ComparisonFacts checked 8 November 2026
Google Drive and Dropbox alternatives from Europe: six services compared
Filen, Koofr, Jottacloud, kDrive, Proton Drive and pCloud side by side: who owns them, where your files sit, who can read them, what 200 GB and 2 TB cost.
Only two of these six European services encrypt your files by default so that the company can't read them: Filen, from Germany, and Proton Drive, from Switzerland. Filen is much the cheaper of the two. If you are happy for the provider to hold the keys, Infomaniak sells 1 TB for €19 a year, less than Google charges for 100 GB.
Below, each one gets the three answers from Is it really European?, plus what it costs, who can read your files and how the apps compare. Google Drive and Dropbox are in the last columns for reference.
At a glance
| Filen | Koofr | Jottacloud | kDrive (Infomaniak) | Proton Drive | pCloud | Google Drive | Dropbox | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owned | Germany | Slovenia | Norway (Europe, not EU) | Switzerland (Europe, not EU) | Switzerland (Europe, not EU) | Unknown | United States | United States |
| Headquartered | Germany | Slovenia | Norway (Europe, not EU) | Switzerland (Europe, not EU) | Switzerland (Europe, not EU) | Switzerland (Europe, not EU) | United States | United States |
| Hosted | Germany | Germany, at Hetzner | Norway, its own servers | Switzerland, its own data centres | Switzerland, Germany and Norway, its own servers | Luxembourg or the US, your choice | Worldwide | United States; EU only for some business plans |
| End-to-end encrypted | Yes, always | Optional folder, free | No | No | Yes, always | Paid add-on | No | Advanced plan only |
| Free storage | 10 GiB | 10 GB | 5 GB | 15 GB | 5 GB | Up to 10 GB | 15 GB | 2 GB |
What it costs per year
| About 200 GB | About 2 TB | |
|---|---|---|
| Filen | €19.99 (200 GiB) | €89.99 (2 TiB) |
| Koofr | €48 (250 GB) | €240 (2.5 TB) |
| Jottacloud | None; 1 TB for NOK 790 (about €75) | Unlimited for NOK 1,290 (about €123) |
| Infomaniak | None; my kSuite+, 1 TB, for €19 | kDrive Solo, 3 TB, for €59.88 before VAT |
| Proton | €47.88 (200 GB) | Duo, €179.88 (2 TB for two people) |
| pCloud | None; €49.99 (500 GB) | €99.99 (2 TB) |
| Google One | None; €19.99 (100 GB) | €99.99 (2 TB, with Gemini) |
| Dropbox | None | €119.88 (2 TB) |
Each figure is the cheapest way to pay for twelve months, as published on 8 November 2026 and shown to a visitor in the Netherlands. Koofr and my kSuite+ include VAT, and kDrive Solo doesn't; the others don't state it clearly. Jottacloud lists Norwegian kroner only, so its euro figures are converted at the European Central Bank's rate of 6 November. Sources: Filen, Koofr, Jottacloud, my kSuite, kDrive, Proton, pCloud, Google One, Dropbox.
Filen sells storage in binary units, so its 200 GiB is about 215 GB and its 2 TiB about 2.2 TB. Jottacloud's Unlimited is for one user and slows uploads gradually after 5 TB. pCloud also sells lifetime plans, once only: €219 for 500 GB and €499 for 2 TB.
Owned: who controls them
Filen: Germany. Filen Cloud Dienste UG is based in Recklinghausen (imprint). Its co-founder and chief executive Jan Lenczyk holds 60%, according to the latest shareholder list in the German commercial register (HRB 8896, filed in February 2023).
Koofr: Slovenia. Four founders hold 80% between them, and the company holds the other 20% as its own shares (Slovenian business register).
Jottacloud: Norway (Europe, not EU). Since 2025, Jotta Group has been a joint venture of Hawk Infinity and Telenor, both Norwegian, each with half of the control (Telenor, Norwegian Competition Authority).
kDrive: Switzerland (Europe, not EU). Infomaniak listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange on 1 October 2026, and the Infomaniak Foundation keeps the majority of the votes through unlisted shares.
Proton Drive: Switzerland (Europe, not EU). Proton AG's main shareholder is the Proton Foundation, a Swiss non-profit.
pCloud: Unknown. pCloud International AG is based in Baar, Switzerland (terms). Its sister company pCloud AG tells the LEI register that it is controlled by natural persons, without naming them, and Swiss companies don't have to publish their shareholders. So we can't say who controls it.
Google Drive: United States. Larry Page and Sergey Brin together held 52.7% of the votes in Alphabet in April 2026 (proxy statement).
Dropbox: United States. Co-founder Drew Houston held 82.4% of the votes in March 2026 (proxy statement).
Where your files sit
Filen keeps files on servers in Germany and calls them self-hosted (privacy, status update). A DNS lookup on 8 November showed its upload servers in a network registered to the German hosting company myLoc.
Koofr stores files in Germany, in ISO 27001 data centres, on servers its own team manages (privacy). They are at Hetzner, a German company.
Jottacloud runs its own storage in Green Mountain's data centre near Stavanger, Norway (Jottacloud).
kDrive keeps each file on three devices in two of Infomaniak's own data centres in Switzerland (kDrive).
Proton Drive uses servers Proton owns and runs in Switzerland, Germany and Norway (Proton). We found no way to choose among them.
pCloud asks you to choose at sign-up: Luxembourg or Dallas. Moving later costs a one-time fee of $19.99 (pCloud). It doesn't name the company that runs the Luxembourg data centre.
Google Drive files can sit anywhere in Google's global network, and choosing a region is limited to certain Workspace plans.
Dropbox stores files in the United States. EU storage needs a team plan with at least ten licences.
Who can read your files
Filen encrypts everything on your device before upload, on every plan (Filen). It says an independent audit is still to come.
Proton Drive does the same, file names included (Proton). Its last public audit we could find covered the mobile apps, in 2023. The reporting on Proton's internal AI push in October is covered in our ChatGPT comparison.
Koofr holds the keys to ordinary files on separate servers (privacy). Its open-source Vault folder, free on every plan, encrypts on your device, but Koofr's own sync app can't sync it.
pCloud encrypts on your device only inside its Crypto folder, an add-on at €49.99 a year (pCloud). In 2024, researchers reported severe flaws in the encryption of pCloud and three other services. In early 2026, some users reported seeing other customers' file and folder names; Gizmodo reports that pCloud told those affected it hit a limited number of accounts, and says it found no public statement.
Jottacloud doesn't support keys you hold yourself, and staff may view files in special support cases, after telling you.
kDrive encrypts files at rest with keys Infomaniak holds (trust centre). A safe with your own key is listed as coming soon.
Sharing with family
| Family option | People | Storage | Per year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proton | Family | 6 | 3 TB shared | €287.88 |
| Jottacloud | Home | 5, at the same address | 1 TB or 5 TB shared | NOK 790 or NOK 1,590 |
| Infomaniak | kDrive Team | 6 | From 3 TB shared | €120 before VAT |
| pCloud | Family | 5 | 2 TB, split by the owner | Lifetime only, €749 once |
| Google One | Any paid plan | 6 | The plan's storage, shared | Same as the plan |
| Dropbox | Family | 6 | 2 TB shared | Not on its website |
Filen and Koofr have no family plan. Jottacloud's limit is its own rule: members must live at your address. Sources: Proton, Jottacloud, kDrive, pCloud, Google, Dropbox.
The desktop apps
| Linux | Files that stay online until opened | |
|---|---|---|
| Filen | Yes | Yes, as a network drive |
| Koofr | Yes | Network drive only |
| Jottacloud | Command line only | No |
| kDrive | Officially Ubuntu only | Windows and Mac only |
| Proton Drive | Command line only | On Windows |
| pCloud | Yes | Yes |
| Google Drive | No | Yes |
| Dropbox | Yes | Yes |
All six European services have apps for Windows and Mac, and for iPhone and Android with automatic photo upload. Sources: Filen, Koofr, Jottacloud, kDrive, Proton, pCloud, Google, Dropbox. Proton says a Linux app is planned.
Proton's Windows app calls the feature in the last column Optimize storage. Jottacloud's Backup only mirrors your computer to the cloud; two-way sync happens in its Sync folder.
Moving your files
Three of them can fetch your files from Google Drive or Dropbox for you:
- Koofr connects to both on any paid plan, and you copy across inside Koofr (how). There is a daily limit by plan.
- pCloud makes a one-time copy from both, at most once every 28 days (how).
- kDrive has a one-time import wizard for Dropbox and others, on paid kDrive plans. Google Drive goes through a guide using rclone, which doesn't cover my kSuite.
For the rest you export and upload. Google Takeout gives you ZIP files of up to 50 GB each, and the links last about a week. Dropbox's website caps a folder download at 250 GB and fewer than 10,000 files, so use its desktop app for more. Proton says a direct import from Google Drive is on its roadmap. The free tool rclone works with most of these services and can copy directly from one to another.
Also European, but not in the table
- Tresorit is end-to-end encrypted and has been majority-owned by Swiss Post since 2021.
- Internxt is in Valencia. It lists outside investors and doesn't say who controls it.
- IONOS HiDrive and STRATO HiDrive are German and part of the United Internet group.
- Hetzner Storage Share is a managed Nextcloud, from €4.29 a month before VAT for 1 TB. Other companies host Nextcloud too, so the answers depend on the host.
MEGA gives a Hungarian head office, but we couldn't establish who owns it. Sync.com, which comes up in the same lists, is Canadian.
Which one fits
Different needs point to different services.
- Encrypted so that nobody else can read it, for the least money: Filen, knowing that it has no independent audit yet.
- The most storage for the money, if the provider may hold the keys: Infomaniak's my kSuite+ or kDrive Solo. Swiss, so "Europe, not EU".
- A family: Proton Family, or Jottacloud Home if everyone lives under one roof.
- Owner and servers both inside the EU: Filen or Koofr.
- The easiest move from Google Drive or Dropbox: Koofr.