Google-owned cloud storage, part of Workspace. Direct CLOUD Act exposure.
In short
Proton Drive (Switzerland, Geneva, EU-adequacy jurisdiction, zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption, ISO 27001 + SOC 2, Foundation-owned) is the strongest European alternative to Google Drive on EU Vetted's editorial assessment. Tresorit (Switzerland, Zurich, Swiss-Post-owned, zero-knowledge E2E, CLOUD Act exposure: Material in its sub-processor chain; contents stay end-to-end encrypted) is the enterprise standard, and kDrive by Infomaniak (Switzerland, Geneva, own Swiss data centres, ISO 27001 + B Corp) is the best-value all-rounder and bundles Docs/Sheets-style collaboration. For teams who want the whole Workspace replaced, Nextcloud (Germany, self-hostable) pairs storage with OnlyOffice/Collabora office editing. Google Drive is operated by Google LLC (Alphabet Inc., NASDAQ: GOOGL) and carries direct US CLOUD Act exposure.
ALTERNATIVES
17
CLOUD-ACT · NONE
11
WITH BSI C5
0
FREE TIER
9
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TOP PICKS
Which are the closest Google Drive alternatives?
Ordered by feature parity and migration friction, which is weighted higher than feature breadth.
Slovenian cloud storage (Koofr d.o.o., est. 2013), German ISO 27001 data centres, optional client-side encryption via the open-source Koofr Vault, 10 GB free.
DE
Germany
SOVEREIGNTY
A single roll-up of ownership and CLOUD Act exposure.
EU-SovereignThis listingEU/EEA/Switzerland-owned and -operated, with no identified CLOUD Act exposure.
EU-BasedEU-operated, with at most minor or transient US exposure.
EU-HostedEU hosting available, but a US parent or hyperscaler sub-processor creates material exposure.
US-LinkedOperated by a US-incorporated entity, directly subject to US jurisdiction.
German-operated (LC by vBoxx GmbH, Frankfurt) Leitz-branded business cloud on its own German data centres (Frankfurt + Mannheim), ISO 27001 (TÜV Nord), AVV available on request.
FRANKFURT · DE
Germany
SOVEREIGNTY
A single roll-up of ownership and CLOUD Act exposure.
EU-SovereignThis listingEU/EEA/Switzerland-owned and -operated, with no identified CLOUD Act exposure.
EU-BasedEU-operated, with at most minor or transient US exposure.
EU-HostedEU hosting available, but a US parent or hyperscaler sub-processor creates material exposure.
US-LinkedOperated by a US-incorporated entity, directly subject to US jurisdiction.
Norwegian cloud storage & backup (Jotta Group AS, est. 2008), 100% Norway-hosted on renewable power, server-side AES-256, public DPA, no CLOUD Act reach.
NO
Norway
SOVEREIGNTY
A single roll-up of ownership and CLOUD Act exposure.
EU-SovereignThis listingEU/EEA/Switzerland-owned and -operated, with no identified CLOUD Act exposure.
EU-BasedEU-operated, with at most minor or transient US exposure.
EU-HostedEU hosting available, but a US parent or hyperscaler sub-processor creates material exposure.
US-LinkedOperated by a US-incorporated entity, directly subject to US jurisdiction.
Norwegian-run virtual project drive (Archi Systems AS, EEA) for large CAD/BIM/point-cloud files, hosted on EU-owned OVHcloud in France with single-writer file locking and immutable versions.
PARIS · FR
France
SOVEREIGNTY
A single roll-up of ownership and CLOUD Act exposure.
EU-SovereignEU/EEA/Switzerland-owned and -operated, with no identified CLOUD Act exposure.
EU-BasedThis listingEU-operated, with at most minor or transient US exposure.
EU-HostedEU hosting available, but a US parent or hyperscaler sub-processor creates material exposure.
US-LinkedOperated by a US-incorporated entity, directly subject to US jurisdiction.
Beyond compliance: how these alternatives compare on the capabilities you actually use day to day.
Feature
Proton Drive
Tresorit
kDrive (Infomaniak)
Internxt
pCloud
Nextcloud
luckycloud
Filen
Koofr
STRATO HiDrive
leitzcloud
Jottacloud
Icedrive
Orbifs
Wimi
Leviia
Oodrive
Free storage
5 GB
—
35 GB
1 GB
10 GB
—
—
10 GB
10 GB
—
0 GB
5 GB
10 GB
0 GB
10 GB
—
—
Paid storage (from)
200 GB
50 GB
3 TB
1 TB
500 GB
—
10 GB
200 GB
25 GB
500 GB
250 GB
Unlimited
150 GB
1 TB
25 GB
1 TB
—
Max file size
Unlimited
2 GB
—
1 GB
Unlimited
Unlimited
8 GB
—
Unlimited
Unlimited
—
—
Unlimited
Unlimited
2 GB
—
—
Photo sync
✓Yes
✗No
✓Yes
—
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✗No
✓Yes
✓Yes
✗No
✗No
✓Yes
✗No
File versioning
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
Link sharing
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
✗No
✓Yes
✓Yes
✓Yes
Platforms
iOSmacOSWindowsAndroidWeb
iOSmacOSWindowsAndroidLinuxWeb
iOSmacOSWindowsAndroidLinuxWeb
iOSmacOSWindowsAndroidLinuxWeb
iOSmacOSWindowsAndroidLinuxWeb
iOSmacOSWindowsAndroidLinuxWeb
iOSmacOSWindowsAndroidLinuxWeb
iOSmacOSWindowsAndroidLinuxWeb
iOSmacOSWindowsAndroidLinuxWeb
iOSAndroidWeb
iOSmacOSWindowsWeb
iOSmacOSWindowsAndroidLinuxWeb
iOSmacOSWindowsAndroidLinuxWeb
WindowsmacOS
iOSAndroidWebWindowsmacOS
iOSAndroidWebWindowsmacOS
iOSAndroidWebWindowsmacOS
WHAT YOU'RE LEAVING
What are you leaving behind with Google Drive?
WHAT YOU'RE LEAVING
What are you leaving behind with Google Drive?
Listed for transparency. Every product on this page is benchmarked against this baseline.
Listed for transparency. Every product on this page is benchmarked against this baseline.
GO
Google DriveUS-incorporated
Google-owned cloud storage, part of Workspace. Direct CLOUD Act exposure.
US-based
OWNERSHIP
US-OWNED
CLOUD ACT
DIRECT
HOSTING
Likely AWS · US
SCHREMS II
Default SCC + supp.
Why switch
Why look for a Google Drive alternative?
A German procurement team runs a Schrems II transfer impact assessment on where company files sit. A client asks a services firm to confirm its documents never leave EU jurisdiction. An organisation wants its files out of reach of US data requests, full stop. All three land on the same product: Google Drive, the storage layer of Google Workspace, the place a generation of teams keeps files and the home of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. It is also a Google product (Google LLC, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., publicly listed on NASDAQ as GOOGL), hosted on Google's global infrastructure; Google offers EU data regions for Workspace, but that does not change who legally owns the company.
Thirteen European cloud-storage alternatives are mapped against Google Drive here, each checked against the same questions: who legally owns the company, where does the data physically sit, are files end-to-end encrypted, and does the platform hold a recognised European compliance framework (ISO 27001, BSI C5, EUCS, SecNumCloud)? Because Google Drive is also a collaboration tool, we note which alternatives pair with a European office suite for Docs/Sheets-style co-editing.
The top three: Proton Drive has the strongest privacy posture (Switzerland, Geneva, zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption, ISO 27001 + SOC 2, Foundation-owned), Tresorit is the enterprise standard (Zurich, zero-knowledge E2E, Swiss-Post-owned, CLOUD Act exposure: Material via its sub-processor chain, while file contents stay end-to-end encrypted), and kDrive by Infomaniak is the best-value all-rounder with built-in office collaboration (Geneva, own Swiss data centres, ISO 27001 + B Corp).
What you keep, what you give up
What do you keep, and what do you trade off?
What actually transfers when you move from Google Drive to a European cloud-storage provider?
File sync across Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android. Every alternative ships native apps.
Shared folders and shared links with role-based permissions.
File version history and recovery (on most providers).
A drive you can mount or sync, exactly like Drive's desktop client.
On the providers that pair with OnlyOffice or Collabora (Nextcloud, kDrive), real-time co-editing of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with Office format compatibility.
On the encrypted providers, a stronger confidentiality guarantee than Drive: zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption from a non-US company.
What stays behind:
Native Google Docs / Sheets / Slides and their deepest real-time multi-user editing at scale. OnlyOffice and Collabora cover the same ground for most teams, but the very largest simultaneous-editing scenarios are Google's strong suit.
The Workspace fabric: Gmail, Meet, and Drive woven together with shared admin and SSO.
Google's search-across-everything and the AI features (Gemini in Workspace).
Tight third-party app integrations built specifically for the Google Drive API.
Migration tips
How do you migrate from Google Drive?
Takeout handles the files; rebuilding share links and co-editing habits is the real work. Six steps:
Export with Google Takeout. Go to takeout.google.com, select Drive (and Docs/Sheets/Slides), and choose the export. Native Google formats export as Microsoft Office or OpenDocument files, so they remain editable in any European office suite. For Workspace tenants, run Takeout per user or use the admin data-export tool.
Pick storage-only or storage-plus-office. If you only need files, any provider here works. If your team lives in Docs/Sheets, choose a provider that pairs with OnlyOffice or Collabora. kDrive ships office editing, and Nextcloud integrates both.
Install the new provider and sync up. Install the desktop and mobile apps for your chosen provider (Proton Drive, kDrive, pCloud, or another) and move the Takeout export into its sync folder. The folder hierarchy uploads as-is.
Re-establish sharing. Drive share links do not transfer; reissue shared folders and links in the new tool. Map your most-used shared drives first.
Run both in parallel. Keep Drive live for a few weeks, verify files and any co-editing workflows on every device, and confirm external collaborators can access what they need. On zero-knowledge providers the first sync is slower because files are encrypted client-side.
Wind down Drive last. Once the new provider is trusted, reduce your Google One / Workspace storage. Keep a read-only Drive around briefly for anything addressed to old share links, then export and close it.
Picking the right one
Which Google Drive alternative should you pick?
Find your scenario below:
You want the strongest privacy and end-to-end encryption by default. Start with Proton Drive (Switzerland, Geneva, zero-knowledge E2E, ISO 27001 + SOC 2, Foundation-owned). Free 5 GB tier; Drive Plus from ~€4/month for 200 GB, with Proton Docs for encrypted collaborative documents. If you also want private mail, calendar, VPN, and a password manager from one vendor, the Proton ecosystem consolidates all of it.
You are an organisation that wants enterprise-grade E2E with a state-anchored owner. Start with Tresorit (Switzerland, Zurich, zero-knowledge E2E, owned by Swiss Post, ISO 27001, broad regulated-industry compliance).
You want the best value all-rounder with built-in Docs/Sheets-style collaboration. Start with kDrive by Infomaniak (Switzerland, Geneva, own Swiss data centres, ISO 27001 + B Corp, from ~€4.42/month for 3 TB). Drive plus office editing, mail, and meet from one independent Swiss company.
You want to replace Workspace, not just Drive, and own the stack. Start with Nextcloud (Germany, open-source, self-hostable on your own server or an EU host) paired with OnlyOffice or Collabora for real-time office co-editing, Talk for messaging, and Groupware for mail/calendar. The closest single-stack Workspace replacement under your own control.
You want a fully-German vendor or the cheapest encrypted option. Start with luckycloud (Berlin, own German data centres, zero-knowledge, ISO 27001 + BSI) or Filen (Recklinghausen, German data centres, zero-knowledge E2E, from ~€1.99/month). Koofr (Slovenia, German-hosted) and Internxt (Spain, open-source, post-quantum, lifetime plans) are other strong low-cost EU picks.
What decides it, in the end, is a single constraint: end-to-end encryption, real-time office collaboration, lowest cost, or owning the infrastructure yourself, and the table above is built to sort on each.
Google Drive (and Google Workspace) is legally usable from the EU: Google publishes an EU Standard Contractual Clauses-based Data Processing Addendum with post-Schrems II supplementary measures and offers EU data-region options for Workspace. The reason European teams still evaluate alternatives is the underlying ownership: Google LLC is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., which is US-incorporated and publicly listed (NASDAQ: GOOGL), so the consolidated group falls within the reach of the US CLOUD Act regardless of the storage region. For a transfer impact assessment, that ownership profile plus files stored in Google's cloud is what prompts the alternative search.
Which Google Drive alternative has the strongest compliance profile?
Among the alternatives mapped on this page, Proton Drive (Switzerland) leads on privacy: zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption, Swiss jurisdiction under an EU adequacy decision, non-profit Proton Foundation ownership, ISO 27001 + SOC 2. kDrive by Infomaniak (Switzerland, own data centres, ISO 27001 + B Corp) carries CLOUD Act exposure: None; Tresorit (Switzerland, Swiss-Post-owned) pairs zero-knowledge E2E with a material CLOUD Act flag from its current sub-processor chain (CLOUD Act exposure: Material), with file contents end-to-end encrypted regardless. For German hosting, luckycloud (Berlin) and Nextcloud (self-hosted) are EU-owned and EU-hosted (CLOUD Act exposure, luckycloud: None, Nextcloud: None); Filen (Recklinghausen) keeps data at rest in Germany, with a transient US sub-processor accounting for its minor CLOUD Act flag (CLOUD Act exposure: Minor); luckycloud and Filen ship zero-knowledge encryption by default.
Does Google Drive fall under the US CLOUD Act?
Yes. Google LLC is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., which is US-incorporated and publicly listed (NASDAQ: GOOGL), so the consolidated group falls within the reach of the US CLOUD Act. A US authority can compel Google to produce data it controls regardless of where that data is stored, including EU Workspace regions. The European-owned and Swiss providers on this page (Proton Drive, Tresorit, kDrive, Nextcloud, luckycloud, Filen, Internxt, Koofr) are not US-incorporated, which removes that direct exposure. This reads Google's corporate structure, not any specific legal request.
How do I migrate my files off Google Drive?
Use Google Takeout (takeout.google.com) to export your full Drive. It delivers a download (or a transfer to another cloud) of your files in their original formats. Native Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are exported as Microsoft Office or OpenDocument files, so they open in any office suite. Install your new provider's desktop sync app, drop the exported files into the sync folder, and the folder tree carries over. Run both in parallel for a few weeks, verify everything appears on each device, then wind down Drive. For large Workspace tenants, Takeout can be scheduled per-user.
What replaces Google Docs / Sheets real-time collaboration?
The closest European equivalent is OnlyOffice or Collabora Online, both of which provide real-time co-editing of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in the browser with full Microsoft Office format compatibility. They integrate natively with Nextcloud and kDrive, so you get the storage layer and the collaborative office suite from one EU-hosted stack. Proton also ships Proton Docs (end-to-end-encrypted collaborative documents) inside Proton Drive. If live co-authoring is central to your team, evaluate kDrive (with its built-in office tools) or a Nextcloud + OnlyOffice deployment first.
Which Google Drive alternatives have end-to-end encryption?
Proton Drive, Tresorit, Internxt, Filen, and luckycloud all ship zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption by default. The provider cannot read your file content even in response to a legal request. Koofr offers optional client-side encryption via Koofr Vault. kDrive and Jottacloud use server-side encryption (the provider holds the keys) but are EU/Swiss-hosted (CLOUD Act exposure, kDrive: None, Jottacloud: None). Google Drive is encrypted in transit and at rest, but Google holds the keys; client-side encryption exists in Workspace only on specific paid tiers and with setup.
Can a European tool replace Google Workspace for a whole team, not just Drive?
For storage plus office collaboration, yes: Nextcloud (self-hosted or on an EU host) pairs Files with OnlyOffice/Collabora for documents, plus Talk for messaging and Groupware for mail/calendar. The closest single-stack Workspace replacement under your own control. kDrive bundles Drive with Mail, Docs, and Meet from one Swiss vendor. What you give up is Google's depth of real-time multi-user editing at very large scale and the Gmail/Meet/Workspace admin fabric. For the email side specifically, see our private-email alternatives; for video, our Google Meet and Zoom alternatives.
What is the cheapest European alternative to Google Drive?
Filen (Germany, zero-knowledge, German data centres) is among the most aggressive on price, from around €1.99/month with a free tier. Koofr (Slovenia, German-hosted) starts even lower for small allocations. Proton Drive offers a generous 5 GB free tier with end-to-end encryption. pCloud and Internxt both offer one-time lifetime plans, cheaper than a subscription over several years. For teams self-hosting Nextcloud, there is no per-seat cost, only your own infrastructure. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's page, as storage rates change frequently.
KEEP EXPLORING
Related European alternatives
Google Drive sits in File sharing. Compare neighbouring tools with the same hosting, ownership and CLOUD Act checks.
For every product we read the public DPA, sub-processors document, hosting region declaration, and corporate ownership records. Each is timestamped. Signals are editorial, re-verified quarterly. We never accept self-attestation.
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