# Moving Away From Big Tech *10 August 2025*  ***(and, hopefully, saving some money)*** Recently, I realised how much I was spending each month on the online services that have accumulated over time. I've always been interested in tech, so maybe, I was spending more than most, I don't know, but it was definitely getting out of hand. The process of looking at what services I was paying for made me realise quite how much of my data is held in the servers of mega-corporations, many of which are outside the EU's tighter privacy regulations. Something I wanted to change. I hope to be able to retire at some point in the next few years so reducing my monthly outgoings seems like a sensible move, before my income drops. I'm going to update this post as I make changes. Updated: 23 August 2025. ## The services I was using at the start of 2025 - **1password**: Password manager service - **Apple Photos**: iPhone storage - **Backblaze**: Online backup - **Capture One**: photo organisation/storage I love Capture One, but it's expensive and I'm not doing any serious photography, so it may need to go. I'm playing around with Darktable, but it seems very clunky in comparison. - **Evernote**: Note-taking app. I've been paying for EN since 2008, but in the last couple of years it's become bloated and laden with bugs. I've also never been that comfortable with my data being saved in a basically inaccessible proprietary format. - **Google Calendar** - **Google Drive** - **Gmail**: Technically free, but not really. - **Grammarly**: Grammar editor The use of Grammarly gives away the poor state of my written English. I was using Grammarly for writing associated with documentary work. - **Lebara**: Mobile phone service Good and affordable, no complaints - **Squarespace**: Website Great, but expensive. - **Todoist**: To-do list manager I mainly use Todoist for work. It's excellent, but unnecessary for my home needs. As soon as I get to retire, I look forward to not needing it! In total, that was costing about £600 / year (some services are charged in Dollars, so the cost changes). In addition, between us my wife and I are paying for Broadband, Netflix, and Channel 4+. That all adds up to a fair chunk of change. The biggest change was going to be moving away Gmail where my email has sat for at least 20 years, probably more. I didn't want to move it more than once, so I've taken some time looking at the options. I finally settled on [Posteo](https://posteo.de/en), (based in Germany) I'll explain why in a separate post, but they seem a balance between security, privacy, and price. I'm now going through the tedious task of moving my, seemingly, 100's of accounts and subscriptions from Gmail to Posteo. ## Where I am in August 2025 - **1password** ($72.00 / year) We are both so embedded with 1password I can't think of moving at the moment. - **Apple Photos storage** ($0.99/month) I'd like to find an alternative, but Apple storage is only 99 cents / month. I can only think finding a service that'll work on the iPhone is going to be janky to implement. - **Backblaze** ($118.80 / year) I'm really conflicted about Backblaze. There's no doubt that a self-managed off-site backup is a good idea, but is it really necessary for me to have all my data on a server (or probably two), using power and water? Probably not. I'm thinking of buying a couple of big ole disks and keeping one off site. - **darktable** (free) An open-source, Lightroom/Capture One alternative. I'm very new to it, its fine. There's a steep learning curve and it's not pretty. - **Obsidian** (free) An open-source note-taking app, using simple Markdown files, which sync through iCloud. If I move away from iCloud, I'd need to find an alternative sync service, which is where Apple hold all the cards. Syncing to and from the iPhone is not straightforward. - **Obsidian Publish** ($96/year) Used to publish this site. A paid add-on to Obsidian. It's far from sophisticated, basically a folder of markdown files, but I like it for that; it feels a little expensive compared to the competition. - **LibreOffice** (free) An open-source office suite: an amazingly accomplished free alternative to Microsoft Office (less the AI features). As I test, I've been using it in a professional environment for a couple of years and no one is any the wiser. - **Posteo** (€12 / year) Email and calendar. All good so far. - **Google Drive**($15.00 / year) I'm looking for alternatives. If you have suggestions, let me know. - **Lebara** Mobile phone and data. I've no plans to change. - **TickTick** (free-version) To-do list. I'm using this, combined with a pocket notebook, for my personal to-dos. I'll stop paying for Todoist when I stop work. The current total is about £285 / month (with two exchange rates to take into account, the exact figure is constantly changing), less than half I was paying at the start of the year. Squarespace and Grammarly are the two biggest savings. Backblaze is the largest potential saving, but I'm aware if were to lose any data, $119 would seem a small price to pay to get it back. If you have any thoughts or recommendations, please let me know. *(Profound apologies to [Lester Beall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Beall) for ripping off another of his amazing designs.)* Nigel #big-tech #Posteo #less #lester-beall > [!Comments] > As yet, I don't have any way to accept comments directly on the blog. > Feel free to [email](mailto:[email protected]).