These resources can help you ‘buy Canadian’ tech and software

With the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and Canada, there’s been a major focus on buying Canadian products over American options. But it’s not always easy to do, especially in tech, where U.S. companies are often dominant.

Sure, it might be easy to switch the brand of ketchup you buy, or to avoid travel to the U.S., but how do you replace something like Microsoft or Google?

Fortunately, there are alternatives out there, from Canadians or at least non-American options. The tricky part might be finding these alternatives, but there are tools and resources that can help.

I recently learned about a website called ‘TryCanadian.ca” that aims to make it easier to find Canadian alternatives to U.S. products and services. TryCanadian goes beyond tech as well, with alternatives for everything from fast food to cleaning products.

The independent site offers a simple search feature — punch in an American company and get a list of possible Canadian alternatives. You can also browse by specific categories, like tech or clothes. Plus, there’s a community aspect, with the option to submit Canadian alternatives for review.

Moreover, TryCanadian has a helpful page breaking down its methodology and some of the labels it applies to companies. For example, it shows whether a company is Canadian-owned, Canadian-founded, headquartered in Canada, or has made-in-Canada products.

And TryCanadian isn’t the only resource out there like this. Canadian creators Tod and Jocelyn Maffin put together a Notion page called “Unplug America” detailing tons of tech alternatives to popular U.S. services.

And a few months ago, I put together a list of alternatives to Google Search. It was focused more on avoiding Google’s annoying AI Overviews, but it also works for anyone looking to ditch some U.S. tech. MobileSyrup will also continue covering Canadian tech and highlighting Canadian alternatives when we can, so stay tuned here as well.