Cloud storage services keep files online, sync them between devices and let people share them with links or shared folders. Buyers in Europe often want a provider that is based in Europe and keeps files in European data centres, so the data stays under European law. The strongest European options are Proton Drive (Switzerland) for privacy-minded users already on Proton Mail, Tresorit (Switzerland) for companies handling confidential client files and pCloud (Switzerland) for individuals who want to pay once for storage.
Best first. Headcount and founding year come from LeadWave's database; prices, hosting and G2 ratings from each company's own pages and G2, checked in November 2026.
| Alternative | Headquarters | Founded | Employees | G2 rating | Free plan | Paid plans from | Your data | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Proton Drive | Geneva, Switzerland | 2014 | 635 | — | Yes | $4.99/account/month | In Europe | No |
2 Tresorit | Zurich, Switzerland | 2011 | — | 4.5 (260 reviews) | No | — | In Europe | No |
3 pCloud | Baar, Switzerland | 2013 | 34 | 4.3 (166 reviews) | Yes | €4.99/account/month | EU region available | No |
4 Infomaniak kDrive | Geneva, Switzerland | — | — | — | Yes | CHF 4.99/account/month | In Europe | No |
5 Nextcloud | Stuttgart, Germany | 2016 | — | 4.4 (171 reviews) | Yes | €71.29/user/year | Self-hosted | Yes |
6 Koofr | Ljubljana, Slovenia | — | — | 4.4 (51 reviews) | Yes | €0.50/account/month | In Europe | No |
7 Filen | Recklinghausen, Germany | — | — | — | Yes | €1.99/account/month | In Europe | No |
8 Jottacloud | Oslo, Norway | 2008 | — | — | Yes | NOK 79/account/month | In Europe | No |
9 Internxt | Valencia, Spain | 2020 | — | 3.4 (17 reviews) | Yes | Free | — | Yes |
10 Hetzner Storage Share | Gunzenhausen, Germany | 1997 | — | — | No | €4.29/account/month | In Europe | Yes |
11 TeamDrive | Hamburg, Germany | — | — | 4.5 (23 reviews) | No | — | In Europe | No |
12 ownCloud | Regensburg, Germany | 2011 | — | 4.3 (239 reviews) | Yes | Free | Self-hosted | Yes |
13 STRATO HiDrive | Berlin, Germany | — | — | — | No | €3.50/account/month | In Europe | No |
14 Icedrive | Gibraltar, Gibraltar | — | — | — | Yes | $2.99/account/month | — | No |
15 Smash | Lyon, France | 2017 | — | — | Yes | Free | EU region available | No |
16 SwissTransfer | Geneva, Switzerland | — | — | — | Yes | Free | In Europe | No |
Each page ranks the European options for that tool's users and says how each one compares.
End-to-end encrypted cloud drive from Proton
End-to-end encrypted file storage with sharing, photo backup and document editing, part of the Proton suite with Mail, Pass and VPN. Data sits on Proton servers in Switzerland, Germany and Norway.
End-to-end encrypted file sharing for businesses
End-to-end encrypted cloud storage and file exchange for companies, with admin controls and per-user data residency. Files sit in Microsoft Azure data centres, in Ireland unless a business picks another region.
Personal and family cloud storage with lifetime plans
Cloud storage for individuals, families and small teams, with sync, sharing and media playback. Users pick an EU (Luxembourg) or US data region at sign-up. End-to-end encryption is a paid add-on.
Swiss-hosted file storage with online office editing
Cloud storage and collaboration from Swiss host Infomaniak, with online document editing and a free kSuite tier. Infomaniak runs its own data centres in Switzerland and hosts kDrive only there.
Open-source file sync and collaboration server
Open-source platform for file storage, sharing and collaboration that organisations run on their own servers or through a hosting partner. Paid Enterprise plans add support and start at 100 users.
EU cloud storage that also links other clouds
Cloud storage from Slovenia that can also connect Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive accounts in one place. Data is kept in EU data centres; plans start at 10 GB.
Low-cost end-to-end encrypted storage from Germany
Cloud storage with client-side, zero-knowledge encryption, sync, sharing and notes. Filen owns its servers, which sit in data centres in Germany.
Norwegian cloud storage and device backup
Cloud storage and backup for people and businesses, with an unlimited plan that slows uploads past 5 TB. Files are stored on servers in Norway.
Open-source, end-to-end encrypted cloud storage
End-to-end encrypted cloud storage with open-source, audited apps, plus file transfer and other privacy tools. Aimed at individuals and small businesses; the free plan has 1 GB.
Managed Nextcloud hosting from a German host
Hetzner runs a Nextcloud instance for you, with no minimum contract. Plans are priced by storage and user count, and the instances run in Hetzner's German data centre.
End-to-end encrypted file sync for businesses
File sync and sharing with end-to-end encryption, hosted in Germany or on a company's own server. Aimed at businesses and professionals with confidentiality duties.
Open-source file sync and share server
Open-source file sync and share software for on-premises use, with a hosted option in Germany. Owned since 2023 by Kiteworks, a US company.
German cloud storage from web host STRATO
Online storage for private users and small businesses from German web host STRATO. Data is kept in STRATO's two data centres in Germany.
Consumer cloud storage with client-side encryption
Cloud storage for individuals with a drive app that mounts like a local disk; Pro plans add client-side encryption. The company does not state clearly where files are stored.
Large file transfer with no size limit
Sends large files by link or email without a file size cap. Files are stored in the server region closest to the sender, out of nine regions worldwide.
Free large file transfer stored in Switzerland
Free service from Infomaniak for sending files up to 50 GB without an account. Transfers stay online up to 30 days and are stored in Switzerland.
A company counts as European if it's headquartered in Europe: the EU, the EEA, Switzerland, the UK, or elsewhere in geographic Europe, never Russia or Belarus. Headquarters means where it's run from, not a registered office. Companies founded in Europe but headquartered elsewhere today are listed separately, and a non-European owner is always named.
Each company was checked against its own legal notice, pricing page and data-processing terms, and its G2 page. The order weighs how fully each one replaces the US leaders, its track record and its ratings. No company paid to be listed or ranked.
Proton Drive (Switzerland) for privacy-minded users already on Proton Mail, Tresorit (Switzerland) for companies handling confidential client files and pCloud (Switzerland) for individuals who want to pay once for storage. Each is headquartered in Europe; the table compares their hosting, prices and G2 ratings.
Proton Drive, pCloud, Infomaniak kDrive, Nextcloud, Koofr, Filen, Jottacloud, Internxt, ownCloud, Icedrive, Smash and SwissTransfer have a free plan with no time limit.
Proton Drive, Tresorit, Infomaniak kDrive, Koofr, Filen, Jottacloud, Hetzner Storage Share, TeamDrive, STRATO HiDrive and SwissTransfer store customer data in Europe by default. Being European doesn't make a tool GDPR compliant on its own: check its data processing agreement too.
Yes: Nextcloud, Internxt, Hetzner Storage Share and ownCloud, which you can also host on your own servers.
Proton Drive, Tresorit, Filen, Internxt and TeamDrive encrypt files on your device before upload, so the provider cannot read them. pCloud sells this as a paid add-on, and Icedrive includes client-side encryption on its Pro plans.
Proton Drive (Switzerland, Germany, Norway), Infomaniak kDrive (Switzerland), Filen (Germany), Jottacloud (Norway), Koofr (EU) and STRATO HiDrive (Germany). pCloud asks you to pick the EU or US region at sign-up, and Smash stores files in the region nearest the sender.
Yes. Nextcloud and ownCloud are open-source servers you can host yourself, and Hetzner Storage Share runs Nextcloud for you in Germany. ownCloud has been owned by the US company Kiteworks since 2023.
