[Mailbox.org](https://Mailbox.org), [Mailfence.com](https://Mailfence.com), and [Tutanota.com](https://Tutanota.com) would the next options you'll want to look at.
Here is a good page with more information: [https://www.privacytools.io/providers/email/](https://www.privacytools.io/providers/email/)
I do. I've tried them all, actually. Tutanota is going to be the most "Protonmail" type of service. Neither lets you use SMTP/IMAP clients, although PM has bridge software for paying users to allow this. Otherwise you need to use the apps they provide (or webmail). Users of both services seem to be pretty happy, although for me, the restrictions with SMTP/IMAP got to be too much.
Mailfence and [Mailbox.org](https://Mailbox.org) are pretty equal I think. Both let you use SMTP/IMAP normally. Have had good experiences with both. Likely the decision comes down to which is priced better for the features and mailbox size you get.
I ended up doing self-hosted email with Mail-in-a-box. Hard to recommend this due to the amount of work required to get it running and keep it running.
For highest amount of privacy, Protonmail or Tutanota are the best bets. I think Tutanota is a bit cheaper. Mailbox and Mailfence are pretty much tied, but Mailbox might get a slight edge. Really can't go wrong with any of them.
Thanks so much for the write up. I self host a lot of stuff but have been weary of hosting a mail server.
I will be definitely be having a look at Tutanota, thanks again!
Mailbox.org looks good, prices are good for more users.
mailfence jas a good group options, prices are good too for more users.
Tutanota definitely seems like a good alternative to ProtonMail.
I use [mailbox.org](https://mailbox.org) after evaluating the others it worked out the most cost effective whilst maintaining privacy features such as encrypted at rest mail
Highly recommend protonmail. Would advise you to have one account with some sort of random username for your accounts like reddit or amazon, and another with your real name to use professionally.
Yeah just two different emails. I don't bother changing the domain name. i.e. JoeyGamePro at protonmail for one and firstname.lastname at proton mail for another. Don't make them connected with one another for privacy reasons.
Thanks man, I appreciate the reply. I also did notice the lack of PGP with Tutanota from privacytools.io. Although it sounds like they have something else planned.
Yes. I agree and I once shared your concern. But honestly, the workaround they have is pretty damn good. Look, let's be honest, most of us can't convince the people we e-mail to install and maintain PGP. If you're a journalist, maybe PGP would be better. But for casual/business encryption, PGP is useless. TRUST ME. I have spent countless hours talking people I email often to use PGP. They will never do it. They have to go though the same process on desktop, mobile devices...etc. It's just. not. worth it. So basically, if PGP is stopping you from switching to tutanota, just go ahead and switch. At least try it out with a free account.
No affiliation with tutanota, just a user.
Just that I have experience with them, and also know some others who have. Sorry there's not much better than that from me. It does what you ask and works so... if Tutotona does the same it's just a question of pricing for you :)
I want to share my personal experience with protonmail:
I have used there free service for sometime and decided to use there paid offer. Paid for 2 months then totally forgot about it until I needed access to the account again a couple of months later. I found out that they locked my account so I can't access anything until I pay all missed months which make sense until I contacted there support which was extremely slow (took me almost a week to solve my issue). Support told me that I not only loose access to my existing emails but my account stops receiving emails after 2 months of no payment. i.e. all new emails bounce back.
Now as I said, I totally understand that it was my fault for not disabling the payed offer when I didn't need it but I think that continuing to charge me every month and piling up the bills while they stop all there services (except storing my old emails) is malicious.
Also, many people who needed to contact thier support also confirmed the slowness of response. Just read reviews and search over the internet.
Your experience maybe different, but for myself I will never use them again.
I've been using mailbox for quite a while now after ditching google. I pay 1 euro per month for 2 GB mail storage. It also includes caldav (contacts, calendar, tasks).. like it a lot.
Since you are already using selfhosted nextcloud, try using mailinabox. mailinabox is an amazing batteries included mail server solution. It has exchange, CalDAV and many other extra features. https://mailinabox.email
mailinabox is open source and it follows security practices using automated scripts. All of the operations are done through a set of Python scripts. So you don't need to worry about security. You just periodically update linux software packages with a command.
I've been hosting my own mailserver for several years now and I have never had major problems with it. Just make sure to use a relay for outgoing mail if your ip is classified as residential, otherwise some hosts will not accept email from you
Posteo.de and mailbox.org
They are very similar. Their web client is not the best, so you have to use Thunderbird or Fair Email.
Both are private and green.
Or tutanota / protonmail which have their own web interface and android apps.
https://purelymail.com/
I have a feeling they'll be to unknown or small for your taste but I'm happy with it personally. It's pretty much a one man show right now but he's pretty transparent and open so if you have questions or suggestions contact them.
I’ve been using tutanota (with their keemail.me) for almost a year and it really surpassed my expectations. Starting at 1€/month with 5 alias included. Super straightforward to use. One thing I use is to send to myself a couple of emails with personal stuff encrypted sometimes.
Posteo has great reviews and according to the spreadsheet of that privacy guy (or however the name of the website is called) it is one of the best. Things are not encrypted at transit i think ( you can use pgp for that) but are at rest. You can use mail clients with it.
Edit: auto-correct error, not mermaid.me, its keemail.me
I have accounts at PM and Tuta. I pay for PM, but I'm not sure how long that's going to last. PM is great but comparatively expensive. I chose PM largely because of the laws of Switzerland vs Germany. However, my concern is the concept, not the content. I want to protect my privacy, but I'm not hiding anything of actual value, so I've considered moving to tuta for my next renewal. I've also considered moving to self hosted
Right- it's weird going back to the "i have nothing to hide" argument AFTER you already understand the implications. You don't NEED the ____ right now, but you want to stand for it.
So I'm trying to look at it this way: You're not buying a service, you're giving to a cause, and then getting a service. So, which company best supports your cause. Who will put your money to work best for what you believe in?
MXRoute. It's between self-hosting and paid hosting. I think they still have the early version where you get unlimited domains and users. Very, very easy to set up. What YOU have to do is make sure you configure you SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records in your DNS zone file properly. Easy to do once you go through a few webpages.
[https://mxroute.com/](https://mxroute.com/)
This is how I moved both personal and business emails away from Google.
Yeah, that's the point of MXRoute. It's not self-hosting. Basically, they do all the hosting and technology and wrap it in an easy to use framework. What you have to do is configure your DNS zone file. That's it. And that's why I like it so much. I'm technical enough to self-host, but I didn't want to do it. Take another look at them. I was shocked at how easy they were to set up a lot of domains and emails. Really useful.
Fastmail all the way. I dumped Gmail last summer and haven't looked back. There's easy domain integration.
Not sure if by multiple users you mean multiple addresses or multiple people. If it's multiple addresses, Fastmail lets you add additional domains at no cost.
I migrated from google.apps to mailbox.org almost a year ago - works great (via IMAP). Webmail is a bit slow, but I don't use it. Calendar and contacts work great.
If you need many accounts, then maybe infomaniak.com would be better for you, cost wise.
I know, but most of the services makes you pay for each account (distinct accounts/mailboxes, not aliases!) so if you want to migrate a family of 4 then it would be paying for 4 mailboxes. I case of infomaniak that's a bit more cost efficient (and you said in the title that cost is important)
Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I guess we are lucky to have so many options!
After a lot of reading it came down to Tutonota...and ProtonMail :D
Although ProtonMail is more expensive, it does come with more options.
So far, the move has been relatively straight forward. ProtonMails documentation is very thorough and easy to follow and the email importer works well.
Keep in my protonmail will charge you even more for catch all with your custom domain. Its a great service, but very expensive. I found Tutanota to be a better value.
Naive question... If you went the trouble of having your own nextcloud deployment, why not using the nextcloud email service on your deployment? You can then use an alias and a paid domain, right? or not if you're happy with your domain? And for privacy, if required, use a client which supports gnupg signing and encryption (it's like encrypted email providers, you can only have private emails with people already paying the service, on in the case of non encrypted service, with those using gnupg encryption as well)?
You're right, I just didn't know. But apparently it can be integrated:
[https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/mail](https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/mail)
[https://mailinabox.email](https://mailinabox.email/)
I mistakenly thought it was part of nextcloud, given how /e/ provides the e-mail service (makes it look as part of next cloud).
Yeah man, it is definitely an option that I had not thought about. Although I would probably prefer to do mailinabox in a container on the unRAID server I have.
Still, the same issues apply. Power redunduncy (i really need to get a UPS) and time/effort to maintain a mailserver.
Thanks for the suggestion though!
Just in case, then /e/ might be an option for you to consider. They do offer 5G of free space, which might be OK to start with for email + contacts + calendar. For privacy on email you would need email client encryption, like thunderbird + enigmail + gnupg.
[Mailbox.org](https://Mailbox.org), [Mailfence.com](https://Mailfence.com), and [Tutanota.com](https://Tutanota.com) would the next options you'll want to look at. Here is a good page with more information: [https://www.privacytools.io/providers/email/](https://www.privacytools.io/providers/email/)
Thanks for the links, do you have any personal experience with the ones you have listed?
I do. I've tried them all, actually. Tutanota is going to be the most "Protonmail" type of service. Neither lets you use SMTP/IMAP clients, although PM has bridge software for paying users to allow this. Otherwise you need to use the apps they provide (or webmail). Users of both services seem to be pretty happy, although for me, the restrictions with SMTP/IMAP got to be too much. Mailfence and [Mailbox.org](https://Mailbox.org) are pretty equal I think. Both let you use SMTP/IMAP normally. Have had good experiences with both. Likely the decision comes down to which is priced better for the features and mailbox size you get. I ended up doing self-hosted email with Mail-in-a-box. Hard to recommend this due to the amount of work required to get it running and keep it running. For highest amount of privacy, Protonmail or Tutanota are the best bets. I think Tutanota is a bit cheaper. Mailbox and Mailfence are pretty much tied, but Mailbox might get a slight edge. Really can't go wrong with any of them.
Thanks so much for the write up. I self host a lot of stuff but have been weary of hosting a mail server. I will be definitely be having a look at Tutanota, thanks again!
I second tuta. 5 aliases and a choice of 5 different domains. $12 a year. Can't go wrong.
It certainly looks good on paper!
Mailbox doesnt encrypt calendar and contacts right? At least accoridng to privacytools.io. I really like tuta, but I would also like to use imap.
Mailbox.org I've been using for about 5 months now, no complaints at all, works well with Thunderbird and FairEmail, and the price is good.
Mailbox.org looks good, prices are good for more users. mailfence jas a good group options, prices are good too for more users. Tutanota definitely seems like a good alternative to ProtonMail.
I use [mailbox.org](https://mailbox.org) after evaluating the others it worked out the most cost effective whilst maintaining privacy features such as encrypted at rest mail
Highly recommend protonmail. Would advise you to have one account with some sort of random username for your accounts like reddit or amazon, and another with your real name to use professionally.
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Yeah just two different emails. I don't bother changing the domain name. i.e. JoeyGamePro at protonmail for one and firstname.lastname at proton mail for another. Don't make them connected with one another for privacy reasons.
Lack of IMAP due to E2E/PGP/2FA is painful at times. Otherwise it's good.
You can set up PGP seperately, Just gotta copy and paste but otherwise it is the same thing.
That's a very good idea, thanks for your feedback.
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Thanks man, I appreciate the reply. I also did notice the lack of PGP with Tutanota from privacytools.io. Although it sounds like they have something else planned.
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Yes. I agree and I once shared your concern. But honestly, the workaround they have is pretty damn good. Look, let's be honest, most of us can't convince the people we e-mail to install and maintain PGP. If you're a journalist, maybe PGP would be better. But for casual/business encryption, PGP is useless. TRUST ME. I have spent countless hours talking people I email often to use PGP. They will never do it. They have to go though the same process on desktop, mobile devices...etc. It's just. not. worth it. So basically, if PGP is stopping you from switching to tutanota, just go ahead and switch. At least try it out with a free account. No affiliation with tutanota, just a user.
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I just replied to the wrong comment. Meant to clarify to OP. Chill man. No one is trying to convert you or anything :)
You can send encrypted emails with tutanota to other services
I also recommend proton mail. It's encrypted.
Any reason you would recommend it over other options? Tutotona is also encrypted.
Just that I have experience with them, and also know some others who have. Sorry there's not much better than that from me. It does what you ask and works so... if Tutotona does the same it's just a question of pricing for you :)
Cool man, thanks for the feed back :)
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Protonmail can use approved email clients with the protonbridge
That doesn't work for mobile and I'm not a fan of their app
Fair point!
I want to share my personal experience with protonmail: I have used there free service for sometime and decided to use there paid offer. Paid for 2 months then totally forgot about it until I needed access to the account again a couple of months later. I found out that they locked my account so I can't access anything until I pay all missed months which make sense until I contacted there support which was extremely slow (took me almost a week to solve my issue). Support told me that I not only loose access to my existing emails but my account stops receiving emails after 2 months of no payment. i.e. all new emails bounce back. Now as I said, I totally understand that it was my fault for not disabling the payed offer when I didn't need it but I think that continuing to charge me every month and piling up the bills while they stop all there services (except storing my old emails) is malicious. Also, many people who needed to contact thier support also confirmed the slowness of response. Just read reviews and search over the internet. Your experience maybe different, but for myself I will never use them again.
Thanks for the reply, and that is an unfortunate situation to be in!
I've been using mailbox for quite a while now after ditching google. I pay 1 euro per month for 2 GB mail storage. It also includes caldav (contacts, calendar, tasks).. like it a lot.
Nice, thanks for the feedback :)
Enjoy your degoogling. You won't regret it. :)
Since you are already using selfhosted nextcloud, try using mailinabox. mailinabox is an amazing batteries included mail server solution. It has exchange, CalDAV and many other extra features. https://mailinabox.email
I have always heard bad things about selfhosting a mailserver, convince me otherwise?
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Pretty much what I have heard elsewhere. While I do enjoy selfhosting my own services, I really don't have enough time to manage them all.
mailinabox is open source and it follows security practices using automated scripts. All of the operations are done through a set of Python scripts. So you don't need to worry about security. You just periodically update linux software packages with a command.
I've been hosting my own mailserver for several years now and I have never had major problems with it. Just make sure to use a relay for outgoing mail if your ip is classified as residential, otherwise some hosts will not accept email from you
Protonmail, tutanota or criptext
Criptext is a new one, I'll have a look at that one thanks.
Posteo.de and mailbox.org They are very similar. Their web client is not the best, so you have to use Thunderbird or Fair Email. Both are private and green. Or tutanota / protonmail which have their own web interface and android apps.
https://purelymail.com/ I have a feeling they'll be to unknown or small for your taste but I'm happy with it personally. It's pretty much a one man show right now but he's pretty transparent and open so if you have questions or suggestions contact them.
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Great write up, thanks!
Tutanota, protonmail and posteo!
Posteo is a new one! Any personal experience with either of them?
I’ve been using tutanota (with their keemail.me) for almost a year and it really surpassed my expectations. Starting at 1€/month with 5 alias included. Super straightforward to use. One thing I use is to send to myself a couple of emails with personal stuff encrypted sometimes. Posteo has great reviews and according to the spreadsheet of that privacy guy (or however the name of the website is called) it is one of the best. Things are not encrypted at transit i think ( you can use pgp for that) but are at rest. You can use mail clients with it. Edit: auto-correct error, not mermaid.me, its keemail.me
I like them a lot. Only caveat : you cannot use your domain.
Oh, deal breaker!
I use runbox.com, have used it for over a year now and haven't had any problems
I have accounts at PM and Tuta. I pay for PM, but I'm not sure how long that's going to last. PM is great but comparatively expensive. I chose PM largely because of the laws of Switzerland vs Germany. However, my concern is the concept, not the content. I want to protect my privacy, but I'm not hiding anything of actual value, so I've considered moving to tuta for my next renewal. I've also considered moving to self hosted
This was also my dilemma. I want privacy, but I'm not hiding anything, so why pay more for protonmail?
Right- it's weird going back to the "i have nothing to hide" argument AFTER you already understand the implications. You don't NEED the ____ right now, but you want to stand for it. So I'm trying to look at it this way: You're not buying a service, you're giving to a cause, and then getting a service. So, which company best supports your cause. Who will put your money to work best for what you believe in?
Yeah man, that's a good perspective to take.
Tutanota is really great, it also replaces Google contacts and calendar really great. Importing stuff is very easy.
MXRoute. It's between self-hosting and paid hosting. I think they still have the early version where you get unlimited domains and users. Very, very easy to set up. What YOU have to do is make sure you configure you SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records in your DNS zone file properly. Easy to do once you go through a few webpages. [https://mxroute.com/](https://mxroute.com/) This is how I moved both personal and business emails away from Google.
Nice, good to know. I still feel like I want to stay away from selfhosting though. Not enough redundancy at home!
Yeah, that's the point of MXRoute. It's not self-hosting. Basically, they do all the hosting and technology and wrap it in an easy to use framework. What you have to do is configure your DNS zone file. That's it. And that's why I like it so much. I'm technical enough to self-host, but I didn't want to do it. Take another look at them. I was shocked at how easy they were to set up a lot of domains and emails. Really useful.
Awesome, I'll have a look, thanks!
Fastmail all the way. I dumped Gmail last summer and haven't looked back. There's easy domain integration. Not sure if by multiple users you mean multiple addresses or multiple people. If it's multiple addresses, Fastmail lets you add additional domains at no cost.
I am after multiple users for other family members who want to move over.
I migrated from google.apps to mailbox.org almost a year ago - works great (via IMAP). Webmail is a bit slow, but I don't use it. Calendar and contacts work great. If you need many accounts, then maybe infomaniak.com would be better for you, cost wise.
I don't need heaps of accounts, maybe just 4 to 8. But thanks for the suggestion.
I know, but most of the services makes you pay for each account (distinct accounts/mailboxes, not aliases!) so if you want to migrate a family of 4 then it would be paying for 4 mailboxes. I case of infomaniak that's a bit more cost efficient (and you said in the title that cost is important)
Yeah, the big names make you pay per user and it adds up! I'll go an check out infomaniak, thanks again for the suggestion.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I guess we are lucky to have so many options! After a lot of reading it came down to Tutonota...and ProtonMail :D Although ProtonMail is more expensive, it does come with more options. So far, the move has been relatively straight forward. ProtonMails documentation is very thorough and easy to follow and the email importer works well.
Keep in my protonmail will charge you even more for catch all with your custom domain. Its a great service, but very expensive. I found Tutanota to be a better value.
Yeah I did notice that, I don't think I need a catch all as it isn't for a business.
They need a upgrade plan between 'Plus' and 'Professional', maybe 'Family'?
Naive question... If you went the trouble of having your own nextcloud deployment, why not using the nextcloud email service on your deployment? You can then use an alias and a paid domain, right? or not if you're happy with your domain? And for privacy, if required, use a client which supports gnupg signing and encryption (it's like encrypted email providers, you can only have private emails with people already paying the service, on in the case of non encrypted service, with those using gnupg encryption as well)?
My understanding is the Nextcloud mail app is only an app and not a mail provider? Or am I missing what you are trying to say...
You're right, I just didn't know. But apparently it can be integrated: [https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/mail](https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/mail) [https://mailinabox.email](https://mailinabox.email/) I mistakenly thought it was part of nextcloud, given how /e/ provides the e-mail service (makes it look as part of next cloud).
Yeah man, it is definitely an option that I had not thought about. Although I would probably prefer to do mailinabox in a container on the unRAID server I have. Still, the same issues apply. Power redunduncy (i really need to get a UPS) and time/effort to maintain a mailserver. Thanks for the suggestion though!
Just in case, then /e/ might be an option for you to consider. They do offer 5G of free space, which might be OK to start with for email + contacts + calendar. For privacy on email you would need email client encryption, like thunderbird + enigmail + gnupg.
If anyone is considering ProtonMail, they are (permanently) giving away an additional 5GB of storage until April 30, and (temporary) free VPN access.
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I'm enjoying ProtonMail so far, it seems very polished.
For me Protonmail is my recommendation. It has a beautiful interface & good encryption !!!
It does look good!
Digital ocean Mailcow
Thanks, but not really keen to selfhost