this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2025
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I will help hand hold anyone who wants to build servers or services (to the best of my ability) to replace Google services with their own.
https://lemmy.world/c/selfhosted
There are a lot of alternatives out there. What service or services are you stuck on?
For me, MitID in Denmark. 100% required for society and life here, requires Google Play Services now :(
I tried e/os on my Fairphone for a bit. I think I could make it all work okay enough besides that. I should write people at the government or something I guess?
Yes! Being active politically is always important.
Be civil and polite at first, you want these people on your side after all. But don't be afraid to hold back if they respond with bullshit either. They are your representative, make them represent you and hold them to account if required.
Encouraging friends and family to write is usually a good idea too.
Not being politically engaged, I feel, is one of the main reasons for the downfall of democracy throughout the globe. Too many people think ticking a box every 4-5 years is all they need to do.
A good bit harder since I'm not a native Dane. In some more years when I'm a full fledged citizen I can start in earnest, but I'll ask now at least
Don't use the app then? I have a key thing which works quite well. https://www.mitid.dk/en-gb/get-started-with-mitid/how-to-use-mitid/mitid-code-display/
TIL this exists. Super cool.
Hvad koster det?
Jeg tror det er gratis
Edit:
Jeg var lige inde og kigge på MitID hjemmesiden. De skriver selv at der ikke var noget problem uden play integrity. Men at de implementerede det alligevel:
https://www.mitid.dk/en-gb/about-mitid/news/mitid-gets-an-extra-anti-fraud-mechanism/
I don't know myself, but Graphene OS (on Google Pixel phones) has a pretty impressive sandbox layer for the play store and the apps it installs. It might be worth looking into if you're not aware of it currently. (But if you're aware of the Fairphone, I'm guessing you probably know about Graphene).
I do, but as far as I was aware my Fairphone can't run Graphene? I would love to keep using my Fairphone over buying Google's hardware at this point
You are correct, Graphene only runs on Pixel phones. I know there's a few open mobile OS options out there but I've not spent any time researching them. There is a very good chance if you absolutely need an identification, then you can't get away from Android. Hopefully someone else sees your comment and has an answer.
There's a post about this on the Danish community here every few months. Afaik no one has any proper progress on it other than carrying a burner device or something
graphene is only for pixels i believe.
I’ve never heard of that, so I looked it up. There definitely appear to be non-Google alternatives.
What? You can't use an alternative app. It's government issued identification and required for life here.
I (and as far as I can tell, all others) can't get it to work outside of android
https://international.kk.dk/live/online-self-services/mitid/mitid.
Does not appear to “require” Android.
Fascinating. I knew about the key fob but not the little pedometer looking thing.
I wonder how it actually works, since a lot of it is integrated into apps and I don't see a spot to instead type a code. I'll have to play with it
Got any advice on alternatives to Drive? I keep considering nextcloud, but people I know have said it's a resource hog and finicky at best.
Syncthing
This is the answer unless you consider setting up a DIY home server fun, which often the kinds of people who recommend options for this kind of thing do... so just keep that context in mind here with recommendations.
Syncthing is a great solution and it is wayyyyy less a headache than any other DIY method I have done for replacing cloud/filesharing purposes.
Syncthing is what Dropbox was, before Dropbox became just another cloud data provider.
just be sure to check if the deletions sync timeframe suits your case. in the new 2.0 deletions are not remembered forever
Those people may be the kind who tell you formatting your hard drive and reinstalling windows every other week is the best way to keep it 'clean'.
Ive been using Nextcloud at multiple businesses for years, its a rock.
Nextcloud definitely seems solid... but let's be honest, it is definitely a resource hog. I tried deploying NextCloud on a VPS with 2GB of RAM, with most features turned off. The instance was empty. After a few minutes, I started getting alerts that I was using 100% of my memory.
Nextcloud isn't gonna work the way you expect it to with 2GB of RAM. It doesn't seem like you'd be able to run this on some cheap, low powered device.
Someone rewrite it in Rust! 😅
It's 2025. Many cheap, low-powered devices have more than 2GB of RAM at this point.
Make sure you have swap enabled and it’s fine. Any file host is going to be aggressive with memory to cache all the files and metadata for quicker browsing.
If you're looking to self-host, nextcloud is the way go. But if you're just looking for a drive alternative, there's plenty of simpler alternatives, like proton or kdrive.
Seafile is an alternative for self-hosting: https://www.seafile.com/en/product/seafile_on_premise/
I haven't tried it. Seems to be more efficient than Nextcloud. It also has way less features. So. 🤷
You've got some good suggestions, I think most of the suggestions I can think of. Nextcloud is of course the big one but after using it for quite a while, I think it's important to break down your needs. If you need file sharing/syncing only, there are better options that are easier and faster. If you only need chat/voice, rocket chat is really lightweight and easy. If you need file sharing, online office suite, chat, etc. Then Nextcloud is the right option. Just keep in mind, even if you think you need some of those things, will anyone but you ever actually use them? No, they won't, because they don't appreciate how cool it is to self host and how much effort you put into it.
Sign up for 10 different free accounts of Proton Drive? It has 5gb free cloud storage.
Though I always prefer the simple physical backup to SD card and backup to PC.
I also have a simple sshd server and use sftp when I'm feeling frisky.
Sending from any device to any device using KDE connect is good too.
I moved to pCloud + Cryptomator for general cloud file storage and Cryptpad for online document editing. These cover some of the main functions of Google Drive.
Syncthing is good if you just want files to show up on more than one machine, with no cloud services involved.
Bewcloud?
I run Nextcloud inside a VM, running on a decade+ old Intel gen 3 computer and the interface is snappier than navigating around google drive.
It is finickier to self-host than syncthing though, if all you need is sync. There are also tones of providers out there that will sell you Nextcloud or similar services.
Email? Its about the only thing leaving me on googles platform ATM. I can self host (with mailinabox) but....I kinda dont want to? Its so much work and I would rather do other things with my time.
I wouldn't self host email. But I would pay for a host and get away from Gmail. Wait until Black Friday and get free/cheap services from a bunch of places. Maybe even proton if you're okay with them. Also, using your own domain for email is pretty cool (to me).
Mozilla foundation is putting together a paid product under the Thunderbird brand. Folks are excited for that, the Firefox people are good people.
I use my web host for email. I looked into hosting it myself but it looked way too fragile. The service is included with the website so it's not like I'm spending any extra money that I wasn't going to already...
Maybe porkbun if you just need email?
But Porkbun charges per mailbox.
I pay for Tuta, and I have added my personal domain. It works as catch-all, allowing me to have an infinite amount of addresses, so I can use a different email on each website.
I do the same (catch-all, unique every site), but if op doesn't want to fiddle with that stuff, I've heard pb is okay. Just giving options.
I really like Runbox. Nothing particularity fancy, just pure standards compliant email, with excellent reputation, for a very low cost. They have a “drive” too.
There’s also mailbox.org, tuta, the upcoming “thunder mail”, proton, fast mail, probably your domain provider or VPS provider offers email as an add on. Consider paying for a email and a domain. It can be as low as $30 a year, and you become the customer instead of the product. Owning your identity.