Bye Bye Big Tech: How I Migrated to an almost All-EU Stack (and saved 500€ per year)
“Bye bye bye.” It took some time, and a serious amount of research, but I have finally crossed the finish line. I have officially migrated my digital life to pure, EU-hosted solutions.
Frankly, even though they are not European, I would go ghost.org instead of Nazi supporter Substack. As a bonus, they are cheaper and Fediverse integrated too.
Before anyone asks:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/jan/03/substack-user-revolt-anti-censorship-stance-neo-nazis
I had no idea substack was European.
I dont think they are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substack
What about Webador: https://slashdot.org/software/comparison/Substack-vs-Webador-vs-WordPress/
Jesus... I didn't know people live like that. Cloud sever is like 5 euros/month. Self host ownCloud, bitwarden and you have half of that covered. Proton makes sense here but the first setup is insane.
Self hosting is not for average Joe. Even for skilled people is quite some work and maintenance.
This guy is paying for AWS to host his website. If you can run Linux on someone else's computer, you can run it on your own, or at the very least, it will be easy to learn how
Define average. There are so many guides and prepared packaging (debian 13 offers freebombox install under the blends). It requires foremost an interest in self hosting.
When exposing them on the internet without vpn's that's when it gets tricky an requires more knowledge.
Totally off topic, but this wins the "worst pie chart of 2025" category for me. Absolutely horrendous. I had to look twice (gross) to make sure I'm really seeing what I'm seeing.
One thing that always concern me about selfhosting is that you need to manage the app yourself, you need to deal with updates, security and the risks of exposing a service to the internet.
It is awesome to be able to do it, but if you neglect the maintenance, you may be in for a bad time.
You can always cheat and let stuff be slightly behind on maintenance and not top notch security by just hiding everything behind a self-hosted VPN to use your services, after all that was the original purpose of VPNs.
True. That’s what I pay on Hetzner for my VPS. Because I’m lazy I pay an extra for their NextCloud hosted solution. In the VPS, among other things, I have OnlyOffice, that integrates directly with NextCloud, solving my office needs.
That's where I took the price from. Hetzner rules :)
Me too. I pay 7€/month for a VPS. I put Yunohost on it. That makes selfhosting really easy and low-maintenance. And that's pretty much it, with stuff I rely on. Except from some separate email accounts. And I just skip all the AI stuff. That's an extra $20 that doesn't go to big tech, and ChatGPT and Grok are for "free" once I feel the urge to pose a question to AI.
The hardest thing to drop is maps and navigation. Google maps is just so far ahead of anything else, especially on mobile.
The maps based on OpenStreetMap, for example Organic map and Co map, are better for paths when biking and hiking.
Yes, but for driving (by a gigantic margin used way more than hiking, biking, and walking) organic maps/comaps is quite shit. In Belgium, I absolutely cannot trust it to get me to a destination I am unfamiliar with because of the policy of openstreetmaps of updating extremely infrequently and encouraging contributors not to report any road closures that last less than 6 months or whatever.
Not to mention that it doesn't take reported road condition into account when routing so it will send you on tiny cobblestone roads where you have to drive 30 instead of 50 to save 10 seconds theoretically by going to a main road and continually route you via u-turns back to that tiny shitty road instead of choosing a better route when you pass it.
Even without any traffic data (so you never know approximately when you will arrive), it very often just not get you where you need to go. It is like using a GPS from 2005.
I've been contributing to OpenStreetMaps. The hardest part is that yes, Google Maps is superior, because of how much money they throw at everything. But the more people use and contribute to OpenMaps, the better it will be.
It's a circular problem.
For me the biggest thing missing from OpenStreetMap-based navigation apps is support for public transport routes and schedules :(
I use co maps based on openstreetmaps an actively help editing openstreetmaps. All i want is route guidance and it does that perfectly well. All those google features/overhead isn't worth going back to them. Not by a long shot!
I've been using Mapy.cz (now Mapy.com) for years without any major issues, the only time it made a mistake was in Tunisia when it told me to make a right turn on a road that were actually stairs.
At this point I've used it for driving and/or hiking in 30+ countries, including the US and countries in Asia and I can't be more pleased.
!CoMaps@sopuli.xyz is good for my needs!
I'm planning to get a separate GPS device this year since I'm completely degoogling
Have you tried Here WeGo. It’s owned by a consortium of European car manufacturers, and has great maps, especially for traffic. The mobile experience is event, and integrated with Android Auto.
Especially in the car.. Most EU car manufactures is in the Google software.
People still use the privacy nightmare Grammarly? And even pay for the privilege?
Every marketing job I had used Grammarly. I don't know why anybody would use it for personal use, unless they were a writer.
Immediately lost credibility when he pushes AI slop as a priority right in the beginning of the article.
That's where i halted too.
I wish there were an EU alternative to Kagi. All other search engines pale in comparison and I just can’t deal with ads any more. I can only hope that Proton are looking in to search
Have you already had a look at https://metager.de/?
What are the advantages compared to searxng?
No trial? Any way to test it before paying?
I hadn't heard of that. Thanks! I will take a look
best thing is to just self host and have your own servers.
To be honest I wouldn’t go for proton as the privacy laws in Switzerland turned/are turning for the worst. https://www.heise.de/en/news/Surveillance-Proton-relocates-parts-of-its-infrastructure-from-Switzerland-10538664.html
Which is why they are migrating into the EU.
I’ll probably get accused of shilling, but I just saved about 50% of my hosting bill moving from Digital Ocean to Hostinger.
Wait, to save 500e you need to spend at least 500e. Where is all this money going???
this article is too long to be a satire.
"Your proprietary soyftware is bad!! Instead, I will use this proprietary soyftware that says it doesnt track me!"
do you not read what you write?
