As I strive to enhance my online privacy, I am seeking an email provider that is affordable, privacy-focused, and does not engage in selling user data. I am willing to pay for it.

    wuku I’ve been using Proton for several months, and I’m quite happy with it. I’ve the paid plan since I want to be able to use my custom domain, but the free plan is still great as well if you don’t need additional features.

    Vote for Proton Mail... 3+ years now, and I put all my clients on it too... Used to run my own email servers in data centers... now just use proton... rock solid! :)

    wuku depending on your usage case, you can also use an email aliasing service. SimpleLogin works well, provides bidirectional emailing, and is integrated with (and owned by) Proton(Mail).

    I also like that you can configure it with a PGP key so that the forwarded messages (to your hidden address) will be encrypted.

    Like Signal and other encrypted messaging apps, it works best if your frequent contacts also use it. So, I recommend considering that, too. If your main contacts use Proton then it would probably be best to also use Proton.

    • N1b likes this.

    Email aliases is kind of a big deal and quite powerful when it comes to masking your identity while using email. Having many emails all managed from one account is amazingly powerful and convenient in dealing with some of the privacy issues of email.

    I recommend you look at which service offers better aliasing and email masking options. I think tutanota is better priced in this regard, but proton has more features.

    Tutanota and proton are probably first choice, but di look around there is a few others, but not that many.

    Think long term.

    Maybe mailbox.org is interesting for you.

    You can also use your own domain, with this service.

      I use french Laposte.net and am very satisfied.

      I would second Posteo.

      Its private, discrete, has SMTP support and unlimited aliases (10 cents per month for each) with the ability to choose any domain for each alias (posteo.de, posteo.co.uk, posteo.com, posteo.fr, etc etc etc).

      They also have a Crypto option that basically encrypts the whole mailbox at rest plus they provide all other popular perks (tls sending guarantee, incoming encryption with your keys, key server, etc).

        My main concern with Proton is that their Terms seems to be too strict and I was reading many reviews that they might suddenly block mailbox access with no reason. There are many threads on Reddit and web. Also, their Terms say they might block access to mailbox account if its accessed by VPN (except their own VPN) which is also a big issue for me as I am using Mullvad VPN: https://proton.me/support/compromised-account-temporarily-locked

        There were cases when people complained that their accounts got blocked for no good reason and Proton did not unblock them.

        This really held me back as I did not want to end up with a blocked email address for no reason.

        Also, as Proton is a popular choice, I personally think it might be more targeted by dodgy people who will aim to attack/hack it hence its more strict.

        With Posteo, its much more flexible - you just use your mailbox as normal with no issues. And its cheap too.

        I also like when a company concentrates on 1 product only (like Mullvad is only offering VPN or Posteo is only offering Email services) rather than when its offering a number of different services. It kinda puts me back.

        The only thing that I don't like about Posteo is their ugly web interface (Proton is much nicer) but I use Thunderbird/FairMail so don't care about it much.

        This is my own opinion and arguments so please take it with a grain of salt.