De-Google Your Life
Replace Google services with alternatives you can actually trust.
The Google Problem
Think about how many Google products you use: Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Photos, Chrome, Google Search, YouTube, Google Docs, Google Contacts, Google Keep, Android with Google Play. Each one of these is a data pipeline flowing straight to Google's advertising machine.
PewDiePie described it perfectly — Google knows where you are, where you've been, who you email, what you search for, what you write in your documents, what photos you take, what appointments you have, and what you watch. That's not a service provider. That's a surveillance company you happen to get free email from.
De-Googling doesn't mean going off-grid. It means replacing Google's services with alternatives that don't monetize your personal data. Some replacements are great. Some are... honestly not. We'll tell you which is which.
Map Your Google Services
Audit What You Actually Use
Before you start replacing things, figure out what you actually depend on. Go to myaccount.google.com and look at your activity dashboard. Check Google Takeout (takeout.google.com) to download all your data — emails, photos, documents, everything. You'll want this backup before you start migrating.
Make a list. Be honest about which services you use daily vs. occasionally. Prioritize replacing the daily ones first.
The Replacement Map
Here's every major Google service and what to replace it with, ranked by how good the replacement actually is.
Gmail → ProtonMail
ProtonMail is end-to-end encrypted email based in Switzerland. The free tier gives you 1 GB of storage and 1 email address. The paid plan (Proton Unlimited, ~$10/month) gives you 500 GB, 15 email addresses, and includes Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, and Proton VPN.
Migration tip: Don't switch overnight. Set up email forwarding from Gmail to your new ProtonMail address. Over the next few months, update your email address on every service you use. This gradual approach means you never miss an important email.
Quality rating: Excellent. ProtonMail is genuinely good. The web interface is clean, the mobile apps work well, and the security is real.
Google Drive → Nextcloud / Proton Drive
Nextcloud is a self-hosted cloud storage solution (see the Self-Hosting guide for setup). If you don't want to self-host, Proton Drive comes with your Proton subscription and is end-to-end encrypted. For simple file syncing between devices, Syncthing is peer-to-peer and never touches a server.
Quality rating: Good. Proton Drive is polished but has less storage than Google. Nextcloud is powerful but requires self-hosting. Syncthing is excellent for device-to-device sync.
Chrome → Firefox
You've already done this if you followed the Browser guide. If not, go do that first. It's the easiest win on this entire site.
Quality rating: Excellent. Firefox is a fantastic browser. No compromises here.
Google Search → DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo doesn't track your searches, doesn't build a profile, and doesn't filter results based on what it thinks you want. Use !g bangs when you need Google results for a specific query.
Quality rating: Good. 90% of the time it's fine. The other 10%, you'll use !g.
Google Maps → OsmAnd / Organic Maps
This is the one that hurt PewDiePie the most. He switched to OsmAnd (based on OpenStreetMap data) and was 30 minutes late to where he was going because the navigation was that bad. Google Maps is genuinely one of the hardest services to replace because Google has spent billions on map data, real-time traffic, and business listings.
OsmAnd is free, open-source, and works offline. It's great for hiking, cycling, and areas where OpenStreetMap data is good (most of Europe, urban areas worldwide). For driving navigation in less-mapped areas, it struggles.
Organic Maps is another OpenStreetMap-based option with a cleaner interface. Good for walking and general navigation.
Quality rating: Poor to mediocre. Let's be honest — this is where de-Googling hurts the most. PewDiePie himself still uses Google Maps for driving. If you need reliable turn-by-turn navigation, you might keep Google Maps as a reluctant exception.
Google Photos → Immich / Nextcloud
Immich is a self-hosted Google Photos replacement that's genuinely impressive. It has face recognition, location-based browsing, memories, sharing, and a mobile app that does automatic photo backup. It looks and feels like Google Photos. You need to self-host it (see the Self-Hosting guide).
If you don't want to self-host, Nextcloud has a photos feature, though it's less polished than Immich.
Quality rating: Very good (Immich). One of the best open-source replacements out there.
Google Calendar → Proton Calendar
Proton Calendar comes with your Proton subscription. It's encrypted, syncs with the Proton mobile app, and handles CalDAV for third-party clients. If you self-host, Nextcloud Calendar is also solid.
Quality rating: Good. Does everything a calendar needs to do. Sharing with non-Proton users is slightly clunky.
Google Docs → LibreOffice / CryptPad
LibreOffice is a full office suite that runs locally on your machine. It handles Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. It's free and open-source. The interface is dated but functional.
CryptPad is an encrypted, web-based collaborative editing tool — the closest replacement for the real-time collaboration feature of Google Docs. You can self-host it or use the free tier at cryptpad.fr.
Quality rating: Good for solo work, mediocre for collaboration. If you need real-time collaboration with non-technical people, this is a weak spot.
The Migration Strategy
Don't try to do everything at once. Here's the order that makes the most sense:
- Week 1: Browser and search (you've already done this)
- Week 2: Set up ProtonMail, start forwarding Gmail
- Week 3: Move your files to Nextcloud or Proton Drive
- Week 4: Switch calendar, start updating email addresses on services
- Ongoing: As each account gets moved to ProtonMail, update it and move on
The full migration takes 2-3 months if you do it properly. That's fine. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Every service you move is one less data pipeline to Google.
Honest Downsides
- Google Maps is irreplaceable for driving. PewDiePie was 30 minutes late because of OsmAnd. The real-time traffic data, business hours, reviews, and street-level imagery simply don't exist in the open-source world at the same quality. You may need to keep Google Maps as a guilty exception.
- The free tier of ProtonMail is limiting. 1 GB of storage fills up fast. You'll likely need to pay for Proton Unlimited ($10/month) to make it your primary email. That's $120/year for something Google gives you for "free" (in exchange for your soul).
- Collaborative document editing is worse. If you work with people who use Google Docs, sending them a CryptPad link is a harder sell than "just share it on Google Docs." The network effect is real.
- Some Google services have no good replacement. Google Translate, Google Scholar, Google Flights — these are services where Google's data advantage is so massive that alternatives feel primitive.
- Android without Google Play Services is its own adventure. See the Control Your Phone guide for that rabbit hole. Most people keep a Google account on their phone while de-Googling everything else.
- You'll feel the friction. Logging into a new email, forgetting which password manager has which account, realizing your calendar invite went to the wrong address — these little annoyances are real. They fade after a month, but the first few weeks are rough.