European Alternatives to Zoom, Teams & Google Meet
End-to-end encrypted video conferencing made and owned in Europe. Proton Meet leads the list, with Whereby and Nextcloud Talk alongside, measured honestly against the American and Chinese defaults.
Meetings are the softest target in most organisations. They are joined from anywhere, transcribed by default, and increasingly summarised by AI features nobody remembers switching on. Every one of those conveniences depends on the platform being able to hear the call. The question is not whether Zoom or Teams work well; they do. The question is who else is in the room, and whose law they answer to.
Three legal regimes, one decision
Video platforms come in three jurisdictional families. American providers answer to US law, including the CLOUD Act and FISA 702, wherever their servers happen to sit. Chinese providers answer to Chinese law, including the 2017 National Intelligence Law\'s cooperation duties; an international brand like VooV or Lark changes the packaging, not the jurisdiction. European providers answer to European or Swiss law. That third family is the only one where a courtroom in Europe, rather than a statute in Washington or Beijing, has the final word on your calls.
| Platform | Made in | Answers to | Encryption | Indicative cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proton Meet | Switzerland | Swiss law | End-to-end by default (open MLS standard); provider cannot listen | Free to 50 people / 60 min; Professional €7.99 per user/mo |
| Whereby | Norway | EEA / GDPR | End-to-end on smaller rooms | Per-host plans; free tier available |
| Nextcloud Talk | Germany | Your own infrastructure | End-to-end capable; self-hosted | Free, open source; you run the server |
| Zoom | United States | CLOUD Act, FISA 702 | End-to-end optional, off by default | ~€13.30 per user/mo (Business) |
| Microsoft Teams | United States | CLOUD Act, FISA 702 | No end-to-end for group meetings | Bundled in Microsoft 365 (~€12.50 per user/mo) |
| Google Meet | United States | CLOUD Act, FISA 702 | No end-to-end by default | Bundled in Google Workspace |
| Tencent Meeting / VooV | China | PIPL, National Intelligence Law | No end-to-end encryption | Free tier; cheap paid tiers |
| DingTalk | China | PIPL, National Intelligence Law | No end-to-end encryption | Free tier; bundled with Alibaba services |
| Lark | China (ByteDance) | PIPL, National Intelligence Law | No end-to-end encryption | Free tier; per-user paid plans |
Why Proton Meet leads the list
Proton has spent a decade building encrypted services from Geneva, is majority-owned by a non-profit foundation, and launched Meet in March 2026 as a direct answer to Zoom and Google Meet. Every call, including screen shares and chat, is end-to-end encrypted using the open Messaging Layer Security standard. Proton keeps no record of who attended, participants need no account and no install, and there are native apps for Linux as well as Windows, macOS, iOS and Android. Because Proton cannot hear your meetings, your calls cannot become training data for anyone\'s AI.
The honest trade-off
As of April 2026 there is no built-in recording, no live transcription, no breakout rooms and no AI summary. Those features exist on other platforms precisely because the provider can access your call content. If your workflow depends on automated summaries, you will feel the absence. If your conversations carry legal, clinical or commercial consequence, the absence is the point.
How hard is the move?
Video is the easiest layer of any stack to change, because there is no archive to migrate. Tomorrow\'s meeting simply needs a new link, and calendar invitations keep working through standard integrations. Most organisations run both side by side for a month, then stop paying for the old one. It is the rare sovereignty decision with no migration project attached.
Further reading
- Residency is not sovereignty: why an EU region of a US or Chinese cloud changes geography, not jurisdiction.
- Ten jurisdictions, one laptop: how far meeting and device data actually travels.
- A European alternative to Microsoft 365: the documents, email and storage layers around your meetings.
Questions organisations actually ask
Is Proton Meet really free?
Yes, within limits that suit most small organisations. Anyone can host an end-to-end encrypted call for up to 50 people for up to an hour, with no Proton account needed by host or guests. The paid Meet Professional tier (€7.99 per user per month) raises that to 100 participants and 24-hour meetings, and it comes bundled in Proton Workspace alongside Mail, Drive, Docs, VPN and Pass.
Why is there no recording, transcription or AI summary?
Because those features require the provider to hear your call. Recording, transcription and meeting summaries all need server-side access to unencrypted audio and video. Proton Meet encrypts every call end to end, so Proton cannot offer them, and for the same reason cannot feed your meetings into an AI pipeline. The missing features are the cost of the privacy; both things are true, and for sensitive conversations the trade is the right way round.
Zoom offers end-to-end encryption too. Is that not enough?
It is off by default, switching it on disables cloud recording and several other features, and the metadata (who met whom, when, for how long) stays visible to Zoom regardless. Jurisdiction matters more than the toggle: Zoom is a US company, so the CLOUD Act follows it wherever its servers sit. An optional encryption mode does not change who the operator answers to.
What about the international versions of Chinese platforms?
Tencent Meeting ships abroad as VooV, and DingTalk and Lark market to international customers, but the law follows the operator, not the brand. Chinese providers answer to Chinese law, including the 2017 National Intelligence Law's cooperation duties. An international edition changes the packaging, not the jurisdiction.
What do we actually lose by leaving Teams or Zoom?
Less than the incumbents suggest. Meetings are the easiest layer of a stack to move because there is no archive to migrate: tomorrow's meeting just needs a new link. Calendar invitations carry on working through standard calendar integrations. What you give up is the bundle convenience, and features like AI summaries that depend on the vendor listening.
Can it handle a company all-hands?
Proton Meet Professional caps at 100 participants, which covers most organisational meetings but not a large broadcast. For big all-hands events, pair it with a webinar-format tool or Whereby's larger rooms. Day-to-day meetings, client calls and interviews sit comfortably inside the limit.