1. Tuta

2. Self-hosted Nextcloud

3. Organic Maps for lookups, Magic Earth for navigation

4. Self-hosted SearXNG

5. LibreWolf on desktop, Fennec on mobile

6. Tuta or Nextcloud, haven’t really settled yet and I barely use a calendar as-is

7. Android built-in with Nextcloud sync

8. Nextcloud

9. Nextcloud (Collabora) and LibreOffice

10. Trying to get my family on Signal, but due to some holdouts and RCS not being available on anything but Google’s messenger, I still keep their SMS app around. Mostly use Discord though realistically, likely soon to be Matrix.

11. N/A

12. Bluesky mostly. Not ideal but keeping up with active blocklists to shut out anyone right of center makes it much more usable.

13. Navidrome with Feishin (desktop, also have a self-hosted web player just because) and Symfonium (mobile). Beets for metadata management

14. Jellyfin for streaming, still use the “official” youtube app but Revanced really helps with it

15. Self-hosted Vaultwarden + Bitwarden

16. PiHole for DNS (need to set up Unbound still, maybe a weekend project). Mullvad VPN on everything. My Wireguard connection to my homelab actually routes out through Mullvad, so one VPN connection lets me access my LAN while protecting my outbound traffic.

17. GrapheneOS, Nova launcher

18. Split between F-droid, Aurora, and the Play Store for when the other two don’t work. I try to use it as little as possible

19. Self-hosted Immich. Aves Libre for local image management.

20. I swear everything I use just has its own weather integration with a random site I’ve never heard of LMAO. GrapheneOS recommends BreezyWeather for widgets which works pretty well.

21. None, never, fuck that shit.

22. Aegis for 2FA, Heliboard for a mobile keyboard. Set up a whole bunch of self-hosted tools which don’t replace anything for me but help me manage things I’ve been slacking on: ActualBudget, Paperless (digital file cabinet), Mealie (cookbook app), just to name a few.

I’m about 80% of the way there. I’ve been slacking on migrating things over to my Tuta email since I set up forwarding from my old Gmail accounts.

My last major holdouts are Fi (nothing else remotely compares price-wise in this area), Google’s phone and messenger, and the pixel camera. The very second third party apps start using RCS, messenger is out (or if I can get the rest of my family on to Signal). The screening features of the phone app are too good to give up just yet, and the same goes for the quality of the Pixel camera - nothing comes close to those just yet.

1. Proton Mail
2. Proton Drive
3. Organic Maps
4. Startpage/DuckDuckGo
5. Zen browser on my Desktop/Vanadium on my Phone
6. Proton Calendar
7. I just export it to .vcf
8. Standard Notes
9. Libreoffice, Cryptpad for cloud
10. Signal
11. Signal
12. Mastodon, Lemmy, Reddit
13. Spotify
14. Peertube, Newpipe if I need Youtube
15. Bitwarden
16. Proton VPN
17. GrapheneOS
18. Unfortunately Google Play mainly, F-Droid
19. GrapheneOS gallery
20. Apple maps (integrated in DDG)
21. None
22. Aegis for 2FA

1. Fastmail
2. My Nas and Syncthing/rsync
3. Osm throught Osmand and a cheap Garmin Navi I got from a flea market
4. Duckduckgo
5. Librewolf/Firefox
6. Etar Synced via CalDAV
7. Contacts on my Sim card
8. A mix of etar and Fossify Notes
9. Libreoffice with Openoffice if it dosent work
10. Signal, Telegram
11. Signal/Zoom
12. Thunderbirds RSS, Lemmy and Pixelfed, I just look on Tagesschau every other day
13. Newpipe, Jellyfin, and Antennapod
14. TILvids and the instance The peertube App recommends videos from
15. KeePassCX, or at least im trying to make it work
16. Mullvad, PiHole with Mullvad VPN, Standard NAT wall
17. Kvaesito / Graphene
18. F-Droid, Aurora Store, Obtainium
19. My Nas, planning to switch to Nextcloud
20. FOSS weather, fetches from German Wetterdienst
21. None
22. None

1.Email

FastMail, IceDove (GNU debranded ThunderBird), FairEmail

2.Cloud storage / file sync

Syncthing, Nextcloud for sharing and browsing files, I store my files using TrueNAS and a RAID Z2 configuration with Backblaze B2 for backup

3.Maps & navigation

OsmAnd with Brouter (FastBike-VeryLowTraffic profile) for ebike, my local transit app for public transit, Magic Earth the rare occasion I use a car, Uber rarely, I still use Google Maps for searching because everything else sucks

4.Search engine

Kagi, nowadays I usually use Deepseek R1 model with either Kagi Assistant or OpenRouter but might self-host LibreChat

5.Web browser

LibreWolf for searches, FireFox and FireFox PWAs for sites I regularly visit but planning to switch to Floorp. On Android, Cromite for random sites, Vanadium for sides I stay logged in to, IronFox with extensions for searches.

6.Calendar

Etar synced with Nextcloud using DAVx5

7.Contacts management

GrapheneOS contacts app synced with Nextcloud, the Fossify app has given me problems

8.Notes / to-do lists

Tasks.org synced with Nextcloud, Logseq for random notes, Markdown or comments in Typst documents in certain contexts

9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)

Typst or LaTeX for documents I make myself. LibreOffice or Collabora app for MS office documents.

10.Messaging / chat

Signal (Molly) and Discord (Vesktop, Revenge) most of the time

11.Video calling

Signal or Discord for personal, Teams for business stuff

12.Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news

Lemmy, Reddit, Instagram

13.Music streaming / podcast app

Tidal for my own playlists, Spotify for playlists from other people, YouTube when I want to randomly listen to something, ListenBrainz and Last.fm for scribbling. I want to set up Navidrome again but last time I did it was a disaster.

15.Password manager

Bitwarden/Vaultwarden

16.VPN / DNS / Firewall

InviZible Pro and Privoxy (uses Tor and I2P). I should probably get Mullvad or AirVPN.

17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)

Kvaesitso

18.App store / APKs

Obtainium for FOSS, Google Play for proprietary

19.Photo backup / gallery

Syncthing-Fork, Aves Libre

20.Weather

Weather.gov, Windy which tends to be more accurate for more specific locations

email, calendar, contacts

Fastmail. Migration to some European provider is planned. K-9 for email on phone. For email/calendar/contacts Thunderbird on desktop. Contact and calendar sync Davx5 on phone. Fossify for contacts and etar for calendar on phone.

cloud storage

Filen. Zero knowledge e2ee service from Germany

maps & navigation

OSM-AND+

search

qwant (from France) and sometimes DDG or startpage

browser

LibreWolf + uBlock origin

notes

just a text editor (Pluma)

office

Latex & LibreOffice when needed

messaging

Signal, some contacts are still in TG

video calling

Don’t use

social media

Lemmy & Mastodon

music streaming

Don’t use. I get mine either on physical media if possible (cd) or in flac format (Bandcamp)

video streamming

Nebula, Odysee and FreeTube for youtube content

password manager

keepassXC. DB is synced via cloud to other devices

vpn & dns

Mullvad

firewall

Linux built-in (netfilter) configured thru Yast

android os

Graphene OS

app store

F-droid and some via Aurora store

photo gallery

Digikam locally on desktop. Fossify gallery on phone.

weather

Finnish meteorological institution

smart assistant

Don’t use

anything else

I ditched google mostly years ago. Graphene OS is the latest one and that was only this year. FreeTube is also fairly recent (sometime last year). Before that I used piped but that was nuked by google. More precisely they made it impossible to use. On software I’ve been FOSS first for over 10 years. Using OpenSuse Tumbleweed on my desktop and laptop (Thinkpad L580).

First post on Lemmy but not new to degoogling.

Phone is a Pixel 6a running GrapheneOS for about 2.5 years.

Laptop is a used Lenovo T470s with Linux, Fedora Workstation. Total noob.

1.Email - Proton Unlimited

2.Cloud storage / file sync - Proton Drive / Syncthing

3.Maps & navigation - OSMAnd

4.Search engine - varies but right now it’s Brave

5.Web browser - On my phone I use Ironfox with UBlock Origins on expert mode (deletes all browsing data) and Brave for logins.

On my laptop, LibreWolf with UBlock Origins on expert mode (deletes browsing data) and Firefox for logins.

Ironfox and LibreWolf are sync through Mozilla.

6.Calendar - Fossify Calendar, phone.

7.Contacts management - whatever is stock on GOS

8.Notes / to-do lists - Fossify Notes for reusable checklists. Joplin on both laptop and phone for markdown notes. I used to use Quillpad when I used an android tablet and phone.

9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.) LibreOffice on Linux. LibreOffice viewer on my phone.

10.Messaging / chat - Signal

11.Video calling - I don’t do video calling but if I did, Signal

12.Social media - Firefox on my Laptop, Brave on my phone. I’m planning on ditching Reddit. RedReader is the app I use on that site.

12b. microblogging - I can’t stand microblogging (Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky)

12c. RSS reader / news - Feeder on my phone

13.Music streaming - I play music stored on my phone with Vanilla.

13b. podcast app - Antenna Pod on my phone. I like CPod on my laptop but it’s no longer being updated. I’ve looked but can’t find one I like for Linux that is being updated.

14.Video streaming / YouTube alternative - Freetube on Linux and PipePipe on my phone

15.Password manager - Proton Pass.

16.VPN / DNS / Firewall - ProtonVPN but their Linux app is barebones. Doesn’t even have split tunneling.

17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs) - Stock launcher on phone. Extension Manager on my laptop to tweak the desktop for more usability.

18.App store / APKs - From most to least apps installed from that store - Obtainium (usually Github) 22, F-Droid 15, Aurora Store 3, and Accrescent 3.

19.Photo backup / gallery - Photos sync to my laptop with Syncthing, from there I upload to ProtonDrive.

20.Weather - I open Environment Canada local forecast with a browser

21.Smart assistant (if any) - Nope

22.Anything else you’ve replaced? - I use mostly cash in stores. My keyboard is Futo on my phone.

I plan on moving away from Proton if they don’t start supporting Linux more. Addy for email aliases, Tuta for mail, and Mullvad for VPN. Not sure about cloud, or if I need it, at the moment.

Would love to hear about your setup — both what works well and any trade-offs you’ve had to make. Always looking for better FOSS or privacy-friendly alternatives

Email

• Mix of Proton Mail and Tuta Mail. I do want to get a custom domain just so I don’t need to go through the email shuffle the next time a service goes to shit. Unfortunately i still need to keep around my Google account and Microsoft account. To access emails, I use FairEmail on my phone alongside the Proton and Tuta Mail apps, and on the desktop I use Thunderbird.

Cloud storage / file sync

• Filen for cloud storage, Syncthing for file sync, also selfhosted Nextloud. Used to use MEGA in the past, but i don’t anymore. To backup my phone, I use LineageOS’s built-in tool (Seedvault), I simply ask it to back up to the SD card and use Syncthing to sync this to my computer and server.

Maps & navigation

• OpenStreetMap is not great where I live, so I am still forced to use GMaps.

Search engine

• Duckduckgo (for most things) + Startpage (when I need better results).

Web browser

• Fennec Browser on mobile, Librewolf on desktop.

Calendar

• Fossify Calendar on mobile, Thunderbird on desktop, calendar is synced to a selfhosted Nextcloud server.

Contacts management

• Using the default contacts app on LineageOS on mobile, these synced with the same Nextcloud server.

Notes / to-do lists

• Tasks: Tasks.org on mobile, synced with the same Nextcloud server (with Nextcloud tasks). Honestly I can’t find a desktop todo list app that supports Nextcloud, so i just use the website (if anyone knows a good option for this, let me know).

• For note-taking, i use Obsidian synced across all my devices with Syncthing, backed up to my Nextcloud server and Filen as well. For quicker notes (my obsidian vaults do take a while to open on my phone) i use the Nextcloud Notes app.

Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)

• Still using Microsoft Office, however looking into switching to LibreOffice or Onlyoffice.

Messaging / chat

• Sadly, still forced to use closed apps like Discord and Whatsapp, as 99% of my friends and family still use these apps. I’d like to use Signal more, alongside Element and maybe Revolt as a Discord alternative, but trying to convince them to switch is really hard.

Video calling

• (i don’t do video calling)

Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news

• Social media: been using Lemmy more often via Thunder, been trying to use Mastodon more but I don’t seem to find any good posts for some reason? anyways. I still use some closed social media, if i need to see a post on Twitter, it’ll be through Squawker (really good client for twitter), i don’t keep any social media apps on my phone anymore, so i just use the browser if i need to look something on twitter/reddit/bsky/tumblr/whatever, this way I get ad and tracker blocking as well.
• RSS reader: Nextcloud News on mobile, RSS Guard on desktop, all synced to Nextcloud News.

Music streaming / podcast app

• I don’t do music streaming, i prefer to keep my music files locally, either buying them on Bandcamp or elsewhere For music playback however, on mobile i use Musicolet, and on desktop I use Musicbee (currently trying to find a replacement that is as good as Musicbee for Linux).

Video streaming / YouTube alternative

• Still using YouTube, YouTube Revanced, however GrayJay does look pretty good as a YT front-end and i do want to switch to that (once the desktop version is not awful).

Password manager

• I’ve used Bitwarden for the longest time, but I’d like to start using KeepassXC instead, since it is offline and does not look like a mobile app cosplaying as a desktop app.

VPN / DNS / Firewall

• Using ProtonVPN, alongside Tailscale to connect to the server i have at home.

Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)

• Launcher: Used to use Nova Launcher until they were bought out by a sketchy company, now I use Lawnchair. Still miss Nova Launcher to this day honestly.
• Custom ROMS: LineageOS 14, with microG. Honestly still surprised my banking app does not care about the fact I don’t have GApps installed (the most it ever gave me is a single “your phone may be modified message” notification). Whatsapp messages are really delayed which has been a pain, but it is a worthwhile tradeoff.

App store / APKs

• Aurora store, F-Droid.

Photo backup / gallery

• Nextcloud Photos for camera backup, Syncthing for everything else, and for the gallery i use Fossify Gallery.

Weather

• Weathermaster on F-Droid. For a widget that tells me the weather, Another Widget is really good (sadly no longer developed).

Smart assistant (if any)

• (i don’t use any)

Anything else you’ve replaced?

• planning to switch to Linux, I really do not like Windows 11 and their plans to shove AI everywhere, I been trying out Linux on my laptop and it has been pretty great, I really like how customizable it is, KDE Plasma is great and Fedora has been really stable as a daily OS. I may still be forced to keep a Windows VM or separate Windows partition around for certain stuff, like games that use anticheat bullshit, or other tools that are Windows only.
• Currently the phone I have is on its last legs, so I may switch to a degoogled Google Pixel, and use something like GrapheneOS or something that lets me lock the bootloader with a custom ROM installed
• Been looking into alternatives for MSOffice, Libreoffice looks good, however compatibility wise OnlyOffice tends to get the formatting right more often.

Email

Mailbox.org + Thunderbird

Cloud storage / file sync

Filen

Search engine

i switch between DuckDuckGo and Brave for the Goggles feature

Web browser

Firefox! Iceraven on my phone

Calendar

Fossify Calendar

Contacts management

Fossify Contacts

Notes

Obsidian

to-do lists

1List

Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)

OnlyOffice or CryptPad

Messaging / chat

Signal

Video calling

i don’t lol. but if i did, Signal.

Social media / microblogging

Akkoma & Bluesky

RSS reader / news

FreshRSS + Read You

Music streaming

Spotify for now. considering Deezer, but i’m on a shared plan.

podcast app

AntennaPod

Password manager

Bitwarden

VPN / DNS / Firewall

DNSNet (for adblocking)

App store / APKs

F-Droid & Obtainium

gallery

Aves

Weather

Rain

1.Email –

proton

2.Cloud storage / file sync–

pCloud (lifetime storage purchase FTW)

3.Maps & navigation–

Magic Earth works pretty well

4.Search engine–

Qwant for daily driver, exploring SearxNG

5.Web browser–

Waterfox on desktop and mobile, exploring LibreWolfe and Fennec as well but Waterfox is smooth and fast

6.Calendar–

Proton

7.Contacts management–

Fossify

8.Notes / to-do lists–

Obsidian MD (free) with paid vault sync upgrade

9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)–

LibreOffice & Obsidian

10.Messaging / chat–

Signal, Line. I really, really tried with Element and Element X - would love a federated discord alternative - but honestly I was not even successful at adding friends with confirmed accounts. Could be user error.

Signal is great.

11.Video calling–

Line, Signal

12.Social media / microblogging–

Mastodon, BkueSky

RSS reader / news–

TBD open to suggestions -

13.Music streaming / podcast app–

Podcasts - AntennaPod is great, switched over from PocketCasts and haven’t looked back. Fuck Spotify.

Music – Bandcamp (must try it!) + CloudBeats on mobile (streaming my own flac files to myself) + MusicBee on desktop. Also, fuck Spotify.

14.Video streaming / YouTube alternative–

PeerTube, PipePipe

15.Password manager–

Proton

16.VPN / DNS / Firewall–

Proton

17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)– Android with I hope all the right settings and no g-apps in the main profile. Looking at Lineage (my device can’t do Graphene)

Never wanted a pixel for any reason but might try it for next device solely for graphene - we’ll see.

18.App store / APKs–

Aurora / F-Droid

19.Photo backup / gallery–

Fossify Gallery

20.Weather–

Ehh. Still on MyRadar but probably time to switch

21.Smart assistant (if any)–

None

22.Anything else you’ve replaced?–

Left audible for Libro.FM, so far so good.

Left Amazon, been buying books on Thriftbooks.

Pixelfed seems to have potential as an IG replacement.

RedReader when looking at Reddit .

Looking for a meaningful Goodreads replacement with a mobile app…

Goal is to potentially try Lineage this summer…

Organic Maps is mentioned several times in here, but just a note, the project was forked due to the closed nature of some parts of the project and profit seeking of the major shareholders, contradictory to stated values.

The fork is called CoMaps. It doesn’t look like there’s an app release quite yet, but I’d watch for it coming soon.

Tip: If you are stuck using Gmail you can still access it with a third party FOSS client like FairEMail. I used to use it when I was at school and it worked perfectly, although you may need specific versions approved by Google so you can use Gmail, but the app still remains open source!

1. Email

I self-host my email using postfix, dovecot, rspamd and others. The only tradeoff I had to make here is that some of the entities I have to communicate with via email use an allow-list, so some of my outgoing mail is sent through a relay (SMTP2Go).

2. Cloud storage / file sync

I self-host a minio for cloud storage. I don’t need file sync, so nothing there. If I would, I would likely use syncthing.

3. Maps & navigation

OpenStreetMaps & CoMaps. Works much better than Google Maps did.

4. Search engine

Currently a self-hosted YaCy. I have my own index. Not entirely happy with this setup, will switch to something else (still self-hosted, I have no need for a general purpose search engine that indexes the entire internet of slop).

5. Web browser

LibreWolf

6. Calendar

I’m using Emacs & Org for most calendaring. Wife’s using GNOME Calendar & a Calendar app I found for her on f-droid (unsure which one).

7. Contacts management

Nothing on desktop, some random contacts app from f-droid on the phone. I do use EteSync to keep a backup, and potentially sync later. (EteSync syncs her calendar too)

8. Notes / to-do lists

Emacs & Org.

9. Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)

Most of my “office” needs are covered by a combination of Emacs, Typst and Zola one way or another. For the rare case where I need Office compatiblity: LibreOffice.

10. Messaging / chat

XMPP. Dino on Linux, Conversations on Android. I use Matrix too, from time to time (Element), and have Signal too. Not a big fan of the latter two, because it isn’t practical to self-host those.

11. Video calling

XMPP. Dino & Conversations. If I need to video call with someone else, I’ll use whatever they use, usually.

12. Social media / microblogging RSS reader / news

For social media, the Fediverse is my only social media. I’m using Tuba on desktop, Tusky on the phone for it. For RSS, self-hosted Miniflux. For Lemmy, the web ui on desktop, Voyager on phone.

13. Music streaming / podcast app

Lollypop & Shortwave.

14. Video streaming / YouTube alternative

FreeTube or yt-dlp if I need to watch youtube, PeerTube otherwise.

15. Password manager

Bitwarden (via a self-hosted Vaultwarden on the server side).

16. VPN / DNS / Firewall

The only VPN I use is WireGuard between my systems, but I don’t tunnel everything through it. For DNS, I’m using unbound on my VPS, which in turn dispatches to Quad9. Firewall? nftables.

17. Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)

I haven’t de-googled my phone, because my bank app refuses to work on rooted phones, and I unfortunately need that for the bank’s 2FA. No, I am not changing banks. I do use a custom launcher (Nova), though.

18. App store / APKs

F-droid.

19. Photo backup / gallery

I manually copy photos from the phone to my PC, and it gets backed up with the rest of the stuff. I do my backups with restic, and save a copy on my own server, and another at BorgBase. I’ll have a third copy at a third place later.

20. Weather

wttr.in, mostly.

21. Smart assistant (if any)

My wife. <3

22. Anything else you’ve replaced?

Not strictly de-googling, but I’m using Codeberg & my own self-hosted Forgejo instead of GitHub. I replaced LibreWolf’s bookmark manager with Readeck. For push notifications on Android, I’m using a self-hosted nfty.sh.

Would love to hear about your setup — both what works well and any trade-offs you’ve had to make. Always looking for better FOSS or privacy-friendly alternatives

Oh dear. Strap in, for you’re in for a Journey! The entire configuration of both my desktop and the rest of my fleet (my VPS, my homelab server, and my Mom’s miniPC at the moment) are all free software. Based on NixOS, declarative configuration written in a literate programming manner using Org mode. There is a lot of documentation.

1. Proton
2. Proton (Sync leave a lot to be desired)
3. Organic Maps
4. Kagi
5. Firefox (LibreWolf)
6. Proton
7. Contacts are kind of a mess. A combination of Proton & my phones Google Contacts library. Though I use the Fossify app
8. Standard Notes / Tasks.org
9. LibreOffice
10. Had to go back to Google Messenger when my new phone wasn’t receiving work MMS and group messages.
    I use Signal with my closest friends and family
11. Signal / Zoom
12. Fediverse almost exclusively (~90% Lemmy)
13. AntennaPod for podcasts
14. I still use Youtube for videos and streaming since I’m still grandfathered into the $8 original Google Play Music All Access intro offer. They are contractually obligated to never increase the price on me.
15. BitWarden (Not a fan of the updated interface, may switch to Proton)
16. Proton
17. Lawnchair
18. Droid-ify with Play Store as fallback
19. Proton
20. Breezy Weather
21. Too picky for an assistant, AI or otherwise

My setup.

1. Proton Mail - Email
2. None. I use local storage only.
3. Organic Maps - Maps
4. DuckDuckGo - Search Engine
5. Brave + Mullvad + Firefox Focus - Browsers
6. Proton Calendar - Calendar
7. Samsung Contacts stored locally. - Contacts
8. Standard Notes -Notes
9. LibreOffice - Office
10. Signal - Messaging
11. None with the exception of Signal - Video Calls
12. Lemmy, Bluesky and soon Masterdon - Social Media
13. Spotify (not good for privacy but my family pays for it so I ask myself why not) - Music
14. Odysee or Tubular Frontend - Streaming
15. KeePassXC and KeePassDX - Password Manager
16. NextDNS. I don’t use a VPN - DNS & VPN
17. Don’t use a custom ROM - OS
18. Droidify and Aurora Store - App Stores
19. Used to be on Ente but I now store my photos locally - Photos
20. Samsung Weather - Weather
21. None - Assistants.

1. Protonmail

2. None

3. Organic maps/gnome maps

4. Searxng

5. Librewolf/Fennec

6. Fossify calendar/gnome calendar

7. Fossify contacts

8. Fossify notes

9. Libreoffice/overleaf

10. Whatsapp (everyone uses it, so yeah :/)

11. Sometimes discord

12. Lemmy

13. Spotify on the browser

14. Only YouTube :/

15. KeepassXC/KepassDX

16. Yearly plan of nextdns (really recommend)

17. Wanting to use lineageos

18. Droid-ify/Aurora store/pacman

19. Fossify gallery

20. KDE weather/gnome weather

21. None

22. I think it didn’t use almost anything from google, so idk