Certified Alternatives for Mainstream Vendors/Merchants
First and foremost, the absolute best thing you can do is to download a VPN, which I provided a definition for below.
Click here for recommended VPNs. I use Avast Security personally, but I noticed that it isn’t listed on this site. Do your research, and pick the best option for you! Regardless, this will primarily determine what you can access.
| Mainstream/Popular Choice | Suggested Alternatives | |
|---|---|---|
| Browsers | Google Chrome, Safari, etc. | Ecosia – The Ecosia browser is decent, open source, and I love that it plants trees, works with the environment, etc. I wouldn’t say the privacy was super secure in my experience, though. Firefox – For casual internet browsers, I would say Firefox is a good option. The browser has a lot of cool extensions as well. Brave – This is the best browser by far, if you work with heavy workloads and need decent privacy settings. (Open source!) |
| Search Engines | Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. | All of the browsers mentioned above also have their own search engines and extensions that you can either use through the browser, or download for your device. |
| Video Streaming | Youtube | Odysee – Odysee is an awesome open source alternative to YouTube with tons of educational resources. When I was researching Odysee, I did see some negative articles in relation to MAGA, but I personally haven’t had issues and didn’t care to dig deeper. |
| Social Media Platforms | X, Instagram, Facebook, etc. | BlueSky – BlueSky is a whole new platform when it comes to social media and what it offers. Like the other suggested alternatives, the platform is open source, and it’s also moderated. Huge difference in moderation and censorship, by the way! |
| E-Commerce | Amazon, Shein, etc. | Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, etc – Online shops like these are based around individual sellers and their products instead of corporate giants that don’t pay or treat their workers properly, so definitely my suggested alternative! |
| Operating Systems | Gnu, Linux, etc. | With OS recommendations, I’m still too new to all of this to give any proper advice. I just use macOS right now, with some customized coded elements and whatnot. The initial step I took was purchasing my domain through GoDaddy, then I hosted it through DreamHost, and then migrated and configured everything else through Cloudflare and that’s when it gets more complex. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out, but I just want to be transparent about my skill level! |
| Messaging Platforms | Telegram, Signal, etc. including emails | This is also debatable, and I think this just depends on the purpose. I mainly just use iMessage and iCloud for any correspondence, I’m not too into any of the apps, personally. |