Trying to de-google and looking for an alternative to Gmail.

Don’t mind if it’s a paid service if it’s robust.

    • carzian@lemmy.ml
      0·
      1 year ago

      OP is looking to move away from Google. Immediately getting locked into a different, arguably more restrictive, platform isn’t a solution.

      Now in general:

      Pros:

      • free (paid plan only?)
      • company will stay in business for a while

      Cons:

      • subject to Apple’s privacy policy
      • US based company, not great for privacy
      • locked into a different platform
      • Apple’s walled garden ecosystem means long term use is questionable. Will Apple keep supporting 3rd party email clients in 1,3,5 years? Do they even support it now? Who knows?
      • Apple has control over your account. If they screw you over on an iPhone purchase and you do a credit card charge back on them (for any reason really) do they let you keep your account? Google doesn’t
        • sparemethewearysigh@lemmy.world
          0·
          1 year ago

          It is free and comes with 5GB of cloud storage. For $1 a month, you get 50GB of cloud, a personal domain, Private relay (basically built in VPN), and email relay (masks your email address when signing up for a site, site never gets your actual email address, apple receive an email at the masked address and forwards to you.)

        • Hiru@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          It’s free but you need a Mac or iOS device to set up a new mail account

        • carzian@lemmy.ml
          0·
          1 year ago

          Couldn’t tell you. I assumed it was free but I haven’t used an apple device in years

        • Matt@lemdro.idEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          Basic email is free, but you need iCloud+ to get support for custom domains and more than 5GB of storage.

    • Ashen@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      1 year ago

      Proton Mail just has 5 gigs for the free version. Doesn’t seem like it’s enough for me to switch to it long term.

      • shadow@lemmy.sdf.org
        0·
        1 year ago

        They also expand your storage every year, so it’s not like it’s stuck there forever. For reference, I’ve been on Proton for about 3 years now (paid plan) and I have a data storage cap of 540GB and I’ve never had to buy more. Also, I all my emails so far only consume 340MB - so even on the free plan I’d still have years to go before I reached even 5GB.

        (Also, I’ll admit I don’t email much.)

    • InigoMontoyota@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 year ago

      I am always suspicious of free. How do they make money? Have to pay for things in life, and I’ve learned that you are either the customer, or the product. If your the customer, pay up. If your the product, your data is being dished out to somebody OR ad-a-palooza. If the free option is just ads, I can live. If every time I log on I feel like I am getting a vitual colonoscopy, pass.

      • LimitedDuck@septic.winEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        The Proton free tier is pretty limited compared to Gmail, in particular for me, you’re only allowed 1 label. The basic paid tier opens up a lot more. They definitely want you to upgrade to the paid tier.

      • ominouslemon@lemm.ee
        0·
        1 year ago

        Your doubts are warranted, but with Protonmail and Tutanota there is no reason be suspicious. They are basically feemium products and their goal is to respect user’s rights

      • jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        1 year ago

        Proton is freemium. You can use the basic package but you only get 500 MB drive storage. Expanding that is cheap, which is how they draw you in.

        They also offer package deals, like their VPN stuff.

    • BearPear@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Tutanota has limited features and i dont like the UI. But it is okay.

      Try to go for protonmail

      • deweydecibel@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Tutanota is a bit more privacy focused, really useful for burners, because by default it will burn the account if you don’t use it for 6 months.

        As far the UI, I kinda like it. Little more old school, doesn’t have the toy look so many apps have nowadays. But to each their own.

      • scumola@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        1 year ago

        I just opened my protonmail account for the first time in years and it’s really nice! Lots of great UI stuff now!

      • Azura@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Protonmails approach to requiring hCaptcha for everything, even their mobile apps, really turns me off. I can’t complete them. And I need another email to get in using their weird and creepy accessibility cookie thing. Nah thanks. If I need a second email to access my email I might as well just use that second email.

        • OwenEverbinde@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          Who the hell downvotes a person for saying “I have a hard time with Captchas because they don’t provide accessibility options that allow entry to someone with my conditions” ?

          Like, guys, Captchas being ableist is a well known thing. And they’ve only been getting worse, as they’ve been in an arms race with AI, trying to become more and more distorted, and most AI text recognition software is already better at Captchas than most dyslexic people.

    • Dave@lemmy.nz
      0·
      1 year ago

      Last I checked, the encryption in Proton Mail means you have to use their app, no third party apps allowed. Is that still true?

      • JoyfulCodingGuy@lemmy.ml
        0·
        1 year ago

        Phone app? Yes you have to use their own app. On a computer besides the browser version you can use Thunderbird and other applications if you download ProtonBridge.

        • Azura@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          Is that GitHub issue where the bridge just starts deleting emails still open? I am pretty sure it was open for over a year.

      • gamer@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Yup, and it’s kind if a pain since their mobile apps aren’t great. I’ve been using them for many years, and lately have been considering jumping ship.

        Email encryption isn’t something I actually care about. If I wanted to send someone a super private message, I probably wouldn’t use email anyways since it’s just clunky, and it’s unlikely the other person is using proton mail too (which means the message wouldn’t be encrypted anyways). All I really want is to not have my email provider be scanning my messages to profit from my data.

        But the effort to switch to something else is making me stay…

          • gamer@lemm.ee
            0·
            1 year ago

            Just off the top of my head: on iOS, the app is frequently slow to download new messages, occasionally (but not frequently) crashes or freezes up, opening a message from a notification is unreliable, it doesn’t support landscape mode, the search feature sucks (no filtering, sorting, etc), and it has some questionable design choices. Like, why does it include spam in the “All Mail” category? And why is it that swiping a message right sends it to the trash when doing that exact same interaction in the iOS mail app marks it as read? I’ve adapted to the difference after all these years, but it’s clearly a bad design.

            Overall it’s not terrible; I’d give it like 4/5 or 3.5/5 stars, however with the price I’m paying for this (IMO overpriced) service I’d expect something a little better. I will say that the experience today is much better than it was a year ago, so even though it takes a long time, it does seem to be improving.

        • ominouslemon@lemm.ee
          0·
          1 year ago

          You don’t use encrypted emails only to communicate privately. If they are not encrypted, your e-mail provider will probably scan them, whether it is for profit or under request from the NSA. That’s what Snowden uncovered.

          • gamer@lemm.ee
            0·
            1 year ago

            That’s a good point, but also the more I think about it the more I realize it’s futile. Google is 100% going to scan the messages I send to gmail users, and match it to me somehow.

            • Newwit@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
              0·
              1 year ago

              With Tutanota the Gmail user only gets a link (optionally password protected). Google can’t scan the actual content of the mail.

    • FancyFeaster@lemmy.failEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      I’ll be honest, when it comes to online purchases you may find that a protonmail email will require extra processing/fraud checking due to the amount of fraudsters that use it. Combine that with a vpn and it will just be a pain here and there with online purchases like additional ID verification/delayed orders etc…

      • tycho@lemmy.sdf.org
        0·
        1 year ago

        Been using protonmail for my main email for three years, never had one issue. But I’m in Europe, maybe in the US it’s different?

        • FancyFeaster@lemmy.failEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          I’m more talking global purchases. Just the email will probs be ok but if you purchase using that email and a vpn it raises flags.

  • ∟⊔⊤∦∣≶@lemmy.nz
    0·
    1 year ago

    I’m using ProtonMail and paying for it.

    It’s decent. The best AFAIK in terms of privacy. Supports labels etc.

    The migration process takes so long, I’m split between both still and slowly moving over.

  • Arn_Thor@feddit.uk
    0·
    1 year ago

    When I was doing the same research a few years back Fastmail was recommended to me and I’ve been very happy with it. It was fairly easy to set up with an email address from my own domain too.

  • kostel_thecreed@lemmy.ca
    0·
    1 year ago

    I would recommend either Mailbox or Posteo simply because they cost 1€/m. For email I find that anything more than like $2 is a waste of money, but that is my opinion.

    Both Tutanota and Protonmail offer freemium versions of their services.

      • kostel_thecreed@lemmy.ca
        0·
        1 year ago

        What made you adamant on getting proton? Curious, cause I could mention some cheaper, but very competent email services.

        • CraigeryTheKid@beehaw.org
          0·
          1 year ago

          oh I wouldn’t say I’m “adamant” - but to answer your question I was looking to unGoogle my Google Drive and GMail, and Proton popped up pretty quick for having both. I’m currently paying for Private Internet Access VPN, but once that expires I could also get a 3rd function out of Proton with their VPN. I also want my new mail service to allow custom domains, which Proton also does.

          • kostel_thecreed@lemmy.ca
            0·
            1 year ago

            Yeah drive is a pretty good feature. Do be warned though, proton’s overall Linux support is bad, including the VPN and drive. $8 for unlimited (which comes with everything you mentioned) a month is a little steep, but if you’ll use the VPN and the email it’s definitely worth it. Enjoy man.

              • kostel_thecreed@lemmy.ca
                0·
                1 year ago

                I also use Windows. I get the attraction of Linux, I use it for my selfhosting, but I absolutely hate it for day-to-day operations or work. So, don’t feel too bad about it, people love shoving shit down others throats.

      • JTode@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 year ago

        I thought I was cool because I recorded the ring from my flip phone and used it on every subsequent phone until I somehow lost the recording around the late aughts, but that beats me by miles.

      • gamer@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Damn you just reminded me that I haven’t fed my Neopet in years. They don’t die, do they??

  • skadden@ctrlaltelite.xyzEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    I moved to Fastmail last year and it’s been entirely unremarkable which is exactly what I want. Mail in and out works, it’s reliable, I have my custom domains.

    It really depends on the level of privacy you’re going for and what features you want. For me I needed custom domain support with catchalls. The only other requirement I had was to not be Google. I debated between Fastmail and Proton for a while (Fastmail for features/price, Proton for the “better” privacy.) Ultimately I ended up on Fastmail because I would have had to pay for a higher than necessary account at Proton for what I wanted.

    • i_am_hungry@meganice.onlineOPEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      After checking out most of these services I think I’ll go with Fastmail, has what I need, plenty of storage, can use third party apps without any hassle.

    • specseaweed@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 year ago

      Been with Fastmail for a year. Love their integration with 1password. Nobody gets my real email address. Even my 6th grader knows how to obfuscate email now. Too easy.

      • skadden@ctrlaltelite.xyz
        0·
        1 year ago

        They have a similar integration with Bitwarden that I’ve used a bit. I ended up stopping though because I rely on a catch-all and just give out companyname@ or something generic like work@ or family@. Sure it’s easy to guess but I haven’t had any spam issues in the ~15 years I’ve been operating this way.

        Nobody actually gets my Fastmail login address though. I picked a random string on one of their domains that’s literally only used to sign in. A fun little added obscurity feature.

    • NaN@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      I used fastmail with a custom domain but random stuff from specific senders would disappear into the ether and never go through to my mailbox. Everything else worked fine though, but it was enough to switch me back to gmail for a while at least. LDAP is a requirement for me and most of the other popular providers now don’t have it.

      • skadden@ctrlaltelite.xyz
        0·
        1 year ago

        Yeah I suppose I could be missing email and not know (because it never got delivered) but I get everything I expect to receive and I haven’t had anyone reach out asking why I haven’t responded to an email I never received. It’s good enough for me for now though.

        LDAP support isn’t something that’s ever crossed my mind for mail, definitely a legit reason to stick with the Googs.

    • Sean@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Also since most other people aren’t using encrypted email, you kinda don’t really benefit from the Proton encryption afaik. I personally don’t understand the point.

      • skadden@ctrlaltelite.xyz
        0·
        1 year ago

        Yep. It was a fun ooh look what I can do that I have exactly zero people to communicate with using those features.

        In the same vein, not using Google is similarly silly. Most of my personal contacts use Gmail or o365 so they still get a copy of my email anyway. But at least this way my money isn’t going to them and nobody’s scanning my inbox to advertise to me (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

        • Sean@lemmy.mlEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          I assume some since i assume gmail scans my inbox to serve me ads. But you’d get other ads from browsing history etc still. But Fastmail does the same thing i believe

      • Newwit@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Ive not used proton, but Tutanota sends a link to the receiver if they don’t use Tutanota themselves. They have to click the link and enter a predetermined password to read the content