Why I ditched Gmail for Proton Mail

AnActOfCreation@programming.dev to Technology@lemmy.world – 285 points –
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For anyone using a custom domain, or thinking about it, read this: https://dmarcly.com/blog/how-to-implement-dmarc-dkim-spf-to-stop-email-spoofing-phishing-the-definitive-guide

Without these records you're a lot more likely to go to spam, or get rejected outright. If you have questions about it, ask here or DM me and I'll be glad to help.

Recently I added a custom domain to my protonmail account and during the procedure it makes you do this steps (adding SPD, DKIM and DMARC) to pass all the steps. They tell you exactly what records you have to add, where to add them and what the content should be. These guys are great

Yep, setup mine about a year ago now, since I'm trying to get rid of Google completely, and it walks you through all of this. It was really well done setup.

Same with Tuta, which I did last weekend. Still evaluating the service for now before telling everyone to switch to my new custom domain (I'm forwarding everything from my old domain for now).

I tried Tuta when it was still called Tutanota, but it was rather cumbersome to use. The mobile and desktop app would work reasonably well, but searching through your emails was a pain.

It also wasn't possible to use any email client on the pc. Proton also doesn't offer IMAP access, but they do have a bridge you can install for that, enabling the use of almost any mail client.

Yeah, searching on Tuta sucks because it has to be done client-side since everything is encrypted on the server. With ProtonMail, the subject line is unencrypted, so it can search that without your key.

And I thought I'd care about email clients, but I honestly really don't. They're just so heavy and I don't use email enough to need power user features.

I used Proton for a couple years and it was good, but decided on Tuta because Proton raised their prices and I honestly don't need the rest of their stuff.

In that case it sounds like Tuta is the right choice for you. I just wanted to make sure you knew about the drawbacks. For me the search thing is what killed it, because I regularly search older emails.

Yup, it's definitely appreciated.

And honestly, the only things that draw me to Tuta over Proton are:

  • price - €3/month; family plan is €3/person; Proton is $4/month (reasonable), family is $24/month (kind of a lot)
  • custom domains - Tuta supports 3 on lowest paid plan, Proton supports 1; I want at least 2 (family + personal project)
  • Monero - I like the idea of digital cash, and this is the closest I've seen; I currently don't have any, so not a deal breaker

So mostly cost. But there's a lot of stuff I like about Proton:

  • Simple Login
  • VPN
  • more polished experience
  • bridge

I can host my own Simple Login, Mullvad VPN has more locations, and I don't use email all that often anyway.

I'd switch to Proton if they:

  • added more custom domains to Mail Plus
  • had a Mail Plus family plan (ideally piecemeal like Tuta)

Monero is nice but not a deal breaker, and I'm okay with Proton being a little more expensive due to brand recognition.

All domains you purchase through cloudflare have a fancy button on the gui to add dmarc and dkim that just say “reject” so people can’t pretend to email from your domain, pretty neat feature imo. (Not actually useful if you are trying to use it as a custom email domain though, lol)

My email provider (Migadu) gave me all the DNS entries I needed when I signed up my domain to them.

I think they all do?

I don't really understand the need for a guide TBH. If you can set your mx then you can do the rest, and your provider will tell you if it's not done.