7 Best European Google Drive Alternatives (2026)
Seven EU cloud-storage providers tested as Google Drive replacements. Workspace migration, photo backup, real prices. From €0 free, €4/month paid. May 2026.
End-to-end encryption by default, photo backup, Mail and Calendar on the same account
Try Proton Drive →15 GB free, real-time collaborative office editing, renewable-energy hosting
Try kDrive →€399 lifetime for 2 TB, beats Google One after 4 years
Check pCloud Lifetime →Leaving Google Drive is a different proposition than leaving Dropbox or OneDrive. Dropbox is a single product. OneDrive sits inside Microsoft 365, which a CISO at least already has a procurement framework for. Google Workspace is a product family that touches your inbox, your calendar, your photos, your forms, your phone backups, and your home assistant. The exit is not a click.
It is also more legally exposed than people think. The CNIL fined Google €150 million in 2022 over cookie practices. Danish municipalities banned Google Workspace for Education in 2022. The Swedish data protection authority followed shortly after. The Dutch DPA flagged Google Analytics integration as unresolved in 2024. Each ruling adds another layer of supplementary measures the average Workspace customer either accepts on paper or quietly ignores. The CLOUD Act exposure is the floor under all of this. The ad-targeting and analytics integrations are the ceiling.
The seven European alternatives below are the ones that actually work in practice for someone exiting Workspace. Prices and feature support were checked on 2026-05-28.
Google’s free tier got smaller in 2026
Two changes landed this spring that shift the math for anyone still on the fence.
Since mid-May 2026, Google has been testing a 5 GB default storage cap for new accounts in select regions. Google only grants the full 15 GB after you verify a phone number. Google confirmed the test on May 14 but has not named the regions or committed to a wider rollout (9to5Google, PCWorld).
The quieter change came earlier. Around March 18, Google’s support documentation stopped promising “15 GB of cloud storage at no charge” and now reads “up to 15 GB.”
To be fair about what this is not: existing accounts keep their 15 GB, and nobody’s files are being deleted. If you already have a Google account, nothing changes for you today. But a free tier gated behind a phone number is a different product for privacy-minded users than one that is not. And “up to” is the kind of wording that tends to precede a policy rather than follow one. For comparison, kDrive’s 15 GB free tier asks for an email address and nothing else. Checked 2026-06-11.
Quick rankings
| Rank | Service | Country | Free | Paid From | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  🇨🇭Proton Drive | Switzerland | 5 GB | €4/mo | Best overall: private by default |
| 2 |  🇨🇭kDrive | Switzerland | 15 GB | €5/mo | Closest match for Google Workspace |
| 3 |  🇨🇭pCloud | Switzerland | 10 GB | €50/yr or €399 lifetime | Long-term cost |
| 4 |  🇩🇪Nextcloud | Germany | Self-host | Free (€4/mo hosted) | Full Workspace replacement |
| 5 |  🇳🇴Jottacloud | Norway | 5 GB | €8/mo | Photo and household backup |
| 6 |  🇪🇸Internxt | Spain | 10 GB | €4/mo | Budget zero-knowledge |
| 7 |  🇨🇭Tresorit | Switzerland | – | €10/user/mo | Business compliance |
Feature comparison
| Feature | 🇨🇭kDrive | 🇨🇭Proton Drive | 🇨🇭pCloud | 🇩🇪Nextcloud | 🇳🇴Jottacloud | 🇪🇸Internxt | 🇨🇭Tresorit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real-time co-editing | Yes (Infomaniak Office) | No | No | Yes (OnlyOffice/Collabora) | No | No | Yes |
| Free tier (GB) | 15 | 5 | 10 | Self-host | 5 | 10 | – |
| Desktop sync | Yes | Yes | Yes (virtual drive) | Yes | Win/Mac only | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile apps | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Photo auto-backup | Yes | Yes (added 2024) | Yes | Yes | Yes (strongest) | Yes | No |
| Face grouping in photos | Yes | No | No | Via Memories app | Yes | No | No |
| Calendar + contacts | Yes (Infomaniak Suite) | Yes (Proton Calendar) | No | Yes (CalDAV/CardDAV) | No | No | No |
| Public link sharing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (workspaces) |
| Selective sync | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Version history | 30 days | 10 versions | 30 days (more paid) | Configurable | Unlimited | 10 versions | Unlimited |
| Open source | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
For Google Workspace switchers the rows that matter most are real-time co-editing, free tier size, and photo auto-backup. kDrive and Nextcloud are the only two that score well on all three. Tresorit covers collaboration well but skips photos entirely. Proton Drive covers photos and ecosystem integration but does not yet do collaborative document editing inside the document.
Security and GDPR
| Security | 🇨🇭kDrive | 🇨🇭Proton Drive | 🇨🇭pCloud | 🇩🇪Nextcloud | 🇳🇴Jottacloud | 🇪🇸Internxt | 🇨🇭Tresorit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HQ | Switzerland | Switzerland | Switzerland | Germany | Norway | Spain | Switzerland |
| Encryption | AES-256 at rest | E2EE default | AES-256 (Crypto add-on for E2EE) | Server-side (E2EE optional) | AES-256 at rest | E2EE default | E2EE default |
| Zero-knowledge | No | Yes | Add-on (€125 one-off) | Optional | No | Yes | Yes |
| Data location | Switzerland | Switzerland | Luxembourg or US (your choice) | Wherever you host | Norway | Spain (EU) | CH / NL / IE |
| CLOUD Act exposure | Low | Low | Medium-high (US region option) | Low (depends on host) | Low | Low | Low |
| Ad-targeting use of files | None | None | None | None | None | None | None |
| GDPR Art. 28 DPA | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Independent audit | No | Yes | No | Community | No | Yes | Yes (SOC 2) |
The row labeled “Ad-targeting use of files” is here for a reason. Google Workspace’s legal terms allow Google to use customer content for “providing, maintaining and improving” services. What that means in practice has been litigated and clarified in court documents repeatedly. The seven providers above are all single-source-of-revenue companies, paid by you. None of them have an advertising business that benefits from reading your files.
The CLOUD Act ratings deserve a sentence each, because they are not all the same kind of “Low”. pCloud is the outlier on this list: it lets you pick a US (Dallas) data region at signup and holds the encryption keys for anything outside the paid Crypto folder, which is precisely the combination US legal process can reach. Nextcloud’s exposure depends entirely on where you host it; a Hetzner box is a different answer than an AWS instance. Tresorit is majority-owned by Swiss Post, Jottacloud is now half-owned by Telenor. For the sourced, provider-by-provider breakdown of who can actually compel access, see our EU Software Sovereignty Index, which is where these ratings come from.
Pricing
| Plan | 🇨🇭kDrive | 🇨🇭Proton Drive | 🇨🇭pCloud | 🇩🇪Nextcloud | 🇳🇴Jottacloud | 🇪🇸Internxt | 🇨🇭Tresorit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 15 GB | 5 GB | 10 GB | Self-host | 5 GB | 10 GB | – |
| Personal 200 GB / 500 GB | n/a | €4/mo (200 GB) | €50/yr (500 GB) | depends on host | n/a | €4/mo (200 GB) | n/a |
| Personal 2 TB | €5/mo | €10/mo | €99/yr or €399 lifetime | depends | €13/mo (unlimited) | €4/mo | n/a |
| Family / household | included in 2 TB plan | €23/mo (6 users, 3 TB) | €299/yr Family (2 TB shared) | self-host | €13/mo unlimited | €10/mo (10 TB) | n/a |
| Business / user / month | €6 | €7 | n/a | varies | n/a | €10 | €10 |
| Business with SSO + audit | €13 | n/a | n/a | included if self-hosted | n/a | n/a | €15 |
For direct comparison: Google One 2 TB is €99.99 per year. pCloud’s 2 TB lifetime at €399 breaks even after about 4 years and is pure savings after year 5. The household angle is where Jottacloud Unlimited pulls ahead: at €13 per month for unlimited storage covering an entire family’s photo libraries, no other provider matches the math.
1. Proton Drive
I moved Proton Drive to the top of this ranking in June 2026, so let me argue it properly. On a feature checklist, kDrive still tracks Google more closely. But after watching how readers of this site actually use these services for two years, the pattern is hard to ignore. People leave Google Drive over trust. Proton is the one mainstream provider here that takes trust out of the equation altogether: every file is encrypted on your device before upload, Proton cannot read contents or even filenames, and neither can anyone arriving with a court order. The client code is open source and audited. The parent company has spent a decade being unhelpful to subpoenas.
Photo auto-backup landed in late 2024 and handles a normal personal library without drama. What remains missing is real-time co-editing inside documents. Sharing, comments via Proton Mail, external editing in OnlyOffice, all there. A solo user will never notice. A five-person team writing pitch decks together will, and should read the kDrive section next.
The Proton Unlimited bundle at €10 per month is the value buy: 500 GB of Drive, plus Mail, Calendar, VPN, and Pass, all on the same Swiss account. Drive Plus standalone is €4 per month for 200 GB.
2. kDrive
If you treat Google Drive as the storage layer of Google Workspace, kDrive is the closest Swiss-hosted match, and for one type of reader it beats my number one. A family or small team that needs the whole package will find the 15 GB free tier mirrors Google’s exactly, with no phone number attached. The Infomaniak Office suite handles real-time collaborative editing of .docx, .xlsx, and .odt files inside the browser, with cursors and comments that work the way Google Docs taught you to expect. Calendar, contacts, and an email client come from the same account.
Infomaniak is also the only provider on this list that publishes a per-gigabyte carbon footprint and runs entirely on renewable hydroelectric energy. For organisations with sustainability reporting obligations, that ends up being relevant during procurement.
Why it sits at number two anyway: files are encrypted at rest using keys Infomaniak holds. That is a perfectly normal trust model, the same one Google uses, just relocated to Switzerland. It is not the cryptographic guarantee Proton gives you. For sensitive intellectual property or regulated industries, look up one section. For the everyday workflow of a household that previously trusted Google with everything, kDrive changes the jurisdiction without changing a single habit.
Paid plans start at €5 per month for 2 TB. Business at €6 per user per month with admin console.
3. pCloud
pCloud’s value proposition is the lifetime plan. €199 one-off for 500 GB, €399 one-off for 2 TB, €1,190 for 10 TB. Versus Google One at €99.99 per year for 2 TB, the 2 TB lifetime breaks even after roughly four years. After year five the math gets uncomfortable for anyone still paying Google.
The virtual drive is also the cleanest desktop file-system match on this list. Files appear in your file explorer, stream on access, and respect a configurable local cache. If “I do not want to download everything to every machine” was your objection to leaving Google Drive, this resolves it without a rethink of how files live on disk.
What is missing: real-time collaborative editing, calendar, and contacts. pCloud is a storage product. If you need the Workspace bundle covered, pCloud handles the storage layer and you assemble the rest from elsewhere.
The €125 one-off Crypto add-on adds zero-knowledge encrypted folders. For documents that warrant zero-trust storage, factor the add-on into the budget.
Check pCloud pricing →4. Nextcloud
Nextcloud is not a Google Drive replacement so much as a Google Workspace replacement. Drive, calendar, contacts, video calls, real-time office editing via OnlyOffice or Collabora, photo gallery, tasks, and forms, all in one server you control or have hosted on your behalf. The German federal government’s installation runs on Nextcloud. So does the French Gendarmerie.
The catch is somebody has to administer the server. For personal use a €5 per month VPS at Hetzner or Netcup covers it. For a team of five to fifty, managed Nextcloud hosting from Hetzner, Netcup, or webo.hosting runs €4 to €10 per user per month, with operations handled by the host.
If your tolerance for administration is zero, look at the services higher up this list. If you have technical capacity or budget for a managed host, Nextcloud is the only option here that genuinely replaces the entire Google Workspace footprint, not just the storage layer.
5. Jottacloud
Jottacloud is the household photo backup play, full stop. The Unlimited Personal plan at €13 per month covers unlimited storage for one person’s libraries: 80 GB of phone photos, 60 GB of video, 200 GB of family archives, all backed up to a Norwegian data centre running on hydroelectric power. The Unlimited Home plan extends this to five people on the same account.
For a Google Photos refugee with a real photo library, this is the most cost-effective EU option by a wide margin. Storage is unlimited, photo organisation is competent, face grouping works, and the mobile auto-upload runs reliably.
What it does not do: Linux client, real-time collaboration, business admin console. Documents work but the experience is one generation behind kDrive or Proton Drive. If photos are the dominant use case, this is the choice. If documents matter equally, look higher.
6. Internxt
Internxt is the budget zero-knowledge option from Valencia. €4 per month for 2 TB end-to-end-encrypted storage is the cheapest E2EE-default offer on this list. The free tier at 10 GB is competitive.
What it does not do: real-time collaborative editing, virtual drive, photo face grouping. The desktop client is competent but less polished than Proton or pCloud. The mobile apps are functional. For backup, photo archive, and personal documents at scale, the pricing is hard to argue with. For a full Workspace replacement, you will hit limitations.
7. Tresorit
Tresorit is here for completeness, but it is genuinely a business product and the pricing makes that clear. €10 per user per month for Business Standard, €15 for Business Plus with SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and HIPAA-ready settings. No personal tier worth considering.
For an SMB switching from Google Workspace Business Plus (also €15-€18 per user per month), Tresorit lines up directly with compliance certifications that Workspace does not include at the base tier. Real-time collaborative editing works inside the Tresorit workspace. The admin console is dense but answers the questions an EU CISO has to answer.
For individuals and households, look at kDrive or Proton Drive instead.
Workspace migration notes
Leaving Google Drive almost always opens the wider question: what about Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Photos, Calendar, Contacts, Forms?
Docs, Sheets, Slides. Google’s native formats do not migrate. Export each as .docx, .xlsx, or .pptx before moving. OnlyOffice (Latvia, open source) and Collabora Online (UK with German offices, open source) both handle real-time multi-user editing of Office and ODF formats. Infomaniak Office (included with kDrive paid plans) does the same with a Swiss provider running it. Round-trip fidelity is at near-parity with Google Docs. Your team will complain for two weeks and stop noticing.
Photos. Google Takeout exports a complete archive. For a Google Photos equivalent, Jottacloud handles unlimited backup for households. kDrive includes auto-upload and face grouping. Proton Drive added photo backup in 2024. Ente Photos is the closest feature-for-feature replacement with end-to-end encryption.
Calendar and Contacts. Export to .ics and .vcf. Proton Calendar imports both directly. Nextcloud Calendar and Contacts use CalDAV and CardDAV, supported by every major mail client. Infomaniak Suite includes both.
Forms. No exact equivalent. Cryptpad (French, open source, end-to-end encrypted) handles forms. Tally and Limesurvey cover the form-builder use case.
Hangouts / Meet. Jitsi Meet (French, open source) for ad-hoc calls. Element on Matrix for persistent rooms with messaging. Nextcloud Talk if you are already self-hosting.
Decision matrix
| Priority | Choose |
|---|---|
| Privacy by default, Mail + Calendar bundle | 🇨🇭Proton Drive |
| Closest direct Google Workspace match | 🇨🇭kDrive |
| Lowest long-term cost, accept storage-only | 🇨🇭pCloud (lifetime) |
| Full Workspace replacement, comfortable with hosting | 🇩🇪Nextcloud |
| Family photo backup at scale | 🇳🇴Jottacloud |
| Budget zero-knowledge at 2 TB | 🇪🇸Internxt |
| Business needing SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | 🇨🇭Tresorit |
What I run
I left Google Drive at the start of 2024. The setup that stuck: kDrive for everyday documents and household photos (the family already trusts the Swiss-hosted, renewable-energy story), Proton Drive for anything that warrants zero-knowledge encryption, and a small Hetzner-hosted Nextcloud instance for project files I want fully under my control.
That is three providers instead of one. The trade-off was deliberate. For a single-product replacement, Proton Drive is my answer for a single user, and it is the account I would keep if forced to cancel the other two. With a whole household to cover, kDrive.
What I would not do: stay on Google Workspace because the data already lives there. Two evenings with Google Takeout is cheaper than another year of training your colleagues to ignore the privacy popups.
Migration steps
Run Google Takeout first. Drive, Photos, Calendar, Contacts, Forms, Keep. Select per-product .zip exports. Plan for 100 GB taking roughly six hours to package and download.
Convert Google native formats. Takeout offers a choice of export format per product. Pick .docx for Docs, .xlsx for Sheets, .pptx for Slides. .gdoc files become useless outside Workspace; do not export those.
Upload to the new provider. Native desktop clients are usually fastest for bulk file transfers. kDrive’s CLI handles directory uploads cleanly. Proton Drive’s web upload is reliable for under 10 GB at a time.
Verify a sample. Pick 30 random files across categories (docs, sheets, photos, archives), open each, spot-check formatting and metadata.
Run both for two weeks. Do not delete the Google account immediately. Shared links from Workspace will return 403 once you cancel; you want the old account still accessible while you reissue from the new provider.
Reissue shared links. Google Drive’s “Shared by me” panel lists active links. Inventory them, regenerate from the new provider, update wherever they were pasted.
Cancel. Once the verification period is clean, downgrade Google One to free, transfer the domain if you used Workspace for email, archive the Takeout backup somewhere offline.
FAQ
Has Google Workspace had GDPR problems in the EU?
Yes, repeatedly. The CNIL fined Google €150 million in 2022 for cookie practices. Danish municipalities banned Google Workspace for Education in 2022, the Swedish DPA followed shortly after, and the Dutch DPA flagged unresolved issues with Google Analytics integration in 2024. The CLOUD Act exposure is the floor; the ad-targeting and analytics integrations are the ceiling.
Can I keep Google Docs and Sheets if I leave Google Drive?
Yes, but native .gdoc files do not migrate cleanly. Export to .docx or .xlsx first. OnlyOffice, Collabora Online, and Infomaniak Office all support real-time collaborative editing of Office and ODF formats at near-parity with Google Docs.
What is the closest match for Google Photos in the EU?
Jottacloud’s Unlimited Photos for households. kDrive’s photo backup, which includes face grouping. Proton Drive added auto-upload in 2024. Ente Photos for end-to-end encryption.
Will my Google Calendar and Contacts come with me?
Yes. Export to .ics and .vcf. Proton Calendar imports both. Nextcloud Calendar and Contacts work over CalDAV and CardDAV, supported by every major mail client.
Cheapest EU Google Drive alternative for 2 TB?
Internxt at €4 per month, or pCloud’s €399 one-off lifetime plan. The lifetime plan beats Google One’s 2 TB tier (€99.99 per year) after roughly four years.
Which EU alternative best matches Google Drive’s 15 GB free tier?
kDrive at 15 GB is the only direct match, with no phone number required. Worth knowing: since May 2026, new Google accounts in some regions start at 5 GB until a phone number is verified. Internxt and pCloud both offer 10 GB.
Try them
- 🇨🇭Proton Drive: best overall, private by default
- 🇨🇭kDrive: closest direct Google Workspace match
- 🇨🇭pCloud: best long-term cost via lifetime plans
- 🇳🇴Jottacloud: best for unlimited household photo backup
- 🇪🇸Internxt: best budget zero-knowledge at 2 TB
Related:
- 7 Best European OneDrive Alternatives: for M365 switchers
- 7 Best European Dropbox Alternatives: for personal-storage switchers
- EU Cloud Storage Comparison: all 12 EU storage providers
- pCloud Lifetime Deal Review 2026: is the €399 plan worth it
- EU Alternatives to Google Drive (directory)
- Why EU Software Matters
Pricing and features verified 2026-05-28. Google storage-policy section and updated ranking added 2026-06-11.
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