Decentralizing Your Digital Life

A list of sites & services that aren't run by mega-corporations.
, Updated: 2 min read

This page is a reference of alternatives to mainstream products / products run by mega-corporations. I’ll update this list from time to time.

  • DuckDuckGo

    DuckDuckGo aggregates it’s results from over 400 sources across the net. I’ve found the results aren’t quite the same as Google, but still good enough.

  • Startpage

    StartPage uses Google’s search index, so results are similar to Google’s but there’s been questions about the company’s ownership recently. 1

Browsers

Now that the browser wars may have returned,2 you may want to switch from chrome to another browser.

  • Firefox

    Firefox is a good option for a browser that isn’t chromium-based (the chromium project is run by Google, but is Open Source).

  • Arc - Arc is still based on chromium, but has a pretty radical experience versus chrome or firefox.

Domain Name Registration

Email

  • ProtonMail

    ProtonMail is an email service run out of Switzerland, and has robust end-to-end encryption support. 3

Source Control

  • SourceHut - alternative to github
  • Gitlab - more mainstream, larger company

Operating Systems

There’s never been a better time to switch to linux - which is free, open source, and doesn’t respects your privacy much more and doesn’t phone home like macOS4 and Windows5 for everything you do.

I’d recommend Ubuntu for first-timers as the installer is pretty helpful and the OS is configured for use right out of the box. Manjaro is also a good choice, and uses a rolling release model similar to Arch Linux.

NOTE: Take extreme care when installing new operating systems on your computer, as you can easily erase all your data if you pick the wrong option. Do your research!

Footnotes

  1. https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1275/0/what-is-startpages-relationship-with-privacy-onesystem1-and-what-does-this-mean-for-my-privacy-protections

  2. https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/16/21068387/browser-wars-microsoft-edge-google-chrome-apple-safari-chromium-webkit-goat-rodeo

  3. https://proton.me/mail/security

  4. https://sigpipe.macromates.com/2020/macos-catalina-slow-by-design/

  5. https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-telemetry-secrets/

Subscribe to my Newsletter

Like this post? Subscribe to get notified for future posts like this.

Change Log

  • 5/27/2020 - Initial Revision
  • 7/19/2022 - update links to protonmail and remove dead link
  • 7/2/2024 - updates, add arc browser, manjaro

Found a typo or technical problem? file an issue!