your feedback and suggestions!
I'll look into adding them as soon as I can.
I've added all of your suggestions, with the exception of FileZilla and Ancestris.
I've seen reports of users installing the official FileZilla client and encountering malware or unwanted software, so I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending it to others.
As for Ancestris, I couldn't find a public link to its source code, so I can't verify that it meets the open-source criteria for this list. If you know where the source code is hosted, feel free to share the link. Until then, I won't be adding it to the list.
Koofr is also a great european cloud storage provider, very privacy oriented, and Bunny.net, they are both from Slovenia.
Thank you for the suggestions! Koofr has now been added to the list.
The list is based on two criteria:
There are no exceptions to the first criteria. For the second one, exceptions may apply in certain cases. For example if the software is developed internationally (such as LibreWolf or VSCodium) or if no European alternatives exist (e.g. Pixelfed or Loops as alternatives to Instagram and TikTok).
For this reason, Bunny.net will not be added to the list, as the software is not open-source.
Never knew Krita was European, do you know of any specifically German open source projects?
Yes, Krita is actually part of the KDE ecosystem, which is a German-based FOSS community. KDE is best known for the KDE Plasma desktop (Linux), but they also develop a huge collection of applications across many categories.
Some prominent KDE apps include Kdenlive (video editing), Okular (document viewer), Gwenview (image viewer), Dolphin (file manager) and many more. All FOSS and actively developed in Europe.
Germany in general has a very strong open-source scene.
Wow, I thought that I was the only person loving European open-source projects! Maybe we need to a collaborate? Just to help you, Infomaniak isn't that privacy focused: when you sign up, you (sometimes) have to make a selfie and give a lot of personal information... In general this list looks amazing and your username is awesome. Let's go Europe!
Thanks! Always great to meet another person who cares about European FOSS projects
I’m definitely curious about collaboration. Did you have anything in mind? It could be anything from sharing resources, testing projects, contributing to open-source or even writing about European alternatives together.
And you’re absolutely right about Infomaniak: they’re not the most privacy-focused option out there. For me it’s a pragmatic choice right now - European jurisdiction, transparent, sustainable and very competitive pricing. I see them as a “good enough” step away from US hyperscalers, not a perfect privacy solution.