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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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.
Sub Rosa is good, although not free. I stopped using Proton because it’s so difficult to download emails. I use my ISP now.
Personally I don’t think there’s a good e-mail provider, e-mail by itself is unsecure. Most you can do is self hosting one but again that takes time maintaing and can be unsecure if you don’t configure it properly. I just find one that allows me to use IMAP and POP3 ports so I can use any client. But if I had to recommend one I’d say posteo, it’s 1 euro per month or if you don’t want to pay there’s also disroot.
Rent a mail-hotel, set up your own mail there. That’s easy, and you are in full control.
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migadu.com still works greta for my private domain. $19/yr plus whatever the domain costs ($1.90 in my case)
I’ve been on migadu for like 2 years now. It’s been pretty solid and I really like all the control and features they give you. I also really like they’re using standard protocols, so no lock in.
Although, they’re missing WebDAV, but I guess that’s out of scope for them. And they don’t have all the privacy features other players do, which I’m ok with.
I have calendars and contacts hosted at northmail.ca, which again doesn’t have the most private/security features, but for me that’s ok. I like that northmail.ca is just a Nextcloud provider. I also tried nubo.coop, another Nextcloud provider, but they were slow for me in the US.
I jumped over to runbox with my custom domain. It costs me ~10€ per year and I had no issues thus far. IMAP works great which hasn’t been the case with gmail so I’m very satisfied.
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.
I’ve been migrating to Soverin and like it thus far. I’ve only done email and my calendaring though.
https://soverin.com/
It’s not free but it’s also not overly costly.
Looks neat. Do they use standard IMAP/POP for email? Are they writing their own email/webdav software or just using Nextcloud?
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
You are correct and that was the deciding factor in scratching them off my list.
This may be helpful: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/email/#recommended-providers
Whatever your choice, go for one that supports personalized domains – and buy your own.
That way it’ll be less of a hassle if you need to change provider later.
Coming up with a decent domain name has been the challenge for me. You can’t really put on to your cv or so something like me@thebestmfofalltime.com. You can but that doesn’t sound very professional.
I also learned the hard way that you should probably pick a
.com(preferred) or.netTLD. Other TLDs may be blocked by smaller companies, especially.xyz. I had my emails go into a blackhole when I tried to email my town’s garbage company from a.xyzemail.You gotta pick something:
And probably a domain that doesn’t include your real name.
It can look professional when you aren’t posting a gmail address and the domain isn’t poopypants.net
Pick something neutral that isn’t your name. Try a band name generator. JupiterEvolition.net or IdealMachine.XYZ,.which sound better than herpderp common gutter trash Gmail.com
Having a custom domain means you get things like me@IdealMachine.XYZ and also chosen.one@… And bestcandidate@… Etc. So you can make something for professional stuff, and then chocolate.starfish@IdealMachine.xyz to be funny.
already being an apple user maybe you can buy your own domain and tie it to apple’s mail service. when you want exit just connect the domain to something else.
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.