Ethical Alternatives & Resources
Tools, services and organisations that do less harm than the default choice, in 43 categories. We’re re-checking every entry against our checklist, one category at a time.
Smartphones
Phones you can repair and keep for years, plus mobile networks, most of them co-operatives. We judge ethical smartphones on repairability, how long updates last, and how and where the phone is made.
Our top picks: Fairphone, a modular phone rated 10/10 for repair by iFixit, with software support until 2033 and final assembly in a factory that supports living wages; the trade-off is the price, from €649. And SHIFTphone, modular, user-repairable phones from SHIFT in Falkenberg, Germany, with a deposit scheme to take old devices back. For a co-op network, see Neibo, Som Connexió and OurCoop.
How we choose: each phone and network is checked against the 6 principles in our manifesto: who owns it and how it makes money, what it collects, how it treats people, honesty, openness and staying power. We last checked them on 13 October 2026.
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Mudita
E Ink minimalist phones from Warsaw's Mudita, with 5 years of updates on the Kompakt
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PinePhone
Linux phone with 5 hardware privacy switches, $199.99 from PINE64; low-powered, for tinkerers
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Neibo
Belgian mobile co-operative on the Orange network, plans from €8 a month
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Som Connexió
Catalan telecoms co-operative for mobile and fibre, with no minimum contract term
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SHIFTphone
Modular, repairable phones from SHIFT GmbH in Falkenberg, Germany, with a device deposit
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OurCoop Broadband and Mobile
Broadband and mobile from OurCoop, a UK consumer co-operative with over a million members
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Ecotalk
UK mobile network that puts all its profits into rewilding land, on 30-day rolling plans
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Purism Librem 5
Linux phone with hardware kill switches from US firm Purism, $799 for 3 GB of RAM
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Fairphone
Modular phone rated 10/10 by iFixit, with updates until 2033, from €649