Hey!
I’ve been thinking to maybe get a new email service, currently I’m using gmail for “serious” stuff and I have an old hotmail account i use for random shit I don’t want associated with my gmail. I’m curious to hear what people in here are using and their pros and cons. I’d like a more privacy focused one where they at least don’t scan through every email I recieve “for my convenience”.
1 Like
I think ProtonMail is a pretty safe bet. It’s free, but you can pay if you want extra addresses, more storage, stuff like that.
One thing is though, when it comes to encrypted emails, ProtonMail won’t be reading your emails which is nice, but if you’re using it for Amazon or whatever they can still see them obviously because they sent them. So really, encrypted email is mostly only useful for private conversations IMO. And even then, they need to be using an encrypted service as well. If you’re sending them to someone’s GMail there’s not much benefit. Any company that you send/receive from still is able to tie that data back to you.
9 Likes
Here’s a detailed comparative: Gmail vs ProtonMail vs FastMail review / blog: Oh Gosh, Trying to Find a New Email Provider in 2020 – Flameeyes's Weblog
4 Likes
I’ve been using FastMail for 5 years with a custom domain. Very happy with the service. I forward everything from Outlook.com and Gmail to it.
1 Like
Hushmail has been my recommendation for many years. Love the infinite custom email aliases.
1 Like
How long have you been running this setup. Are you hosting locally or on a VPS? Do you have any issues with sending mail to Gmail at all?
1 Like
Thanks for the replies! I’ll do some research.
1 Like
Fastmail and Mailbox.org are your best options. ProtonMail isn’t email since you can’t use IMAP, you have to use their app or webmail. Email was not designed to be encrypted, the metadata is available to all the mail relays involved, and ProtonMail only is private if you message other ProtonMail users.
Self hosting is fun but do some thorough testing before you really dive in.
3 Likes
I wouldn’t recommend hosting your own anymore. I did it many years ago and it was difficult to keep up with SPF, DKIM, Greylisting, DNSBLs, spam, backscatter, and a ton other things. I did this for approx 10 years. Now I pay somebody else to run a mail server for me.
3 Likes
Since 2016. Hosting locally. No issues sending to Gmail.
2 Likes
Hosting locally as well. Highly recommend it over protonmail, which is fundamentally insecure.
3 Likes
Insecure how? Just curious.
1 Like
Protonmail relies on the browser. The browser is inherently insecure. You have to trust a ton of JavaScript libraries are not only working properly, but also hardened.
Then you have to trust that there’s no other malicious ads or anything like that.
Protonmail is just an absolute mess. Good idea, implementation leaves everything to be desired.
4 Likes
That kind of makes sense for me. Being a noob and all…
1 Like
I don’t know all the details, but go and pull down any react or vue project and see how many node packages get pulled in. The dependency tree is like 1800 for one of my pet projects.
2 Likes
One of the many ways in which javascript is totally bonkers.
3 Likes
So apparently there are many pitfalls… But hosting my own is not really an option. I’d love to have my own little room with servers and all kinds of goodies but my life has other plans for me right now.
1 Like
Don’t the Synology NAS units have an email server app? I haven’t used it, but something like that might be a good choice for something in-between a cloud provider and a full self hosted setup.
1 Like