Greetings, I'm new around these parts and have been thinking of kicking iCloud/Gmail to the curb as far as email, calendar and contacts go. I currently use both services, but I'm getting tired of being the product, the flood of advertising and the stress that relying on multinational tech companies brings into my life. I've considered switching to either Proton or Tuta for these services, but I'm not sure of what advantages and disadvantages each one brings to the table. My requirements are fairly simple:
- The service I choose must use end-to-end encryption by default
- The service I choose must work on iOS, Linux and the web
- The service I choose must not make it difficult for those contacts of mine not using the chosen service to read any messages I send to them
- The service I choose must offer a free option so I can get used to using the chosen service
- The service I choose must offer an option to use a custom domain name if I choose to subscribe to a paid plan as I might want to use the chosen service for any personal domains I own
- Any applications the chosen service provides must be fully accessible to screen reader users as I am blind and rely on a screen reader to use my devices
What I'd like to know is what are the benefits and drawbacks of both Proton's and Tuta's services, how affordable each option is and what other people's experiences are with each service. Any insight the community can offer would be helpful to me in making this decision.
Thanks in advance for reading this and offering your feedback.
As email, both are fine. I like the Proton email web ui and mobile apps more. I don't push either hard, just feels more responsive to me. Visually I like it more. In terms of security, my expectations for email are incredibly low so it's more me wanting to move away from gmail than proton mail being encrypted. I've had no troubles sending and receiving emails.
I subscribe because I wanted the VPN and Drive storage. And since then, I've found the unlimited email aliases in Proton Pass to be incredibly nice to have. Those have a nonsense to read address but in Proton mail subscribed, I get 15 email aliases that are just like any other proton email address. Didn't subscribe for it but now use it. I barely use it as a password manager. I still mostly use a local keepassxc and manage backups myself but it is a value add for those that want to store their passwords in a streamlined format. So Proton Pass became a surprise like of mine. VPN no complaints other than I guess the Windows app looks a lot nicer compared to the Linux one. Drive, good enough to store stuff in I want to backup but not using it for sharing files.
Drive isn't as good as Google Drive and there's no Linux application yet but at least my data isn't being used for Google Gemini. Their docs/sheets aren't as good as Google and not as good as Collabora Online but good enough for me for writing infrequent drafts of things when I need. It's a start. Calendar, I'm basic. Good enough for me.
Proton purchased Standard Notes but it's not a part of proton unlimited. I expect someday we'll be getting a Proton Notes so I can fully get away from google notes. It probably won't be as good and that will make many angry but my usage is basic. I've been pretty pleased with the additional services that Proton keeps adding even if I don't use them and them not being as good as google. Got to start somewhere and iterate
Yeah I’d love to see a drive client for proton even better if it has proper file manager integration