– Positioned as a European, privacy-focused alternative to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
– Collects virtually no user data and does not engage in profiling or AI training on personal data.
– Runs open-source LLMs on German servers (IONOS), with encrypted chats and no US parent company.
– Only technical metadata (clicks, loading times) is collected via PostHog, hosted in Frankfurt.
– Still in open beta; pricing and free tier are undecided, pending beta phase evaluation.
Privacy-First European AI Alternative
Eustella aims to position itself as a European alternative to ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. The company behind the service is newsrooms.ai, or AI Newsrooms Technology GmbH, based in Vienna, Austria. The companies core objective is to create an AI infrastructure that adheres to European values of privacy, data sovereingty and control.
Current Availability and Access
Currently, the service is in open beta, but the LLM (Large Life Management) platform is already accessible via a web browser and via the app for iOS and Android on the App Store and Play Store. Eustella is aimed at anyone who wants to use chatbots, agents and similar services just like with the major providers, but without having to share there personal data.
Data Protection Philosophy
With Eustella, users dont simply feed there data to a European provider; rather, the company claims to collect virtually no data and does not engage in profiling. The AI is hosted on servers belonging to German company IONOS, which has no American parent company. IONOS cannot view the encrypted chat content. Since the website or app hosts one or more open-source models, newsrooms.ai doesnt rely on its own AI training but instead uses the most modern and promising OS LLMs.
Data Collection Practices
This means the provider doesnt need to use any personal data for AI training. The only data collected is for product improvement (e.g., loading times, error rates, latency, clicks). There is, in fact, one tool from a US provider in the data processing chain: the PostHog software from the American provider of the same name is used for product analysis. However, it is configured to run only on servers in Frankfurt and only analyzes technical metadata, not chat content.
Pricing and Model Quality
Pricing, whether there will be a free tier as usual, and how limited such access will be are currently unknown, as newsrooms.ai intends to evaluate the experiences from the beta phase first. The sole use of open-source models could, of course, lead to a loss of quality in the answers compared to those from major providers. I tested whether this is the case in my next article: I had a travel agent generate tips for a two-day trip to Paris, planned my DSA evening, and coded a small tool using Vibe.