Best email providers and Proton replacement?
from vas@lemmy.ml to privacy@lemmy.ml on 03 Nov 16:51
https://lemmy.ml/post/54861736

What do you folks use instead of Proton and Google? Ideally I’m looking for:

My reason to want non-profit is that it’s the best way to align mine and the provider’s incentives, I think. I’d consider for-profit as well, but it’s best if it’s a non-profit.

So far I like disroot a lot. But they are principled about being unpaid, so if the financial ends don’t meet each other my emails will be in trouble. I’m donating to them, but I have my worries. I’m willing to pay a little if I know that my money will go for a quality service, for expansion of coverage (new users) and for open-source technologies.

Proton and their founder Andy are just a piece of sh*t in terms of upper management, so that’s not worth discussing.

Posteo seems adequate. Tuta feels similar to Posteo with a bit more push for fanciness. Is there something similar but non-profit?

#privacy

threaded - newest

taco_shale032@lemmy.ml on 03 Nov 17:09 next collapse

mailbox.org is noteworthy too, but I don’t think I know any non-profit ones unfortunately.

MaddestMax@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 17:46 next collapse

This. Very happy mailbox.org user.

freddo@lemmy.zip on 03 Nov 20:12 next collapse

Amazing service. They had a price increase recently I think. They never bother me and the service works great so no complaints.

vas@lemmy.ml on 05 Nov 14:59 collapse

Thank you for your response! This was one of two main contenders for me. What I’ve found about mailbox is that they have medium-strength stance on open-source (using, but not using only this). They likely support inbound encryption with a user-provided PGP key (“PGP-encrypted inbox” mailbox.org/en/prices/#compare-all-features--2). They are reasonably priced and upgradable with some additional payment to have VoIP support.

The other main contender for me was posteo, and after thinking and reading over the last 2 days, I’ve decided to go with them. In particular, I’ve liked:

  • Very good docs, saying what exactly they do. I could read all the details I wanted to know.
  • Strong stance on open-source: "our product offering exclusively uses open source software and free protocols, for security reasons. We only use Javascript which has open source code."
  • Sustainability, e.g. they only use permanent contracts for employees. (And many other points that resonated with me.)
  • They don’t have calling support, but I consider it even better actually, because I want my emails to be very reliable, cheap and de-coupled from the rest of things. Calling I can honestly self-host just fine, since I don’t have to worry much if stuff breaks or changes (as opposed to email, which would better be stable for me).

Again I actually value having read about mailbox as well - it’s a very good alternative!

dieTasse@feddit.org on 03 Nov 17:11 next collapse

I will wait how the situation at Proton evolves I have recently prolonged so I am not in hurry. Right now nothing changes the fact that most of the services are still e2e and more secure than most alternatives, if that changes I have no problem switching. And I find encouraging that despite Yen being an ass there is actually good amount of employees that consider what they do in Proton their mission and they have passion for it and I hope Andy won’t squash that…

eager_eagle@lemmy.world on 03 Nov 17:18 next collapse

who knows if this will have any impact, but users are voicing their opinions here, asking Yen to be removed

…uservoice.com/…/51869994-andy-yen-ceo-should-ste…

dieTasse@feddit.org on 03 Nov 17:27 next collapse

I voted there too 😀

ItsMeSpez@lemmy.world on 04 Nov 23:20 collapse

Thanks for posting this, I just voted on the issue as well.

vas@lemmy.ml on 03 Nov 17:37 collapse

For me personally, this quote was insightful:

When someone shows you who they are, believe them

That being said, man, you’ve just paid them. Of course I’d also not just jump overboard all of a sudden.

dieTasse@feddit.org on 03 Nov 18:00 collapse

Oh I believe them. But I also see that he built a fairly successful company focused on privacy (and security) and despite everything he has done lately they, the company, are listening to users (albeit quite slow) and they have no obligations to investors and that is one of their more important premises. So while I agree that Yen really needs to go, I still like Proton as a whole and I sincerely hope that whoever comes after Yen will be better and not worse than him… A

rhythmisaprancer@quokk.au on 03 Nov 19:05 next collapse

I have used mailfence for 10 years or so. Not non profit (I think) but should fit your other needs.

scotmartin@feddit.org on 03 Nov 20:17 next collapse

posteo.de Mail, calendar, contacts. Wonderful.

neo2478@sh.itjust.works on 03 Nov 21:32 next collapse

In wish they would allow custom domains.

vas@lemmy.ml on 05 Nov 15:03 collapse

Thank you for the comment! This is the provider I went with in the end. In particular, I’ve liked:

  • They support inbound encryption with my public PGP key.
  • Very good docs, saying what exactly they do. I could read all the details I wanted to know.
  • Strong stance on open-source: “our product offering exclusively uses open source software and free protocols, for security reasons. We only use Javascript which has open source code.”
  • Sustainability, e.g. they only use permanent contracts for employees. (And many other points that resonated with me.)
  • They don’t have calling support, but I consider it even better actually, because I want my emails to be very reliable, cheap and de-coupled from the rest of things. Calling I can honestly self-host just fine, since I don’t have to worry much if stuff breaks or changes (as opposed to email, which would better be stable for me).

It’s a bit limiting that they don’t support an unlimited number of aliases, but at least they support 3 of them, and the “+” sign same as google and many others do.

pjusk@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 03 Nov 23:55 next collapse

Migrated to Fastmail about a year ago, away from Proton. Mostly to have an alternative that was easy to use for my partner too, but its honeslty the vest mail experience money can buy imo. Has a lot of nice features and the UI is excellent.

Also the developers there really seem to care about what they do. Love reading their blogoosts about how they store the data, or how they’re also hwlping develop the new open standard JMAP.

Fastmail is a failsafe option worth the penny.

vas@lemmy.ml on 05 Nov 12:05 collapse

Thank you for the response! It was interesting to read about them. However, it’s also notable that they don’t offer inbound encryption with user-provided GPG keys. For me that part matters. Again thanks for the response in any case!

Lemmchen@feddit.org on 04 Nov 13:05 next collapse

Happy posteo.de customer here. Keep in mind you can not use your own domain and the payment process is a bit weird due to privacy reasons.

cardfire@sh.itjust.works on 05 Nov 16:30 next collapse

Is the impression I’m in a minority and a lot of folks aren’t fans, but I’ve been absolutely satisfied with Tuta for email and calendaring, and with a private domain attached I have virtually unlimited email accounts. I choose to pay 36 Euros per year to that vendor, over the alternatives.

undefinedTruth@lemmy.zip on 06 Nov 20:34 collapse

I switched to Tuta literally yesterday. I’ve been fed up with Proton for years, the recent events were just what broke the camel’s back. My 2-year subscription was expiring in December, so it was time.