Collective Tools
What is Collective Tools and why we made it
Collective Tools is a suite of digital tools for everyday office work and collaboration. It works like any digital workspace. The difference is what happens behind the scenes. Your data is stored in Europe, is never tracked, and can be moved whenever you want. With Collective Tools, you always stay in control.
It brings documents, meetings, communication, and planning together in one shared workspace, so mail, messages, office, notes, and video meetings all live in one place, reached from the same account.
Behind that everyday simplicity are three things that stay true whatever you use it for. Your data is yours: it is stored within the EU, you are not tracked, and it can always be moved. The technology is open, built on open source and open standards, which means the code can be audited, improved, and built upon. And it is independent of Big Tech, no American platforms, no per-user licence fees, and no dependency on a single provider.
We made it because of something we noticed in our own working lives. We work in digital tools every day, but the relationship is often one-way. We use the systems, yet we have no influence over them. Our data leaves us and ends up somewhere else. Collective Tools is an attempt to offer something different. It is built on software that thousands of developers have contributed to, and we give back by reporting bugs, taking part in communities, and supporting the projects we build on. The principle behind open source is that the digital asset is managed together. That is how we want the internet to work.
Collective Tools is an initiative from Digidem Lab and Democracy Upgraded. Digidem Lab is a cooperatively owned democracy lab and consultancy, and we support municipalities and organisations in running inclusive democratic processes, often with digital tools. As part of that work we run Collective Tools, a package of secure, open source cloud services. It has been around since 2019, delivering digital services to organisations in the USA, Brazil, Japan, and several European countries. Values-driven, cooperatively owned, and part of the digital commons, that is what we commit to.
Privacy and security are built in from the start. Your data is never stored outside the EU, all data centres run on renewable energy, and daily backups are included in every subscription. There is no profiling, no ads, and no algorithms studying your behaviour, while two-factor authentication and encryption is standard. Technology is not neutral; it matters who owns the infrastructure. Collective Tools is owned and operated in Europe, with no ties to American tech companies. And you don’t have to manage any of it yourself, because every subscription includes installation, maintenance and monthly upgrades.
See how Collective Tools would work for you.
