I’m considering finally jumping off gmail. I’m not going to host my own email since I just don’t have the skill to secure that thing well enough myself. Any mail server I set up would become a botnest within hours. So that has me looking at third party stuff.
Proton has a mostly good reputation, though their CEO’s twitter post a while back praising the Trump regime makes me question if I should trust them with anything. I don’t know enough about the entire situation to know if its just internet drama or a real concern, but anything involving Trump is a huge red flag for me.
Tuta looks pretty nice but I’ve read there are concerns about it being in a country that’s part of the 14 eyes collaboration, so it might not matter what the organization wants if the government of the region they are in says fuck off and do what we tell you.
On the lower end of concerns, I am in the Apple ecosystem. (boo hiss I know). I like the clean and simple built in apps like email and calendar and how the notifications all work across my watch, phone, mac and homepods. I like how safari can just jump in and throw an email alias at things for me. I like how all my stuff is managed. But I also know Apple could piss me off at any moment and make wild sweeping changes I might not like, so relying on them too much could screw me over someday. I dont know, right now I really like their setup but portability does seem to matter more ultimately so this switch does seem like a better idea in the long run, even if I’m giving up features I may enjoy.
What are your opinions on the privacy email and calendar services in 2025? Should I even both with a cloud based calendar in the first place?
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I recently started migrating my email and went with mailbox.org. I opted for it based on it having a good balance of ethical/environmental stances, support for custom email domain (so email doesn’t feel like vendor lock in in the future), and a business model focusing on paid service.
There were a lot of options but ultimately I just wanted something “good enough” rather than spending weeks on comparing. A part of that decision was realizing I didn’t care about getting something with the best possible privacy - email is predominantly an insecure medium and things with E2EE work only if the recipient is in the same ecosystem, which is rare. In practice I’m not going to trust anything sensitive to email regardless, so I might as well prioritize picking something that looks like a decent and stable balance.
Mailbox.org has calendar but I haven’t really played with it much. I’m realistically going to look in to look in to something self hosted since I will require more features than most email providers will offer, so I don’t want to tether the two services. That was a part of the reasoning for Mailbox.org over something with more services - I wanted email, not something trying to be the next ecosystem - that’s what I was trying to get away from!
Chiming in from a USA user. Their webmail and suite run slow in the USA. Once it loads the page initially though, it uses localstorage.
However, back when I used them less than a year ago, they had random periods where the websuite did not load.
Finally, they have a really bad 2fa implementation that is not documented and I had to search Reddit to figure out how to log in.
Whichever service to decide to switch to I’d recommend not deleting your gmail, just let it rot, you never know if you need access to that email again.
Mailbox.org is widely recommended.
Can’t recommend them enough. You can have your entire inbox encrypted without them holding the private key, unlike Tuta and Proton; which also allows use of open protocols instead of proprietary apps
I switched to Fastmail earlier this year and have been very happy. Aliases are supported and you can bring your own domain on single or multiple accounts.
Same. I love that mail, calendar, contacts, notes, and files are all in one snappy app. I left proton because their android app was soooooo slow on android.
+1 for Fastmail
Same here, went with Fastmail and I love it.
I’m using a custom domain name, but I use aliases for services I don’t trust, and for those who block my custom domain name.
Use either Tuta or ProtonMail (I use both) with SimpleLogin aliases 
I. like the idea of simplelogin as it seems to do what I’m already doing with icloud plus but it suffers the same problem. the messages are flowing through a third party before they get to me. why would I trust a third party?
migadu.com still works greta for my private domain. $20/yr plus whatever the domain costs ($1.90 in my case)
I’m using disroot.org as my email provider, with a custom domain to easily switch if needed, but so far it’s been great It’s free for a little storage and you can buy more, it’s a non profit based in Netherlands
There is also riseup.net as a non profit email provider, servers in the US I think
There is also riseup.net as a non profit email provider, servers in the US I think
You are correct and that was the deciding factor in scratching them off my list.
I’ve been migrating to Soverin and like it thus far. I’ve only done email and my calendaring though.
It’s not free but it’s also not overly costly.
This may be helpful: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/email/#recommended-providers
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I’ve been using purelymail.com, $10 a year gets me just what I need, which is as many independent addresses and inboxes as I would reasonably need under a parent account. It is what it says on the tin, so there aren’t any extras like file storage. Granted, there is a bus factor associated with Purelymail since it looks like a one-man operation for now.
I’m not qualified to speak on cloud-based calendars since I design and print my own.
The one thing that stood out about Purelymail to me was having not just aliases, but fully separate inboxes. But I’d also suggest checking out Tuta, Posteo, mailbox.org, and FastMail. I had also used Proton and was considering upgrading my plan. What kept me back was the web interface getting heavier by the year and having to install Bridge to use another client wasn’t my cup of tea. E2EE is certainly a good feature, but I’ve never found myself sending an email to another Proton user and therefore have never taken advantage of it.
If you want the cheapest, no frills, secure (read their security policy) email host with calendar, contacts, tasks via caldav/cardav sync (thunderbird) then Purelymail is a great option. I have used them for years, no down times, great support, bring your own domain if you like. The only downside for some, it is based in the US. I am willing to overlook the US for a host that is $10 a year (can’t afford the others.)
If you worried about security, I would start thinking about transitioning off of Apple/MacOS and try out linux. Linux can run on your Apple computer. I assume you probably have an iPhone. I would suggest getting an Android phone (Pixels are great) and downloading an Android Privacy supported rom, like CalyxOS, which is de-googled completely, highly secure. There is also GrapheneOS and others, which support more phone manufacturers.
I use linux for some things, but my daily driver is macOS. Linux isn’t fully supported on apple silicon yet anyway.
Just get the f out of gmail. Almost anything else is better. Dont hold off for perfection as it doesn’t exist. I use Proton and Tuta. I won’t renew Proton because CEO is a wanker. Migration to Tuta was good and they have Tuta calendar.
I read somewhere tuta is just a honeypot though.
Please can you support the honeypot comment? Both Privacy Tools and Privacy guides and others recommend it. There is a reasonable free tier and a paid tier. I don’t see the honeypot.
That’s the thing. It’s mostly just Reddit shit. Nothing proven but the case they made is plausible so…I dunno.
Rent a mail-hotel, set up your own mail there. That’s easy, and you are in full control.
practically one isn’t better than the other. But after the founder of proton came out in support of the Trump government, i started moving. I still have my proton account but i’m paying for Tuta.
