European alternatives to Microsoft OneDrive

Anyone already inside Microsoft 365 gets OneDrive as the default cloud storage, wired into Windows, into Office, and into the Desktop/Documents/Pictures folders through Known Folder Move. The company behind it, Microsoft Corporation, publicly listed on NASDAQ as MSFT, runs the service on Microsoft Azure, with the consolidated group under CLOUD Act jurisdiction. For a German procurement team writing a Schrems II transfer impact assessment, or a European agency storing client deliverables, that ownership and infrastructure profile is what prompts buyers to evaluate alternatives, even with Microsoft's EU Data Boundary in place, since that changes where data sits, not who legally controls it.

Nine European cloud-storage alternatives are verified here against OneDrive, checked against who legally owns the company, where the data physically sits, whether files are end-to-end encrypted, and whether the platform holds a recognised European compliance framework (ISO 27001, BSI C5, EUCS, SecNumCloud).

Three names anchor the shortlist: Proton Drive is the strongest privacy-first option from the Proton ecosystem (Switzerland, Geneva, EU-owned, EU-hosted, CLOUD Act exposure: Minor), Tresorit is the enterprise standard for European cloud storage with zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption (Switzerland, Zurich, EU-owned, EU-hosted, CLOUD Act exposure: Material via its sub-processor chain, while file contents stay end-to-end encrypted), and kDrive by Infomaniak is the most cost-competitive Swiss-hosted choice for SMBs that want OneDrive-style file storage plus built-in Office co-editing without the price premium (Switzerland, Geneva, EU-owned, EU-hosted, CLOUD Act exposure: None).

What actually makes the jump to a European cloud-storage tool?

• Native sync clients for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android, matching coverage across every alternative here.
• Shared folders with role-based permissions.
• Public share links, each with optional password protection and an expiration date.
• File version history, typically 30 to 180 days back depending on the plan tier.
• Office-document co-editing: kDrive and Nextcloud integrate OnlyOffice or Collabora for real-time Word/Excel/PowerPoint co-authoring.
• Automatic mobile photo backup, supported by Proton Drive, kDrive, and Nextcloud alike.

Where the gaps show up:

• Native co-authoring inside the Microsoft 365 desktop apps. Replaced by OnlyOffice or Collabora (paired with kDrive or Nextcloud) for browser-based co-editing, or CryptPad for E2E.
• Tight Windows and Microsoft 365 integration: Known Folder Move, the Office "save to OneDrive" default, and SharePoint document libraries. European alternatives sync the same folders, but the OS-level wiring is something you reconfigure.
• Teams file backend. If your files live in OneDrive because Teams puts them there, moving storage means deciding what happens to the Teams/SharePoint layer separately.
• OneDrive's Personal Vault. Several alternatives are stronger here, since Proton Drive, Tresorit, Filen, and Internxt encrypt the whole drive end-to-end rather than just one folder.

A OneDrive migration is mostly about folder wiring, not raw file count, since the files themselves move cleanly. Six steps:

1. Turn off Known Folder Move first. If Desktop, Documents, and Pictures are redirected into OneDrive on Windows, point them back to local folders before you start, so files are not moving underneath you mid-migration. This single step avoids the most common OneDrive-migration data scare.
2. Export your OneDrive file tree to a local staging area. Use the OneDrive desktop client (or download from the web) to pull the full file tree to a local drive. This becomes your canonical staging copy, and the upload to the new vendor happens from there rather than through a direct client-to-client sync, which tends to resume more reliably if the connection drops.
3. Re-share folders after migration, do not try to preserve share links. OneDrive share-link URLs cannot be ported. Plan to reissue share links for active client and team folders, and send each recipient a notification with the new link. Most teams discover during this step that a large share of their old links were stale anyway.
4. Set up the new desktop sync client on every machine before the cutover. Tresorit, kDrive, Nextcloud, and Proton Drive all have desktop sync clients. Install in advance, get team members logged in, and verify the sync folder shows the new vendor's tree. Then on cutover day, the only step is to unlink the OneDrive client.
5. Decide the SharePoint and Teams files question separately. Files that live in SharePoint document libraries or Teams channels are not in personal OneDrive and migrate on their own track. Map which content is genuinely personal OneDrive versus shared SharePoint before you move, so you do not duplicate or orphan team data.
6. Keep the Microsoft 365 plan active, not cancelled, for 60 days. An Office app still saving to OneDrive by default, a Power Automate flow saving attachments, or a colleague sharing into the old drive are the kind of loose ends that tend to surface only in week three. Keep the subscription live for 60 days while you confirm nothing still writes to OneDrive.

Four situations, four starting points:

• You are a privacy-first individual or solo founder and want zero-knowledge encryption with a clean UX. Start with Proton Drive (Switzerland, Geneva, EU-owned, EU-hosted, CLOUD Act exposure: Minor, zero-knowledge E2E). If you already use Mail, Calendar, VPN, or Pass, this slots into the same Proton ecosystem. Journalists, legal practitioners, and anyone else whose threat model includes legal compulsion of the cloud provider tend to fit here best.
• You are a DACH SMB leaving Microsoft 365 for storage but still need Office co-editing. Start with kDrive (Switzerland, Geneva, EU-owned, EU-hosted, CLOUD Act exposure: None) or luckycloud (Germany, Berlin, EU-owned, EU-hosted, CLOUD Act exposure: None). kDrive bundles OnlyOffice co-editing plus Sign, Meet, and Mail, which is the closest single-vendor answer to the Microsoft 365 surface; luckycloud is the simpler German-hosted option with strong DPA detail.
• You are an enterprise with team-folder permissions, SSO, and zero-knowledge encryption all on the contract. Start with Tresorit (Switzerland, Zurich, EU-owned, EU-hosted, zero-knowledge E2E, CLOUD Act exposure: Material via its sub-processor chain, with file contents end-to-end encrypted regardless) or Nextcloud (Germany, Stuttgart, EU-owned, EU-hosted, CLOUD Act exposure: None, self-hostable). Tresorit is the packaged enterprise SaaS path; Nextcloud is the open-source self-hosted path that most closely rebuilds the OneDrive-plus-Office workflow at the lowest cost per seat at scale.
• You are an architecture, design, or creative firm moving large project files for client delivery. Start with kDrive or pCloud (Switzerland, Luxembourg-hosted, EU-owned, EU-hosted, CLOUD Act exposure: Minor, no default E2E). Selective sync and lifetime-plan pricing come standard on both, which suits an archive-heavy project workflow. Office tooling runs deeper on kDrive, while pCloud's lifetime plan is the better fit if amortising storage cost over years is the priority.

A privacy-first journalist reaching for zero-knowledge encryption and an enterprise buyer needing SSO plus team-folder permissions will land on different rows of the table above, Proton Drive for the former, Tresorit or Nextcloud for the latter, which is exactly why there is no single winner here: end-to-end encryption, Office co-editing parity, enterprise SSO depth, and price per TB each pull toward a different pick.

Need to stay within one country's jurisdiction? Our verified German cloud providers and French cloud providers shortlists break down hosting region and CLOUD Act exposure vendor by vendor.