Ask HN: What are the best Google alternatives in 2025? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are the best Google alternatives in 2025?

15 pointseel4 comments

I am currently in the worst customer support situation I have ever been in with the Google Store. I ordered a gift for a friend, but Google sent me the wrong item. Google Support has acknowledged the wrong item was sent but in 3 days of back-and-forth communication, they have refused to refund me or ship a replacement. Both items are under $200.

If it were any other company, I would feel justified going to my credit card company and disputing the charge. However, I understand that if I initiate a chargeback, Google could terminate my account, so they have all the leverage in this interaction. I fully rely on my Google account for phone service (Pixel phone with Fi), email service (Gmail), documents/spreadsheets, photos, maps, and likely other items that are not coming to mind.

This event has made me realize that I've put too much of my life in one provider, and I need to switch. What alternatives does HN use for various Google services?

I am looking at Tuta Calendar for my group.

https://tuta.com/calendar

The blurb says "calendar sharing" but the price comparison has calendar sharing unticked for the free version. Guess I'll just try. No cost to do so.

It does seem to work only with client apps, no web interface, and I have had fits just trying to get people to adopt Signal. Many are locked into WhatsApp and FBMessenger. Ouch.

Anyway, that's FWIW. I am Google-free with bundled Apple apps and a boatload of Free and OpenSource apps. I use apple and comcast mail.

Apple office apps are all MS compatible as is Libre Office.

I try to do nothing "in the cloud" since any information that leaves the home is, IMO, subject to loss and seizure.

For search, Kagi.com. The ability to uprank and downrank sites, or block some domains altogether, is very helpful. I've been using it for a few months and have pretty much stopped using Google Search entirely.

Tuta for email and calendar, Mega, Filen or Internxt for backups, LibreOffice for documents, Kagi or DDG for search, Brave as browser…

Previous discussions from a year or less ago:

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=fal...

For email/calendar: Hey.com or Fastmail

For office docs: OpenOffice is actually good these days.

Everything else I used from Google has been killed.

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