European Alternatives to LinkedIn
Microsoft's professional social network with over 900 million members. Allows creating a professional profile, searching for jobs and developing your network.
LinkedIn Features
- Professional profile
- Job search
- Professional networking
- Posts and articles
- InMail messaging
- LinkedIn Learning
- Sales Navigator
Price: Free / Premium Career at 29,99€/month / Premium Business at 59,99€/month
Why leave LinkedIn?
- GDPR fine of 310 million euros for violations related to advertising tracking and profiling without legal basis (2024)
- AI training on EU user data since November 2025, including all history since 2003
- Users enrolled by default in AI training without explicit consent, manual opt-out required
- Data integrated into Microsoft Azure OpenAI and Copilot ecosystem, subject to CLOUD Act
- Lack of legal basis for advertising profiling according to Irish DPC
Recommended : XING
German professional social network leading in the DACH market (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). Over 20 million members and 1 million job offers.
Country : DE
Compatibility Scores
- Migration : 35/100
- GDPR : 90/100
- Features : 70/100
- Overall Score : 68/100
XING Features
- Professional profile
- Over 1 million job offers
- Professional networking
- Messaging
- Professional events
- Profile statistics
- Skills test
Price: Free (limited) / Premium ~10€/month / ProJobs on request
Why this choice?
XING is our recommendation for European professionals, particularly in the DACH market. Unlike LinkedIn, your data is not used to train AI or integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem. It's the leader in professional networking in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Switch from LinkedIn to XING
Strengths
- German company subject to European law
- No AI training on your professional data
- No Microsoft/CLOUD Act integration
- Leader in DACH market (20M+ members)
- No invasive advertising profiling
Weaknesses
- Smaller network (20M vs 900M+ members)
- Mainly German-speaking market
- Fewer international opportunities
- Manual profile migration
All Alternatives
- XING (DE) — Score : 68/100 (Recommended)