Trying to replace all my US based big-tech choices for Canadian alternatives.
Main ones:
- cloudflare (domain and site hosting)
- bitwarden
- discord (a true alternative, but not sure if there is one)
Willing to hear of other recommendations for daily software as well :)
hover.com provides domain registration, DNS and email
If you’re looking for a Canadian alternative to online sync/storage services like Dropbox and One Drive, check out Sync.com. Canadian company with servers in Canada, plus end-to-end encryption. I’ve been using it for several years.
as of right now I’m using Filen for cloud storage. not Canadian, but they are e2ee and I’ve already paid for lifetime storage so I’ve no reason to switch, but that’s good to know should I ever choose to :)
For domain, I use hover.com. I’m not an expert on the matter so I’m not sure how their service compares to others, but I’ve been with them for years without issue. I’ve also been using 1password.
I moved my blog and my cloud storage to HostHero, they have great phone support. When I was looking to move my blog from wordpress to a Canadian server I emailed many and HostHero was the only one who got back to me. I am using 1Password, only because I have difficulties getting bitwarden running locally, maybe I will try again prior to the one month being up.
I used to use Apple’s hide my email but I have moved almost all those random emails that forwarded to a separate account to HostHero. I use seperate emails for things so that I know if a company has sold my information or has been breached. If it was the former I can turn off the email and forget about the company if it was the later I can inform them, turn off the email, and create a new one.
Any decent Email hosting in Canada? I’m using purelymail not a big company buy anymeans but American and would like to move somewhere else if possible.
Maybe checkout https://www.hover.com/email
If you have your own domain, it’s $30 per year for 10gb, or $40 per year for a terabyte of storage. Or, $5 per year for forwarding only. 35 dollars per year for 10gb if you don’t have a domain.
1password is Canadian, based in TO
Nah, don’t use 1password, what you need instead is “one password”
Mine is *******
mine is hunter2.
edit: oh crap it didn’t star it out for me!
Revolt Chat to replace Discord? Website says it’s EU
There’s not a lot, but if you’re willing to look at “Not American” rather than “Canadian” there’s a few.
Daily software, I’ve been using Switzerland’s kSuite 's free tier for about a week, for emails and a Google Docs/Sheets replacement. It’s been fine so far.
It looks very similar to the Google system. Did you find it easy and intuitive to switch over?
I recently moved my email and it’s been really slick. I chose it because you can use a custom domain with 1 free user, but adding additional users is at the right price point for me. The phone app and webapp have been good, better than gmail is these days. And the transfer of emails from gmail was very easy.
My one hiccup was starting out I had to validate and it took me a while to figure out how I could call an international number (I installed Fongo and watched a couple ads for some free credits)
So far so good, though I haven’t really stressed it out with anything complicated yet. I write game books and things, but that’s been in Office 365 and (lately) LibreOffice.
For bitwarden/discord, there’s a few alternatives that could be self-hosted, for those that are comfortable with doing that. Aside from that, not sure what else is Canadian? i’ve listed what i could remember.
- cloudflare
- i don’t know if there’s a site that has everything that cloudflare does, but moving your domains to a Canadian registrar is a step in the right direction, IMO.
- depending on what you need for site hosting, there are many canadian-based hosting solutions out there. i’ve personally used lunanode for vps hosting, but there’s a lot out there.
- bitwarden
- i host my own instance of vaultwarden, an easy to host and open source compatible bitwarden server.
- 1Password is Canadian i believe? never used them myself.
- discord
I’ve also been running linux as my main os lately too, which has been a nice change so far.
Adding to this, I recently got the mautrix-discord bridge set up for myself and while it isn’t perfect, its pretty good for keeping up with the few communities I am a part of.
Note that if you are using discord for group chats, matrix doesn’t replace discord yet (group voice calls arent ready for production yet), nor does the discord bridge allow you to even see voice only channels.
- cloudflare
Bitwarden is big-tech? Since when?
sorry, it was moreso that they are an American company. I think big-tech wasn’t the right term for me to use. my apologies.
Just host it yourself. From a privacy perspective I rather vault warden than 1pass
why is that? I’m not into the whole self-hosting thing. I understand it’s better, but I prefer the convenience of off-loading that hassle to someone else.
I understand that. If you ever are interested self-hosting Vaultwarden is a great way to take control of your password management. You get full control over your data, enhanced security and better privacy by minimizing the attack surface.
Plus, you save on subscription fees in the long run. It’s a bit more technical, but the benefits of owning your data and is totally worth it.
If you have an old PC you can also reuse it for this and a mini homelab.
bitwarden
This one has been on my mind, too.
If you want simplicity, the one Canadian password manager that I would consider is 1password.
It’s paid and not open-source, but they seem to be as trustworthy as they come.
Keepass is another option, but not as “seamless” as Bitwarden.
If you can, Self-host as much as possible: replace Google/Apple photos, Music, Movies, note taking, office apps, etc. Anything that requires a subscription… look for self-hosted or FOSS (free open source software) alternatives.
I don’t mind paying for 1password
They need to maintain security, so I’m happy to fund that.
I did the math on how much it would be until I did, it was a few thousand dollars, which seems worth it as long as they can maintain security that long.
That said, I totally get why others do not want to pay.
Are there any decent alternatives to a Meta Quest that is Meta-less? It doesn’t need to be Canadian for my purposes, just not big tech.
It was something that occurred to me recently as I’m interested in VR but trying to divorce myself from Meta as a whole. It’s a shame that they seem to have built the most adopted VR platform in North America.
(Also please direct me if there’s a better community for this question. I’m new to Lemmy and relatively new to avoiding big tech.)
I also am interested in VR, but not a huge gamer, so the Quest would probably be up my alley. However, I haven’t succumbed to temptation because of the Meta connection. When the Deckard comes out, maybe I’ll splurge.
Meta is the cheapest by far unfortunately.
I miss being able to use my smartphone as a VR device…
