Hi everyone! Since I was absolutely fucked by Skiff (thank fuck I didn’t pay for it) I’m looking for a new email provider :) I’m not sure I like how proton is transforming into a full on suit, I only need email. Any other recommendations or is proton my only choice really?
That makes them totally unreasonable and pushed for vendor lockin and proprietary applications you can’t run anywhere.
This is hilarious, people here get all pissed about google and microsoft when it comes to email and then pick an alternative that is less open in all possible ways.
I know you are not interested in proton but they are the absolute best and you possibly cannot get anything better than their services on the privacy and security end (which they are focused on).
Both support encryption and Lavabit probably had much higher standards than Proton when it comes to privacy and still supported those open protocols. 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.
A provider having more than 50 users and offering more than one service doesn’t make them evil. Use Proton. They are the best, and they’re not likely to disappear. If you intentionally seek out small services because you think being an underdog is some sort of privacy merit badge, you’ll get “absolutely fucked” over and over again.
Also, you should consider paying for the products you use to encourage sane and user-friendly business models. But that’s a different discussion altogether.
You can use Proton Mail Bridge to set up SMTP/IMAP with your email app of choice. Obviously, you’re still stuck with using the bridge app on your device in order to get it working.
Waiting for the day their business team devices the bridge is too much freedom you should get all locked-in.
They support IMAP though their bridge but you will have to be on a paid plan.
The free plan is pretty terrible anyways so if you actually want to use proton you will have to pay.
Yes and you can’t run a bridge on anything and they might discontinue it at any time and you’ll become hostage. So much for self-hosting, independence and open-source solutions.
proton requires them to use their software and adds a footer with protonmail ads to all of your emails without an option to disable it without paying up
I think you need to read up on the reasons why services like GMail and Facebook are free.
Ads are harmless. The harmful things is JavaScript.
requires them to use their software
And their software doesn’t even have an option to display HTML messages as it is plain text messages.
It’s not about “using an underdog”, I just like “do one thing and do it well” philosophy you know. I don’t need drives, calendars, vpn, password manager, in one thing. I want a simple email provider that’s it.
Yeah skiff wasn’t like that but it seemed not too push it as much, just “hey it’s there you can use it” not full on products. Maybe I’m just being stupid about it idk
You can simply ignore all of these other features. Proton offers an email-only plan.
True… People also recommend having your own domain so I can switch easily in the future. Having my surname seems a bit… un-privacy-like lol Any recommendations for that?
I 💜 Protonmail. I generally like proton as a company.This video has really gained my trust for them as a privacy focussed services provider.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Let me recommend Migadu, as email privacy is kind of a difficult topic. They offer complete email freedom for a very reasonable price; $20 ($10 for students) a year. They explain my main reasoning why I would avoid Proton:
When an email provider rations email address of your own domain name-space at a fee, they are asking you to hand them over control of your name-space. There is zero cost associated with additional email addresses and it is time you learn about it.
When email provider does not offer you standard email protocols that work with standard email clients, they want to lock you in for good. You are tied to using the dedicated applications offered by provider. The freedom of using a better or more suitable application is taken away from you. Protocols were standardized for a reason and today there are hundreds of email clients built for users with different needs.
When email provider alters messages data in non-standard format, they deny you data portability and with it freedom of changing providers.
Email is a collective effort of messaging interoperability. It is built around open, public standards and runs mostly on open source software maintained by folks believing in an open Internet, privacy and personal freedoms. Let’s not give away our freedoms for some Kool-Aid.
