De-Google My Life, Part 5

This is a multiple-part series – go here for the full list,

Welcome to Part 5 of my De-Google series. If you haven’t done so already, I’d start with the first article (strategy), even if you want to read the other articles out of order. You’ll find nice jump links at the bottom of the page. Today I’m going to cover some new options for replacing Google Forms and Sheets. These were two services that didn’t have good options when I wrote about them originally.

De-Google, Step 10: Google Sheets

I’m not going to lie… Google Docs is amazing. The user interface layout is designed and the web app is very responsive. But it’s owned by Google. If they would allow me to pay for a truly private version, I would happily do so. But they really don’t have a private option for individuals, which is a shame.

The two main ‘apps’ in Google’s office suite are Docs (word processor) and Sheets (spreadsheet). Proton finally rolled out a decent Docs replacement last summer (2025). When Proton rolled out a very usable replacement for Sheets last December! I was thrilled! It doesn’t have as many features as Google Sheets, but I’m sure Proton will be adding features over time. But it’s end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) and still allows for collaboration, which is tough to pull off.

Proton is really trying to be a full replacement for Google. At this point, they do email, calendar, cloud drive, docs and sheets. They also have a new Proton Meet app, which I haven’t tried yet (I use FaceTime or Signal mostly). On top of that, Proton has a VPN, a crypto wallet, a password manager, an authenticator app and even a private AI chat bot (Lumo). If you haven’t tried Proton ever or even in the last 2-3 years, you really should try it. (If you know someone who already uses Proton, ask to use their referral link – you’ll both save some money. Otherwise, you’re welcome to use mine.)

For the sake of completeness, there are other secure and private spreadsheets you might try (all have usable free versions): CryptPad, ONLYOFFICE, and Collabora Online’s Calc. There really are many great options now.

De-Google, Step 11: Google Forms

Again, I need to be honest: Google Forms is great. It’s free and has a ton of nice features. I just wish there was a for-pay private version.

I looked for years to find a decent replacement. I looked at CryptPad, Jotform, and several others. All the free options were extremely limited – basically trial versions that were unusable for anything real. I was willing to pay a reasonable price, but most online forms were geared towards companies that did a lot of surveys. I couldn’t justify paying $20-40 a month for my very limited needs. So I used Google Forms and apologized every time.

But in the last year or two, some excellent, privacy-focused options have materialized. And they have very rich and powerful free tiers for people like me who use them very infrequently. I’m personally planning to use Tally. It’s got a slick interface, lots of features, and the free tier has generous limits. It’s not end-to-end encrypted, but the surveys I put out don’t really ask for private information. (Some ask for an email address, but I encourage people to use an alias for that.)

I should mention some other options that fewer features or more limitations, but are more private. Both Palform and CryptPad have E2EE forms.

Wrapping Up

For now, at least, this is the last article in this series. While there are a lot more Google services out there, I think I’ve covered the most popular ones that have the biggest privacy impacts. Please share this series with friends and family, too – maybe Google (and others, like Facebook) will start getting the idea that we do care about our privacy. Or, if nothing else, we’ll create a viable market for privacy-respecting competitors.

I’ve created a nice summary page for all of these articles, including links to more resources.