this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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Are there any good alternatives to Gmail? (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 10 months ago by KrupskayaPraxis@lemmygrad.ml to c/technology@lemmygrad.ml
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I'm trying to degoogle and figured that email is the next step

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[–] Imnecomrade@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I want to get rid of ProtonMail eventually because they may be a honeypot.

  1. Protonmail Behaves like a CIA/NSA “Honeypot”

Protonmail has an Onion domain that allows users to visit their site using the TOR browser. Protonmail even has an SSL cert for that onion address even though it’s completely unnecessary. When a user makes a new account with Protonmail on TOR they are re-directed from Protonmail’s “.onion” to “.com” address. This breaks your secure encrypted connection to their onion address, enabling your identification. There are absolutely no technical reasons for this feature. In fact, the only other websites that operate like this are suspected NSA/CIA Honeypots.

This is a huge security issue that was either created because Protonmail is managed by Particle physicists who do not understand computer security OR they have been forced to operate their website in a similar way as CIA/NSA honeypots. Both possibilities are serious concerns.

https://encryp.ch/blog/disturbing-facts-about-protonmail/

I'm planning to self-host my own email service, but that comes with its own problems, including major email services banning most IPs that are not other mainstream email providers for the sake of "spam protection".

https://vadosware.io/post/its-never-been-easier-or-harder-to-self-host-email/

https://cfenollosa.com/blog/after-self-hosting-my-email-for-twenty-three-years-i-have-thrown-in-the-towel-the-oligopoly-has-won.html

To hopefully counter this and to have a separate email for payments required to be able to host my own email service, I have an email on macaw.me and monocles.de (about monocles).

[–] KrupskayaPraxis@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Is there an email service that isn't like this?

[–] Imnecomrade@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Tutanota mail is an alternative to Protonmail, but you can't use another email client like Thunderbird. There's some more options listed in this link:

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/email/

As I suggested before, macaw.me offers free email, and monocles.de offers free and paid encrypted email (both use Roundcube webmail).

Here's a list of email providers that work with Delta Chat:

https://providers.delta.chat/

Here's a list of email providers that work with dismail.de:

https://dismail.de/serverlist.html

I have been on the search for another larger and more developed email provider as a backup for instances when I can't use my other emails because they are blocked by some services or an entity I need to interact with. Here's a list of email providers I have managed to find for you:

  • cock.li (Vulgar, but has less vulgar domain name options, and they claim to be more transparent and honest, but I get some right-wing libertarian vibes from this service as I learned about it from Mental Outlaw (yeah, I know I watch some cringey tech channels, but I learn some helpful device from them, which is the only reason why I still watch them on occasion))
  • Fastmail (Proprietary, but they contribute to open source projects, and their JMAP standard project is pretty interesting)
  • Forward Email (Free/paid and open source, including the backend, and quantum-safe encrypted)
  • Mailbox.org (Proprietary)
  • Maildrop (Free and open source throwaway email service)
  • Migadu (Proprietary, but built with open source software and has some open source repositories (GitHub), but forced free tier users to switch to a paid tier within one month during the pandemic)
  • MXroute (Proprietary, but built with open source software and has some open source repositories (GitHub))
  • Runbox (Proprietary, but built with open source software and has some open source repositories (GitHub))
  • Swisscows.email
  • systemli.org (Apparently it's only available by invite link, and you have to be a leftist and know someone willing to give you an invite link)
  • Zoho Mail (Proprietary, but has some open source repositories (GitHub), have a good reputation, and also provides services such as an office suite, though their services are business oriented)

Keep in mind I haven't done much research on these email services to be able to recommend them. I am posting whatever I find, and hopefully someone may be able to make a comment or you will be able to research more about them to see if they fit your needs.

Here's a short list of email providers:

https://github.com/cdransf/awesome-email

I'm going to post this as it lists some email resources, testing tools, etc. even though the curated list is more intended for self-hosting email and email design:

https://github.com/jonathandion/awesome-emails

For VPNs, I would suggest using: