this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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Any email service will let you make aliases. If it doesn't, or if it price-gouges you for how many aliases you can make (which are basically zero cost for them) — find a better email service.
Also, there's no need to use a 3rd-party alias service unless the address you're protecting cannot be used on an email service, like if it's a gmail address for example so you're stuck with gmail. But even so you can buy a domain, forward your Gmail address to it, and start enjoying aliases and all kinds of cool features.
Look into services like MXroute or Migadu.
Cool. I'm fine with using a 3rd party tool though. As a Linux user I'm quite used to having separate tools that do a single job well. 😊 I've been using Firefox Relay so far with positive results. But the free version is quite limited and you can't really customize the aliases at all.
But if Proton Mail already comes with aliasing, that would be a good alternative as I already have an address there. Just not a paying customer yet.
Trying to separate myself from Google a little bit as of late, so I'm looking for alternatives, but nothing too obscure and no self-hosting yet. I'd love a complete package like Google offers, kind of like Proton does.
What will be very hard for me to shake off is Google Drive and Google Documents (Sheets, Docs, etc). Very useful services that do their stuff well. Unfortunately. And very integrated into the only phones I enjoy using -- Pixel phones. 😑
Proton doesn't offer its own aliases, they use a third party service as well. It would basically be very similar to what you already get from Relay.
Have a look at Mailbox.org if you're looking for integrated services, they offer packages with more than just email. It's a long-running German service.
Please be wary of "encrypted" mail services, they make it fairly hard to migrate away from them later, if you need to. You need special tools to get your mail out of them, and those tools are at their whim.
Ah. By this, you mean they don't offer aliases that are under their own domain? Seems like a good thing to me, honestly.
Thanks for the tip!
My understanding is that mailbox.org is one of these services? But you still recommend them? 🙂
They just offer normal email features (TLS connections, PGP support, 2FA for webmail).
An "encrypted" service encrypts the messages at rest (on their server storage) but that makes it incompatible with normal email protocols which means you have to use their protocols and their apps to access it. Proton offers an adapter that allows you to use normal protocols (IMAP/POP3/SMTP) but it's only for PC, and if they ever discontinue that your email becomes captive.
Oh I see what you mean now. Thanks!
But by captive, you mean inaccessible by any other means than their own interface, right?
Yes. With a service that uses standard IMAP/POP3 protocols you can always download your entire mailbox and upload it somewhere else. If it's dependent of their apps and they don't provide full download as a feature, you're stuck.
Of course if you're the type that doesn't keep much email on the server it wouldn't affect you that much but then the whole encryption thing makes even less sense.
Gonna be honest, I don't use email in a way that I need my data locally. I always just use their respective web interfaces or apps. Maybe I should be worried, maybe I'm naive. 😅
But these are very good points of info, so appreciate your help here! Thank you, friend!