European alternative to Google Workspace email

Provider: Google Workspace
Headquarters: Mountain View, CA
Jurisdiction: United States
Legal regime: CLOUD Act, FISA 702

"EU region" is not sovereignty. Four questions decide it.

Data residency tells you where the bits sit. Sovereignty tells you which legal system can compel access. The answer must hold on all four - or the stack is not sovereign.

Residency

Where is the data physically stored?

Not "in the cloud" - which datacenter, in which country, under which jurisdiction.

Subprocessors

Who else is in your data path?

Every vendor that touches the data: the CDN, the email relay, the error tracker, the analytics pipe.

Jurisdiction

Whose laws can compel disclosure?

A US-headquartered provider falls under FISA 702 and the CLOUD Act - even when the bits sit in Frankfurt.

Key custody

Who actually holds the encryption keys?

If the cloud provider holds both the data and the keys, the data is readable by them - regardless of any DPA.

Fails AWS · Azure · GCP · EU region

Fails on jurisdiction and key custody.

EU bits, US-headquartered parent, US subprocessors in the default path, provider-managed keys.

Passes Binadit managed stack

Passes on all four.

EU-hosted on EU-headquartered infrastructure. Zero US subprocessors in the default path. Customer-held or EU-KMS keys. Listed by name in your Article 28 DPA.

Why teams are exiting Google Workspace

The transfer of your mailbox to Google is lawful today because of one instrument, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, and an appeal against it is pending before the court that struck down its two predecessors. Separately, the US CLOUD Act obliges a US provider to produce data under its control wherever it is stored. And Google is building AI assistants directly into the mailbox and the files, which adds a second set of questions about purpose limitation that you, as the controller, have to be able to answer. With a Dutch host there is no transfer to a third country, and nobody learns from your data.

Google Workspace services and their EU-only equivalents

Gmail is a mailbox with a web interface. Both exist outside Google. The mail platforms we run: Microsoft Exchange, hosted in the Netherlands on a shared or a dedicated server, mailcow with SOGo for webmail, calendar and contacts, Stalwart or Carbonio.

Google Workspace service	What we run instead	Engineering note
Gmail on your own domain	A mailbox on mailcow with SOGo, on Stalwart or on Carbonio, with spam and virus filtering.	Works with Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird and phones through standard protocols. Your addresses stay the same; only the MX records change.
Gmail, for teams that live in Outlook	Exchange mailbox hosted in the Netherlands, on a shared server or on a dedicated server of your own.	For companies that came to Google from Exchange and would rather have Outlook, ActiveSync and shared mailboxes back.
Google Calendar	Shared calendars across your organisation, in the same clients as your mail.	Calendars move together with the mailboxes.
Google Contacts	Shared and personal contacts, synchronised to desktop and phone.	Moved together with mail and calendar.
Google Drive and shared drives	Binadit Drive: file storage and sharing with sharing links, versioning and desktop sync.	Files move with their folder structure.
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides	Ordinary office files in Binadit Drive.	A Google document only exists inside Google. When it leaves, Google exports it as docx, xlsx or pptx, which opens in the office software on your computer. From then on it is a file you own.
Google Admin console	The Binadit portal: you create and remove mailboxes, aliases, users and domains yourself.	On a dedicated server the number of mailboxes is yours to decide. The limit is disk space, not a licence count.
Gemini in Gmail and Docs	Not replaced, on purpose. We do not train on your data and we do not put a model inside your mailbox.	Every AI feature inside a US suite is another data flow you answer for under Article 24 GDPR. If you want an assistant, choose one deliberately and know where it runs.

Gmail on your own domain

What we run instead: A mailbox on mailcow with SOGo, on Stalwart or on Carbonio, with spam and virus filtering.
Engineering note: Works with Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird and phones through standard protocols. Your addresses stay the same; only the MX records change.

Gmail, for teams that live in Outlook

What we run instead: Exchange mailbox hosted in the Netherlands, on a shared server or on a dedicated server of your own.
Engineering note: For companies that came to Google from Exchange and would rather have Outlook, ActiveSync and shared mailboxes back.

Google Calendar

What we run instead: Shared calendars across your organisation, in the same clients as your mail.
Engineering note: Calendars move together with the mailboxes.

Google Contacts

What we run instead: Shared and personal contacts, synchronised to desktop and phone.
Engineering note: Moved together with mail and calendar.

Google Drive and shared drives

What we run instead: Binadit Drive: file storage and sharing with sharing links, versioning and desktop sync.
Engineering note: Files move with their folder structure.

Google Docs, Sheets and Slides

What we run instead: Ordinary office files in Binadit Drive.
Engineering note: A Google document only exists inside Google. When it leaves, Google exports it as docx, xlsx or pptx, which opens in the office software on your computer. From then on it is a file you own.

Google Admin console

What we run instead: The Binadit portal: you create and remove mailboxes, aliases, users and domains yourself.
Engineering note: On a dedicated server the number of mailboxes is yours to decide. The limit is disk space, not a licence count.

Gemini in Gmail and Docs

What we run instead: Not replaced, on purpose. We do not train on your data and we do not put a model inside your mailbox.
Engineering note: Every AI feature inside a US suite is another data flow you answer for under Article 24 GDPR. If you want an assistant, choose one deliberately and know where it runs.

What it costs

Google Workspace entry plans cost roughly €6 to €8 per user per month depending on the commitment you sign, and the plans most companies end up on cost well over €10 (list prices excluding VAT, September 2026). Hosted in the Netherlands:

Mailbox on our shared platform from €1.99 per mailbox per month: Teams that want email, calendar and files without running anything themselves.
Exchange mailbox, hosted in the Netherlands from €4.95 per mailbox per month: Companies that want to keep Outlook, Exchange ActiveSync and shared mailboxes exactly as they are. The same software, hosted and controlled by a Dutch company on Dutch hardware.
Managed dedicated mail server from €149 per month, unlimited mailboxes: Organisations from roughly 25 mailboxes upward, or anyone who wants a fully isolated environment. The limit is disk space, not the number of users. You create mailboxes and domains yourself in the Binadit portal; we manage the server, updates, backups and monitoring.
Managed dedicated Exchange server from €299 per month, unlimited mailboxes: Larger Exchange environments that want their own isolated server with full Outlook compatibility, managed by us, with mailboxes and domains under your own control in the Binadit portal.

How we migrate off Google Workspace

We migrate your existing mailboxes, calendars and files from Google Workspace, historic mail included, and we run both environments side by side until you switch DNS.

Before the move

We map what you have

Mailboxes, aliases, shared mailboxes, calendars, contact lists, shared folders and who has access to what. You get a fixed migration price and a date.
Side by side

Both environments run at the same time

We copy mail, calendars, contacts and files to the new environment, historic mail included, while everybody keeps working in the old one. Nothing is switched off and nothing is lost if we need another pass.
Switch day

DNS moves, and with it the mail

We change the MX records, new mail arrives in the Netherlands from that moment, and a final sync picks up whatever came in during the switch. No downtime, no lost mail.

Run the numbers for a 30-person company. On a Google or Microsoft entry plan you pay around €2,500 a year. The same 30 people cost €716 a year on our shared platform, €1,782 a year on hosted Exchange, or a flat €1,788 a year on a dedicated server that is still the same price at 60 or 100 mailboxes.

Frequently asked questions

View all frequently asked questions

Is Google Workspace GDPR-compliant?

Today, yes. Google is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which the European Commission adopted in July 2023, and that makes the transfer of your email to Google lawful. The compliance is as durable as that framework. Its two predecessors were struck down by the Court of Justice of the EU, and an appeal against the current one is pending there.

Do our email addresses change?

No. The addresses are on your domain, and your domain is yours. We change where the MX records point; everybody keeps the address they have.

What happens to our Google Docs?

A Google document only exists inside Google, so it leaves as an export: docx, xlsx or pptx. Those go into the same folder structure in Binadit Drive. From then on they are files you own, not links into a service.

Will people miss the Gmail web interface?

SOGo and Carbonio give you mail, calendar and contacts in the browser, and hosted Exchange has Outlook on the web. It looks different from Gmail and does the same job. Most people work from a mail client on their computer and phone, and those keep working as they do now.

Which mail platform is right for us?

That depends on how much groupware you use, whether you want Exchange compatibility and whether you want your own server. It is a short conversation, and we would rather have it than let you pick from a list.

The rest of the suite

Email, calendar and files usually move together. These are the other pieces.

Plan your exit from Google Workspace.

30-minute scoping call. We map your stack against EU-only alternatives, estimate the migration effort, and tell you whether it is the right call.

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