Who of you uses one of the above services, what do you think of it?
I’m a proton unlimited subscriber and it’s great. I love the email aliasing from simplelogin, protonvpn, drive storage, calendar, etc. well worth it imo. I love the company.
I use Proton, business tier. My only gripe is that addresses can’t be deleted without contacting support, or so I’ve read. I can’t find a delete button on any of my addresses, but can find the button to buy more address slots.
Using custom domains and a catch-all pointing to certain labels is my workaround.
You aren’t missing anything. You can’t delete them yourself, but, you can pause them. For now, for me, the pause works just as well because if/when any of my email addys starts getting ridiculous spam I’ll just pause it. I run a business off one of my accounts and I don’t want any of the emails I’ve handed out to not reach me so I am fine nit being able to delete (for now). I’ve just been extra careful to choose addresses that I don’t feel a need to delete.
I also find it weird that you can’t create unlimited addresses on your custom domains.
For the shared domains, limits in this regard are absolutely understandable as the supply is limited but addresses should have next to no cost for PM when they’re under my own domain.
Why is that? @protonmail@mastodon.social
This and the fact that I can’t use my mail clients on android (I understand the bridge and the incompatibility with encryption, it makes sense, I just don’t like it), stops me from being a paid customer
I imagine a bad actor could buy a custom domain, connect it to proton, and then spam millions of people from thousands of addresses, using Proton’s infrastructure?
What is the # limit on a custom domain?
Fastmail is great but it’s a totally different market /use case, you wouldn’t go with them if you’re privacy oriented. They’re better than Google in that sense but you’d go with Proton if you’re looking for privacy features.
Also keep in mind Fastmail is based in Australia and their government tends to be anti-privacy with the laws that get passed there.
AU laws are worse than US laws, in fact, the US gets AU to do things for them that would otherwise be illegal if performed by US agents
I’ve used Fastmail with a custom domain for a few years now… (5+?) and have been really happy with it. I wish it was a bit cheaper (or had a better family plan), but it works well with my terminal email client (mutt).
The web client is pretty quick and I use the calendar there all the time. Fastmail supports all the normal standards such as CalDAV, so you can use it with third party applications.
Note that ProtonMail and Fastmail have quite different feature sets.
ProtonMail does not store your Email in plain text for instance; they cannot read them or be ordered to read them. This comes with some drawbacks such as that standard protocols such as IMAP do not work without a bridge because they necessitates that the server can read all the emails.
Though the bridge works really well
I’m happy with fastmail. I haven’t used Protonmail and have had some doubts about them overclaiming about end to end encryption and stuff like that, but they sound good too. The concept of privacy in email is problematic since a) if the person you are emailing uses gmail, then Google has a copy of your email’s plain text no matter how much encryption your own provider uses. b) Even if the email content is encrypted, having the metadata intercepted can be just as invasive, c) even if encrypted, having an archived and authenticated copy of a message can be a big problem due to e.g. rubber hose cryptanalysis, d) for secure communication to exist at all, both people have to be quite security conscious, which isn’t easy. Technical features like cryptography are of very little help with that.
There’s a good movie “Citizenfour” about Edward Snowden, and I remember reading that when the producers needed to have a private conversation while working on the film, they would go outside and talk, leaving their phones in the office. A real privacy approach has to go well beyond using the right email provider.
I like that Fastmail has humans answering support tickets. That’s already light years beyond anything like gmail. I don’t know how Proton is about that. Maybe they can do it for paid plans. I don’t see how they can do it sustainably for free plans but who knows. The main drawback of fastmail is that it is on the expensive side, but I use it so much that it doesn’t sting as much.
If you just want cheap non-megacorp email for your own domains, I like mxroute.com. Their sticker prices can be kind of high, but they frequently have sales with super cheap plans.
Proton Mail with a custom domain. The only reason why is that I had it before I knew Fastmail existed and it would be a pain in the ass to move my entire family to it. However, I was VERY tempted when 1Password put Fastmail temporary email support into their product.
Fortunately, Proton Mail just released their own temporary email product based on SimpleLogin.
I’ve used both and have had good experiences with both. One benefit of Proton is that emails sent to other Proton users are encrypted, but if you mostly just email people who have @gmail.com addresses, then Gmail’s going to store a copy of your emails to that person on their servers anyway.
Both Proton and Fastmail allow you to have a custom domain with a wildcard catch-all address, but the process for replying from that random wildcard address is much more seamless on Fastmail. Proton requires some extra setup and workarounds. But then again Proton is more secure.
It really depends how you use email and what’s important to you (security, convenience, features). I mainly just get junk mail and newsletters. For more private communication I use Signal.
I think that any e-mail service that doesn’t provide IMAP/SMTP directly to their servers (like Proton Mail) and uses custom protocols is yet another attempt at vendor lock-in and nobody should use it.
What Proton is doing is pushing for vendor lock-in at any possible point so you’re stuck with what they deem acceptable because it’s easier for them to build a service this way and makes more sense from a business / customer retention perspective.
I always read about people complaining when others use Google or Microsoft for e-mail around here and the self-hosting community. At least if you’re in one of those providers you can access your e-mail through standard protocols like IMAP, POP3 and SMTP. How ironic it is to see privacy / freedom die hard fans suddenly going for a company that is far less open than the big providers… just because of marketing. :)
Proton is just a company that wants to make money and found out there was a niche of people who would buy into everything that says “encryption” and “privacy” no matter what the cost. They’ve learnt how to weaponize “privacy” to push more and more vendor lock-in. Not even Apple does this.
What vendor lock-in are you talking about?
I can take my domain, customize DNS records and in a couple of minutes I am using a new provider. They also allow to export email content, which means I obviously don’t lose anything.
With a free email account, you are anyway locked-in as with every provider, because you are using their domain. You can set automatic forwarding in that case.
Vendor lock exists when you invest substantial amount of work to build tools around a specific platform (say, AWS), or where you have no way to easily take the data from one platform out and use something else to do the same thing (say, Meta).
The fact that you can’t use SMTP, which is a protocol that requires data on the server is not a vendor lock-in in any sense of the word. It’s a decision that depends on having that content e2e encrypted, because the two things are simy incompatible.
Also the code for all Proton clients and the bridge is open source, and the bridge is essentially a client that emulates being a server so that you can use your preferred tools to access the emails. Even in this scenario, there is no vendor lock and all it takes is changing the configuration of your tool from the local bridge address to whatever SMTP server you want to use elsewhere.
Can you please describe in which way you are actually locked-in, to show that you have a clue about what the word means?
The fact that you can’t use SMTP, which is a protocol that requires data on the server is not a vendor lock-in in any sense of the word. It’s a decision that depends on having that content e2e encrypted, because the two things are simy incompatible.
No, they aren’t. There are lots of ways to do e2e encryption on e-mail over SMTP (OpenPGP, S/MIME etc.). SMTP itself also supports TLS for secure server-to-server communications (or server-to-client in submission contexts) as well as header minimization options to prevent metadata leakage. And Proton decided NOT to use any of those proven solutions and go for some obscure propriety thing instead because it fits their business better and makes development faster.
Also the code for all Proton clients and the bridge is open source, and the bridge is essentially a client that emulates
The bridge exists yet, you can only run in certain devices AND it only exists until they allow it to exist. You don’t know if there are rate limits on the bridge usage and other small details that may restrict your ability to move large amounts of email around.
They also allow to export email content, which means I obviously don’t lose anything.
Decent providers will give you an export option that will export all your e-mail using industry standard formats such as mbox and maildir. Do you know what Proton does? They provide you a convoluted mess of EML files + metadata as JSON files that you can’t import to another service without some data loss. Same goes for Contacts and Calendars.
E-mail, contacts, calendars, notes and whatnot is one of the few truly open and truly interoperable solutions we still have nowadays. Protocols like IMAP, POP3, SMTP, WebDAV, CardDAV, CalDAV make it so you can have e-mail at any provider, talk to people from other providers and use any client application you would like - not like the bullshit that Whatsapp, Messenger, Telegram, Signal and others that that you can only communicate with people using the same provider.
Proton mail is so closed that you can’t even sync your Proton mail contacts / calendars with iOS or Android - you can only use their closed source mail client to access that data or the webui. Not even Apple, the most anti-competitive and closed company in the world, holds your contacts and calendars hostage - they allow you to sync with ANY CardDAV and CalDAV server and their iCloud service also supports those protocols so you can use it any 3rd party client.
Proton doesn’t respect the open internet by not basing their services on those protocols and then they feed miss-information (like the thing about e2e encryption being impossible on SMTP) and by using it you’re just contributing to a less open Internet.
im not involved in this discussion really but i wanna add a couple things.
Proton is the only e2ee email provider that uses PGP interoperability, because they are trying to be more open, and also means that anyone can do e2ee with you not just other proton accounts. this is different from skiff, tuta, etc
also their export tool allows mbox, contrary to what you said.
also their export tool allows mbox, contrary to what you said.
From their own documentation:
Proton Mail Export Tool (…) allows you to export all your emails as EML files, and their metadata as JSON files.
There are lots of ways to do e2e encryption on e-mail over SMTP (OpenPGP, S/MIME etc.)
Yes, and that requires using a client. The JS code of the webclient and the bridge are clients for PGP.
SMTP itself also supports TLS for secure server-to-server communications (or server-to-client in submission contexts) as well as header minimization options to prevent metadata leakage.
TLS is completely pointless in this conversation. TLS is a point-to-point protocol and it’s not e2e where the definition of the “ends” are message recipient and sender (i.e., their client applications), it only protects the transport from your client to the server, then the server terminates the connection and has access to the plaintext data. Proton also uses TLS, but again, it has no use whatsoever for e2ee.
And Proton decided NOT to use any of those proven solutions and go for some obscure propriety thing instead because it fits their business better and makes development faster.
They didn’t do anything obscure, they have opensource clients that do PGP encryption similar to how your web client would do. Doing encryption on the client is the only way to ensure the server can’t have access to the content of the emails. It just happens that the client is called “proton bridge” or “proton web” instead of OpenPGP.
only exists until they allow it to exist.
It’s their official product, and anyway it’s not a blocker for anything. They stop giving you the bridge? You move in less than 1h to another provider.
You don’t know if there are rate limits on the bridge usage and other small details that may restrict your ability to move large amounts of email around.
Do you know that there are, or are we arguing on hypotheticals?
Decent providers will give you an export option that will export all your e-mail using industry standard formats such as mbox and maildir.
True. You can still get the data out, whether they don’t do in a “best practice” way or not. It’s not vendor lock.
Proton mail is so closed that you can’t even sync your Proton mail contacts / calendars with iOS or Android - you can only use their closed source mail client to access that data or the webui.
https://github.com/ProtonMail. All the mail clients are opensource.
Also, WebDAV, CardDAV, CalDAV do not support e2ee. You need once again a client that extends it, which is what Proton also does!
So the question is very simple: do you prefer e2ee or you prefer native plain caldav/webdav/carddav? If the answer for you is the latter, Proton is simply a product that is not for you. If you prefer the former, then Proton does it. Either way, this is not again vendor-lock. They allow you to export contacts and calendar in a standard format, and you can move to a new provider.
Proton doesn’t respect the open internet by not basing their services on those protocols and then they feed miss-information (like the thing about e2e encryption being impossible on SMTP) and by using it you’re just contributing to a less open Internet.
SMTP does not allow e2ee by definition. I am not sure whether you don’t understand SMTP or how e2ee works, but SMTP is a protocol based on the server having access to the content. The only way you can do e2ee is using a client that encyrpts the content, like PGP (which is what Proton uses), before sending it to the server. This is exactly what happens with Proton, the webclients use SMTP to talk to proton server but before that they do client-side encryption (using PGP), exactly like you would do with any other client (see https://github.com/search?q=repo%3AProtonMail%2FWebClients smtp&type=code).
Now, you made a claim, which is that Proton vendor locks you:
- Mail can be moved easily. Change DNS record (or set forwarding) and export previous email.
- Calendar can be moved easily, export ics -> import in new calendar
- Contacts can be moved easily, export vcf -> import in new contact
So your claim that you are vendor locked it’s simply false, deal with it.
You made some additional claims about Proton not using plain standard protocols. That’s true. None of those protocols support e2ee, so they wrote clients that extend those protocols. All clients are opensourced, including the bridge. This has anyway nothing to do with being vendor locked, which in fact you completely did not explain. You talked about interoperability at most, which is not related to vendor lock.
You also made additional uniformed or false claims:
- TLS being helpful for e2ee. Is not in the context of email.
- You failed to understand why using native Cal/Web/CardDAV is incompatible with e2ee.
- You called “closed source mail client”, when all the email clients are opensource.
they have opensource clients that do PGP encryption similar to how your web client would do. Doing encryption on the client is the only way to ensure the server can’t have access to the content of the emails. It just happens that the client is called “proton bridge” or “proton web” instead of OpenPGP.
So tell me, why is it that Proton simply didn’t go for OpenPGP + SMTP + IMAP and simply build a nice web / desktop client for it and kept it compatible with all the other generic solutions out there? What’s the point? Why can’t Proton be just a simple way to get OpenPGP working for anyone who doesn’t have the tech knowledge / time instead of a bunch of proprietary solutions?
The old Lavabit service (before Snowden) was a good example of how you can keep email secure while still providing generic IMAP/SMTP access. It worked, even better than everyone expected. While their model wasn’t perfect they indeed solved the problem.
So your claim that you are vendor locked it’s simply false, deal with it.
It isn’t and I hope I’m never proven right about Proton for your own sake.
They stop giving you the bridge? You move in less than 1h to another provider.
Yes you move if you can. Once you’ve about a TB of e-mail good luck on their export with all the missing metadata. :)
This has anyway nothing to do with being vendor locked, which in fact you completely did not explain. You talked about interoperability at most, which is not related to vendor lock.
It has all to do with vendor lock-in and it is already explained. If a company uses shady stuff that restricts interoperability by definition it is a form of vendor lock-in as you won’t be able to move to another provider as quickly and fast as you might with others.
You also made additional uniformed or false claims: (…) TLS being helpful for e2ee. Is not in the context of email.
And it is, because there’s specific metadata that might get leaked on email headers if not minimized by other techniques that will get protected with TLS between servers. It isn’t perfect but it’s better than having email servers delivering PGP mail over plain text connections. You should be ashamed of yourself for even suggesting that there’s no usefulness whatsoever for this use case.
You failed to understand why using native Cal/Web/CardDAV is incompatible with e2ee.
No. I never said they were, but here’s how decent companies deal with that: they encrypt the data in transit (using TLS) and when stored on their servers by using key store and that is itself encrypted with your login password / hash / derivation or some similar technique. When a device want’s to retrieve the information then the server uses the submitted password to decrypt the key and then it uses it to decrypt the information and sends it to the client.
You clearly have bought into their propaganda but oh well think whatever you want, you’re the one using the service and it’s your data that will be hostage after all.
So tell me, why is it that Proton simply didn’t go for OpenPGP + SMTP + IMAP and simply build a nice web / desktop client for it and kept it compatible with all the other generic solutions out there? What’s the point?
How is this relevant? I don’t know and I don’t care why they picked this technical solution.
It isn’t and I hope I’m never proven right about Proton for your own sake.
It is, and you have been proven wrong. Either that, or you completely misuse or worse misunderstand what vendor lock is.
Yes you move if you can.
It’s not if. You can.
It has all to do with vendor lock-in and it is already explained.
Yes, you explained interoperability that has nothing to do with vendor lock. They are two. different. things.
If a company uses shady stuff that restricts interoperability by definition it is a form of vendor lock-in as you won’t be able to move to another provider as quickly and fast as you might with others.
False. Again. Interoperability it’s a property that has to do with using the application. Interoperable applications potentially can totally vendor lock. Lemmy interoperates with Mastodon, but vendor locks you because you can not export everything and port all your content away. You definition is wrong. Just admit you misused the term and move on, there is no need to double down.
And it is, because there’s specific metadata that might get leaked on email headers if not minimized by other techniques that will get protected with TLS between servers.
They use TLS. TLS is useful for transport security. Proton uses TLS. TLS doesn’t have anything to do with e2ee in the context of emails because TLS is always terminated by the server. Therefore it is by definition not an e2ee protocol in this context. It is in the context of web, because there the two “ends” are your browser and the web server. It’s not in the context of messaging where the other “end” is another client.
It isn’t perfect
This has nothing to do with perfection, you are simply misunderstanding fundamentally what e2ee is in this context.
it’s better than having email servers delivering PGP mail over plain text connections
And in fact Proton doesn’t do that.
You should be ashamed of yourself for even suggesting that there’s no usefulness whatsoever for this use case.
I am not ashamed because I understand TLS, and I understand that it’s useless in the context of email e2ee. You simply don’t understand the topic but feel brave enough to evangelize on the internet about something you don’t fully understand.
here’s how decent companies deal with that: they encrypt the data in transit (using TLS) and when stored on their servers by using key store and that is itself encrypted with your login password / hash / derivation or some similar technique.
JFC. Proton uses TLS for transit connections. E2EE means that the server does not have access to the data. If the server has the key, in whatever form, and can perform a decryption, it’s not e2ee. The only way to have e2ee for these protocols is that the client(s) and only the clients do the encryption/decryption operations. This is exactly what Proton clients do. They use DAV protocols but they extend them with implementing encryption on the client side. Therefore, naturally, by design, they are not compatible with servers which -instead- expect data unencrypted to serve it, unencrypted (only via TLS, which again, it’s a transport protocol, has nothing to do with application data) to other clients.
Ironically, when saying what “decent companies” do, you have described what Proton does: they use your client key to encrypt data on client side. Then they transfer this data via a secure channel (TLS). The server has no keys and sees only encrypted data, and serves such data to other clients (Proton web, android etc.) that do the decryption/encryption operation back. Underlying it’s still CalDAV/WebDAV.
You clearly have bought into their propaganda but oh well think whatever you want, you’re the one using the service and it’s your data that will be hostage after all.
I don’t need to buy propaganda, I am a security professional and do this stuff for a living. I also understand what vendor lock is because all the companies I ever worked with had forms of vendor lock, and I am aware of Proton features instead.
Maybe you should really stop, reflect and evaluate if you really have the competence to make certain claims on the internet. I understand nobody is there keeping score and there are no consequences, but you are honestly embarassing yourself and spreading false information due to the clear lack of understanding about concepts such as e2ee, transport security, vendor locking, etc.
because I understand TLS, and I understand that it’s useless in the context of email e2ee. You simply don’t understand the topic but feel brave enough to evangelize
Your just focusing on strict technical definitions and completely ignoring the context of things. I described before how TLS is useful in the context of some SMTP e2e encrypted solution.
Ironically, when saying what “decent companies” do, you have described what Proton does: they use your client key to encrypt data on client side.
Yet they don’t provide the information in standard protocols…
If the server has the key, in whatever form, and can perform a decryption, it’s not e2ee. The only way to have e2ee for these protocols is that the client(s) and only the clients do the encryption/decryption operations. This is exactly what Proton clients do
I never questioned that. With SMTP you can do true e2ee using PGP and friends, with CalDAV/WebDAV you’ll need to have some kind of middle man doing the encryption and decryption - it’s a fair trade off for a specific problem. The original question here wasn’t about CalDAV/WebDAV but about SMTP where you can have true e2ee. Your previous comment of “SMTP requires server to access the data” is simply wrong.
that do the decryption/encryption operation back. Underlying it’s still CalDAV/WebDAV.
Do you have any proof that they use CalDAV/CardDAV? Most likely they don’t. In the same way they don’t do IMAP/SMTP.
Just admit you misused the term and move on, there is no need to double down. (…) I also understand what vendor lock is because all the companies I ever worked with had forms of vendor lock, and I am aware of Proton features instead.
Get over yourself and your purist approaches, when a company provides a service that is standardized in a specific set of protocols and they decide to go ahead and implement their own stuff it is, at least, a subtle, form of vendor lock-in. End of story.
Your just focusing on strict technical definitions and completely ignoring the context of things. I described before how TLS is useful in the context of some SMTP e2e encrypted solution.
Yes, mentioning things that have not to do with e2ee. Anything that is encrypted with TLS is not e2ee in the context of emails. You talked about metadata, but the server has access to those because it terminates the connection, therefore, they are not e2ee. It’s a protection against leakage between you and the server (and between server and other server, and between server and the destination of your email), not between you and the destination, hence, irrelevant in the context of e2ee. Metadata such as destination can obviously never be e2ee, otherwise the server wouldn’t know where to send the email, and since it needs access to it, it’s not e2ee, whether you use TLS or not. TLS in this context doesn’t contribute at all to end to end encryption. Your definition is wrong, e2ee is a technical definition, is not an abstract thing: e2ee means that only the two ends of a conversation have access to the data encrypted. TLS is by definition between you and your mail server, hence it doesn’t provide any benefit in the context of e2ee. It is useful, but for other reasons that have nothing to do with e2ee.
never questioned that. With SMTP you can do true e2ee using PGP and friends
Exactly, and this is what Proton does. You simply don’t accept that Proton decided to write another client that is tightly coupled with their mail service, which is absolutely nothing malicious or vendor-locky, compared to using an already made client. Proton is simply PGP + SMTP.
with CalDAV/WebDAV you’ll need to have some kind of middle man doing the encryption and decryption - it’s a fair trade off for a specific problem.
Yes, and this middle-man is proton client, which sits on the client’s side. I am glad you understood how the only way to have e2ee with *DAV automatically technically impedes you to use “whatever server”. If anybody else but the client does the encryption/decryption, you lost the end-to-end part. I am not saying e2ee in this context is absolutely necessary, you might not care and value more the possibility to plug other *DAV servers, good. Proton is not for you in that case.
but about SMTP where you can have true e2ee
Yes, you can using a PGP client, like OpenPGP of Proton webmail, or Proton bridge. You need stuff on top of SMTP.
Your previous comment of “SMTP requires server to access the data” is simply wrong.
Nope, you are simply misinterpreting it. In SMTP the server requires access to the data because it’s the one delivering it. PGP is built so that the data it’s a ciphertext and not plaintext, so that the server can’t see the actual content of the mail, but it needs to have the data and ship it, in contrast for example to a p2p protocol. PGP is however on top of SMTP and requires a client doing it for you. OpenPGP or Proton do exactly this. There is no way to support SMTP “natively” and offer e2ee. You would like Proton not to do e2ee and leave the responsibility of the client to do the PGP part, with the freedom of picking whatever client you want? Well, that’s exactly the opposite of their business model, since what they aimed is to make PGP de-facto transparent to the users so that it’s available even to people who are not advanced users.
Do you have any proof that they use CalDAV/CardDAV?
https://github.com/search?q=org%3AProtonMail+CalDAV&type=code you can dig yourself into the code if you are curious to understand.
In the same way they don’t do IMAP/SMTP.
I sent you already a GIthub search of their clients for SMTP, look for yourself in the code. Do you think that makes any sense at all for them to reinvent the wheel and come up with ad-hoc protocols when all they need is a client? You can also have a look at the job offers they post: https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/proton/jobs/4294852101 You can see SMTP mentioned and experience with Postfix in production. It’s very likely that they are running that in the background.
Get over yourself and your purist approaches, when a company provides a service that is standardized in a specific set of protocols and they decide to go ahead and implement their own stuff it is, at least, a subtle, form of vendor lock-in. End of story.
No it’s not. Vendor lock means:
In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in or customer lock-in, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs.
Proton uses open standards, and just builds clients that wrap them. This means, emails are in a format that can easily be imported elsewhere, same for Calendar and Contacts. You are now watering down the definition of vendor lock to try to make your claim less wrong, but it is wrong. I repeat, and you are welcome to prove me wrong:
- There is no substantial cost in any form to migrate from Proton to an equivalent service elsewhere:
- You can migrate email simply, by changing domain DNS records and exporting/importing the data.
- You can export your Calendar in a standard format
- You can export your Contacts in a standard format
This means that I can change vendor easily without significant cost, hence I am not locked-in.
What you actually mean is that while using Proton you can’t interoperate easily with other tools, and this is a by-design compromise to have e2ee done in the way they wanted to make it, which is available to mainstream population. You disagree with their approach? Absolutely legitimate, you prefer to use OpenPGP, handle keys and everything yourself? Then for sure, Proton is not worth for you as you can choose the tools you want if that’s important for you. But there is no vendor-lock, they simply bundled together the email client with the PGP client, so that you don’t have the full flexibility of separating the two.
You disagree with this definition of vendor lock? Awesome, give me your definition and link some source that use that definition. Because if you keep moving the goalpost and redefine what vendor lock means, there is no point to discuss.
- There is no substantial cost in any form to migrate from Proton to an equivalent service elsewhere:
I was using Protonmail, and their other services, and was a paying customer for over a year. But I stopped because of their poor Linux support, and not being able to receive email notifications on my de-googled phone. I made a shift to mailbox.org and am liking it. Yes, I have to manage my own PGP keys, but the experience is much better, in my opinion. Their storage even supports WebDAV. I can encrypt the whole inbox and the files stored in their drive with my own key.
Be careful with mailbox.org and their “your contract period ends soon” email. It actually means “pay us or your data will be irrevocably deleted under 60 days”. The mail sounds inconspicuous enough, is rather verbose, and even contains the phrasing “you may silently ignore this email”. And you will not be getting a single warning before your data is entirely, irremediably deleted.
And even if you only wait 30 days, not 60, your account gets deleted (but not your emails), so you lose any and all ways of contacting their support (rescuing your emails after that gets much trickier). Speaking of which, make sure you use a widespread browser on a computer to use their support platform: otherwise you will get a visual confirmation that a ticket was created, but none will ever be.
TL;DR: mailbox.org good, but (A) make absolutely sure you always have up to date local backups, and (B) beware of the unexpected caveats and the clumsy, confusing wording.
I’ve used both. I switched from Fastmail to Proton then back to Fastmail. If you’re just starting on your privacy journey I’d still recommend Proton.
When I switched to Proton they only did email and that’s what I wanted. Instead of focusing on email Proton expanded into other areas like VPNs, Proton Drive, and password managers. I already had good privacy focused solutions for all of those problems, so for me personally I didn’t like where they were spending their development time.
As a Linux desktop user and an iOS mobile user I was often one of the last to have new features available for Protons applications which got to be really annoying.
To use desktop email I had to install Proton bridge which required a GUI to run. It was always having issues. Super frustrating.
I really disliked that Proton didn’t give me a way to use SMTP without going through their bridge. I have three home servers configured with Fastmail app passwords limited to only SMTP to send me notifications for updates and other alerts. This would have been really flaky to make work with Proton.
With Fastmail everything uses open standards, IMAP, SMTP, CalDav, CardDav, and WebDav. It all integrates really well with my laptop and phone without any special tools. I end up using those services much more now. The downside to these open standards is you don’t get end to end encryption that Proton offers.
I also feel as if Fastmail is giving me more for my money. I remember having pain points with Proton and wildcard emails with custom domains and trying to use their hidden email service. All of that is much easier with Fastmail. I also had a few sites not allow Protons masked emails but Fastmail worked fine.
I’d say, if privacy is your main thing and you don’t already have some of the services offered by Proton go with them. If what you’re looking for is as much privacy as email will let you have without using non standard software, and you just really want reliable solid email, Fastmail is the right choice.
With Fastmail everything uses open standards, IMAP, SMTP, CalDav, CardDav, and WebDav. It all integrates really well with my laptop and phone without any special tools. I end up using those services much more now. The downside to these open standards is you don’t get end to end encryption that Proton offers.
Yes, this openness of Fastmail makes them a really good provider unlike Proton that is always pushing for more proprietary garbage and uses “encryption” and an excuse for everything.
I really like Proton.
I tried both. Proton email client on Android at least was awful. Super sluggish to navigate. In fact I have a chunk of credit with them because I cancelled too late to get a refund. No idea what I’m going to do with that. I already have a VPN and a Pwd manager…
Fastmail has been snappy and I like that the app has a notes section for quick jotting of ideas. I also like that Rclone can attach directly to Fastmail files. They just recently added Proton Drive support too though.
FYI, that was one of the things I disliked the most about Proton (email client slow). They released the newly rewritten app few weeks ago finally, and it’s working great.
Give the new Android app a shot. Its been flawless so far.
It does seem snappier. But damn, I’ve come to love Fastmail’s all-in-one app. Having calendar, notes, contacts and files all in the email app is something I didn’t realize I’d care about but not sure I can do without now.
Yeah, I kind of miss the convenience of that, but all I need those for is email, everything else I self-host, so I’m used to the opposite, lol. In any case, both are great options, and e2ee for Proton only really works with other Proton users, so its not like you’re missing much by using fastmail instead. As long as we stay away from the mainstream providers, were golden.
That and not being shown ads in my damn inbox is what lead me to the hunt for a better provider than Gmail. Another I just remembered about Proton that I didn’t care for (and there may be a way to opt out) is the amount of promotional notifications/emails I’d get for their other services. Not as bad as NordVPN, but then again I don’t think anyone is as bad as them regarding self-promotion. I’m happy to pay for a service if it means retaining some more privacy but mostly get rid of ads but the constant need to upsell was getting to me.
Proton Mail is great. Can’t compare to fastmail because I’ve never used it. But I enjoy being a paying customer instead of an advertising target and I use every product in their suite. Happy to answer more specific questions
Yeah even the free email is perfect IMO. Got the VPN packade (and more IIRC), very very cheap, fast, and no bullshit.
I looked at both, and went with fastmail because at the time it had a shared calendar you could use, which I do with my family to track events and do scheduling. Fastmail is standard commercial privacy though. Good enough for me, but no where near Proton Mail from what I understand.
