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.
Team collaboration
Tools for working together: team chat, video calls, project boards, time tracking and group decisions. We judge team collaboration software on who owns the tool, whether the code is open, and whether you can export your data and leave.
Our top picks: Loomio, an open-source tool for making group decisions, from a worker-owned co-op running since 2011, priced from $299 a year for non-profits. And Kantree, project boards from Digicoop, a French worker co-op owned by its staff, hosted in the EU with export any time; the trade-off is that it’s closed source.
How we choose: each tool 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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Zulip
Open-source team chat owned by the nonprofit Zulip Foundation, free to self-host
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Twist
Thread-first team chat from bootstrapped, remote-first Doist, free or €6 per user a month
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Sandstorm
Volunteer-run open-source platform that makes self-hosting web apps a few clicks
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Kimai
Open-source time tracker made in Austria, free to self-host or as a hosted cloud plan
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Kantree
Project boards from Digicoop, a French worker co-op owned by its staff, hosted in the EU
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Linphone
Open-source SIP phone for calls, video and chat, with ZRTP end-to-end encryption
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Whaller
French private networks for teams and groups, free up to 100 members, Pro €3 per user
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WeChange
Ad-free, self-hosted collaboration platform from a German co-op, used by 88,000 people
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Discourse
Open-source forum software, free to self-host, with a free hosted plan and Pro at $100 a month
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LiquidFeedback
MIT-licensed software for fair proposals and votes in large groups, made in Berlin
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Loomio
Open-source group decision tool from a worker-owned co-op, from $25 a month for non-profits
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Wire
End-to-end encrypted, open-source team messenger from Berlin, free for teams of up to 5
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Element
Matrix chat with encrypted private rooms, from a VC-backed UK firm that sells to governments
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Rocket.Chat
Open-source team chat that federates over Matrix; VC-backed, with a defence focus
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Jami
Peer-to-peer calls and chat with no phone number or central server, a GNU project
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Jitsi Meet
Open-source video calls; meet.jit.si needs a Google, GitHub or Facebook login, 95-minute cap
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Kanboard
Minimalist open-source Kanban board to self-host, in maintenance mode but still patched
