Microsoft 365 is the default for a reason: it is deep, polished and everywhere. But “default” and “right for you” are different claims, and for a growing number of businesses the sovereignty question makes the European alternatives worth a serious look. This is a field guide, not a crusade — here is where each genuinely fits.
Where Microsoft 365 earns its place
Be honest about its strengths, because they are real:
- Office depth — for heavy Excel, complex Word documents and PowerPoint, the desktop apps are still unmatched.
- Ecosystem — Teams, SharePoint, Entra ID and the compliance tooling form a tightly integrated whole.
- Interoperability — when your clients and partners all live in Office formats, friction is low.
If your team lives in those apps and your sector expects them, M365 is a defensible, sensible choice. The sovereignty caveat is the familiar one: it is a US provider, and even with the EU Data Boundary, the CLOUD Act exposure does not vanish.
The European alternatives, by job
“Replace Microsoft 365” is rarely one product — it is a handful of focused tools. The credible European options, grouped by what they do:
Mail, calendar and productivity suites
- Infomaniak kSuite (Switzerland) — mail, calendar, drive and online documents from a privacy-focused Swiss provider.
- Proton (Switzerland) — end-to-end encrypted mail, calendar, drive and a password manager, strong for privacy-first teams.
- Open-Xchange / Mailbox.org / Tuta (Germany) — mature European mail and groupware.
Documents and collaboration
- OnlyOffice and Collabora Online — genuinely capable office-document editing with strong Microsoft-format compatibility.
- Nextcloud (Germany) — files, sharing, groupware and an app ecosystem you can self-host for full control.
How to actually choose
The decision is rarely about feature checklists. It comes down to a few honest questions:
- How deep is your real dependence on Excel and desktop Office? Light users move easily; power users feel every gap.
- How much does sovereignty matter for your data and your sector — a genuine requirement, or a nice-to-have?
- What is the switching cost in migration, training and interoperability with the partners you can't change?
- Self-hosted, or a managed European cloud? Control versus convenience, the same trade-off as everywhere else.
Our advice is unglamorous: don't rip out M365 on principle, and don't stay on it by inertia. Match the tool to the job and the sovereignty requirement — sometimes that is a clean move to a European suite, sometimes a hybrid, and sometimes a well-run M365 tenant is the right answer. What matters is that it's a decision, not a default.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Microsoft 365 a bad choice now?
- No. It is excellent software with real strengths, especially for Office-heavy teams. The question is whether its US-provider sovereignty profile fits your data and sector — for many it does, for others a European alternative is the better match.
- Can European tools really replace Office?
- For most everyday document work, yes — OnlyOffice and Collabora handle Microsoft formats well. The honest exception is heavy, advanced Excel and certain desktop-only features, where Office still leads. Match the tool to how your team actually works.
- What about Teams?
- This is often the stickiest piece. Alternatives exist (Nextcloud Talk, Jitsi, Element), but if your organisation lives in Teams, plan that part of any move carefully — it is usually the hardest habit to replace.
- Should we self-host or use a managed European cloud?
- Self-hosting (e.g. Nextcloud) gives maximum control; a managed European provider (e.g. Infomaniak) gives convenience under European jurisdiction. The right answer depends on your appetite for operations — and we are happy to run either for you.