France and Germany have launched Docs, an open source alternative to Google Docs that helps lessen the EU’s reliance on American tech companies.

There has been growing concern in the EU over President Trump’s policies, especially his tariff threats and threats to annex Greenland. There have been growing calls for EU governments to develop tech solutions independent of US companies.

In one of the first such moves, France and Germany have joined forces to launch Docs.

Docs is built on top of Django Rest Framework and Next.js. We also use Yjs and BlockNote.js, both of which we are proud to sponsor.

• You can easily self-host Docs (check our installation documentation).
• Docs uses an innovation and business friendly licence (MIT).
• Contributions are welcome (see our roadmap here).

Docs is the result of a joint effort lead by the French (DINUM) and German governments (ZenDiS).

Docs is designed to provide “simple and secure collaboration.”

Docs makes real-time collaboration simple. Invite collaborators – public officials or external partners – with one click to see their changes live, while maintaining precise access control for data security.

The platform also provides easy export options, ensuring compatibility with existing platforms.

To facilitate the circulation of documents, Docs allows you to export your content to the most common formats: PDF, Word or OpenDocument.

Docs may be among the first of the EU’s responses to the Trump administration’s policies, but it likely won’t be the last.