Today I talk about my experience with Proton Mail.
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@techlore Check out videos on Proton.
https://pr.tn/ref/F4PKCVB43XP0 (referral link)
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Want to try Proton Mail? Use my referral link: https://pr.tn/ref/F4PKCVB43XP0
I have been using Proton Mail for a long time since I started using Proton VPN because using Proton VPN you need Mail ID.
You also get VPN when you sign up for email. I never thought I'd pay for email, but I've been pretty happy and the aliases are great as you pointed out.
Proton's contact management is a dumpster fire. It's in a tiny sidebar that you don't even know exists if you have the right sidebar collapsed. It's clunky and difficult to use. It needs to be a full screen interface or a different app interface entirely. You can't even sync contacts to your Android phone (not sure about iPhone), which is a ridiculous thing to say in 2024 (almost 2025).
yup its good email.
I personally have been using ZOHO for a few years for my wife and I because it's just reasonably priced for personal use and does what I need it to do (I haven't had any issues). I'd love to try proton mail but the cost is so big here in Australia so it's a tough sell.
Have been using (a paid) version of Proton for a while now and have a very good experience overall. I really like that they have a public message board where people can make feature requests. There is a voting system too, so other users can upvote any of the requests. Proton will honor these feature requests according to the ranking, and actually work on implementing them in their portfolio of services. The range of services they offer is continuously expanding, so you get more than just an email service for your money. One thing I am not so fond of is the documentation. It's very badly organized and it takes ages to find relevant information. There is no manual in the traditional sense. You have to type in search words and hope for the best. You then get some links, most of which (and often all of which) are not at all what you are looking for, i.e. totally useless. You can ask support, which answers pretty quickly. The quality of the answers varies a lot though. All in all I am very happy with Proton. One more thing: It's not Proton's fault and not something they can control, but some websites block Proton VPN IP's and some websites block the Proton/simple-login email aliases. By the way, you can implement Proton VPN in pfSense (and OpenSense) so that you can choose which of your devices are routed via the VPN connection. The speed of the VPN connection is quite good and they offer additional security features to make the VPN even more secure. I think it's for a reason that Proton is popular amongst people (like journalist, ….) who live in countries with severe government surveillance.
Been thinkin about proton mail
I've been paying for Proton for 3-4 years now. I use it for all of my VPN needs, I am slowly migrating to Proton Mail, I create use-and-throw email addresses using SimpleLogin and I've moved most of my cloud storage to Proton Drive, though I primarily host nearly everything at home on my server(s).
For me, the primary motivation to use Proton Mail was not privacy. I just worry that if one day Google deletes my main account, I won't have any way to dispute that or get my data without first complaining to a journalist and hoping they'd pick up the story. You have a near zero chance of getting any grievance addressed directly with Google. I have prior experience and it is worse than banging your head against a brick wall.
I started using Protonmail 10 years ago, always been happy with it. I don't use any paid services because I don't need them. I live in Europe so I quikcly had access to their beta… I never used gmail again… Their webclient and phone app has been better over the years…
Bridge is working in the way, that run IMAP server on your local machine where it downloads and sync all mails. So communication between bridge and Proton is encrypted, but on your localmachine is encrypted only communication between bridge and client using self signed SSL Certificates. Also Proton Bridge is protected by random password when setup connection to him. It is nice service that is working well on Linux (fedora, and ubuntu that I tested) Only thing that cant work is calendar. But now they have electron based app for email and calendar that you can download.
Proton Mail and VPN is their only good services. Everything else is half baked
Proton’s email is good, but the Linux-support is subpar to non-existent when it comes to the other Proton products
Hey Matt, I hope you're voice comes back after a little rest. I also took a look Proton mail about 2 years ago for similar reasons and I really liked it, but I got a little bit distracted and sort of forgot about it. I now intend to take another look as soon as I get around to it and am currently re-using a very old Yahoo email account that still works really well for me, and it may be worth a look from you. Anyways, thanks for the content and take care of yourself.
Would you please review Keyd and or Kanata (keyboard remapping/customization software)?
If google mail was encrypted, they wouldn't be able to train AI on your email correspondence. I use proton, I'm happy.
The other downside of Proton Mail is what happens when you send e-mails to companies that care about their security. On regular e-mail security, I can check metadata on the e-mail to see where its been sent from, and better judge wether the e-mail is malicious. Proton obfuscates and encrypts that data. This makes Proton Mail very "loud". I cant figure out who you are, but you are like a masked hooded person in a library. Everybody sees you, even though nobody recognizes you. This makes proton mail popular for ransomware threat actors, so theres that. Pay with your privacy services are rather private when it comes to eyes on your account. But automated data selling? Yeah no
I do notice that the rare targeted ads that slip through my adblocking scheme are less and less relevant to what I've recently been doing (I watched and did a lot of car stuff, now gaming and hardware).
I like it so far. I want to protest against selling data and this seems like a good fit.
Proton Pass is not preferable to me, you need to be authenticated in your user account. So I need to know the password to my user account in order to securely rely on Proton Pass. On Linux, ProtonPass does not lock itself when I lock my screen, unlike KeepassXC.
ProtonDrive only works in a webapp on Linux. No automated storage. Rclone has got a way to work with the backend but it didn't work on Mint a month back. Proton VPN is decent. I didnt try Proton Calendar yet
I use the entirety of Proton Suites. Their VPN is great. But, lacks feature parity with windows and macos on linux. I however, love proton pass. On my phone, browsers, and native linux app. The native app is great. Ive had issues with other applications properly auto filling before. Never had an issue with Proton Pass. I just wish they'd expand beyond deb format and come out with an offical flatpak because theyve gotten some of my gtk dependencie messed up since you to add their custom repo.
I used Proton Mail again this past year but I've decided I won't be renewing my Unlimited subscription. The service is fine, but I'm a dedicated Thunderbird user. Proton not only locks IMAP behind a paywall, but it's only on desktop. So no support for Thunderbird on mobile. Also, Proton Calendar lacks offline support, and doesn't support CalDav.
What I use now is Posteo. 1 Euro a month, 2GB of storage, calendar with CalDav, aliases, perfect Thunderbird support, and all the encryption you need. You can pay for more storage, but they do not support custom domains.
Also, I want to add that I think Proton"s password manager is the one product of theirs I really like.
I have been using Thunderbird for many years on various distos. Is ther anything seriously bad in Thunderbird?
1. There is a native Linux client in both an RPM and DEB bundle. It is NOT the bridge.
2. The mobile app on Android doesn't have the load lag problem you describe.
3. Email encryption is a fetish, not a real requirement. If the state wants to find you, they will.
Fastmail has far more to offer for people who want to have control.
Thanks for very good assessment of pros and cons of proton. I have seriously thought about it instead of Gmail. Just out of laziness haven't moved yet. Cheers 😊
I prefer my Nextcloud over Proton Drive, but I use Proton Drive as a backup hooked up to Duplicati via rclone. I prefer Proton VPN over Private Internet Access. I switched to Proton Pass from Bitwarden and really enjoy it (also ties into Simple Login for email aliases).
I cant believe anyone doesnt know thst Gmail's business model depends on reading your email do they can target you with ads. That was an explicit founding functionality. They are never going to encrypt.
i think proton is the best email and cloud drive
On android there is a tiny loading time where it shows the logo but my emails are immediately there. This isn't consistent though I've noticed a few times especially if I got new emails that it can be slower at loading but other than that I've had no issues with the app. The web version on the other hand is much slower even logging in takes an age sometimes and it doesn't seem to matter which browser I'm using.
The fix for insecure email services is to write you message in a text file, encrypt or compress w/ password, and attach that file to the email you're sending, then send them the password for decryption using another communication media (phone/text/etc). But, NOT via email…
I’m in the process of switching to Libre everything off of MS and Google and am using protonmail, it’s an email address can’t say I hate not love it. I don’t use email on the regular but it is helping me get rid of all the email lists I’m subscribed to on my gmail account.
I'm using one of the proton suites and successfully ditched google 2 years ago. My Android experience is ok wrt mail and drive. The calendar is quite bad, i must admit, and the VPN is great. Meh on the linux side. Both TB mail and kmail work ok with bridge, and on your computer it's plain IMAP wherw you can keep folder content offline if you want to. but you have to be willing to accept slowness. Calendar has too many problems that way to be of any use.
Drive – no app yet. Been using rclone to automount as a network folder. It's terribly slow and it's a known issue for a long time. I don't mind it normally. If I need to upload fast I open Drive via the browser.
Please note that as with gmail, extended attributes is not supported and other metadata might not be saved, too. It's quite a problem for me as a heavy user of tags and comments on files, which is why I don't rely on it as backup.
I remember when you skeeted on Mastodon that you started using it. Damn it's already been half a year?
Just one obs about email clients, to get the same exp I installed proton mail as a chrome app.
I had a grandfathered free Google Apps subscription, but trying to de google myself I ended up with Fastmail as they're Australian based like me.
They don't have the encryption but as you said neither does Google so I don't care as much.
Google has the option for encrypted Mail when you have a Business account. All secure (encrypted) emails you want to send to non-Gmail also send a link to the actual message on gmail servers. Same as Protonmail, MS Outlook, etc.
It's also not true that "you're not supposed to click links on emails at all". Most emails from Stores, services, surveys, policies, ToS, Unsubscribe, etc have/are links. Most if not all emails from medical services have the 'click the link' to take you to the actual message. I believe I've also seen it for legal offices, and other businesses.
I've been using Ptotonmail in Thunderbird through Bridge for a couple of years with no problems. I found bridge pretty easy to get running, and they have very good documentation on how to set it up.
About encryption I think proton has the case in mind that gov cannot access your complete mailbox. In worst case it can only read the content from other people which will be pretty incomplete
why google is not encrypting your data you are asking.. oh boy.. do you really want to go to this rabbit hole ? your emails have to be unencrypted so Google can tokenize them and use them for advertising. If data would be encrypted they would shut down biggest pool of advert data. This is actualy whole point of having service like proton – on your side everything is encrypted and happy.
Shiller shilling
You answered your own question about Gmail being encrypted. Google is listening to everything we say, and they love doing that.
Furthermore, as you said, they have a massive user base. Probably the biggest email provider in the world, so why would they feel the need to advertise their service with encryption?
They are already on top.