The real cost of free European alternatives
Free tiers from European providers are genuinely free, and genuinely limited: storage caps, one device, no custom domain. The honest price of free is your time, roughly one migration weekend per tool.
Storage is the first cap. Free European mail and drive tiers commonly sit between 1 GB and 20 GB. A mailbox used for ten years rarely fits, so budget for the paid tier or a cleanup afternoon before you move.
Features are the second cap. Custom domains, family accounts and priority support are paid almost everywhere. Proton, Tuta and Infomaniak all keep their free tier usable, but the domain you actually want to use costs money.
Your time is the third cost. Moving email takes an afternoon. Moving a team drive with shared folders takes a weekend and a message to everyone who ever received a share link. Plan it once, write down the new links, and the cost stays paid.
What you get back is concrete. A provider that cannot sell your data has to charge you money, which makes the business model readable. For many readers that trade, a few euros a month against an ad profile, is the entire point of this directory.