Comparisons
Leaving Google Workspace mostly means leaving a document editor and a way of sharing. Email can be carried over; Google Docs are converted, with losses. A European alternative is therefore relevant when files and email matter more than the Google editor itself, and only after a trial on your own documents.
Google is an American company. The alternatives below change the operator, that is, the company that holds the files and email, backs them up and whose support staff connect to them. They do not replicate Docs. Leaving Google should therefore be judged on two separate questions: who should hold your content, and which document editor your teams can accept.
Allow two weeks of testing on a meeting report, a spreadsheet and a sales proposal. Together they cover the essentials: text written by several people, formulas, and layout that goes out to a client. If the spreadsheet does not make it through, keeping Google for that team is a sound decision. A phased exit, email first and files second, is often more robust than a complete switchover decided on principle.
In Mauritius, the Data Protection Act 2017 applies to controllers and processors established in Mauritius or using processing means in Mauritius; the Data Protection Office, headed by the Data Protection Commissioner, oversees compliance. It requires appropriate technical and organisational measures, including pseudonymisation and encryption (section 31). A transfer outside Mauritius is permitted only with demonstrated appropriate safeguards, the explicit consent of the data subject, or where it is necessary (section 36). Choosing a Swiss, French or German operator therefore remains a transfer that must be properly framed.
The verification framework, on the operator side, is in European cloud or American cloud. The exit method is in migrating from Google Workspace. If the decision to leave has not yet been made, the page Google Workspace or a sovereign solution helps settle it.
Email relies on standard protocols: Gmail history is copied over IMAP. Labels call for a decision (a message with three labels can become three copies or a single one), but nothing is lost by design.
Documents, on the other hand, leave Google through an export to office formats, which alters the layout of rich documents; open comments and suggestions do not carry over. Then there are the elements with no direct equivalent: Google Chat history, Google Sites, forms whose logic lives in Apps Script, and “anyone with the link” shares. No alternative takes them over as they are; Infomaniak, for its part, states that chat histories are not migrated automatically. This is the nature of leaving, not a flaw of any one provider.
Example. A fifteen-person communications agency (hypothetical case) writes its proposals in Docs and tracks its production in a Sheets spreadsheet enhanced with scripts. Email and Drive archives move without difficulty. The tracking sheet becomes a spreadsheet without its automations: before the switchover, you must decide whether to rewrite it, replace it, or keep Google for that team.
| Provider | Operated by | Where the data is | Online editing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace (reference) | Google (United States) | Region chosen according to the edition, for the listed content | Docs, Sheets, Slides |
| Infomaniak | Infomaniak (Switzerland) | Switzerland | OnlyOffice, or Microsoft online depending on the plan |
| Nextcloud | You, or the chosen provider | With that operator | Collabora or OnlyOffice |
| OVHcloud | OVHcloud (France) | France | Depending on the plan |
| BlueMind | You, or a partner hosting provider | With that operator | Outside the core offering |
| Klytic | Dedicace Software (France) | Zone matching the applicable jurisdiction, for example Europe or Mauritius, or the client’s servers | In the dedicated Nextcloud instance, alone or collaboratively, with version history |
This table ranks nothing. It separates the operator, the location and the editor, which are often conflated.
kSuite brings together email, storage, chat and video conferencing, with data in Switzerland. Online editing uses OnlyOffice or, on some plans, Microsoft online hosted in Switzerland, with a Microsoft subscription. For a company established in Mauritius, this is hosting outside Mauritius.
Suitable profile. An SME that uses Google as an all-in-one, email, Drive, Chat and Meet, and wants to find that same shape with a single provider, without running a server.
To check. That the transfer outside Mauritius is covered: the Data Protection Act 2017 permits it with demonstrated appropriate safeguards, the explicit consent of the data subject, or where it is necessary (section 36). If the Microsoft online option interests you, factor the required Microsoft subscription into your analysis, since the software vendor then remains an American company.
Main limitation. The law applicable to the operator changes; it does not become Mauritian law. For a group policy or a call for tenders that requires hosting in Mauritius, this rules it out.
Relevant if you want an already integrated suite and Swiss law suits you.
Less relevant if the data must stay in Mauritius, or if your Sheets have turned into applications.
Nextcloud GmbH publishes the software. Hosting is yours or a provider’s. Co-editing is available, with Collabora or OnlyOffice. Email is not the core of the product. Choosing Nextcloud therefore does not yet tell you where the files are: the location, backups and support are those of the chosen operator.
Suitable profile. An organisation for which Drive was the core of Google, and which has, or wants to take, control of its file server: for example an industrial SME with two sites and an in-house IT person.
To check. Who updates, monitors and restores a folder deleted on a Friday evening. If a provider operates the instance: is it dedicated or shared with other clients, and where are the backups. And which online editor is installed: that is what your teams will compare with Docs.
Main limitation. Gmail has no successor. Leaving Google with Nextcloud alone means choosing an email service alongside it.
Relevant if you have, or want, control of the file server.
Less relevant if you are looking for a turnkey managed email service and a single point of support without an in-house team.
Zimbra email hosted in France. The software is published by Synacor, in the United States. The operator of the mailboxes is OVHcloud. Some infrastructure offerings from the same group are SecNumCloud-qualified: this is not the same offering as the email service.
Suitable profile. A company whose primary reason for leaving is Gmail, which wants business mailboxes with a large French operator, and which can handle files separately or in the plan that includes them.
To check. The exact plan, since the breadth of the suite (calendars, files, editing) depends on it. The distinction between the email service and the qualified infrastructure: qualification applies to a named offering in the ANSSI catalogue and does not pass on to an application installed on it.
Main limitation. It is not the Docs experience for a team that co-writes all day long.
Relevant for replacing Gmail with mailboxes hosted in France, with calendars and files depending on the plan.
Less relevant for replacing Google editing on its own in a team that lives in Docs.
Collaborative email from a French software vendor, designed for Outlook and mobile devices, deployed on your premises or with a hosting provider. For an organisation leaving Google, it is one piece of the project, the email, to be paired with a file solution.
Suitable profile. An organisation that wants the vendor of its email software to be French itself, and that is moving from Gmail in the browser to Outlook on the desktop.
To check. Who operates it: your team or a hosting provider, and in which country. A French software vendor says nothing about where the mailboxes are until the operator is named. Test Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac and mobile devices separately, on shared calendars.
Main limitation. No replacement for Drive or for online editing.
Relevant for email, particularly if Outlook is the client.
Less relevant as a replacement for Drive.
It is not a European alternative. It is the other American suite. It is relevant if leaving Google is about Excel and Teams, not about where the data is, for example because a parent company works on Office. The question is then handled through data residency and the contract and, for hosting outside Mauritius, through the transfer conditions of section 36 of the Data Protection Act 2017. It is beside the point if the reason for leaving is the American operator: you would be swapping one for another.
The broader overview, criteria included, is in the 2026 guide to alternatives to Microsoft 365. The logic is the same.
Yes. Email is easier to replace than Docs. You then have to manage two providers during the transition and describe in your internal documentation what remains with Google. The reverse is generally more painful.
It may be enough, depending on your analysis. Regions cover listed content, depending on the edition, and not certain logs; control over the location of support is an option linked to Assured Controls. Above all, a region does not change the company that holds the data. If your concern is the operator, see protecting a business from the CLOUD Act.
Inventory them first. Google Sites and forms whose logic lives in Apps Script do not carry over as they are. For each one, there are three options: rewrite it, replace it with another tool, or keep Google for that single use for as long as necessary.
Only if a regulation, a client or a call for tenders requires it. Qualification applies to a named offering in the ANSSI catalogue, not to a company, and does not extend to an application installed on it. Klytic does not have it.
Operator: Dedicace Software. Zimbra email operated by Klytic, a dedicated Nextcloud instance per client (sharing, online editing alone or collaboratively, version history), plus video conferencing, CRM and telephony if you take them. Hosting in any geographic zone matching the applicable jurisdiction, subject to the availability of the required services, for example in Europe or Mauritius, or on the client’s servers.
When leaving Google, Gmail is migrated to the Zimbra email service, published by Synacor (United States), hosted in Klytic’s email architecture, in a dedicated instance or on the client’s premises, and operated by Klytic, with web access, email clients, mobile devices, EAS and EWS. Drive files arrive in the client’s Nextcloud instance, which is not a shared space. Google Docs become files there. They can be shared there and edited online alone or collaboratively, and version history is kept; it is not the Google editor.
You can take only the email, or only the documents. The data is held by the client, or by Klytic on its behalf, and encrypted natively or according to the client’s choice; the key is held by the client or kept in its account, and Klytic has no access to it. The stages at which encryption is managed by Klytic are detailed on the page protecting a business from the CLOUD Act. The contract must describe this custody and this encryption. Email and documents are backed up every hour, with 30-day retention. Support is available in French by phone and in all languages by email, through a ticket tracking tool.
Email migration advice is free and no email is lost. Migration carried out by Klytic is quoted after an inventory; the subscription and the migration are billed on two separate invoices. Subscription prices are on the Pricing page.
Relevant if you want to leave Google for email and files, with a French point of contact, and put together the rest à la carte.
Less relevant if the trial on your Google Sheets fails, or if you require SecNumCloud qualification. Klytic does not have it.
This page describes use cases. It does not rank offerings and is no substitute for a trial on your own documents.
Accessed in October 2026.
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