Free Alternatives to GAFAM

GAFAM are omnipresent in our lives. Default apps in our smartphones, social medias monopolies, all businesses and individuals using the Google or Microsoft services because it what everyone else's does... But GAFAM (Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, TikTok...) are only using us, destroying us by feeding us misinformation, ads, letting discrimination and harassment unpunished and unmoderated, shoving our personal informations into AI and to their corporate friends... We're just pawns to them and they don't care for a single second for our well-being and the actual service they provide.
Microsoft' Windows 11 is not only a spy device but also full of lags. Social Medias and businesses in general are all implementing AI into their services while AI is just a water-electricity-data sink which give us no real value. LLM chatbox like ChatGPT or Grok are meaningless and far from intelligent. They give you answers based on probability from their huge database made from stolen works from all around the world. If you use them, I'm sorry to break it to you, but you're only wasting your time. AI is hollow.
Mind you, there are good uses od AI, like in medical field, but not in our everyday uses and certainly not in our regular workplaces.
Okay let's get back to the point of this page : giving you alternatives. GAFAM are a monopoly. Everyone uses them so everyone uses them and it's a never ending circle. Sometimes we gotta make hard choices, and getting away from GAFAM, which will obviously limit our social connections for a while, is one of them.
But someone's gotta start it. We can't keep enabling the GAFAM's bullshit just by staying there because there's everyone there. It's stupid. These companies are owned by literal fascists or fascists-compliant people. They're not here to protect us or help us.
But alternatives also sometimes do come with a price. We're used to having everything free on the web, free apps and all, but the free web is sometimes... expensive. So this list is meant to give free -as in gratis- alternatives to get you started and get off the GAFAM monopoly.
I hope you'll join us and help your friends get outta there too. You may not delete everything GAFAM yet, but if you're adding the alternatives to your daily actions already, you'll have one foot out of the monopoly and that's really great !
i know it's hard to do so many changes so take your time and do not hesitate to ask for help !

Some ressources to go further if you'd like, or you can just skip to my list of alternatives.

• Keep Android Open, lately (2026) Android is working toward locking the ability to install apps that are not 100% approved by Google. This means some of the alternatives I'm offering you here won't be available anymore. This website explains why it's dangerous and how to fight it.
• Resist AI, a short handybook to know why AI is bad for us and how to fight it.
• Ethical Revolution : DeGoogle, a guide on how to DeGoogle your life. There are also guide for Instagram, Twitter, Amazon...
• FYI cards about AI, to know mroe about how theyr work and their advantages and flaws.
• Open Source Alternatives, a database to find an open-source alternative to a GAFAM service.
• European Alternatives, a list of european-based alternatives NOT necessarly open-source or free or anti-AI !!!

Language Translation

• Libre Translate, free and open-source language translation tool that you can even download on your computer to make it work offline !
• Apertium, same thing for this one !

Google Play / App Repository

• F-Droid, is an repository for open-source apps for smartphone. There are tons of nice apps and some of them can even replace your default apps (calendar, notes, messages...) to completly get rid of Android and Google's defaults. I suggest the Fossify apps if you'd like to get rid of everything default.
• Aurora Store, if you can't get rid of GPlay's apps, at least make sure GPlay doesn't track you ! Aurora Store can replace GPlay and update your apps. You have access to all of GPlay but anonymously.
• Accrescent, an Android app store with few but qualitative open-source apps.

Google Chrome / Web Browser

• Mozilla Firefox, is the most easy and beginner-friendly. Though Mozilla has done some bad decisions lately and did implement an AI chatbox into Firefox... But it's not Google tracking you and you can use some add-ons to protect yourself and get rid of ads and many other stuff.
• Libre Wolf, a Firefox fork (meaning it's based on it), aka Firefox without all the bullshit (I'm using this browser myself).
• Pale Moon, a browser focused on customization and efficiency.
• IronFox, for Android, a Firefox fork without the bullshit (available on Accrescent)

Google / Search Engines
You may have different need of search depending on your job and your usual web journey. I recommend the first one for a regular web browsing and there are more specific search engines afterwards.

• Startpage, a nice and private-focused search engine that you can add to your navigation bar easily.
• World Cat, to search books in libraries close to your location.
• Teclis, strives to make the smaller and more human and creative web accessible.
• RefSeek, is a web search engine for students and researchers that aims to make academic information easily accessible to everyone.
• Stract, customize your search depending on what you're looking for (academic, smallweb, discussions...)
• Mojeek, a search engine against GAFAM.
• Name, bla

I'm not recommending Ecosia because we actually have no proof they do plant trees and we don't know how they do it. If it's to plant a monoculture of trees, it's useless. DuckDuckGo has unfortunatly implemented AI with an opt-out option in the parameters but you have to check out regularly it's still off because it's the kind of paramters that relies on cookies... Same thing for Qwant, it's full of AI now.

Buy Books

• Ethical Book Search, helps you buy books from responsible book sellers all around the world. (though they use tracking and affiliate links... I'm dubitative)
• Les Libraires, 🇫🇷 France only, let's you buy books from independant bookstores.

Microsoft Word / Text Editor

• Libre Office, really light so it doesn't make your computer lag and is quite full of features but with a clutter-free interface. You have the whole suite just like Microsoft Office by the way.
• Name, bla

Google Docs / Collaborative Document Editing
This is where it gets harder to find free alternatives that aren't full of AI or made by capitalistic business who don't actually care about your privacy or that are easy for beginners and match Google's features.

• CryptPad, end-to-end encrypted drive & collaborative office
• EtherPad, collaborative real time text editor
• HedgeDoc, self-hosted collaborative markdown editor

Google Maps

• CoMaps, based on OpenStreetMap and a great alternative to Maps or Waze, works offline too !
• OsmAnd, based on OpenStreetMap, but for a more detailed map. Not as great as a GPS device as CoMaps.

WeTransfer / Files sending

• Alt Send Me, kinda works like AirDrop, you can send files from your device directly to another without going through a cloud. No file limit ! But you have to be both connected at the same time to make it work.
• Name, bla

Google Drive / Cloud

• NextCloud,
• Name, bla

DropBox / Files syncing

• SyncThing, let's you sync files/folders between devices. Useful to sync files between your computer and tablet or smartphone for example or if you have 2 computers. Can also be used to share files with other people.
• Name, bla

Miscellanous

• OmniTools, a bunch of tools for file edition, like : file convertion, audio or video edition, background remover, words and maths tools... Go scroll it, there are tons of them !
• Name, bla