What's your e-mail provider?

[Raichu 0]

Protonmail, the encryption is just too big of a bonus compared to most of the other providers ;)

[YumenoYuna 0]

Gmail in past. ProtonMail now.

[LcKHUNy7 1]

I like protonmail.

[bitcohen 0]

Posteo. Based on Germany. Good track record and nice company culture. Doesn't support personal domains. I use them, it's good.
Runbox. Based in Norway. Slightly more expensive.
Fastmail. Based in Australia and the US, which isn't as good. Significantly more expensive. Great software though.

Edited ... by OpenSourcerer
Remove links to questionable content

[Stalinium 44]

I've summarized 8 pages of this thread.

Email providers sorted by order of appearance, I've only included those people seemed to use themselves (personal recommendations or vouches). Some links to particularly interesting contributions
2022: Added a new and notes

Quote

Mainstream:

Gmail - Google Mail (US/Intl)

• Are there ANY working methods left to register an account without a phone number verification? I think they've eliminated all
• Alternative addresses for one inbox:
  • example+comment@gmail.com
  • gmail.com / googlemail.com
  • dot . character completely ignored in address: exam.ple@ = example@

Hotmail (Outlook) - Microsoft (US/Intl)

inbox.lv

• Cannot send e-mails until identity verified or paid for premium. Can receive email
• multiple interface languages, but asks to disable adblock in popup
• simple registration, hCaptcha
• Free: 20GB, 300 msgs/day, 1 alias: any-other-name@inbox.lv

Mail.ru (RU)

• Probably the oldest e-mail provider in Russia, acceptable quality

Rambler (RU)

• currently unreachable for AirVPN users
• Does not support alternative addresses for one inbox:
  • neither work: example+comment@rambler.ru, exampl.e@, exampl-e@, exampl_e@

Yahoo Mail (US)

Yandex.com (Russia/NL)

• Good inbox with only few ads
• Silently blocks registration if it detects a VPN or server IP - infinite captcha
• Alternative addresses for one inbox:
  • works with most alternative domains (.ru, .com etc)
  • example+comment@yandex.ru

Not Mainstream

posteo.de (DE)

• FAQ on own domains in Germany: "Can I use Posteo with my own domains?
  • No, this is not possible. We certainly understand that having your own domain is very important in the commercial industries. But a domain needs to be registered to the name and address of an individual. If we offered this, we would need to save the registration details of everyone who uses their own domain with Posteo and to provide these to the Federal Network Agency to be provided on request to the authorities.
  • This would still be the case even if only the MX record pointed to us. We have therefore decided not to offer this possibility and instead to use data economy. It is, however, possible to add various other email addresses with external domains as senders in the webmail interface and thereby to send emails with Posteo using external domains. In order to be able to read replies to these messages, you need to set up forwarding to Posteo for the external address."
• Feedback on spam
• bow down for the german court! https://www.zdnet.com/article/log-free-email-provider-posteo-you-must-log-user-ip-addresses-court-rules/
  • "Posteo's lack of users' IP addresses is not the result of "a lack of available data", the court ruled, but rather because of its "decision to hide this data from its internal system and to refrain from recording it due to data-protection concerns"." - Germoney says: log log log!

        

gandi.net
runbox.com

EmailDiscussions.com (a forum)

(TOR) http://sigaintevyh2rzvw.onion/ "SIGAINT"

autistici.org

• they have a focus on political activism and alignment

prism-break.org (compilation of privacy providers)

Riseup

• "Their server cluster was compromised a few years ago. (physical access by NSA? Speculation)"

Protonmail (CH)

• " Only thing I worry about is Unit8200 handling their DDOS protection. (shrug)"
• September 2021: Provided French authorities with IP address of an ecological activist which lead to an arrest

Hushmail.com

• not trustable: "Do not ever use hushmail...they gave up user data to feds 2007"

Opinion: "Stay away from email/vpn providers utilizing StartCom SSL certs."

panix.com
Tutanota.de (DE)

• itguy2007: "Tutanota has gotten publicity lately for telling the NSA to nacker-off.. The guy that stole the NSA hacking tools asked people to email him on Tutanota to buy the tools. NSA went to Tutanota, Tutanota told them to get bent and that even IF they wanted to hand anything over it would be heavily encrypted blobs of no use to them. So that's a pretty big victory."
• Account was closed. My note: for free accounts they tell you, you need to login once in 6 month to keep it active.
• They removed this blog article (2017, 2018): "Fighting for privacy: How encryption & data protection laws safeguard your emails.
  Data protection laws in Germany are very strict, and German companies are compelled to protect their users' data by law." - the link works, but you must cancel loading of the page to read it
• December 2020: German court forces encrypted email provider Tutanota to provide messages in blackmail case

uberspace.de (DE)
countermail.com
kolabnow.com
ghostmail.com (closed down)

Fastmail

• "nice, cheap, not overly secure but good general box."
• Questionable accuracy of legal statements: https://fastmail.blog/legal-policy/fastmail-apps-and-signup-available-in-germany-again/

4Secured Email

• "decent, I used them for a bit."

Neomailbox

• nice but support is terrible.

Cryptoheaven

• good service and good support.

Zoho

• Snowden's dump showed NSA complained about not being able to hack Zoho.

itguy2017 posted his research and experiences:

• a lot of providers he tried

scryptmail.com

• "Scryptmail looks interesting. Poor guy, it's like Sergei vs the Goliath. DDOS attacks, etc.
• Interesting how he mentions not wanting to use third party DDOS protection so traffic isn't compromised. I personally believe Proton Mail was deliberately targeted specifically for the reason to get them to sign up with RADWARE. So they get hit with a huge DDOS, Radware steps in and offers a free/cheap 'solution'? Yeah. that's the work of the intelligence groups. So Proton Mail is proxied by RADWARE, which was founded by Unit8200. RADWARE also does malware/riskware through their RADYOO division. All of this really means we probably should re-evaluate any trust we have in Protonmail."

csetmail.com

• bs hosted at US Linode VPS (2017) - source

mailfence

mailbox.org

Startmail

-----
ukr.net - registration page has English/Russian/Ukrainian. Doesn't load without JS/with privacy extensions
webmail.meta.ua - requires phone number to register. Interface in Russian + Ukrainian
mail.i.ua - requires Ukrainian phone number to register. big provider, several domains to choose from. Uses Google's ReCaptcha. Must register from an Ukrainian IP, else it will block registration/ask you to register using a 3rd party e-mail service. Russian/Ukrainian interface setting after registration.
mail.online.ua - requires phone number to register
ngs.ru/mailbox/ - Currently uses Yandex' Mail but with their custom domains (multiple to choose from). online since at least 2007
-----
Someone named "Squirrel Mail (free tier very low, $25 one time for 1GB)" but it appears to be an e-mail frontend software. You can find many running servers online, probably all of them are private without an option to register.

PS: I think this last forum message is targeted spam, but the links here don't count for search engines so whatever.
Update 2022: Corrected formatting etc.
Update2 2022: Added an untested list of ukrainian/russian email providers

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

Thank you! I would like to encourage you to invest a little more time into the formatting magic the forum editor is capable of to make it more appealing to the eye.
The auto-embed can be cancelled by clicking on Post as a link instead in the black note appearing from the bottom once the editor did the conversion. It's one of the features of this formatting magic that can be used to make the whole thing look prettier, at least in a browser.
 

Quote

PS: I think this last forum message is targeted spam, but the links here don't count for search engines so whatever.

Taken care of.

[Stalinium 44]

@OpenSourcerer You'll be happy to hear that I've taken time to fix the formatting, it was broken by the forum's software but the text editing process is still awful...
I've also updated some of the entries. Added links about ProtonMail and Tutanota disclosure/surveillance.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

27 minutes ago, Stalinium said:

it was broken by the forum's software but the text editing process is still awful...

Yeah… tell me about it.
Still, splendid results! Even more impressive considering that you chose to skim almost 200 posts and summarize them. MVP.

[jediken21 0]

i use my ISP provided service is this bad?

[Stalinium 44]

@sebiman Yes it's bad only for one reason: if you stop paying for service / want to change the ISP: will your email address remain under your control or will you lose the accs registered there?
Finally it's not a smart choice for privacy. You can't use it anonymously. The ideal e-mail provider: paid with crypto or cash and doesn't ask for your phone number (thanks, Obama) and doesn't data mine your inbox like Google or other big players.

[jediken21 0]

yeah if i dont pay i dont have access. i have earthlink and they are just a reseller and use a different company for every service. the home internet is provided by AT&T. i access att exactly like everyone else but pay earthlink instead. the mobile service is provided by some mvno that runs on att/tmobile.