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Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

European Alternatives

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Prevalent Themes in the Hacker News Discussion on European Alternatives

1. Geopolitical Push for Digital Sovereignty The primary driver for seeking EU alternatives is a response to perceived political instability and unreliability of US-based technology, especially under the current US administration. This is framed as a necessary security measure rather than traditional nationalism.

  • BenoitEssiambre: "The US has recently threatened to annex Denmark and Canada. Some of us are suddenly keenly aware that the US is in a position to take control of most of our computers and phones via software updates."
  • ungovernableCat: "It's a clear and obvious security risk to their sovereignty. If the government can't guarantee that to its citizens then what even is its purpose?"
  • toomuchtodo: "The higher US salaries are a bug, not a feature, in this context."

2. The Viable Path Through Open Source and Localization Many users argue that the most sustainable "European alternative" is not a European-owned mega-corporation, but rather open-source software (FOSS) and building local infrastructure. This sidesteps direct corporate or national control.

  • direwolf20: "The EU is asking for information on how to support open source... It seems to prefer decentralised open source to the hyper-capitalism we got from American tech."
  • jimnotgym: "I don't see the issue with Operating systems or programming languages. There are FOSS alternatives and since they are run locally have no connection outside of the EU."
  • badsectoracula: "For the same reason people on the wrong countries aren't allowed to contribute to US projects... as it stands we should remove our independence on US, given current geopolitics, when technology can be weaponised."

3. Practical Challenges and Infrastructure Quality A significant portion of the discussion is a practical evaluation of existing European services, weighing their technical maturity, user experience, and support against US giants. Concerns about localization, data security, and customer service are prominent.

  • troupo: "‘European alternative’ that doesn't know that European addresses have non-ASCII characters... This was literally the point that I gave up."
  • celsoazevedo: "Not to deflect blame away from OVH and their large screw up, but we should never rely only on the redundancy of the hosting provider."
  • alberto-m: "A lack of Unicode support in 2026 is like someone coming with dirty clothes to a job interview: it might not affect too much how the work is done, but immediately raises doubts about the underlying level of professionalism."

4. The Economic and Cultural Feasibility Debate Users debate whether Europe can build a competitive tech ecosystem given its lower salaries and different cost of living. The conversation contrasts American "hyper-capitalism" with European quality of life, questioning what truly constitutes a competitive advantage.

  • skrebbel: "Americans compare their salaries to European ones but never stop to imagine the insane high ‘taxes’ they pay for stuff that we get cheaply or for free."
  • gtirloni: "If Europe doesn't fix their tech salaries situation (half US' in most cases, if not lower), I don't think it's sustainable."
  • s_dev: "High US salaries come from US VCs having to bid against other to capture talent. US VCs have more capital than EU VCs. This is why."

🚀 Project Ideas

European OS Foundation

Summary

  • [A consortium-backed Linux distribution and support ecosystem, explicitly maintained by and for European entities.]
  • [Provides digital sovereignty for critical infrastructure, government, and enterprise, reducing reliance on US-centric corporate Linux (Red Hat/Oracle) and ensuring long-term maintenance of FOSS toolchains.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience European governments, EU-regulated industries (finance, energy), and businesses seeking compliance without US dependency.
Core Feature A unified Linux base (Debian/Kernel) with a hardened European security patch set, native EU-cloud integrations, and a dedicated European support SLA.
Tech Stack Linux kernel, Debian, Ansible, K8s, EU-hosted infrastructure.
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Enterprise support subscriptions, government contracts, and paid security backports.

Notes

  • [Addresses "pjmlp"s concern about who pays the salaries for FOSS ecosystems: "how long do you think they will keep on going without their overlords?" By creating a formal entity, funding goes directly to European maintainers.]
  • [Huge practical utility for data sovereignty; prevents scenarios where EU entities lose access to patches or support due to geopolitical friction.]
  • [Consolidates fragmented efforts (SUSE, Ubuntu Europe, independent forks) into a cohesive "Digital Shield."]

LLM Client Toolkit (EU-Hosted & Open)

Summary

  • [A local-first LLM orchestration tool specifically designed to prioritize European AI models (Mistral, Aleph Alpha) and ensure data never crosses US borders.]
  • [Solves the "LLM Client" gap mentioned by "s_dev" by providing a unified interface that acts as an alternative to US-centric tools like OpenAI API or Microsoft Copilot, with strict privacy guarantees.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Developers, privacy-conscious enterprises, and EU-regulated sectors (healthcare, legal).
Core Feature Wrapper for local European models with a "data residency" guarantee, tool calling, and an EU-compliant audit trail.
Tech Stack Rust/Go, Ollama (for local serving), Python (for tooling), EU-cloud deployment option.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Self-hosted enterprise license or a SaaS hosted entirely in EU data centers.

Notes

  • [Directly responds to "Constantin Graf needs to add a new Category: 'LLM Clients' or 'AI Tooling'." It fills a specific void in the "Alternatives" list.]
  • [Practical utility: Allows companies to use AI without the legal risk of US surveillance laws (Cloud Act) applying to their proprietary data.]
  • [A "drop-in" alternative to OpenAI clients, making migration frictionless for European devs.]

Europass: Unified Digital Identity & Auth

Summary

  • [A single sign-on (SSO) and digital identity infrastructure for EU citizens, acting as a sovereign alternative to US "Login with Google/Apple/Facebook" and centralized ID vendors.]
  • [Solves the fragmentation of digital services across member states and the reliance on US tech giants for identity verification.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience EU citizens, EU government services, European B2C apps.
Core Feature EUDI Wallet integration (EU Digital Identity Framework), secure login for European platforms, and decentralized verification.
Tech Stack OIDC/OAuth2, EUDI standards, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, EU-hosted nodes.
Difficulty High
Monetization Hobby (Public Utility) OR Revenue-ready: API fees for private sector integration (e.g., banking/telecom).

Notes

  • [Addresses the unmet need for a "European digital wallet" mentioned by users discussing "techposts.eu" and "tech independence."]
  • [High potential for discussion: Moves beyond simple "product alternatives" to "infrastructure alternatives," which is the core of the sovereignty debate.]
  • [Aligns with current EU legislative trends (eIDAS 2.0), ensuring political backing and relevance.]

Pan-European CDN & Edge Network

Summary

  • [A high-performance Content Delivery Network and Edge Computing platform owned and operated by European consortiums, competing directly with Cloudflare and AWS CloudFront.]
  • [Solves the reliance on US-based infrastructure that sits at the heart of the internet stack, which is a major "unmet need" for redundancy and security.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience European websites, media companies, and applications requiring low latency and GDPR compliance.
Core Feature Edge computing (Wasm/Serverless), DDoS protection, and strict data processing agreements avoiding US jurisdiction.
Tech Stack Rust (for performance), Anycast networking, European peering points.
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Pay-as-you-go bandwidth and compute (e.g., "European Digital Ocean").

Notes

  • [Directly addresses the "pain point" raised by "troupo" regarding Scaleway/OVH usability issues, aiming to build a more robust alternative to "Digital Ocean" or "Cloudflare."]
  • [Able to quote "tarkin2": "Using a French server has been a pain... Their level of customer service is much worse." This tool would focus on enterprise-grade reliability combined with EU support standards.]
  • [Critical infrastructure for the "EU-made" web; without this, European apps are still dependent on US backbone.]

Open Toolchain Alliance (OTA)

Summary

  • [A funded, centralized foundation dedicated to maintaining European-adjacent programming language toolchains (Java, C++, Rust, Python) to ensure they remain vendor-neutral and independent of US corporate roadmaps.]
  • [Solves "pjmlp"s fear that US corps will "air out" FOSS options or stop upstreaming features, leaving European developers with stagnating tools.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience European software engineers, CTOs of large enterprises, and open-source maintainers.
Core Feature A grant distribution platform that funds specific development tasks (e.g., LSP support, IDE integration) for European-driven development.
Tech Stack Web platform (for grants), existing open-source repos (GitHub/GitLab).
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Corporate membership fees (EU companies) and public grants.

Notes

  • [Tackles the "pjmlp" comment: "For complete alternatives we need to go back to the cold war days... buying from." Instead of buying, this funds the creation.]
  • [Practical utility: Prevents the "Java 1.8" stagnation mentioned by "nitwit005" by actively funding modernization efforts not controlled by Oracle/US interests.]
  • [A discussion hub for "European Open Source," moving beyond listing products to actively sustaining the code.]

SecureBazaar: European B2B Marketplace

Summary

  • [A curated, secure marketplace for European SaaS and B2B tools, vetting for data residency and security compliance, acting as a "European Product Hunt" with purchasing power.]
  • [Solves the discovery and trust gap where European alternatives are hard to find and hard to vet compared to US giants.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience European startups, SMEs, and procurement departments looking for compliant software.
Core Feature Aggregated search of European alternatives (from the "European Alternatives" list) with verified security audits and direct procurement options.
Tech Stack Next.js, PostgreSQL, API integrations with European SaaS providers.
Difficulty Low/Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Affiliate fees (reinvested into the ecosystem) and premium listing/verification fees.

Notes

  • [Addressed "vldszn"s pain point: "It is such a common need for users that invoicing software should be included..." It creates a channel for these niche tools.]
  • [Huge practical utility: As "palata" noted, many European tools exist but are hard to find ("I haven't found anything public"). This centralizes the ecosystem.]
  • [Fuels the "revenge spending" or "revenge migration" trend by making the switch frictionless.]

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