Alternatives "Service"

Garden Organic is a British charity for organic gardening, and its Heritage Seed Library keeps more than 800 rare and old vegetable varieties alive by sending their seed to members each year.

ARTE.tv is the free streaming site and app of ARTE, the Franco-German public cultural channel: live TV, catch-up, documentaries, films, series, concerts and reports, with no subscription and no…

Commown is a cooperative from Strasbourg that rents out electronics chosen to last: Fairphone smartphones, laptops from Why! and HP, desktop PCs, Repeat headphones and refurbished devices. The…

Enercoop is a French network of cooperatives that supplies renewable electricity bought directly from independent producers of wind, hydro, solar and biomass power, rather than through certificates…

Énergie Partagée lets savers in France invest in wind farms, solar roofs, small hydro plants, wood-fired heating and biogas units owned and run by local residents and councils. It is both a movement…

Envie is a French network of work-integration companies that collect used household appliances, repair them and sell them again with a two-year warranty valid in all its shops. The first opened in…

EWS Schönau is a German energy cooperative from a small town in the Black Forest that supplies green electricity, and gas with a share of biogas, across Germany. It grew out of a parents’ group…

Gallica is the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) and its partners. It gives free online access to more than 11 million digitised documents (January 2025): books…

GLS Bank is a German cooperative bank, based in Bochum, that lends only to projects with a social or ecological purpose: renewable energy, organic farming and food, housing projects, schools and…

La Nef is a French cooperative bank that lends only to projects with a social, ecological or cultural purpose, such as organic farms, renewable energy, shared housing and local shops, and publishes…

Mediapart is a French online newspaper known for its investigations, funded only by its subscribers, with no advertising. It is an alternative to free news sites that live on ads, and to media owned…

OxfamUnverpackt is the online gift shop of Oxfam Deutschland where each “gift” is a donation: a goat for €28, school books for €12 or clean water for 50 people for €44. The person receiving it gets a…

parkrun is a free, timed 5 km run held every Saturday morning in parks and run by volunteers. Runners register once online and get a personal barcode that works at every parkrun in the world; they…

Posteo is an independent email provider in Berlin: for €1 a month, it offers an ad-free mailbox with calendar and address book, financed only by its users. It is an alternative to Gmail, Outlook or…

Project Gutenberg is a free online library of books in the public domain: nearly 78,000 e-books in March 2026, to read in the browser or download without an account. It is an alternative to buying…

Signal is a free messenger for texts, voice and video calls, groups and file sharing, with end-to-end encryption for everything by default, run by a non-profit foundation. It is an alternative to…

foodsharing.de is a free, ad-free platform run by volunteers in Germany who collect surplus food from shops, bakeries and restaurants and share it, without money, with anyone who wants it, after…

NaturFreunde Deutschlands is a non-profit association for outdoor leisure with more than 65,000 members in over 500 local groups, which runs more than 350 Naturfreundehäuser (simple guesthouses in…

Pl@ntNet is a free app and website that names a plant from a photo of its flower, leaf, fruit or bark. It was built by French public research institutes, and every confirmed photo feeds a public…

The Complémentaire santé solidaire (C2S) is France’s public complementary health cover for people on low incomes. It pays what the Assurance Maladie leaves to the patient, for free or for at most €1…

Citiz is a French network of car-sharing operators, most of them cooperatives. Members book a car by the hour or the day, pick it up from a fixed station near home and bring it back there, paying for…

CoopCycle is a federation of bike delivery cooperatives, mostly in France and Spain but also in Germany, the UK, Belgium, Italy, Mexico and Canada. Its members deliver meals from local restaurants…

Emmaüs Connect is a French association that helps people who struggle with digital tools: using a phone or a computer, online paperwork, job hunting, and access to rights and health care. A member of…

Framasoft is a French non-profit association, based in Lyon, that promotes free software and runs free online services as alternatives to those of big tech: Framadate for polls, Framaforms for forms…

France Rénov’ is the French public service for home energy renovation, run by the national housing agency Anah. Its advisers give free, neutral advice on insulation, heating, ventilation and the…

FUN MOOC is the French public platform of free online courses made by universities and grandes écoles: videos, quizzes and forums on hundreds of subjects, mostly in French, with about one course in…

Khan Academy is a US non-profit organisation that offers free courses with videos and exercises, mainly in mathematics and science, but also computing, economics, history and test preparation, from…

Label Emmaüs is the online shop of the Emmaüs movement and other organisations of the social and solidarity economy. About 180 solidarity shops sell second-hand books, clothes, furniture, household…

Lumni is the free, ad-free educational platform of French public broadcasting: videos, quizzes, games, articles and podcasts for learning and revising school subjects, from nursery school to the…

Mastodon is open-source software for a decentralised social network: thousands of independent servers, run by associations, universities, media, public bodies or individuals, connect with each other…

Oxfam Shops are second-hand shops in Germany, run by Oxfam with about 4,000 volunteers, that sell donated clothes, books, music, films and household goods. Their surplus funds Oxfam Deutschland’s…

Place des Libraires is a French website that shows which bookshops have a book in stock: readers choose a title and a nearby shop, then reserve the book to collect there, or order it if it isn’t in…

The SPA (Société Protectrice des Animaux), founded in 1845 and recognised as a public-interest association since 1860, is France’s oldest animal protection association. It runs 64 shelters and…

The taz is a national daily newspaper from Berlin, founded in 1978, that belongs to a cooperative of more than 26,000 readers, so no publisher or investor can buy it. Its website has no paywall…

Telecoop is a French cooperative mobile operator, founded in 2020, whose plans encourage people to use less data and keep their phone longer. It uses Orange’s 4G network, and it is an alternative to…

The Verbraucherzentralen are the consumer advice centres of the 16 German federal states: non-profit associations, mostly publicly funded, that advise on contracts, energy, insurance, banking, food…

The Volkshochschulen (vhs) are the public adult education centres in Germany: 815 centres with about 2,630 branches, most run by towns and districts. They offer affordable courses in languages…

VRAC organises group buying of organic, fair-trade and local food in low-income neighbourhoods of France and sells it at cost price. Members order and collect their goods, in their own containers, at…

Crédit Coopératif is a French cooperative bank, owned by its client-members, that has banked associations and social-economy businesses since 1893 and also offers current accounts, cards and savings…

Le Pari Solidaire is a Paris association that places young people under 30 in the homes of people aged 60 or more, in Paris and Île-de-France. The young person gets a room for a small contribution…

Solidarités International is a French humanitarian NGO, founded in 1980, that brings drinking water, sanitation and hygiene to people hit by wars and disasters, along with food aid and shelter. Water…

ACORN is a community and tenants’ union in England and Wales whose members act together against bad landlords, to get repairs done, deposits returned and evictions stopped, for a membership fee based…

Artisans du Monde is a French network of fair trade shops run mostly by volunteers, selling crafts, food and cosmetics bought from more than 120 producer organisations in Asia, Africa and Latin…

The Community Land Trust Network is the charity for community land trusts in England and Wales: local, member-controlled non-profits that own land so that the homes on it stay affordable for local…

Compagnons Bâtisseurs is a French network of associations that helps low-income tenants and owners repair and renovate their own homes themselves, with a building professional and volunteers at their…

The Coopérative Funéraire de Nantes is a funeral home run as a cooperative (SCIC), owned by its members, including families, which pays no dividends and offers funerals around Nantes, with sister…

Dogs Trust is a British dog welfare charity that takes in stray and unwanted dogs at its rehoming centres, finds them new homes, and never puts a healthy dog to sleep.

Ecosia is a Berlin search engine that spends all its profits on climate action, mainly tree planting and renewable energy, and has been legally barred from being sold since it became steward-owned in…

The FSGT is a French multisport federation founded in 1934, with about 4,200 self-managed clubs, 200,000 people taking part and around a hundred sports, built on the idea that everyone should have…

Habitat Participatif France is the national association of co-housing in France: groups of households who design, build or renovate their homes together and share some spaces, and it helps them find…

Incredible Edible is a movement of local groups that grow vegetables, fruit and herbs in public places, for anyone to pick for free. It started in Todmorden, in northern England, in 2008.

memo is a German mail-order company that sells more than 20,000 products for the office, home and everyday life chosen for their sustainability, and ships them in a reusable box at no extra charge…

PDSA is a British veterinary charity that treats the pets of people on benefits for free or at reduced prices, in its own pet hospitals and through partner vets.

PeerTube is free, open-source software for sharing videos, developed by the French non-profit Framasoft, on which anyone can run a video platform that connects with the others, so there is no single…

Les Petits Frères des Pauvres is a French association, founded in 1946, whose volunteers visit isolated older people at home, organise group activities and holidays, and answer a free, anonymous…

The Ramblers is a British walking charity whose roughly 485 local groups lead tens of thousands of walks a year across England, Scotland and Wales, and which campaigns to protect public footpaths and…

Visale is a free rent guarantee from Action Logement that stands in for a personal guarantor: it covers unpaid rent and charges for the landlord, at no cost to either landlord or tenant, for young…

Weltläden are Germany’s fair trade shops, about 900 local shops mostly run by volunteers, which sell coffee, chocolate, crafts, clothing and gifts from suppliers checked against fair trade criteria.

The Wohnprojekte-Portal is a free German directory of about 890 co-housing projects and groups, run by the non-profit Stiftung trias, where people can find a shared housing project with room for them…

Datan is a free website that shows how each member of the French National Assembly and each parliamentary group votes, from the Assembly’s own open data. A reader can check an MP’s actual votes on…

The Krankenkassenliste is the official list of Germany’s statutory health insurance funds (gesetzliche Krankenkassen) with their additional contribution rates, published by their umbrella body, the…

The Que Choisir mutuelle comparator is the health insurance comparison tool of Que Choisir Ensemble, the French consumer association formerly called UFC-Que Choisir. It ranks complementary health…

The Krankenkassenvergleich of Stiftung Warentest is a database of the contribution rates and extra benefits of 67 German statutory health insurance funds, which together insure about 97 % of…

abgeordnetenwatch.de is a German website where anyone can put a question to a member of parliament in public and read the answer. It also shows how each member voted in important roll-call votes and…

The ADIL (agences départementales d’information sur le logement) give free legal, financial and tax advice on housing in France: leases and rent, unpaid rent, co-ownership, buying a home, loans…

The Deutscher Mieterbund (DMB) is the umbrella organisation of more than 300 local tenants’ associations (Mietervereine) in Germany. Members of a local association get personal legal advice on rent…

Les Frigos Solidaires is a French association that sets up self-service fridges outside shops, associations, universities, schools and companies, where anyone can leave food or take some, free and…

The Mietshäuser Syndikat is a German network of self-organised housing projects that buys buildings and takes them off the property market for good. It is an alternative to renting from investors and…

Mobicoop is a carpooling website and app that takes no commission and shows no advertising: passengers share the driver’s costs, paid online, and nothing is added on top.

Nightjet is the night-train brand of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), with trains from Vienna, Munich, Zurich and other cities to more than 25 European destinations, among them Hamburg, Berlin…

Onleihe is the digital lending service of public libraries in German-speaking countries: with a library card, readers borrow e-books, audiobooks, newspapers, magazines and videos from home, and the…

RECUP is a deposit system for reusable cups, bowls and pizza boxes in Germany: customers pay €1 for a cup, €5 for a bowl or €7 for a pizza box at a café or restaurant, and get the deposit back when…

Rezo Pouce is a free, organised hitchhiking network in rural and suburban France: members wait at signposted “arrêts sur le pouce” stops, show where they are going, and a driver from the network…

SignalConso is the free public service of the DGCCRF, the French consumer protection authority, for reporting a problem with a company, in a shop or online, or asking a question about consumer rights…

Que Choisir Ensemble, called UFC-Que Choisir until its renaming in 2025–2026, is the largest French consumer association: it tests more than 2,000 products a year, publishes the results in its…

MAIF is a French mutual insurer, owned by its 4.2 million members, that insures homes, cars, bikes and borrowers. It became a société à mission in 2020 and gives 10 % of its profit to environmental…

Adopte un bureau is a French company that buys used office furniture from businesses, refurbishes it in its workshops in Antony and Albi and resells it, with a 24-month warranty, at much lower prices…

Camif is a French online furniture and home shop that sells only products made in Europe, 70 % of them in France according to its own figures, and shows on each product page where it was made.

The Deutscher Alpenverein (DAV) is the German mountaineering association, with more than 1.6 million members in over 350 sections, which runs 325 mountain huts and 220 climbing facilities, maintains…

dieUmweltDruckerei is a German online print shop that prints flyers, business cards, brochures, posters, calendars and labels on 100 % recycled paper, much of it with the Blauer Engel label, using…

The Good Gifts Catalogue is a British charity gift catalogue: instead of an object, the buyer pays for a specific item or service for a charity project, such as a goat or seeds and tools, and…

HappyCow is a guide to vegan, vegetarian and veg-friendly restaurants, shops and cafés around the world, with a map, filters and reviews written by its community, on the web and in an app.

Mojeek is a British search engine with its own crawler and its own index of more than 9 billion pages, so its results don’t come from Google or Bing, and it follows a strict no-tracking policy.

Olio is a free British app for giving away food and household items to neighbours, and for collecting surplus food from shops such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s through volunteer “Food Waste Heroes”, who…

Refill is a free British app and scheme that shows on a map where to fill a water bottle for free: public fountains, cafés, shops and offices that display a Refill sticker in the window.

TASSO is a German non-profit pet registry where owners record their dog’s or cat’s microchip number for free, so that a vet, shelter or finder can trace the owner when the animal is found.

NosParlementaires is a free website that tracks the work of the 577 French MPs and 348 senators: their votes, amendments, written and oral questions, bills, reports and declared interests. It is…

HI France is the French network of Hostelling International youth hostels: about 80 hostels with some 5,000 beds in cities, by the sea and in the mountains, with beds in shared rooms from about…

momox is a Berlin company that buys used books, CDs, DVDs, games and clothes from private people and resells them online, in Germany through its shop medimops and in France through momox shop. Buying…

nebenan.de is a German neighbourhood network where only verified residents of the same area see each other’s posts: they lend tools, give things away, ask for help, recommend tradespeople and…

Spareka is a French website that helps people repair their own household appliances: free fault diagnosis, more than 900 free tutorials, video help from a professional technician and spare parts for…

Visorando is a French hiking website and app listing tens of thousands of walking routes in France, its overseas territories and abroad, each with a map, duration, elevation and step-by-step…

Wimoov is a French non-profit network of mobility centres for people who struggle to get around, mostly people in social and professional integration: a personal mobility assessment, advice and…

Yuka is a free French app that scans the barcode of a food or cosmetic product and gives it a score out of 100, with healthier products suggested in its place. It takes no advertising and no money…

Ethical Superstore is a British online shop that sells only products with at least one ethical credential, such as fair trade, organic or eco-friendly, from food and cleaning products to clothes…

Jean Bouteille is a French system of reusable deposit glass bottles for liquids sold loose in shops, such as oil, vinegar, wine, beer and detergents: customers fill the bottle from a dispenser and…

Olvid is a French end-to-end encrypted messenger that needs no personal data at all, no phone number, e-mail or name, and never asks for the address book; contacts are added directly, person to…

Worn Wear is Patagonia’s programme for used and repaired clothing: the outdoor brand buys back its own garments, resells them second-hand and repairs them under its Ironclad Guarantee, so that a…

Qwant is a French search engine that says it keeps no search history and shows ads without profiling users, and that is building a European search index with Ecosia; Qwant Junior is a version for…

Selency is a French online marketplace for second-hand and vintage furniture and decoration, where antique dealers and private sellers list items that its team checks by hand before they go online.

Threema is a Swiss end-to-end encrypted messenger that can be used without a phone number or e-mail address, for a one-time price, with open-source apps and servers in Switzerland.

Couchsurfing is a website and app that connects travellers with locals who put them up for free, on a sofa, in a spare room or on a mattress. Hosts may not charge for the stay, and they decide whom…

“Énergie moins chère ensemble” is the group purchase of electricity and gas run by UFC-Que Choisir, France’s largest consumer association, through its subsidiary Que Choisir Ensemble. Households…

Geev is an app and website for giving things away between neighbours: furniture, clothes, toys, appliances and food that would otherwise be thrown away. Givers post an ad with a photo, and the…

Too Good To Go is a free app that sells the day’s unsold food from bakeries, supermarkets, restaurants and caterers as “surprise bags”, at about a third of their stated value. Customers book and pay…

Vinted is a website and app for selling second-hand items between private people: mostly clothes, but also shoes, children’s things, books, homeware and electronics, usually at prices far below new…

INCI Beauty is a French app and website that reads the ingredient list (INCI) of a cosmetic from its barcode, colours each ingredient by its level of concern and gives the product a score out of 20.

Startpage is a Dutch search engine that sends your query to Google and shows Google’s results without passing on your IP address or other identifying data, with an “Anonymous View” proxy to open…

Back Market is a French online marketplace for refurbished electronics: smartphones, laptops, tablets, game consoles and household appliances, restored and sold by professional refurbishers rather…

BlaBlaCar is a French carpooling platform: drivers publish a trip and sell the empty seats in their car to passengers going the same way. Booking and payment go through the website or the app.

Donnons.org is a website and app for giving objects away between private people in France: you post an ad for something you no longer want, or pick up for free what someone nearby is giving. Its…

Workaway is a website that connects travellers with hosts in more than 170 countries: the traveller helps a few hours a day and gets board and lodging in exchange. Hosts are families, farms, hostels…

CodeCheck is a German-language app and website that scans the barcode of a cosmetic, food or household product and rates its ingredients, with special ratings from BUND for microplastics and parabens…

PAP, short for De Particulier à Particulier, is a French property listings site and magazine where private landlords and sellers advertise homes directly to tenants and buyers, without an estate…

Conny is a Berlin legal-tech company that checks for free whether a rent is above the German rent cap (Mietpreisbremse) and, if so, claims the reduction and the overpaid rent from the landlord as a…