this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025
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privacy

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Mostly out of curiosity, but also somewhat related to Proton's recent political involvement, I'm curious about alternatives to using their services, open to suggestions for:

  • Proton Mail: anything that can support custom domain, email aliases, and email scheduling?
  • Proton Drive: not the most important, but interested in privacy first, encrypted hosting services
  • Proton Pass: anything I should take a look at besides Bitwarden and Keepass?
  • Proton VPN: that one's the hardest, it was really good, I think Mullvlad is the one most often recommended?
  • Proton Calendar: didn't really care about that one, but it was nice that it connected to Mail

My Unlimited plan renewed in December so I'll probably keep it for a year, it was nice having only one subsctiption to keep in mind, but I'm thinking of exploring other options

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (8 children)

He made one tweet

Then the company issues a statement

No more tweets or support

I mean, come on .. it's blown way out of water

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

As I mentioned in the post, this is mostly out of curiosity

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

I agree.

They stumbled into a political mess, it was naive and foolish but it doesn't mean the whole of proton should be written off.

I'm not looking for an alternative. Although it is also good that people have other options to share and the freedom to move providers should they wish. I will still recommend Proton to people.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago

People have the right to chose their merchant in the same manner they chose their life partner... anything goes, it is personal preference.

Andy fucked up by not reading the room and now he is suffering the consequences for his brave leadership.

I am wondering who he thought his user base was now... is his this out of touch?!

He also misunderstood that while boycott google does not work because normie aint got nothing to hide and it is convenience! A gal or guy who switched to proton did so for a very specific reason and they ARE WILLING TO SUFFER for that extra inch of "freedom"

I aint switching yet but I am monitoring Proton. i expect improvements such as no ADS to paying customers.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Everyone has a different level of tolerance. Personally, Andy can belch all the political crap he wants since Proton is a completely separate entity. But, when the official Proton account doubles-down on views I disagree with (which they've since deleted), that's what crossed my threshold. I've since moved to another service.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago
  • Mail and calendar: Tuta seems the only alternative for mail and calendar if you want custom domain support and encryption by default that Tuta (probably) can't access even if legally compelled to. Doesn't have a desktop bridge like Proton does, rather it has a full Linux app for both email and calendar. Which will be a pro for some people and a con for others. And I'm struggling to run it on my nixOS system, for the three people on earth that would matter for.
  • Drive: I have a Synology NAS which handles this need very well for me, especially with my own managed wireguard VPN for access away from home
  • Pass: Bitwarden
  • VPN: Mullvad
[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 week ago (3 children)

related to Proton’s recent political involvement

You should probably check the political leanings of the directors of each of the alternatives you are considering as well.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Yeah, don't just drop whoever opens their mouth to speak..

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

disroot, or autistici, depending on your politics

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Generally, I'd recommend having different services for everything anyway just for situations like this where if one's bad, you don't have to change everything else. Pick what services you really need the premium for and find free tiers that match your needs on others. For VPN, I still use PIA since their reputation is still holding up. I know you said you don't want to hear it but Bitwarden for password manager and for the rare time I need cloud storage, I use Mega since they offer 20GB on their free tier. Oh, and Disroot for email bit that doesn’t have everything you're looking for so I can't recommend it even if it's been great for my use case.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

There was a recent post on [email protected]

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 week ago (1 children)
  • For Mail, I'd recommend Tuta (which comes with 15-30 aliases depending on the plan) and a third-party aliasing service like Addy if you need more than that. If you want a different aliasing service and are searching around, and trying to avoid giving money to Proton, avoid SimpleLogin, since they are owned by Proton. I don't believe Tuta has email scheduling, though.
  • For Drive, either use Tresorit, or use Cryptomator if you're okay with paying for OneDrive/Dropbox/Google Drive. (Cryptomator encrypts uploaded files & names so the cloud provider itself can't view the contents)
  • For Pass, I personally would recommend Bitwarden or Keepass simply depending on whichever one you prefer more. Both are good options.
  • For VPN, definitely use Mullvad. Simple, unchanging monthly price, you can pay via numerous different ways if you want to keep your identity more private from them (e.g. paying with cash by mail, XMR, etc) and you'll get an account number rather than needing to actually give them any information like an email to create an account. Do be aware it has much less locations than Proton, and most other VPN providers, although it's still quite fast and usable for most cases.
  • For Calendar, Tuta also has a calendar feature built-in.

I'd highly recommend checking out Privacy Guides by the way, since they tend to have good lists of alternatives for any other services you may want to switch from also.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I was thinking about subbing to Proton and researched a few other alternatives but ended up coming to the conclusion that it is kinda useless for me and most people. Unless the other person(s) you email are also using Proton or a similar service then you’re still compromised. I guess it makes sense for some people like journalists or politicians, but only if you know your peers are also using it. I ended up moving everything to iCloud which does most of what you’re looking for.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Mullvad is great. Also for drive, if you just need e2ee photo storage, check out ente.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

ente

Thanks, first time hearing about them. I'll check them out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They have a great authenticator app too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Do you know if it has easy backup and restore features for switching to a new phone?

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Tuta is an excellent alternative.

Fastmail is what I use for my day to day mail. If you're concerned about it being subject to Australian privacy laws, check out Startmail.

Mailbox.org is very good but some may find it overly complex.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

VPS with nextcloud et al

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