Moving Away From U.S. Services: A Few Favorites

Published on Jan 22, 2026, filed under development, misc. (Share this post, e.g. on Mastodon or on Bluesky.)

Much like its client state, Israel, the United States is a mounting threat to international law and global peace. This is a neutral observation: Apart from openly disrespecting international institutions like the United Nations (including the ICJ), both countries have attacked several nations over the last few years alone. Beyond supporting Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, the extended colonization of Palestine, and Israel’s attacks on its neighbors, the United States goes even further by kidnapping state leaders from their own soil and threatening to annex the territory of its allies.

Our own (western) countries seem to be under varying influence of both countries, and therefore the response, one we need to be smart about, may come down to us as individuals. We aren’t powerless: Much more than sharing advice and tooling for hypothetical scenarios, like how to respond to that fictitious nation of Genocidistan, we can decide who gets our attention and our money.

I’m moving away from U.S. services, and generally reject anything connected to Israel—any link is an instant dealbreaker. But as it’s hard and maybe impossible to avoid all U.S. services—probably the reason why the U.S. feels like they can push everyone around—, it’s useful for us to talk about our options beyond welcoming and using initiatives like european-alternatives.eu and european-alternative.org. Here are non-U.S. services I like:

Code Editor: WebStorm

If you’ve been following my work, this may not be a secret—I’ve been using editors from JetBrains (originally founded in Czech Republic) for almost 25 years. After working with IntelliJ IDEA for many years, I’ve since enjoyed WebStorm. Keeping it brief, WebStorm (and other JetBrains IDEs) are excellent code editors and therefore a great alternative to any U.S.-based ones. For anyone in Tech, you won’t make a mistake or miss out on anything when switching.

I’m close to JetBrains and can pass on some perks: Use code “meiert” for a 20% discount for any personal annual license.

All-Purpose AI: Mistral

Anyone watching and exploring the AI space knows how dominated it is by U.S. companies. Among a few alternatives in Europe, I’ve been enjoying Mistral (France). As I’m applying the mindset of trying everything also to AI tools (I shared some reasons), Mistral is not the only AI solution I’m using though, and so my preferences and recommendations may evolve.

AI for Coding: Kimi

Much harder than finding an all-purpose go-to LLM has it been to find an alternative to Claude Code, my favorite until the U.S. turned against their European allies and, simultaneously, Anthropic turned against their paying customers—and it took me to look at China. It will take me a few more projects until I can tell with more certainty, but Kimi Code has impressed me. This does look like a serious non-U.S. coding contender.

Browser: Vivaldi

I’ve been using Vivaldi (Norway) for several years, after looking for a Chromium-based browser that is run from Europe. While one does encounter the occasional bug, it’s a solid browser that I’ve come to like. Given how similar most browsers are today, especially the Chromium ones, Vivaldi should make switching easy.

Code Hosting: Codeberg

Codeberg (Germany) has become my home for Chromium extensions and IDE plugins. A no-brainer for FOSS projects that don’t need feature parity with GitHub Actions or GitHub Pages, it’s not a universal replacement for GitHub or GitLab though (yet?). I previously considered Bitbucket as an alternative, but since its parent company (Atlassian) moved its domicile to the U.S., it no longer fits the criteria.

Search: Startpage

There are more non-U.S. search engines than Startpage (which is based in the Netherlands), but I single them out for their privacy focus. I use them as my default search while testing Ecosia (Germany) and weaning myself off Google.

Documentation and Communication: Proton

Swiss-based Proton probably needs little introduction—they’ve positioned themselves as a privacy- and security-focused technology company for more than a decade. I’ve been a customer almost since the start, and can recommend them as a now better alternative to many things Google offers (like mail, docs and sheets, as well as storage).

Messaging: Threema

Also Swiss-based (though just acquired by the German investment firm Comitis Capital), Threema has been an early secure messenger. While I didn’t use it for years, it’s making a comeback now given that it—isn’t based in the U.S. For anyone in Europe, I suggest giving it a—or another—try.

Reading: Kobo

Amazon dominates the ebook market, in Europe, I've never found a serious alternative (31-words story: I had been in touch with Tolino asking when they would support EPUB 3—when the standard was already 10 years old—, and, as far as I know, they still don’t), and while Kobo is really lacking in terms of easy exporting of notes, it’s the best non-U.S. alternative I know to purchase ebooks.

Social Networking: Mastodon

Frankly, I don’t consider the “classic” U.S. networks “social” at all. It seems logical that a network that must “optimize” engagement and that must make money cannot and will not be very good for anything social—that it must end up being the opposite, by playing groups within the network. Mastodon is a fantastic non-American and actually social social network. Let’s connect there!

This is a selection that I may extend here or in follow-up posts. I’m sharing this not only to help the discourse on alternatives for U.S. services, but also to invite you: What are your favorites, especially around web development? I’d be keen to read and also to feature these, for example on Frontend Dogma!

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a senior engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you use every day and companies you’ve never heard of, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and perspectives. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)