Hello!
Like many of you, I'm looking to reduce my usage of google services. Starting with emails, calendar, drive and photos. I have seen many alternative, but I'm not sure which one to pick. I have criterias that I don't think are unusual but I often don't find the information I'm looking for in their documentation.
So I'm looking for feedback on your experience to help me chose.
Emails I own a domain name I want to use. Being able to have a catch all email would be a plus.
Calendar No special need. As long as I can send invitation to people that are not using the same service it's fine by me.
Drive I want to store my documents securely. Having a gdoc/sheet equivalent would be appreciated but is not mandatory. I also need to be able to share folders or documents with a link to view them.
Photo I want the solution to automatically sync the photo from my phone to the cloud like Google photos does. I can't find this information on any service. At least, if it's not automatic, it should be a single click. Photo sharing should be like drive sharing. I need to be able to create shared albums. Ideally it should have an application that could cast photos to a chromecast, but that may be a lot to ask for!
Backup I want to be able to regularly query the service for any new/updated documents or photos. Then I'll download them and create a password protected archive to store somewhere. I really want to be able to do that automatically. So the service should have an API allowing that. If none exist, how do you manage your backups?
I know there are great self-hosted solutions, but I'm not ready to do that yet.
So far I've seen many providers recommendations for specific services, I could do with one provider for each services, but ideally I'd like to do everything in the same place for a practical reason.
I've been looking at Infomaniak or Nextcloud which seems to be a good candidates for me. If someone has feedback to share about them I would appreciate it!
The solution should not be one single provider. Use Ente for pictures, maybe Proton* for other cloud storage and Docs replacement, look into a Nextcloud server hosted by another provider for calendar and email. Don't put all your digital eggs in one walled nest.
*Proton is plagued by a CEO who can't keep his mouth shut about politics. Look into that and how you feel about it before you sign up. Their VPN is good but I wouldn't use them also for email to make switching less of a headache - and I don't think you could use your own domain there anyway.
Ente looks great, thanks for the recommendation!
I'd prefer to manage fewer baskets and save a copy of my eggs somewhere else first. That's just the first step, if I'm unhappy with a solution I'll look somewhere else. Or did you have security reasons in mind ?
Security is one thing. I was more thinking about the pain of having to move everything again when the single provider goes bankrupt or becomes politically intolerable or gets swallowed by the kraken.