File sharing & cloud storage: European providers compared

Recommendations

Nextcloud

Germany

90

Confidence: high

Open-source, self-hostable collaboration platform from Germany – files, calendar, office and more.

EUOpen SourceSelf-Hosting

Proton

Switzerland

82

Confidence: high

Swiss privacy suite with end-to-end encrypted email, calendar, drive, password manager and VPN.

EFTAOpen Source

Tresorit

Switzerland

82

Confidence: high

Swiss cloud storage with end-to-end (zero-knowledge) encryption – part of Swiss Post since 2021.

EFTA

Comparison table

Selection criteria

Clarify whether you need pure cloud storage or a collaboration platform (with office, calendar, sharing). For data sovereignty, self-hosting or an EU hoster is crucial; for teams, permission management and reliable sync clients matter.

Data protection & compliance

Typical use cases

• Sharing and jointly editing files in a team
• Cloud storage as a replacement for Google Drive/Dropbox
• Sovereign office platform for public authorities and schools
• External shares with expiration date and password protection

Pricing guidance

Self-hosted solutions such as Nextcloud are free (server costs or managed hosting). Hosted EU cloud storage is billed by storage space and number of users.

Providers in this category

Sovereignty ScoreName (A–Z)

Open sourceSelf-hostingEU/EEA3 results

Nextcloud

Germany

90

Confidence: high

Open-source, self-hostable collaboration platform from Germany – files, calendar, office and more.

EUOpen SourceSelf-Hosting

Proton

Switzerland

82

Confidence: high

Swiss privacy suite with end-to-end encrypted email, calendar, drive, password manager and VPN.

EFTAOpen Source

Tresorit

Switzerland

82

Confidence: high

Swiss cloud storage with end-to-end (zero-knowledge) encryption – part of Swiss Post since 2021.

EFTA

Related alternative pages

Frequently asked questions