Private email providers

It should be added that only posteo filters spam, and it works very well.

Eagle_Owl Posteo can be used with FairEmail + OpenKeychain, no issues with their PGP auto-encryption

DeletedUser115

Same here: I am using my Posteo account in FairEmail in connection with OpenKeyChain and it works without any problems. Don't need an extra Posteo app.

I've now switched from Proton Mail to Tutanota, taking advantage of their new basic plan that allows for 3 custom domains. Proton's Mail Plus plan only allows for one, and to add more you need to upgrade to the Unlimited plan, which for me is ridiculously more expensive when I only want their email service. But I've been pretty happy with their service otherwise.

Except for their web client, which for me was always slow and therefore a pain to use. Tutanota's desktop client is so much smoother, weirdly so, although it remains to be seen if it will be able to handle it after I import my several thousand emails to it, ha!

Note that Tutanota has fewer features than Proton Mail. This might not be acceptable to people who are used to scheduled send, more fine-grained inbox rules, etc.

Skiff.com. Totally encrypted. Free to use, comes with Calendar, Drive, Pages and of course Mail. Check it out.

[deleted]

I like skiff but unfortunately requires google play services if you want email notifications. Tutanota still wins in this regard on grapheneos.

[deleted]
When I used Posteo back then, there was no way to use end-to-end encryption with a smartphone.
It was only possible in the browser - but Posteo is not responsive and it was terribly difficult to use in the browser.
Not comfortable.
Only comfortable on the desktop computer.

[deleted]
Ah, thanks for mentioning the spam filter - that was the main reason why I cancelled my Posteo mailbox!
If you don't use fancy names as your main mail address, but firstname.lastname@posteo.tld, then you won't have any fun with Posteo!
Because then you notice how bad the spam filter is!
That's how it was back then until around 2020 or 2021 (I don't know exactly when I cancelled Posteo).

If their spam filter works really well now, I'm glad.
I find the people at Posteo likeable and have the feeling that they actually take their job seriously.

But Tutanota is more technically advanced and doesn't use outdated PGP technology (without Perfect Forward Secrecy!).
And the new tariffs are better, not worse.

[deleted]
No, they are not alone with spam filters.

Tutanota has much better spam filter despite E2EE!

applesbana I used Tutanota with and without Play Services. The Fdroid version consumes noticeably more battery than the Play Store version. I had to uninstall the app in order to stop insane amount of partial wakelocks.

Speaking of drawbacks of posteo, the lack of DMARC/ARC is one. On the plus side they have an option to encrypt your entire mailbox, separately from PGP auto-encryption for incoming emails.

Mailbox.org looks like all round decent email provider in my experience.

There is ProtonMail and Tutanota but they lack IMAP support (without bridge in ProtonMail case).

Skiff looks interesting but I haven't used it yet.

Has anyone experienced issues with Tutanota not loading behind a VPN? Yesterday I was unable to access their website while connected to ProtonVPN Plus servers. I tried several ones, some were blocked some weren't, and I'm very certain that I didn't have an issue on my network. The app also wouldn't fetch emails behind these servers.

I messaged support and they replied that it's possible the servers were blocked, and also implied that they don't control the blocking of IP addresses for their domain.
I never experienced this with Proton Mail (using Mullvad).

DeletedUser115 I have a paid account with Mailbox.Org. All good so far.

I vote for mailbox.org.

• They allow you to sign up anonymously, although fall short of Posteo who calculate the correct value-added tax for the relevant EU country through Geo-IP but (unlike mailbox.org) do not save the result.

• Provide in-house disposable aliases at @temp.mailbox.org domain. These are real fixture in my life. I use them daily for everything. I only wish I could send from them as well as reply to, but we can't have everything we want.

• @secure.mailbox.org alias that will force TLS. Great for sensitive back-and-forth with a person, but terrible for online portals and booking system the way they envision it.

• Optional encrypted mailbox for those that care. If I did I'd use Proton or Tutanota.

The downsides are their funky 2FA, no app passwords and no proper Login Log (à la Fastmail or Proton).

[deleted]

What’s your preferred app to get mailbox.org email onto your phone?

All right, I received a reply from Tutanota support on the topic of VPNs:

We generally do not block VPN connections regardless of the provider. However certain IP addresses might be blocked temporarily whenever we detect misuse or mass signups. This is an automatic process, handled by our system and the block is not permanent. Unfortunately I cannot provide more details on this.

Please change the exit IP of your connections if the issue still persists.

Apparently the VPN exit server my router/firewall is set to is notoriously used by spammers, because I'm getting blocked again. Funnily enough I have no issues using Tutanota through Tor.

Relaks So you use a vpn for your privacy and end up with the same IP as spammers...

[deleted] Right, that comes as a surprise to no one. Some VPN providers (like Proton) have notoriously bad IP reputation. The info on Tutanota blocking them will be relevant to some users who are considering the service.