Google Workspace alternatives for European organisations

Ask an assistant for a European alternative to Google Workspace and you will usually get a list of whole suites. What you rarely get is the question that decides the choice: which Google Workspace component are you actually replacing? This article starts there, then compares eight European options, with each vendor, its hosting and its limits checked on the official pages on 28 October 2026. It is written for CIOs and leadership teams of mid-sized European organisations, and for the public bodies that face the same choice.

What replacing Google Workspace actually means

A Google Workspace alternative is a solution that takes over some or all of its five components (mail and calendar, office editing, files, video, chat) from a European vendor, with different hosting, a different model or a different way of organising information. Most comparisons set whole suites against each other. It is more useful to split Google Workspace into its parts before choosing.

What each option replaces, component by component

Replacing Google Workspace happens component by component: mail, office editing, files, video and chat do not move on the same day.

How we compared

The facts about each vendor (headquarters, hosting, SecNumCloud status) were checked on its official pages and in ANSSI decisions on 28 October 2026. The list starts from the options ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Claude name when asked which alternative to Google Workspace to choose. The criteria are the columns of the table. And, plainly: Talkspirit publishes this comparison and is listed first in it, with its limits written like everyone else’s.

Comparison table of eight options

Public bodies: what are you entitled to?

National public suites are reserved for public administration: France’s La Suite numérique is open to central government civil servants and their invited partners, and Germany’s openDesk is designed for public administration. A local authority, a public institution or a company outside that scope chooses on the market, with the entries below. The French research body CEA, for example, went from 30 to 5,500 users in six months on its civil branch with Talkspirit, choosing it for security, hosting in France, GDPR compliance and ease of use.

SecNumCloud: what the qualification really covers

SecNumCloud qualifies a specific service, not a vendor: before reading a badge, ask which service in your contract is qualified, and for which kinds of access. SecNumCloud is the French security qualification for cloud services, issued by ANSSI, the national cybersecurity agency. Three dated cases show the gap:

• The SaaS service itself: “WIMI - COMMUNAUTES”, provided by Cloud Solutions, is SecNumCloud 3.2 qualified by ANSSI decision no. 2822 of 18/05/2026, valid for three years, for web browser access only.
• The infrastructure only: Hexagone is hosted on SecNumCloud 3.2 qualified infrastructure operated by 3DS Outscale; the suite itself is “en cours de qualification SecNumCloud” (being qualified).
• Some components: La Suite numérique hosts Docs and Visio on SecNumCloud-qualified infrastructure; it is not described as qualified as a whole.

For more on the framework, read our article on what SecNumCloud qualification covers.

SecNumCloud qualifies a service, not a vendor.

Eight options, from the organisation layer to the full suite

1. Talkspirit: the layer Google Workspace does not cover

Talkspirit is an organisational operating system that brings together structure (circles, roles, accountabilities), objectives, meetings, projects, communication (newsfeed, chat, home portal), drive and documents. It replaces chat and video, with chat and video connected to teams, and team document spaces, with group drives attached to teams, roles and projects, plus the internal portal.

Strengths: information follows the structure of the organisation, not a tree of files or mailboxes; Talkspirit also sits alongside a Google Workspace you keep as it is, with Google sign-in and the Google Drive file picker; frontline staff connect without a work email address; data hosted in France (in Switzerland for Swiss clients); ISO 27001:2022 certified; more than 800 organisations as customers, including CEA.

Limits: it replaces neither mail, nor calendar, nor office editing (keep them or get them elsewhere); no import or migration tool from Google, no Gmail or Google Calendar sync; no self-hosted offer published; no SecNumCloud qualification. Demo: free, on request. Vendor and hosting: France; France (Switzerland for Swiss clients).

2. La Suite numérique: the French State suite

La Suite numérique is a set of open-source tools run by the DINUM, the French State’s digital directorate, for public servants. It replaces every component: Messagerie (mail), Docs, Grist, Fichiers (files), Visio, Tchap and FranceTransfert.

Strengths: “plus de 500 000 agents” (more than 500,000 civil servants) every month across 15 ministries; Docs and Visio hosted on SecNumCloud-qualified infrastructure, with data stored and processed in France; open-source components that a non-eligible body can deploy itself.

Limits: access is reserved for central government civil servants, their guests and partners, through ProConnect; not suited to “Diffusion Restreinte” (restricted) content or health data. Vendor and hosting: DINUM (French State); France.

3. Hexagone: the French suite for the public sector

Hexagone, published by Interstis, is a French collaboration suite for the public sector and companies. It replaces every component: secure mailbox, OnlyOffice office editing, files, video and instant messaging.

Strengths: hosted in France on SecNumCloud 3.2 qualified infrastructure operated by 3DS Outscale, in two data centres more than 30 km apart; listed with the French public purchasing bodies CANUT and RESAH; public references such as Rodez Agglomération.

Limits: the suite itself is still being qualified for SecNumCloud (first milestone reached); the public-sector page and the FAQ do not say the same thing, and the FAQ prevails. Vendor and hosting: Interstis Solutions, Le Creusot, founded in 2014; France.

4. Wimi: the French suite with a qualified service

Wimi is a French collaboration suite covering drive, projects and communication. It replaces every component (Wimi Inbox & Mail, built-in OnlyOffice, drive, AirTime video, chat, team calendars) and adds project management and e-signature.

Strengths: the SaaS service “WIMI - COMMUNAUTES” is SecNumCloud 3.2 qualified by ANSSI decision no. 2822 of 18/05/2026, valid for three years; data hosted in France.

Limits: the qualification covers web browser access, not mobile apps or desktop clients; the SecNumCloud offers are on request, from 50 internal users; the vendor acknowledges no direct equivalent to Google Sites, Forms and Looker Studio. Vendor and hosting: Cloud Solutions, Paris; France.

5. Jamespot: the modular platform hosted in France

Jamespot is a modular French collaboration platform: social network, intranet and office suite. Depending on the modules, it replaces chat, video, calendar, documents and office editing.

Strengths: “entièrement développée et hébergée en France depuis sa création en 2005”, developed and hosted entirely in France since 2005 (checked on 14/10/2026); ISO/IEC 27001 certified; stated hosting partners OVHcloud, Outscale, Scaleway and Orange.

Limits: no SecNumCloud qualification on the pages read; full mail is not described as a component of its own. Vendor and hosting: Jamespot, France; France.

6. kSuite: the Swiss suite

kSuite, from Infomaniak, is a Swiss collaboration suite. It replaces every component: Mail with contacts and appointments, kDrive with OnlyOffice, kMeet and kChat.

Strengths: developed and hosted exclusively in Switzerland, in data centres Infomaniak designs and runs itself; an independent company whose staff hold the majority of its capital; assisted mail migration over IMAP.

Limits: past Google Chat conversations cannot be recovered automatically, according to the vendor’s FAQ; above 300 users, offer on request; no SecNumCloud qualification. Vendor and hosting: Infomaniak, Geneva; Switzerland.

7. openDesk: the German public administration suite

openDesk is an open-source suite designed for German public administration. It replaces every component (Email, Calendar, Docs, File storage, Video calls, Chat) and adds projects, tasks and a wiki (“Knowledge”).

Strengths: a product of ZenDiS, a publicly funded company, “commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation”; open-source components.

Limits: designed for the needs of public administration; hosting not published on the pages read; an Enterprise edition for more than 500 users (checked on 21/10/2026). Vendor and hosting: ZenDiS, Germany; not published on the pages read.

8. Nextcloud: on your own servers

Nextcloud is an open-source file platform you can host yourself. It replaces files, and with add-ons video and chat (Talk), mail and calendar (Groupware) and office editing (Office).

Strengths: your servers or the host of your choice; code under the AGPL licence.

Limits: in the Enterprise offers, Talk, Groupware and Office are add-ons on top of Files; subscriptions from 100 users; self-hosting needs an IT team. Vendor and hosting: Nextcloud GmbH, Germany; your servers.

If you mainly want to replace chat, video and the intranet with a single platform, see our article on replacing chat, video and the intranet with one platform.

Where your data lives, and Google’s own setting

Before leaving Google Workspace or keeping it, check where each vendor hosts your content and which country it answers to. The table gives each option’s hosting: France for Talkspirit (Switzerland for Swiss clients), France for La Suite numérique, Hexagone, Wimi and Jamespot, Switzerland for kSuite, your servers for Nextcloud.

For Google, the facts are these. The vendor, Google LLC, is headquartered in Mountain View, United States. Google Workspace offers data regions (United States, Europe or no preference) for data at rest, limited to certain editions, with processing in the same region on some of them; users without a supported edition are not covered (Google page “Choose a geographic location for your data”, read on 28/10/2026). Keeping Google Workspace with a European data region is therefore an option to check against your edition.

To compare compliance criteria, see our selection of GDPR-compliant collaboration tools and our comparison of sovereign collaboration solutions.

Which option for which situation

The right choice depends on the components you replace, your status, and the level of qualification your data requires.

• Attach chat, video, documents and announcements to the organisation’s structure, hosted in Europe, alongside a European suite or a Google Workspace you keep: Talkspirit.
• French central government: La Suite numérique.
• German public administration: openDesk.
• A full French suite for a local authority or public institution, bought through a purchasing body: Hexagone.
• A full suite with a SecNumCloud-qualified SaaS service: Wimi.
• A modular platform hosted in France: Jamespot.
• A full suite hosted in Switzerland: kSuite.
• Files on your own servers: Nextcloud.
• Keep Google Workspace with a European data region: possible with the editions that include it.

Migrating from Google Workspace: where to start

Migrate one component at a time, starting with the one you can replace without breaking the others: chat and team spaces first, mail next, archives last.

1. An inventory of real use, component by component: who sends, who co-edits, who stores, and what nobody opens any more.
2. A first scope: one team or department, with its conversations and live documents. A roll-out can start with one team, one entity or one priority transformation project.
3. Mail, which affects everyone, once the rest holds. European mail services import history over IMAP (kSuite does), but Google Chat history does not follow automatically, as kSuite’s FAQ states.

Leave archives where they are while they are still used, and migrate only what teams still open.

Not a tool. Your Organisation’s Operating System.