First thing you need to understand is that the smooth end-to-end encryption works only tuta-to-tuta or proton-to-proton, so in rare cases. Encryption at rest, which is what tuta-to-proton, gmail-to-tuta etc. can do, is something that a lot of other email providers do too.

I'm currently in the process of moving from Proton to Tuta, because despite several years of promises, the Android client for Proton still doesn't do non-google push notifications. Also because if you just need email with your own domain, Tuta is much more price-friendly. (The tier also includes unlimited calendars and event invites, which I haven't tried.) If you also want VPN and encrypted storage, the balance tips.

I don't use the calendar from either, so can't talk for their properties. I prefer seamless calendar integration for wrist gadget integration and such, so using NextCloud Calendar + DavX. For smooth integration with encryption, could also look into Etesync. I think you'll be able to share an ics attachment from either of those through your normal calendar.

Germany is a 14-eyes-country, but since I'm just privacy conscious and my threat model doesn't include international-coordination-level actors (barely state level, am in the EU but not German, so eh, far enough), it doesn't matter that much to me. Proton also has to obey court rulings.

I switched over to Proton from Gmail about 8-10 months ago and it’s been great so far. Folders and filters have been like what I was used to. The only thing I haven’t played around with much is calendar and invites.

I ended up going for the whole proton bundle since it included the vpn, storage, and custom domains (up to 10 addresses I think)

Proton have just announced they're moving to a nonprofit structure if that makes a difference to you; it sure does to me.

This video lays it out perfectly, basically email is not secure. Protocol, not really meant to be, main thing is getting it off of Microsoft or Google servers. I recommend proton, just seems to be more reliable with receiving images and pictures on emails.

https://youtu.be/iH626CXyNtE?si=Zj6axq_RMou0NfrD

I personally suggest Tuta (and I use it daily) over Proton. Several reasons:

Proton:

1. it is leaky in terms of social graph encryption. Sun Knudsen has a great video about it (https://youtu.be/GdDFUycXR_M&t=0)
2. had this case about the climate activist (https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/6/22659861/protonmail-swiss-court-order-french-climate-activist-arrest-identification). And since they position themselves as a privacy company, this looks disturbing.
3. I'd prefer a such a privacy oriented company to be more open to anonymous payment methods.

Overall, Proton seems like a little more privacy-conscious Gmail alternative.

Tuta

1. doesn't use Google/Apple notification servers
2. encrypts more stuff than Proton

PS In both cases, emails are not end-to-end encrypted. Even though both are marketed with E2E encryption by default. Again, Sun Knudsen has a great video about the topic (https://youtu.be/G2Jh8bQ2wM8&t=501).

Also, as far as I remember, Proton is more expensive while having less features (the cheapest option) than Tuta.

I found Tuta to be lacking.

Conversation view is incomplete https://github.com/tutao/tutanota/issues/6 - https://github.com/tutao/tutanota/issues/5051

"when you have multiple addresses and custom domains getting hundreds of emails... it takes forever for the emails to load" https://community.centminmod.com/threads/skiff-email.24363/

Search isn't working in firefox "your browser doesn't support data storage". As the search index needs to be stored in your browser, it does not work in private mode/incognito mode.

Free accounts get deleted if you do not log in for six months.

Been using Proton for over 4 years now, and have had no issues with it. I don't use folders or tags that much, but if you are a paid member, you get unlimited of those. They recently announced calander invites (I personally never want to use them) and it looks like it should work fine. Proton also has unlimited aliases to hide your actual address, which I use all the time (coming over from SimpleLogin.)

The bundle (mail, VPN, calander, pass and drive) is really bang for the buck for what you get, even though you don't use some of them. You can always upgrade to it later if you wish. And in case you don't plan on paying, the free versions work just as you expect!

If you have any questions, just ask!

Migadu and your own domain

I think they are both fine,

I like that tuta is doing just one thing, ( ignoring the new storage feature ), and trying it's best at it.

Proton is going to more of a google approach, however the nonprofit goal they just set is pretty awesome.

I got the tuta's, now non-existent, premium plan, and am using simplelogin relays to protect it. No plan in changing the setup.

Nowadays proton owns simplelogin and I think it offers it's services to customers, a couple bucks cheaper than my impossible setup, so protonmail it's probably the best option nowadays.

@[email protected] I went with Proton and the reason was either that I could import and use my own PGP key, or because it had more general compatibility with other mail services using PGP (well possibly both those reasons). So I could send encrypted mails to Thunderbird users as well as GMail users (who had a PGP encryption extension).

Protonmail sucks because you can't use it with 3rd party mail clients like claws-mail or mutt without handing over $$$ (even gmail lets you do this for free, I believe). The plaintext mode in Protonmail appears not to be actually be plain text because I've had trouble submitting plaintext patches to the OpenBSD lists several times with it.

Have no experience with Tuta.

Self host on a VPS. OpenBSD makes it easy, follow a guide like this one.

Not trying to make the choice harder, but mailbox.org seems to fit into the choices as well (also hostesd in Germany). Also in terms of hosting in Switzerland, keep in mind that it's not actually part of the EU, which is the primary/original source for many of the privacy laws you probably care about if you're looking into these providers.

what about Posteo? when I compaired many providers a few years ago they seemed like one of the the most ethical

one caveat: you can't use your own domain name, for privacy reasons. I wish they gave the option though. maybe it has changed since

no idea about calendar invites

Been using tuta with like 3-4 domains for years. It works fine.

Getting your own domain so you can keep an email address and move providers is the actual right move. Sounds like that's what you're going to do.

Run your own email server and don't ever send anything you don't want it to be public over email!

Email is NOT SECURE, no matter what you do!

Peace!