An open-source comparison table of popular search engines. It was made by a former team member at PrivacyGuides, though is not affiliated with the site.
Google Web-based products alternatives
Privacy-respecting alternatives in web-based products.
One of the best privacy-focused search engines. Domain is hosted in USA which could potentially be problematic for some.
Another privacy search engine that claims to not track any of your data. They operate servers in both USA and Europe. Note: Startpage was recently acquired. See Issue #12. Thanks @pydo, @ThijsRay, and @DatAres37. Also see this comment in Issue #99 from @danarel on Startpage.
Open-source self-hostable metasearch engine that aggregates results from other engines without tracking you. SearXNG is the actively-maintained fork of the original searx project, which is no longer developed; searx.space lists public instances of both.
The original open-source privacy metasearch engine. Note: development has effectively stopped in favour of SearXNG (above) — new deployments should use SearXNG instead.
A search engine with its own independent index, from the makers of the Brave browser. Does not require an account and has an optional paid ad-free API/premium tier. Closed-source, US-based company.
A paid, ad-free search engine with no advertising business model, which is the basis of its privacy claim (you pay instead of being tracked). Requires an account, is subscription-only, and the search backend is closed-source.
EU-based paid search alternative to Google Search (I'm Blue, Lda., Portugal). Anonymous Mullvad-style accounts, no ads or tracking; EU servers, storage, and payments. Metasearch over European providers. Thanks Bruno for the suggestion.
Open-source, self-hostable front-end that fetches Google results without ads, JavaScript, cookies, or tracking. Useful if you specifically want Google's result quality without Google seeing you.
MetaGer is the search engine project from the registered nonprofit organization SUMA E.V. in Germany.
A privacy-respecting search engine. Note: Qwant may not be available in all countries; see Issue #408 for more information.
A Swiss search engine that offers a unique search experience for the web, images, videos, music, and more. They are currently funding a mail service. Read through their datacenter about page, it's really interesting.
Unlike other privacy search engines which act as a "middle man" between you and Google/Bing/Yahoo, Mojeek has their own crawler and index. The results aren't as complete as some of the others, but it is still impressive and they are actively building their index to include more results with better accuracy.
Privacy focused search engine that also aims to clean up the oceans. Thanks @mynamesleon
Decentralized Google. A web 3 alternative for the Google search engine. In Beta testing mode. Uses IPFS and Tendermint consensus for security and economic incentives. Visit their ELI-5 FAQ for more info.
Infinity Search is a privacy metasearch engine that does not log any information about its users. In terms of privacy, it works the same way as DuckDuckGo. It is free to use and is funded by non-tracking advertisements and affiliate links. It is also completely open-source.
"Runnaroo was built from the ground up to provide an all around better search experience." Thanks @codingepaduli
Decentralized, federated video hosting network. Still quite small, but is growing and has a dedicated community. Although there is no central database/server, all the separate instances can still talk to one another. This allows for data exchange and a way to view anyone's videos while only associating with one instance. Thanks @kdkasad for clarifying federation.
Also P2P, but not decentralized. Due to it being proprietary, if BitChute goes down then the whole thing goes down (unlike PeerTube). (thanks u/up-sky-7)
Looks very similar to YouTube. Advertised as "first crypt-decentralized video-platform". Built on Steemit and IPFS.
An open-source front-end alternative to YouTube. Seems to work pretty well from my experience so far, and it hasn't triggered anything on my adblocker/privacy extensions. Also offers downloads in many formats for videos (including .vtt subtitles).
A decentralized platform for distributing and supporting creators's work. It aims to be Open, Community driven "digital marketplace". It can be used in a similar way to YouTube: browsing, subscribing to channels, there is a mechanism to send "tips" to creators. Looks up videos based on a blockchain and is open-source and uncensored. It already has some "larger" creators like Minutephysics, Veritasium, Barnacules and Lunduke.
Open-source desktop YouTube client that uses the Invidio.us API to serve content.
Open-source browser-based client for watching Youtube anonymously and with greater page performance. Non-video requests can be routed through Tor. Optionally the videos can be routed through Tor as well. Can be used without Javascript. No server software installation required. Uses self-hosted subscriptions and playlists.
An open-source front-end alternative to YouTube. Uses NewPipeExtractor behind the scenes.
Support independent and qualitative journalism in your community.
Unbiased news source (primarily for US politics). Thanks @jeanofthedead
Miniflux is a minimalist and opinionated feed reader. Completely open-source, along with automatically removing pixel trackers.
Sympa is an open-source mailing list manager. It provides advanced features with a rich and secure web interface.
Mailman is free software for managing electronic mail discussion and e-newsletter lists. Mailman is integrated with the web, making it easy for users to manage their accounts and for list owners to administer their lists. Mailman supports built-in archiving, automatic bounce processing, content filtering, digest delivery, spam filters, and more.
Discourse is the 100% open-source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet. Use it as a mailing list, discussion forum, or long-form chat room.
a privacy focused email list system that does not track you, nor your members. It is not open source. Data is hosted on one central server but the server is encrypted. It has modern email group features such as a wiki, integrations, and RSS import support.
DeepL is an artifical intelligence translation service. Please keep in mind DeepL tracks the text you translate unless you purchase Pro. See sections 4 & 5 of their privacy policy for more information. Thanks u/TheCy-FiJuggernaut
A free, open-source translation system.
A free and open-source machine-translation API which can be self-hosted.
Alternative front-end for Google Translate. Operates similar to NewPipe or Invidious, Lingva "scrapes through GTranslate and retrieves the translation without using any Google-related service, preventing them from tracking".
Open-source tool for running open-weight language models entirely on your own machine. Once a model is downloaded, inference happens locally with no network access required.
Open-source C/C++ inference engine that runs open-weight models locally on CPU or GPU, including on fairly modest hardware. Underpins many other local-AI tools.
Open-source, self-hosted web interface for local models, giving a chat experience similar to hosted assistants while keeping conversations on your own server.
Open-source desktop app for running language models offline on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Aimed at users who want a local assistant without configuring a server.
A free, no-account proxy in front of several hosted models. DuckDuckGo states chats are anonymised and not used for training, but prompts still leave your device and reach a third-party model provider — this is a weaker privacy guarantee than running a model locally.
A developer-focused, privacy-obsessed ad network from the fine folks at Read the Docs. Source code can be found on GitHub.
Emails you when your selected keywords are mentioned on Reddit, Hacker News, or Lobsters.
Nextcloud 19 now has Community Document Server and ONLYOFFICE apps integrated which allows self-hosted instances of docs/sheets/slides. Users are able to edit documents in real time. Thanks @k3tan172 and @plutocrat
A secure hosted email and productivity platform, designed for providers of all sizes to offer their customers email, calendar, storage, encryption and more.
An open-source self-hosted web hosting platform for a wide set of web applications, including Etherpad (collaborative text editing), Radicale (calendar), Lychee (image hosting), Wekan (Kanban)
Open source no-code business and process automation tool. For example, you can set up a flow to receive Slack messages whenever a new Trello card is added.
Self-hosted and open-source content management system (CMS).
An open-source platform for building a writing space on the web.
Free & paid hosting for WriteFreely, which is developed by the folks at Write.as.
The open-source version of WordPress. A very popular tool and a recognized name.
Open-source CMS.
A privacy/security focused blogging platform.
Open-source modern CMS. Boasts "over 19x faster than WordPress". Thanks @peterge1998
Privacy-first, no-nonsense blogging platform. No JavaScript, no stylesheets, no trackers — just your words. Tiny pages, custom domains, RSS. Source-available (not self-hostable as a multi-tenant platform).
FLOSS private blogging platform. Easy to self-host (standard rails app, ships with AWS and Raspberry Pi deployment scripts. AWS is not required). Access restricted to accounts which you create and hand out. Good for private blogs but not for commercial/public blogging. Built-in feed reader.
(Matomo/parent company) - Open-source analytics platform. (thanks u/Newblik)
Simple analytics for bloggers & businesses
Open-source, privacy-focused web analytics.
Simple web statistics. No tracking of personal data. open-source and may be self-hosted. Free for non-commercial use; paid plans available.
Great analytics with privacy and simplicity in mind. Paid plans only (with free trials).
Simple, privacy-focused analytics with event tracking, real-time dashboard and filters. No cookie or localstorage usage. Servers in EU. Free and paid plans available.
Shynet is a self-hosted analytics tool that doesn't make use of cookies. It is privacy focused and fully open-source. Thanks @woutfeys
Supabase is an opensource alternative to Firebase. You can host for free on their platform, or you can self host. Thanks @woutfeys
An open-source web server analysis tool. Installs on your web server (ideally), but works just as well if you download your logs someplace else. Interactive; cursor around in the report and see what's going on. Can generate HTML reports. Can also generate realtime interactive HTML reports if you run it in server mode. Lightweight, only requires UTF-8 support and ncurses (ncursesw, if you want a UTF-8 enabled console). Available in the default package repositories of multiple Linux distros. Thanks @virtadpt
Open-source and self-hosted, Offen is a fair and lightweight web analytics alternative that treats operators and users as equal parties.
A simple, easy to use, open-source/self-hosted web analytics solution.
An open-source analytics tool. Landing page and company is based in Sweden, CDN in EU, Servers on Digitalocean (USA) datacenter in Germany.
Self-hosted alternative to Google Analytics, similar to Matomo but cheaper for premium features. Includes user segments, heatmaps, session recordings and A/B testing.
An analytics suite with a focus on user privacy and data security.
Privacy-focused analytics + web performance monitoring.
Offers cookieless tracking and no PII collected.
Privacy-focused, cookieless and selfhostable alternative to Google Analytics.
Open-source, self-hosted photo and video backup designed as a direct Google Photos replacement, with mobile apps for Android and iOS that auto-upload to your own server. Includes albums, search, face recognition, and sharing.
Self-hosted and open-source Personal Photo Management powered by Go and Google TensorFlow.
A self-hosted open source photo management service. A fork of Ownphotos which has been discontinued in favor of LibrePhotos.
Self-hosted and open-source cloud photo manager. You can also sign up for an "as a service" account.
Norway based cloud storage provider with free and paid plans. Thanks @mynamesleon
Encrypted photo storage in a simple solution similar to Google Photos.
Self-hosted photo and video manager. Cross-platform (macOS, Windows, Linux, Docker). Scales to millions of assets, with automatic organization, auto-transcoding, and advanced de-duplication.
An open-source self-hosted photo-management tool that includes built-in support for videos. Thanks @m0yP
A paid, cloud-based, open-source photo storage app with a focus on security and privacy. Apps are available for iOS, Android, web and desktop.
Self-hosted and open-source Personal Photo Management with options for face grouping, albums, sharing, automatic thumbnail generation, and map pins.
Enables people to backup photos / videos from any devices to their own self-hosted server, and intelligently manages these personal assets via AI. Run the Lomorage server at your home, download mobile client to save the memories, and enjoy the moments.
Developed by Mozilla Foundation and open-source. Integrates into Thunderbird and SeaMonkey.
Developed by ProtonMail. Free plan only supports 1 calendar. Allows importing of other calendar files. Has an Android app.
Developed by Tutanota. Free cross-platform encrypted calendar. Allows importing of other Calendar files. Can't be synced to other calendar software.
Open-source calendar using "sabre/dav" (FOSS WebDAV, CardDAV, and CalDAV). They mention privacy quite a bit on their site. Very large number of features, and supports nearly every device: Windows, iOS, Linux, Android, BlackBerry, SailFish, and also a webapp for browsers.
a lightweight CalDAV+CardDAV server. It offers an extensive web interface with easy management of users, address books and calendars. It is fast and simple to install and only needs a basic php capable server. The data can be stored in a MySQL or a SQLite database. Thanks @mahdi1234
Nextcloud also offers a calendar solution using CalDAV and CardDAV. Thanks @mahdi1234 for pointing this out.
Self-hosted calendar server written in Python. WebUI for desktop, CalDav/CardDav for mobile sync. Can use a reverse proxy with Nginx for HTTPS.
Supports vCal/iCal import, export and can be accessed by using CalDAV. Users can share their calendars with group members and can also create polls.
Open-source "zero knowledge" collaborative cloud editor. They offer Rich Text, Code, Presentation, Sheet (beta), Poll, Kanban, Whiteboard, and CryptDrive. 100% Client side encryption. Tons of useful features.
Self-hosted collaborative editor. Does not use the browser. Not the greatest interface, but it's open-source and you have full control over who can see your data.
Open-source and privacy focused photo and document storage/editing. Based in Estonia, so your files are outside the reach of any 14-eyes country. They don't even require an email address to sign up.
Self-hosted instance of LibreOffice that you can run in your browser. Thanks @flubberding
Open-source private cloud replacement for Google Docs'suite and Office 360. Also available as a self contained rich application.
A decentralized office suite with high-security and zero-knowledge on your data. With Arcane Office, you have maximum control on your personal stuff. Full-featured online document and spreadsheet editor. Secure storage to save your photos. All free for personal use. Thanks @taraletti
Open-source offline document suites.
It's an open-source (and offline) document processor using TeX/LaTeX. It's different than Docs or Word but amazing, once you get used to it.
Offline version of ONLYOFFICE, an open-source private cloud replacement for Google Docs suite and Office 360. Also available as a self contained rich application. Thanks @PalmoliveDev
Offline version of Cryptee for web. Runs as a progressive web app. Works most modern phone browsers (Chrome, Opera or Firefox on Android; Safari on iOS). Also works in desktop browsers that support PWA (the website lists that only Chrome works, but others will work too.
Calligra Suite is an office and graphic art suite by KDE. It is available for desktop PCs, tablet computers, and smartphones. It contains applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, vector graphics, and editing databases. (Free and open-source Software)
Privacy-focused domain registration. Competitive pricing and a large list of available domain extensions. They also offer VPS hosting. Built by people who built The Pirate Bay among others. (thanks u/brais33 and u/HumbleBasis6). Note: some users may have issues with them legally owning your domain.
An Iceland-based freedom of speech web hosting provider. They never actually ask for your name, at least when you pay in Bitcoin.
A public encrypted DNS service that people can use to maintain the secrecy of their DNS traffic, but also circumvent censorship. It already supports DNS over HTTPS & DNS over TLS. They also operate a number of open-source projects
Open-source and self-hosted. Provide your own storage.
Also self-hosted. Spin-off of ownCloud. Also offers Calendar and Contacts (thanks @chribre)
An open-source continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, safely protected from prying eyes. Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, whether it is shared with some third party, and how it's transmitted over the internet.
Fully decentralized cloud storage.
Primarily meant for businesses, but offers a free version for individuals as well. Thanks u/xNick26
End-to-end encrypted Google Drive/Dropbox replacement.
Norway based cloud storage provider with free and paid plans. Thanks @mynamesleon
Open-source and self-hosted file sync&share solution.
French based cloud storage provider with free and paid plans. Can also be self-hosted and is open-source. And it also offers a collaborative notes editor.
Documents can be accessed using WebDAV or edited online. Users can drag and drop files in folders and categorize them with tags.
Powerful, secure Dropbox-like enterprise class file sharing and sync solution for home or business.
For individuals and organizations who want to safeguard their digital sovereignty. It is a high security, end-to-end encrypted solution for file sharing, collaboration, and backup that prioritizes security and confidentiality.
Open-source secure messaging. Whistleblower and privacy advocate Edward Snowden recommends Signal.
Tox is unique as it uses P2P technology to ensure the network never goes down, as long as there are users to keep it alive. They specifically say on the website "Tox has no central servers that can be raided, shut down, or forced to turn over data".
Uses end-to-end encryption. Looks to be more of a corporate service with tiered plans.
Open-source privacy-focused chat service with end-to-end encryption. They offer webapps, desktop apps, iOS, and Android (Play Store and F-Droid). Uses the "Matrix" protocol for decentralized communication.
Swiss-based GDPR-compliant instant messenger. Has apps for both iOS and Android. Unlike Signal, no phone number is required (nor is an email) to sign up. End-to-end encrypted. Thanks to @nathanvogel
Encrypted chat like Signal with features like Slack. Does not require a phone number to sign up. Also has file storage. Note: Keybase was acquired by Zoom, Inc. in May 2020 (Keybase blog, Zoom blog). Thanks @notpushkin & @multimob.
Jitsi is an open-source secure video conferencing platform. No account is needed to use it, simply enter a Room Name to join or host a meeting. The host is able to kick rogue users from the call. Works directly in your browser, with apps available for iOS and Android. It is not necessary to self-host, but self-hosting is an option for those who wish to. Very low latency and easy to set up. A free public server is available at meet.jit.si. (5-eyes server)
Audio / Video Calls, Conferences, Messaging app with peer-to-peer and end-to-end encrypted communications.
A free, open-source, low latency, high quality voice chat application.
Open-source. It is an end-to-end encrypted messenger that removes sensitive metadata collection. No phone number required to create an account.
Open-source messenger with no user identifiers at all — no phone number, username, or account ID — which removes the social graph a server could otherwise collect. Relay servers can be self-hosted. Apps for Android, iOS, and desktop.
A free and open-source email forwarding service focused on a user's right to privacy.
One of the top privacy-focused email providers. Servers are in Switzerland in an underground guarded bunker that they claim can "survive a nuclear attack". Privacy note: Visit Issue #258 for info on ProtonMail privacy & integrity concerns.
Open-source and one of the top rated privacy-focused email providers. Located in Germany. Rebranded from Tutanota to Tuta; older tutanota.com links now redirect.
Completely anonymous mail provider located in Germany.
Paid email provider, also located in Germany.
Decentralized email service.
Operated by the same people who run StartPage.
Open-source, self-hosted, and privacy focused email forwarding service.
Paid email provider, run from Switzerland with servers in France. Focus on privacy.
Paid email provider, located in Australia and US.
Privacy focusued email provider. Thanks @petertorelli
Nextcloud provides a webmail interface that can be used to access email from various providers. Thanks @je-vv
Thexyz is a Canadian company offering privacy-conscious business email. Premium webmail costs USD $2.95 per month.
A secure and private email provider much like Protonmail and Tutanota. There are no google analytics nor hidden cookies. There are options to pay anonymously via cryptocurrency. It features a wide array of collaboration tools, such as groups, calendar, contacts, documents with editing space. Offers free, paid, and freemium plans. Can pay with cryptocurrency and has a warrant canary. Thanks @resto1231
Open-source Anonymous forwarding email service. Forwarded email can be encrypted (OpenPGP) to prevent Google from reading it. Accepts cryptocurrencies (including Monero).
Open-source self-hosted easy-to-deploy mail server in a box.
Open-source notes/todo app. Available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Also offers a terminal version. It can import Evernote .enex files if you use that. It can also sync with Nextcloud (mentioned above).
Encrypted note storage with loads of features. Offers a web app as well as downloads for most operating systems. Has a paid plan, but the free tier has many useful features as well.
Encrypted collaborative notebook with possibility of running your own server.
Open-source file editor with Markdown support. (thanks u/maqp2)
Your Markdown notes stores in any Git Repo. Available for both Android (Play Store) and iOS.
A distraction free notes taking app for Nextcloud. It provides categories for better organization and supports formatting using Markdown syntax. Notes are saved as files in your Nextcloud, so you can view and edit them with every Nextcloud client.
An open-source personal note-taking system that can run in the browser as a single HTML file or as a NodeJS application. It can be stored locally on a hard drive or removable drive, self-hosted on one's own server, or use various web-based storage options.
A truly zero-knowledge note taking app, encrypted using XChaChaPoly1305-IETF & Argon2. It is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and has browser extensions too. It is not self-hostable and follows a freemium model.
Open-source alternative to the Play media services. You do need to provide your own content, however. In active development with frequent updates (to the source, that is).
Self-hosted, decentralized music service. Provide your own audio. (thanks u/DashEquals)
Self-hosted open-source media streamer. Has features for transcoding audio on-the-fly for "virtually any audio format". You can also set bandwidth limits if you need to. Looks very powerful.
A "flexible, powerful, server-side application for playing music".
Open-source software for desktop and mobile that let you easily stream movie/TV torrents. Be careful if your country or ISP has policies against torrenting, a VPN is recommended. Thanks @je-vv
Streaming music player that finds music from free sources automatically.
Open-source peer-to-peer file sharing that provides a "Youtube"-like streaming experience. Tribler uses Tor-like onion routing to protect the privacy of its users.
Open-source and self-hosted web based media manager and media server. API available to allow usage on various platforms. On-the-fly transcoding available. Supports both music and video.
Privacy-first drop-in replacement for Google Fonts (swap the CSS hostname and you're done). Zero logging, no cookies, GDPR-oriented. Run by BunnyWay d.o.o. in Slovenia (EU). Fonts delivered via bunny.net's CDN.
Lots of Serif and Sans-Serif fonts that can be directly embedded into a website.
Hassle-free way for webmasters to self-host open-source fonts from Google Fonts
Self-host Open Source fonts in neatly bundled NPM packages.
Self-hosted open-source Classroom software for schools. Very powerful. Thanks @jankapunkt
Another self-hosted open-source classroom software. Thanks again to @jankapunkt
Paid service by Instructure. Also available as a self-hosted, open-source option. To ensure privacy, use the self-hosted option.
Collaborative project to create a free, editable map of the world (from Wikipedia). Completely crowdsourced. Very strong alternative to Maps.
Maps from the makers of Qwant search engine. Thanks @mynamesleon
Another maps alternative based on OpenStreetMap. Thanks @dimqua
An open-source Transit app on Android that takes information from several providers (e.g Deutsche Bahn in Germany) and enables you to use them in the app. Visualises the routes on an online OpenStreetMap map. Works in most of Western-Europe, as well as the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the UAE and Ghana. Beware: most information-providers only have beta or alpha support, it may be a good idea to keep a second app as a fallback option
Free AI form builder (mobile-first Google Forms alternative). Describe what you need, AI drafts the questions, share a short link or QR code, and read responses on your phone. Unlimited responses on the free tier; can import Google Forms / Typeform / Tally. CSV export. Responses are private to your account and sent over encrypted connections (not end-to-end encrypted).
BlockSurvey enables digital rights (identity and data ownership) to users using Blockstack's blockchain. Users truly own their data with BlockSurvey. All your data is protected using your key and only you can access it. There are no trackers, cookies, or fingerprints on the forms of data providers. Thanks @compressstudio
Budibase is an open-source low-code platform that helps IT professionals create internal apps in minutes. Users can deploy Budibase on their existing infrastructure, using Docker, Kubernetes, and Digital Ocean.
Open-source password manager with a generous free tier, apps for every major platform, and browser extensions. Can be self-hosted, and the clients have been independently audited.
An unofficial, lightweight Bitwarden-compatible server written in Rust. Works with the official Bitwarden clients while being far cheaper to self-host than the official server.
Open-source, fully offline password manager storing everything in a local encrypted KDBX file. No cloud account of any kind; sync the database yourself with Syncthing or Nextcloud if you want it on multiple devices.
End-to-end encrypted password manager from Proton, based in Switzerland. Free and paid tiers, with open-source clients and built-in email alias support.
Open-source, self-hostable password manager aimed at teams, with granular sharing and access controls. Free self-hosted community edition plus paid hosted plans.
For Calendar & Keep. Secure, end-to-end encrypted, and open-source sync for your contacts, calendars, tasks and notes.
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