Hi HN,
I built only-eu.eu, a curated bilingual (DE/EN) directory of European alternatives to common US software and services.
Motivation: The CLOUD Act creates a structural difference between US and European cloud providers that's separate from GDPR. European companies can't be compelled by US federal courts to hand over data regardless of server location. For companies and individuals who care about this, finding verified European alternatives is surprisingly hard. Most "alternatives" sites are US-focused.
Technical implementation: Static Astro site, hosted on Cloudflare Pages. 326 pages, fully bilingual. Search via Fuse.js. Product suggestion form via Cloudflare Worker into n8n webhook. No cookies.
Currently covers: cloud storage, email, VPN, password managers, office suites, browsers, search engines, video conferencing, messaging, social media, photo backup, project management, notes and knowledge tools, analytics, hosting, AI tools, smartphones, sport and fashion, cosmetics, audio hardware, e-commerce, freelance platforms, website builders.
Monetized via affiliate links (clearly labeled). Most products have no affiliate relationship and are listed purely on merit.
Happy to hear what I got wrong or am missing.
Also: You can suggest a product on the page, if you got something, feel free to use that button.
Uhhh, I don't think Ente is Norwegian? Yeah, they have an office in Norway, but I remember them starting from India --- Ente means 'mine' in Malayalam, a language spoken in Kerala, South India.
There is literally a story trending on HN right now:
Proton built Proton Meet to escape the CLOUD Act. They built it on CLOUD Act infrastructure. Their website promises "not even government agencies" can access your calls. The company routing them hands your call records to the government when asked. Proton hid them from their privacy policy.
It's so funny to see all of these websites generated by American LLMs hosted on American clouds. Footer "Made in Europe" needs a change to "Prompted in Europe", a la Apple's "Designed in California".
I'm a big proponent _and practitioner_ of moving away from US-controlled services. I urge people to do so at any opportunity I get and have already moved many things over. Any new project I undertake uses non-US services wherever possible.
But this vibecoded slop doesn't help much. If you want to actually be helpful, contribute to any of the 50 websites about the exact same concept that have been posted on HN over the last year.
The affiliate information shows that it the website shows mostly / only affiliate offers, and omits (intentionally?) much better a lternatives like posteo.de for email.
Listed vendors like OVHcloud must follow the US cloud act, so not really independent from US.
I find it somewhat odd that "European software/servers" has taken off for what is clearly political purposes, but without any clear definition of what "Europe" even means. How can you claim that "Made in Europe has stood for top quality and durability" if "Europe" is defined based on current political allegiance, not geography?
In fact, the domain "only-eu.eu" and the title, "European" are contradictory. Belarus and most population of Russia are unquestionable European, but not EU and clearly not something the author of this website would endorse.
For that matter, Hungary is both Europe and EU, but very likely not politically favorable by the author either. Does that make it not count as buying EU? On the other hand, I assume you support buying from Iceland and Norway, which are not EU (but are EEA and politically aligned). And of course, the biggest question is whether or not the UK counts as "buying European" -- it is not EU and arguably anti-EU but geographically European and aligned in being anti-Russia.
53 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 50.1 ms ] threadAlso: You can suggest a product on the page, if you got something, feel free to use that button.
11 of 125 listed products have an affiliate relationship. The other 114 link directly to the product website with no commercial connection.
Klarna has nothing in common with Paypal, bare metal hosting is not at all an alternative to AWS, PeerTube has nothing in common with Netflix, etc.
https://only-eu.eu/en/categories/foto-backup/ente-photos/
Also, their LinkedIn page shows that their HQ is Dover, Delaware, USA: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ente-com/about/
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ente-technologies
Which is interesting.
- No sign-up, works entirely in-browser
- Live PDF preview + instant download
- VAT EU support
- Shareable invoice links
- Multi-language (10+) & multi-currency (100+)
- Multiple templates (incl. Stripe-style)
- Mobile-friendly
- QR code support
GitHub: https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf
Would love feedback, contributions, or ideas for other templates/features.
The project has no backend and is purely browser-based, but I’m based in Europe and developing the project here, so I consider it a European project.
PS: e-invoice is wip (Ksef, XRechnung, Factur-X)
Source: https://www.sambent.com/proton-meet-isnt-what-they-told-you/
I'm a big proponent _and practitioner_ of moving away from US-controlled services. I urge people to do so at any opportunity I get and have already moved many things over. Any new project I undertake uses non-US services wherever possible.
But this vibecoded slop doesn't help much. If you want to actually be helpful, contribute to any of the 50 websites about the exact same concept that have been posted on HN over the last year.
Just advertising, no real privacy focused.
Not sure if baseless accusations of vote manipulation are ok here though, so I didn't comment on it.
The specific reason why they want to operate under Panama law is that there's no mandatory data retention.
So it seems misguided to claim that purely-EU-based alternatives to NordVPN are 'safer' and 'more private' than Nord due to the location alone.
https://whois.eurid.eu/en/search/?domain=only-eu
MX points to route1.mx.cloudflare.net as well.
they should use their own product before giving others advice.
https://info.addr.tools/only-eu.eu
In fact, the domain "only-eu.eu" and the title, "European" are contradictory. Belarus and most population of Russia are unquestionable European, but not EU and clearly not something the author of this website would endorse.
For that matter, Hungary is both Europe and EU, but very likely not politically favorable by the author either. Does that make it not count as buying EU? On the other hand, I assume you support buying from Iceland and Norway, which are not EU (but are EEA and politically aligned). And of course, the biggest question is whether or not the UK counts as "buying European" -- it is not EU and arguably anti-EU but geographically European and aligned in being anti-Russia.