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Ask HN: FastMail vs. ProtonMail?

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Re: Ask HN: FastMail vs. ProtonMail?

#31

Post by setr »

lrsjng wrote: post #3

From Wikipedia: "ProtonMail maintains and owns its server hardware and network in order to avoid trusting a third party. It maintains two data centres in Lausanne and Attinghausen (in the former K7 military bunker under 1,000 meters of granite rock) for redundancy. Since the data centres are located in Switzerland, they are legally outside of US and EU jurisdiction. Under Swiss law, all surveillance requests from for…

Fastmail doesn’t even provide encryption in the first place, does it? There wouldn’t be anything to backdoor; you’d still be pgp’ing yourself

Re: Ask HN: FastMail vs. ProtonMail?

#32

Post by ac29 »

badpun wrote: post #2

I’ve recently switched to ProtonMail. Here are my takeaways: - web client and mobile clients are functional for day to day work. - IMAP integration (only in paid version) is a SNAFU and basically does not work. - support responds to emails, but slowly (takes them 24-48 hours). - importing messages is possible via the (beta) ImportExport tool. The tool is not 100% stable yet, so prepare to waste half a day on it. Hone…

Here's my experience with Fastmail:

-Web client is excellent and truly fast. I'd rank it better than gmail, though prior to the latest redesign at gmail that made it an order of magnitude slower, gmail was tied or better. Haven't used their mobile client, but the reviews for the Android version are pretty grim (but the service works flawlessly with the gmail app, and presumably any other IMAP client).

-I've yet to have an issue with using any email client.

-Only needed to contact support once, but they got back quickly: less than an hour, despite being on the other side of the planet from Australia.

-No issue importing, at least from gmail/gsuite.

Re: Ask HN: FastMail vs. ProtonMail?

#33

Post by chrismeller »

There are other non-Google options... Not sure if the storage is necessarily comparable, but Rackspace starts at $3, Microsoft $4, Zoho at €1.

While Rackspace seems like a company on a downward slide I’ve used their email before and it was solid. Microsoft of course is Microsoft, everyone knows what Exchange is like and it’s up to you if you want them to have your data. I have no experience with Zoho, but they’re definitely the cheapest.

Re: Ask HN: FastMail vs. ProtonMail?

#35

Post by _shadi »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #12

For me, ProtonMail’s inability to support standard clients without an awkward bridge app completely kills it. One of email’s biggest positive points is its client agnostic nature which makes it cheap and dead easy to use anywhere . Being tied to a web client, as ubiquitous as web browsers may be, is a marked downgrade.

oh so you can't use it with something like thunderbird or mailspring ? what about mobile apps?

Re: Ask HN: FastMail vs. ProtonMail?

#36

Post by przmk »

_shadi wrote: post #35
kitsunesoba wrote: post #12

For me, ProtonMail’s inability to support standard clients without an awkward bridge app completely kills it. One of email’s biggest positive points is its client agnostic nature which makes it cheap and dead easy to use anywhere . Being tied to a web client, as ubiquitous as web browsers may be, is a marked downgrade.

oh so you can't use it with something like thunderbird or mailspring ? what about mobile apps?

You can only use the Protonmail mobile app.

Re: Ask HN: FastMail vs. ProtonMail?

#37

Post by robert_foss »

FastMail has been sponsoring the development of JMAP, which is a modern replacement to IMAP and SMTP. Naturally their service supports JMAP. This is the first major step in modernizing email in a long time.

There was a recent FOSDEM talk by the author about the recent IETF standards ratification for JMAP[1].

[1] https://fosdem.org/2019/schedule/event/email_standards/

Re: Ask HN: FastMail vs. ProtonMail?

#38

Post by asdfasdfad »

My experience with protonmail as a personal email is great. However, my experience with their paid service as a business email has been less than stellar. I had to switch to fastmail because I was disappointed with their service.

For one, if they automatically lock your account, there is no way to access your email. Setting up the bridge for your email client is a pain, so no one really uses it. The customer support only replies one email per day no matter the emergency.

The second is that every alias is extra cash. In fastmail, you can create any amount of alias and its the same price. Their emails are super fast, and you can tell they have lots of business clients from their excellent customer support.

If you have multiple users, its much more cumbersome to setup those emails as the master admin in protonmail. In fastmail, you are just a few clicks away.

So in conclusion. Use protonmail for your personal email. Use fastmail for business emails.

Re: Ask HN: FastMail vs. ProtonMail?

#39

Post by LinuxBender »

Both are very usable. I set both up for people that I care enough about to get them away from Google.

Both are monitored and subject to government requests. I see this discussion a lot, but if you aren't running the mail server, you won't know when someone is reading your emails. It is on the end users to encrypt the payload (gpg, 7-zip, etc...)

Just my own opinion, as I have a deep rooted devious streak and worked for big brother. Don't trust a mail providers payload encryption. Do it yourself.

Both of them occasionally have hiccups on their web infrastructure according to my monitoring tools. Consider using an IMAPs client if you have concerns about availability.

Re: Ask HN: FastMail vs. ProtonMail?

#40

Post by laurentl »

satan9 wrote: post #24
m33k44 wrote: post #11

There is also tutanota.com based in Germany. There pricing is here: https://tutanota.com/pricing

I use tutanota and they are great! More free strange space than proton mail too (1 gb). edit: I didn't release how cheap the premium was and just upgraded.

> More free strange space

I love this typo!

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