MemoFamille vs iCloud
MemoFamille is a European alternative to iCloud: same consumer products use case, headquartered in France and governed by EU GDPR, while iCloud (Apple) is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Share family photos and videos in one private album joined by a family code, simple for grandparents, ad-free, hosted in France.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
iCloud is the sync layer holding Apple devices together, covering photos, files, device backups, passwords and Find My. Every account gets 5 GB free, which fills almost immediately, with paid iCloud+ tiers above it. Apple Inc. is headquartered in Cupertino; end-to-end encryption for most categories exists as Advanced Data Protection but is switched off unless you enable it.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
MemoFamille vs iCloud at a glance
| MemoFamille | iCloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | France | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | United States |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need consumer products built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the Apple ecosystem |
Choose MemoFamille if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with iCloud if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Apple ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
About MemoFamille
MemoFamille is a private photo and video album for one family, built so that grandparents can use it without help. Parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts join the same space with a family code, then share and comment on memories that would otherwise get lost in group chats. The app and website are in French only.
One subscription covers the whole family, with unlimited members, unlimited photos and videos of up to ten minutes. The apps run on iPhone and Android, and relatives who prefer a computer open the album in a web browser without installing anything. Notifications tell everyone when something new arrives, and a Méli-Mélo feed resurfaces older memories at random.
Key benefits:
- Family code access so only invited relatives see the album
- Designed for older users with a simple open, look and comment flow
- Unlimited members and photos on a single family subscription
- Videos up to ten minutes in the same feed as the photos
- Events and reactions to gather a birthday or holiday and talk about it in place
- No advertising in the album, as a stated commitment
- Free data export so the family keeps its archive if it leaves
MemoFamille is published by Yann Bronner, a sole trader registered in Mulhouse, France, since 2024. Photos, videos, the database and account data are hosted in France by OVHcloud, and audience measurement uses Umami on those same servers plus PostHog in the EU. Some supporting services are American: RevenueCat manages in-app subscriptions, Expo delivers push notifications, Sentry collects error reports and GrowthBook runs site tests, while Firebase Analytics and Google Ads measurement run only with consent given in the app.
After a 30-day trial with no card required, it costs €5.99 a month, or €59.88 a year (€4.99 a month).
Why choose MemoFamille over iCloud?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. iCloud is headquartered in the United States, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
MemoFamille removes that overhead. As a France-based provider, it operates under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.