The all-in-one guide to remove big tech from your day to day life.

So let's start with a rundown you can either follow the guide step by step going through the services email, calendar, photos, cloud storage, passwords, 2FA authentication, applications — chrome, maps, notes, reminders/tasks, app store, weather. And if you really want to get rid of big tech and not use iOS or android device you can go to a completely de-googled custom rom which will be down the very bottom of the article as this article is designed for 'normies' as people say in the tech area for everyday people to slowly remove services as this will take time with trial and error on what services work best for you plus if your aim is to just not depend too much on one provider or go completely out of big tech's daily dependence.

This is the big one and the one most people should tackle first because it helps you with everything else in the long run. All services I recommend will be on a specific tier like if you want something free but privacy respecting or if you're happy to pay a little each month/year to achieve getting everything out of big tech or just lessening the reliance on it.
1. ProtonMail: (free option + tiers for just email or extra services) If you simply like having all your eggs in one basket — like your coming from everything in an apple or google account then this will do email, cloud storage, passwords, calendar, authentication. then this will be the pick for you however I strongly urge you to refrain from putting everything in one service not because the articles aim is to not rely on a single company but it's a single point of failure and in security terms it's like not being home but leaving your front door key under your doormat with a sticky note on it to disarm the security system. A hacker would then just have the keys to the kingdom and can get into your digital accounts and wreak havoc.

2. StartMail: (paid only) This is personally my main pick if you just want an email provider for a good personal email like firstname.lastname(@)startmail.com because you can use that to send emails to people you need to have a professional email with like kids school, work, bank etc... and you can create email aliases that forward to your email so there is a limit of spam in your inbox and online tracing for your identity for apple users think 'Hide My'. StartMail also has burner email aliases so if you ever wanted to give an email and never use it again like an online survey or a throwaway email you can have it set to be deleted in 1hr, 1 week or 1 month dependant on how long you need it for.

3. Tutanota: (free + paid options) If you're going to do the custom OS option at the very end of the article this is the email service you want. You can download the apps from F-droid a free and open source app store to download free open source applications for android devices it's a store not dependant on google play services the main app store on android devices. You can also create your own email aliases with this service as well.

4. FastMail: (paid only) If you're looking for something relatively cheap and want to just focus on basic email and calendar this is a good option, it has a family option (so does Proton and Tutanota) but it's usually much cheaper than those options. You don't get encrypted email but if you don't care about that as email was never designed to be a secure method of communication anyway then this will work for you plus it does have a 30 day trial so you can test the waters before being fully committed.

This is probably the most annoying one besides email as if people use integrations it's hard to get away from certain services it's why I stopped being completely decentralised and moved back into the apple ecosystem so everything plays nicely for family events and shared files and photos etc... but again there are some trade-offs it's up to you how much friction there will be and if the gains outweigh the little annoyances here or there. If you used any of the above email providers you should use them however you can also use them as a standalone service if you wish but you might end up with a second email address which could be used as a backup email but remember invites to events will come from that email address so it's best to use the same as above but a second service for email backup.
1. Proton Calendar: (free + paid) Integrates well with proton mails service.
2. Tutanota: (free + paid) Integrates well with Tutanotas email service.
3. FastMail: (paid only) if you currently use outlook as email and calendar this would be most beneficial to you. You will need a fastmail email address however.

There really isn't any photos alternatives to apple and google photos which aren't big tech you can put them into cloud storage services which I'll go into below but you won't get any shared photos or anything like that besides a cloud drive link that could be privately shared but Ente Photos is your best bet with 10GB free it is the closest you'll get to a dedicated photos app with most functionality of the big tech offerings.

This is the big one most people have tons of files in the GB or TB especially if you're adding in photos. Most people don't have their files stored on their own physical drives which you should but if you want to solely rely on a cloud storage provider these are your best options.
1. Proton Drive: (5GB free + paid up to 2TB — 3TB for family) You don't need to have an email service from Proton to have a proton drive account so if you haven't chosen Proton as your email provider this is a good place to start.

2. pCloud: (paid only 500GB to 10TB with family option) Has lifetime one-time payment options available so if you're sick of monthly subscriptions and need a lot of space, this is a good option.

3. MEGA: (20GB free + paid up to 20TB) There's no one-time payment option here and they have capped transfer bandwidth so if you have to move a lot of files and pick this be careful not to max it out otherwise you also won't be able to download your files when you need them.

This is one of the keys to your online identity and sure apple and google passwords are convenient and does the job but if it was ever compromised they would have everything which is why you should never keep email and passwords in the same place. Here are a good list of password managers who are trustworthy and haven't misused customers data like LastPass has done on at least 5 occasions with 1.6 million users in the UK alone having their accounts compromised.
1. Bitwarden: (free + paid options) This is the password manager I recommend the free version is fully functional minus having 2FA built in but you shouldn't store passwords and 2FA together anyway, there's room to grow with paid options for family options and it's the cheapest on the market, oh and they have the choice of storing your encrypted database on either US or EU servers so if you don't want to rely on US infrastructure for whatever reason there's that too.

2. 1Password: (paid + family options, 14 free trial) The company who owns 1Password is Canadian they have support accross all systems even linux and the app is modern so if you're looking to move the family over to a password manager and you want a flashy UI then this is a good option.

3. Proton Pass: (free + paid option) Unlimited logins, passwords, devices active, import tool there's nothing the free option doesn't cover for most people but if you haven't picked Bitwarden or tried it and don't like the UI Proton Pass should suffice but if you need to move to paid it can become more pricier than Bitwarden. 

The password managers above have 2FA inbuilt for their paid options but you should always use a physical security key like the Yubikey 5 series but if you want to just use an app on your device instead of a hardware key which stores the secrets these are your options. — the yubico authenticator app is best if you use the de-Googled phone as it's directly obtainable from the f-droid app sotre.
1. Bitwarden Authenticator: (free) The best alternative to Google authenticator and apples in built keychain. It's secure and keeps all data on your device and never leaves the cloud so make sure to keep a copy of your secrets in a safe place.

2. Proton Authenticator: (free) If you're into linux or are moving to linux then you can have your codes on your linux machine as well in the app. Same rule applies for the Bitwarden authenticator about storage locally and keep a copy of secrets in a safe place.

This is the easy part this is a list of apps that you can use to get out of big tech surveillance on your day to day life. However this wont be as detailed as the above.
Google Search Alternatives: Ecosia, Brave Search, Duck Duck Go, Startpage, Qwant.
Apple Safari & Google Chrome Alternatives: Vivaldi, Brave, Firefox.
Apple/Google Maps Alternatives: CoMaps
Apple Notes & Google Keep Alternatives: Evernote, Joplin.
Apple Reminders & Google Tasks Alternatives: Todoist, TickTick.
Apple Weather & Pixel Weather Alternatives: Carrot(iOS), AccuWeather(android), Breezy(android/f-droid).
App Store Alternative — Android Only: F-droid

You're going to need to change your mobile operating system to a custom ROM preferably without google play services/framework installed as there is still tracking involved but you can control what permissions it gets with GrapheneOS and their Sandboxed Google Play Services making it behave like a normal app instead of having full control over the entire device. I would advise to not use Google Play Services but if you have to have it like for a banking app or something else this is your best option. This is my old De-Googled setup which worked well I had no issues except my missus was on iOS and she wasn't going to change so it was easier for me to go back to apple then have unnecessary friction.

Computer: Lenovo LOQ Essential 15.6" FHD 144Hz Gaming Laptop (Intel Core i5)[GeForce RTX 3050] running Pop!_OS linux.
Phone: Google Pixel 9a running GrapheneOS with no Google play services installed.
Watch: Garmin Instinct 3 Solar Tactical Watch with Stealth Mode which disables all radios GPS/Bluetooth/Mobile Data so it doesn't connect to anything it essentially becomes a watch that has offline heat monitoring and rechargeable by solar.
Headphones: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds Gen 2 (Black)
Email: Tutanota app installed via F-droid
Calendar: Tutanota app installed via F-droid
Passwords: Bitwarden app installed via F-droid (bitwarden repo added myself)
2FA: Yubico Authenticator for hardware key, app installed via F-droid
Cloud Storage: None all offline storage on physical drives.
Photos: Cloud Storage above.
Web Browser: Vanadium on phone and Brave on desktop.
Search Engine: Duck Duck Go with no AI.
Maps: CoMaps with local maps downloaded onto the device to work without the internet.
Notes: Markdown using obsidian and manually syncing across my devices.
Reminders/Tasks: Markdown notes as above.
Weather: Didn't use one I used the website in a web browser with ad blockers.
App Store: F-droid.
Miscellaneous Apps: App Verifier — to verify downloaded apk files, Obsidian — for offline markdown notes.

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