Comparisons
Google Workspace is the right tool when your teams write together in the browser and find their folders without thinking about it. A European solution is the right tool when the company that holds those folders must be European or Swiss, and you accept a different document editor. The convenience of Docs is the sticking point of the comparison. It is tested on your own files, not in theory.
Simultaneous editing in Docs, Sheets and Slides is second nature for many teams. Link sharing is immediate. Search across the document base is good. Administering a small organisation is simple. For an association, a firm or an SME already organised around Drive, leaving Google purely on principle, without a trial, leads to reversals.
These qualities are not minor conveniences. They have changed the way people work: you no longer send an attachment as version 3, you share a link and comment in the same place. A team that has adopted this habit loses it badly.
Example. A 15-person consulting firm writes its proposals collaboratively in Docs, tracks its sales activity in a shared Sheets file and has no IT staff. For this firm, Google Workspace is both a production tool and an administration tool. Leaving it means another editor, training and someone to administer the new suite. If management has no specific reason to change operator, staying is the consistent decision.
The legal limits lie elsewhere. Google is an American company. Data regions cover listed content, depending on the edition, and do not cover everything (certain logs, for example). Support access from within the Union is configured with an option, not with the entry-level offer. The details are in GDPR and Google Workspace.
On top of this comes American law: the provision resulting from the CLOUD Act (18 U.S.C. § 2713) targets data that a provider holds or controls, including outside the United States. A European region therefore does not remove Google from the scope of that law. As for transfers, adequacy decision (EU) 2023/1795 is in force as of 5 October 2026 and is being challenged: according to commentary by a law firm (WilmerHale), the General Court of the European Union dismissed an action for annulment on 3 September 2025, and an appeal was lodged before the Court of Justice on 31 October 2025. The framework is detailed in protecting a company from the CLOUD Act.
From a legal standpoint. Files and emails are with a European operator, or with a Swiss operator such as Infomaniak, or on servers you run yourself. The contract falls under a European or Swiss court. Switzerland is outside the European Union, covered by an adequacy decision: depending on your specifications, that is sufficient or not. A European operator remains subject to the law of its own country. What you gain is a change of jurisdiction, not immunity. Ask for the list of its processors, the location of its support and who holds the encryption keys.
From an operational standpoint. The online editor will be OnlyOffice, Collabora or an equivalent. Co-editing exists. It does not behave the same way as Google with comments, suggestions and heavily worked spreadsheets. Native Google files are converted to office formats, with possible losses in formatting, in Sheets-specific formulas and in links between files. External sharing takes a different form: link, password, expiry date, depending on the tool.
Email, on the other hand, is easier to replace than Docs. It relies on standard protocols, and users find a mailbox, folders and a calendar. Many organisations could change email service and keep Drive for another year. The reverse is more painful.
Change email first, keep Drive for a year. A 30-person services SME moves its email to a European operator and leaves Drive in place. Teams keep their writing habits while the company tests the target editor and sorts through Drive: archives to freeze, active folders to move, files to abandon. Points to watch: Google accounts are still needed to access Drive; Drive links circulate in emails sent from a different email system; calendar invitations and scheduled meetings change tools; third-party applications that people sign into with their Google account must be listed. Set an end date, otherwise the year becomes permanent.
Keep Google for one team. The marketing team that produces its presentations in Slides with its agencies stays on Google; the rest of the company moves out. You then need a written rule: which content goes where, and who arbitrates.
Move Drive out before Gmail. This is the most costly scenario in terms of change management, for a partial legal benefit: email, which receives everyone’s attachments, stays with the American operator. It is rarely justified, unless a specific matter requires the files to be moved first.
The method for leaving is in migrating from Google Workspace, and the email cutover in migrating without downtime.
For two weeks, have a real team write three types of documents on the target: meeting minutes, a tracking spreadsheet, a sales proposal. Note what breaks. If the minutes work and the spreadsheet does not, you know which line of work can move.
For the trial to settle something, note for each document:
Sort each task into three boxes: works, works with an acceptable workaround, breaks. Run the trial with the people who produce the documents, not only with IT. During these two weeks, also list the forms and Apps Script: they are what stop a process on cutover day. A free trial makes it possible to run this test on a real target.
Staying in these cases is not giving up. It is a documented choice, to be re-examined when the trial, the edition or the legal framework changes.
Infomaniak (Switzerland, outside the European Union, adequacy decision), a Nextcloud operated by a European hosting provider or by yourself, OVHcloud for email, BlueMind for email, and Klytic for an à la carte suite are not interchangeable. The page European alternatives to Google Workspace sets them apart.
It can be used within a GDPR framework. The regulation requires a data processing agreement, a legal basis for transfers and a record that describes what the data region does not cover. The nationality of the operator is a separate decision, one for management. The check is described in GDPR and Google Workspace.
It answers the question of storage location for the content listed by Google, depending on the edition. It does not cover certain logs and does not change Google’s nationality. If your requirement concerns who holds the data, it is not enough.
Yes. It is often the most sensible order: email is easier to migrate than documents. Plan to keep the Google accounts needed for Drive and an end date for this mixed period.
Not always. Conversion to an office format must be checked on your own files; the sensitive points are heavily worked spreadsheets, Sheets-specific formulas and links between files. That is the purpose of the two-week trial.
Klytic provides a dedicated Nextcloud instance per customer and Zimbra email operated by Dedicace Software, a French company. It is an alternative for files, their sharing and their online editing alone or collaboratively, with version history, as well as for email and video conferencing. It is not Google Docs under another name: the online editor is neither Google’s nor Office’s.
Klytic is not SecNumCloud-qualified, and a French operator remains subject to French law.
This page describes a general framework. It does not constitute legal advice.
Accessed in October 2026.
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