European alternative to Microsoft 365 email

Provider: Microsoft 365
Headquarters: Redmond, WA
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 Microsoft 365

The transfer of your mailbox to Microsoft 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. Asked under oath by the French Senate in June 2025 whether Microsoft could guarantee that would never happen without French consent, the director of public and legal affairs of Microsoft France answered that he could not. With a Dutch host there is no transfer to a third country, so there is nothing to monitor.

Microsoft 365 services and their EU-only equivalents

You do not have to give up the way your people work. Outlook stays Outlook. What changes is who hosts the mailbox, and under which law. 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.

Microsoft 365 service	What we run instead	Engineering note
Exchange Online	Exchange mailbox hosted in the Netherlands, on a shared server or on a dedicated server of your own.	The same software, so Outlook, Exchange ActiveSync, shared mailboxes and delegation keep working as they do now. Hosted and controlled by a Dutch company on Dutch hardware, which puts it outside the reach of the CLOUD Act.
Exchange Online, without the Exchange	A mailbox on mailcow with SOGo, on Stalwart or on Carbonio.	For companies that want email, calendar and contacts on open standards and have no reason to keep Exchange. Works with Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird and phones through standard protocols.
Outlook (desktop and mobile)	Keep it.	Outlook is a mail client. It connects to a hosted Exchange mailbox exactly as it does today, and to the other platforms over standard protocols.
Shared mailboxes and calendars	Shared mailboxes, calendars and contacts across your organisation, in the same clients.	On hosted Exchange, shared mailboxes and delegation work the way you know them. On the other platforms, tell us what you share and we show you how it works there before you decide.
OneDrive and SharePoint document libraries	Binadit Drive: file storage and sharing with sharing links, versioning and desktop sync.	Documents stay ordinary files and open in the office software on your computer.
Microsoft 365 admin center	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.
Exchange Online Protection	Spam and virus filtering included with every mailbox.	Part of the mailbox, not a separate product to buy.
Copilot in Outlook and Office	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.

Exchange Online

What we run instead: Exchange mailbox hosted in the Netherlands, on a shared server or on a dedicated server of your own.
Engineering note: The same software, so Outlook, Exchange ActiveSync, shared mailboxes and delegation keep working as they do now. Hosted and controlled by a Dutch company on Dutch hardware, which puts it outside the reach of the CLOUD Act.

Exchange Online, without the Exchange

What we run instead: A mailbox on mailcow with SOGo, on Stalwart or on Carbonio.
Engineering note: For companies that want email, calendar and contacts on open standards and have no reason to keep Exchange. Works with Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird and phones through standard protocols.

Outlook (desktop and mobile)

What we run instead: Keep it.
Engineering note: Outlook is a mail client. It connects to a hosted Exchange mailbox exactly as it does today, and to the other platforms over standard protocols.

Shared mailboxes and calendars

What we run instead: Shared mailboxes, calendars and contacts across your organisation, in the same clients.
Engineering note: On hosted Exchange, shared mailboxes and delegation work the way you know them. On the other platforms, tell us what you share and we show you how it works there before you decide.

OneDrive and SharePoint document libraries

What we run instead: Binadit Drive: file storage and sharing with sharing links, versioning and desktop sync.
Engineering note: Documents stay ordinary files and open in the office software on your computer.

Microsoft 365 admin center

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.

Exchange Online Protection

What we run instead: Spam and virus filtering included with every mailbox.
Engineering note: Part of the mailbox, not a separate product to buy.

Copilot in Outlook and Office

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

Microsoft 365 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 Microsoft 365

We migrate your existing mailboxes, calendars and files from Microsoft 365, 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 Microsoft 365 GDPR-compliant if we choose an EU data region?

Today, yes, because Microsoft is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The EU region decides where the data is stored. It does not decide which law the provider answers to. Microsoft is a US company, and under the CLOUD Act it must produce data under its control when a US authority orders it to, wherever that data is stored.

Can we keep using Outlook if we leave Microsoft 365?

Yes. Outlook is a mail client and works with any mailbox that speaks the standard protocols. With a hosted Exchange mailbox in the Netherlands you also keep Exchange ActiveSync, shared mailboxes and shared calendars exactly as they are.

Exchange is Microsoft software. Does hosting it in the Netherlands really change anything?

Yes. The CLOUD Act binds providers that fall under US jurisdiction, and it is about who controls the data. Exchange running on hardware we own, in the Netherlands, operated by a Dutch company with no US parent, is software we run. Microsoft does not host, hold or control your mailboxes.

Shared server or dedicated server?

Per mailbox on a shared server is the simple choice for smaller teams. From roughly 25 mailboxes a dedicated server is worth comparing, because its price stays the same however many mailboxes you add, and it gives you a fully isolated environment.

What happens to our old mail?

It comes along. We copy historic mail, calendars and contacts to the new environment while the old one keeps running, and we do a final sync after the DNS switch.

What about Teams?

Chat and video meetings are not part of this offer, which covers email, calendar, contacts and files. Tell us how you use Teams and we will say honestly what we would and would not run for you.

The rest of the suite

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

Plan your exit from Microsoft 365.

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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