Boycott US? New tariffs make people choose European products. Are we seeing a trend?
With the growing movement to boycott US goods, more people are choosing European alternatives. Let’s take a look at the best European products you can use.
Recent political events, like the Trump Administration’s implementation of trade tariffs, have kicked off a “boycott US” movement. While we do not want to get political, and while this movement is unfortunate for America and its citizens who this is also affecting, it is understandable that more people are choosing to buy local. Now, from Canada to the EU, and globally, people are purposefully choosing to stop using American goods and services and opt for alternatives from their own countries, for example from Canada or Europe.
Why are people choosing to stop using American products?
In tech, the trend to quit US products has been going on for a while as more and more people want to “deGoogle”. The aim is to break Google’s monopoly and to stop Google from dominating one’s entire digital life. The deGoogle Sub-Reddit, for instance, has more than 250k followers who are actively looking for alternatives to deGoogle their life completely.
This trend is now growing beyond tech with the recent introduction of US-tariffs against Canadian, Mexican, Chinese, and European products. This has sparked a movement of people – organizing online – to buy Canadian or buy from the EU. Now even companies within the EU who rely on big tech cloud services like Google and Microsoft are also looking for alternatives.
People online are increasingly recommending privacy-first, European products as alternatives to Big Tech. This is great news as it not only enables people to break the dominance of Big Tech, but it also enables them to choose better alternatives – solutions that respect their data and their privacy!
This new movement is more than just a small group of people, it’s a full-grown trend which is clearly shown by the European Alternatives website that has seen an 1100% traffic surge in 2025.
Traffic increase of the European Alternatives website. (Source: Plausible)
People are now choosing to boycott US brands and support their local markets. For example, Canadians are boycotting American-owned products and choosing to support Canadian companies and within Europe, there is a push to choose European products.
This growing movement is especially unfortunate for American citizens who have no control over the situation yet will also suffer the consequences of the tariffs. At the same time, it’s completely understandable that people around the world are choosing to unite and choose products from their own countries. “Buying local” – a slogan that has been pushed by environmental organizations for years already - is now getting a whole new connotation, and people now also have a new motivation to choose local products.
Choose Europe
For a long time American-owned corporate giants have owned the market and been the go-to for people globally – often not giving smaller companies a chance. A perfect example of this is Google owning 90% of the search market share through paying millions of dollars to Apple, Mozilla and others to maintain its monopolistic position as the default search engine on browsers like Safari and Firefox. Because of this unfair playing field, alternative search engines don’t stand a chance to compete - but this doesn’t have to be the case.
This movement and the constant recommendation of alternative products online are showing the world that we have a lot of European products and tools that we can use. Caused as an uprising against the US-tariffs, people want to support their own economies by choosing more local products and services.
Better European Alternatives
The Boycott US is a growing trend especially online, where in different countries people are creating Facebook groups, and uniting on Reddit to share their favorite local alternatives. And particularly in tech, there’s more reason to choose European products: The GDPR protects user data and makes sure that companies can not abuse users’ data to such an extent that is done by American corporations. In addition, Europe has a lot to offer when it comes to privacy-fist tech companies such as Tuta, Mullvad, or Threema.
Take a look at our list of European products you can use if you want to join the movement and support European companies.
In this guide, we’ve put together a list of European Alternatives for different popular US products. From choosing not to go to Starbucks and rather supporting your local coffee shop, to replacing Gmail with Tuta Mail, and Tesla with Volkswagen – we’ve got you covered!
European alternative for email
Google-owned Gmail and Microsoft’s Outlook are the two most popular email providers globally. While popular, they are not the best when it comes to respecting your privacy and personal data. Luckily, there are European alternatives to these mainstream email services. We’d recommend replacing Gmail, Outlook, or any other American-based email service with Tuta Mail.
Tuta Mail is the better Gmail alternative
When you choose Tuta, you are supporting a European email and calendar service, and you are making a positive change for the environment and your privacy! Tuta is a green and sustainably run company, that offers end-to-end encrypted email and calendars that are quantum-proof, for FREE.
If you want to delete your old email account, here you can find the steps to safely delete Gmail and the steps to safely delete Outlook.
The Tuta Mail app is available for download on iPhone and Android. It also has desktop clients available on Linux, macOS, and Windows, or you can access it via web browser.
European alternative for calendar
If you use Google Calendar, the calendar in Outlook, or Apple’s native calendar app, you can easily replace it with a better alternative like Tuta Calendar.
Tuta Calendar
The Tuta Calendar is a secure and private calendar alternative to Google Calendar. Tuta Calendar is included in Tuta Mail, or it can be used without Tuta Mail in the standalone calendar app.
The Tuta Calendar is the only zero-knowledge calendar with quantum-proof encryption that is also free to use, making it the perfect choice when looking for a calendar from Europe.
European alternatives for browser & search
Google’s dominance does not stop at email, it also owns the most popular browser and search engine, Chrome and Google Search. Within Europe, there are an increasing number of better privacy-respecting browsers and search engines to choose from.
Alternatives to Chrome:
Vivaldi
Vivaldi is a Norwegian web browser dedicated to fighting for a better web. With a strong focus on privacy, it offers a built in ad-blocker, tracking protection, end-to-end encryption for your synced data, and it’s highly customizable.
Mullvad Browser
Mullvad originally started as a VPN service, and since then has brought out Mullvad Browser which is designed to keep you private while browsing. Mullvad is based in Sweden, and as a company they have a proven track record of not logging user data. Like Vivaldi, this is another great browser for those who want privacy while browsing the web.
Alternatives to Google Search:
Ecosia
Ecosia is a German-based, sustainable search engine. Ecosia offers a great search engine and as a company it stands out for its strong focus on sustainability. It uses all its profits for climate action primarily focusing on planting trees around the world.
Qwant
Qwant is a search engine from France with a strong focus on privacy. It does not store or sell your data and it also has a search engine built specifically for kids making it a nice option for the whole family to use.
MetaGer
MetaGer is a German non-profit association that offers a metasearch which combines search results from different search engines. Metager’s code is open source, it also focuses on privacy, and its servers are run off green electricity.
Boycott Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts
If Starbucks is your go-to choice for coffee and you enjoy a Dunkin’ Donuts from time to time, it will not be difficult to find a replacement! When possible it’s always better to support smaller, local coffee shops and bakeries. Below we have put together some popular European-owned coffee chains – though we’d still recommend just choosing a local shop - where you can find a good cup of coffee and something sweet.
Tchibo
Tchibo is a German retailer and coffee shop and it’s an alternative to Starbucks for people in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Turkey.
Espresso House
Espresso House was started in Sweden and is the biggest coffee chain in the Nordic countries. Espresso House is a good choice for people in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Germany.
Illy
Illy is an Italian brand of coffee, which can be found in supermarkets globally, and in Europe you can often find coffee shops that use Illy coffee beans. Plus, Italian coffee is very tasty, and Illy is no exception to this!
Best option: Support smaller local coffee shops and bakeries
European alternatives to replace Meta
Meta owns a lot of popular platforms. From WhatsApp to Facebook and Instagram. But like Google, Meta is yet another American Big Tech that makes huge profits from your data. Luckily, there are now many alternatives to popular Meta products that are based in Europe and often have a strong focus on privacy.
European WhatsApp messenger replacements
Threema
Threema is an instant messenger from Switzerland and it’s the perfect alternative to WhatsApp. Threema is end-to-end encrypted and like Tuta it is also open source. This instant messenger is available for download as an app on Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, and MacOS.
Element X
Element X is a great messenger app that’s open source and end-to-end encrypted ensuring your communications are protected. Element is based in the UK and is a great instant messenger for both personal or business use. It’s available for download as a mobile app for iOS, Google Play, and it is even on F-Droid. On desktop, Element is available for download on Mac, Linux, Windows, or you can access it through Element web.
Olvid
Olvid is a French instant messenger. Olvid end-to-end encrypts your private communications including the metadata, and you can use it without a phone number. This private messenger is also available for iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones, and tablets, and it supports MacOS and Windows.
More European Messengers
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Element
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TeleGuard
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ginlo Private
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Skred
To replace Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, we’d recommend Mastodon! (Find out more below.)
Boycott X (Twitter)
Choose Mastodon instead!
Mastodon is a German non-profit that is often referred to as, ”the open source Twitter alternative.” Since Elon Musk’s take-over of Twitter (now X) in 2022, a lot of people have started to switch over to Mastodon and the Fediverse boosting its popularity.
Mastodon is different from Big Tech social media platforms like Facebook and X as it is decentralized and it is run as a nonprofit – because of this, its main goal is to benefit the public, not the shareholders. As a nonprofit, it is not under pressure from stakeholders to increase profits (often through selling your data).
Have you joined us on Mastodon? We are actively present on Mastodon sharing privacy news, guides, and news related to Tuta - and would love to hear and answer your questions. Follow us!
Alternatives to Coca-Cola
If you’re a big fan of Coca-Cola, there are European replacements that are just as good!
Fritz-Cola
Fritz-Cola is a German soft drink company that’s widely available around Europe.
Sinalco
Sinalco is another German soft drink company that produces a wide range of sodas.
Want to get involved?
The list of alternatives above just covers the tip of all the products you can swap out! Luckily, there are now many resources and groups available online where you can find out more.
Most of these groups can be found on Facebook (ironically). For example, The Swedish group, Bojkotta varor från USA (Boycott goods from the US) now has about 81 000 members. This is just one of the many boycott groups for the different countries that have been created.
And if you decided to ditch Facebook because it’s a US big-tech or because it’s terrible for your privacy, you can find groups and discussions on other platforms like Mastodon, Reddit, or Bluesky.
