As someone just starting their journey into privacy-focused, open-source software, I’d love to hear what apps the community recommends.
I’m particularly interested in:
- What messaging apps you use instead of WhatsApp/Messenger
- Alternatives to Google services (email, calendar, cloud storage)
- Social media alternatives that respect privacy
- Browsers
- Password managers worth using
- Any other productivity apps you’d recommend me to use
I’m using Apple devices (I know, I know), so apps that work well in this ecosystem would be ideal. Which ones have you found perform exceptionally well?
What was your experience transitioning away from corporate services? Any pitfalls to avoid or strategies that made the switch easier?
i’m on android so…
- signal/telegram (still need telegram for community discussion).
- i use protonmail for personal stuff and tuta for professional stuff. still using google calendar since people i work with are using that. i use mega.
- lemmy?
- iceraven (firefox fork), still need chromium based like vivaldi.
- don’t know what to tell since i use android.
Telegram is not private at all. Its not even end to end encrypted unless you turn the feature on with direct messages. I would not recommend this as a private alternative especially considering they hand over messages to law enforcement after the creator was arrested and forced to.
If you use telegram just be aware it is absolutely not private.
Have a look at https://www.privacyguides.org/en/. Their lists indicate OS/device compatibility and they also note any potential caveats.
password-store is a CLI app to store passwords and even supports OTP.
Whoogle is a meta search (still uses Google search) that takes the bloat off.
Matrix is a decentralized and secure messaging platform.
For email I have a vps (costs less than protonmail) and use Maddy.
There are a few good firefox alternatives, I use waterfox on my phone and floorp on my Linux PC.
What messaging apps you use instead of WhatsApp/Messenger
Signal. I actually do use WA as well (peer pressure) but it’s registered to a separate phone/SIM and I use it almost exclusively through a desktop app. Neither have access to my address book!
Alternatives to Google services (email, calendar, cloud storage)
I use a small local email provider. If that wasn’t an option I’d probably use mailbox.org.
Calendar and contacts: self-hosted CalDAV/CardDAV application. And since I do have a server, that’s also my cloud storage.
Social media alternatives that respect privacy
Fediverse is private enough for me.
Browsers
Librewolf
Password managers worth using
Keepassxc
Any other productivity apps you’d recommend me to use
What are productivity apps?
Edit; now I went back and reread the question, I saw opens source. I will leave the comment as it could be a turnkey solution and stepping stone option to going full open source.
Something like a server on a raspberry pi could be what your after, but I don’t have specific software recommendations for it.
…
I’ve just started dabbling, so don’t consider this an expert, but a suggestion.
Synology nas’s have a focus on data sovereignty . They have Android apps that communicate from your phone to the Nas for media.
They can also be setup as a private cloud drive initially accessible by VPN to access and a email / web interface as well as instant messager and webdrive
I gave some though to setting up a small private ‘corporate’ style server where people could access . There’s no subscription fees after the initial hardware purchase as your self hosting.
