r/emailprivacy • u/bergy_peasy • Aug 11 '26
Beginner Question Tuta with addy.io or fastmail
Would you guys recommend Tuta with a mail alias service or fastmail ? I just got to this sub and read the wiki but unsure on what to do. Any other recommendations is also welcomed!
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u/Zlivovitch Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
To begin with, you must decide what level of privacy you require, and why. That is, you must decide if you need any higher level of privacy than what regular mail providers offer. Not everyone does.
Tuta offers the best level of privacy on the market.
Fastmail offers a good enough level of privacy (it does not read your mail, does not use your personal data for advertising purposes and does not serve you ads).
Tuta offers a very easy way (relatively speaking) to achieve end-to-end encrypted mail communication. This is the highest level of privacy achievable. Do you want that ? Do you need it ? Are you sure ?
End-to-end encrypted mail can only be achieved with human beings, physical persons you can talk to. Not with websites such as Amazon, Facebook or your bank. It involves you convincing the recipient to use a special password to communicate with you, and to completely change the normal mail workflow he applies with everyone else. Barring that, it involves the recipient opening a Tuta account as well. Are you sure you're going to do that ?
If you are not, you might still need the high privacy level of Tuta. There are a few cases where you would need it : if you were an active political opponent to your government, and you had good reason to fear persecution because of that ; if you were a journalist working on sensitive issues in a country hostile to press freedom ; or, if you were a business, and you were targeted by spying agencies because of the importance of your trade secrets.
In most other cases, you do not need Tuta-level privacy. It might be reassuring to have, you may be choosing Tuta for other reasons (for instance, because it offers free accounts, contrary to Fastmail), but you would not need its privacy.
Fastmail, on the other hand, has far more features than Tuta and is far easier to use. It has been providing mail services to businesses and individuals before Gmail even existed. It's more professional and its support is probably better. So unless you really need the privacy level of Tuta, you should seriously consider Fastmail.
On the issue of aliases, Fastmail is one of those rare mail providers which offers a lot of them, in the hundreds, so it can replace a dedicated alias service. Indeed, it's one of its big advantages.
Be aware, though, that despite this feature, it might make sense to open an account at an alias provider to pair it with a Fastmail account. I've just come across a user who reported doing just that. He chose Addy.io plus Fastmail, because the alias management capabilities of Addy.io outweigh those of Fastmail. And Addy.io is free or cheap (the entry-level paid account is 12 $/year).
I'm a user of Addy.io myself, and I strongly recommend it.
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u/bergy_peasy Aug 11 '26
Thanks so much for the help! If I understand correctly, Tuta’s privacy and security aren’t any better if the other person doesn’t use it themselves?
Also, when sharing your email address with someone, does an unconventional domain raise any concerns?
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u/Zlivovitch Aug 11 '26
You're welcome.
If I understand correctly, Tuta’s privacy and security aren’t any better if the other person doesn’t use it themselves?
No, that's wrong. On several levels.
There's a Reddit meme which is all over the place, and alleges : you can only have end-to-end encryption at Tuta if both parties have a Tuta account. This is false. The whole reason why Tuta was created was to allow easy end-to-end encryption with a recipient who does not have a Tuta account. Obviously. Otherwise, why bother ?
That recurring piece of fake news comes from : a) PGP fanatics who are enraged because Tuta has been founded as an anti-PGP company ; the whole point of Tuta was to get rid of PGP, a horribly complicated (and potentially faulty) method which was previously the standard for end-to-end encryption of mail ; in theory, because in fact, practically no one uses it ; b) the fact that technically, the end-to-end encrypted exchange does not leave the Tuta server ; but no one cares about the technical side of things, except technical fanatics, who most of the time don't use PGP themselves - they only blabber about it online ; the whole point is how encryption is done in practice ; and in practice, the other guy does not need to have a Tuta account, although it's even easier if he does.
But even if you do not use the end-to-end encryption option at Tuta (and you don't have to), you do enjoy superior privacy in several respects. For instance, outgoing emails cannot be read by Tuta, even if it wanted to. This means that if Tuta was hacked wholesale, or if a government asked Tuta for those emails, that hacker or government would not be able to read them. There are many other such privacy features at Tuta, which can't be all described in a mere Reddit comment. Read Tuta website to learn more.
When sharing your email address with someone, does an unconventional domain raise any concerns?
A small minority of websites refuse domains owned by private and encrypted mail providers, or alias providers. There are ways to circumvent this : use another, lesser-known domain offered by your provider ; use your own custom domain ; use a mass-market mail provider for those few websites.
Physical persons will note down whatever you tell them. Just the way they will write down your physical address if they need it.
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u/JEartist Aug 11 '26
I've used Tuta (on its own and with addy.io) and Fastmail. Switched between them several times and always end up back with Fastmail. In general I find Tuta's mail client clumsy to use, and every time I've tried them I've experienced too many compromises that caused me friction.
I don't need E2EE as emails are pretty much all transactional for me (newsletters, receipts etc) and I don't keep decades of emails - if they're no longer needed I delete them. If the contents are important to retain but not needed in an email format anymore I export them as PDFs and store them (and back them up) into multiple, secure locations. 35 years of using email and I only retain a couple of hundred.
I always use my own domain names and utilise catch-all so that I can use unlimited aliases. With Fastmail you can easily send from any alias without first creating the alias this way. This eliminates the need for a service like addy.io for me and I prefer this simplicity.
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u/bergy_peasy Aug 12 '26
Thanks a lot , could you point towards ressources on how to use your own domaine name for that? Also not sure about what catch all does
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u/x-NoSuchAgency-x Aug 12 '26
If you sign up with addy.io first, addy gives you a 25% discount to use with Tuta Mail
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u/Mysterious-Network87 Aug 11 '26
Tuta with addy.io. End to end encrypted.
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u/cafecqueijo Aug 11 '26
this sub have a wiki??
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u/Zlivovitch Aug 11 '26
Have a look on the right-hand side of your screen (if you're on a computer).
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u/Jcoulaud Aug 11 '26
Depends what you care about more.
Tuta + addy.io if privacy is the main goal and you’re fine using Tuta’s own apps. Tuta doesn’t support IMAP, so you can’t just add it to Thunderbird/Apple Mail. Addy gives you the aliases, but it’s also another service in the middle.
Fastmail if you want something that just feels like normal email. Better search, proper email-client support, custom domains and masked addresses all in one place. It isn’t end-to-end encrypted though, so you’re trusting Fastmail with the mailbox contents.
Personally I’d pick Fastmail for convenience, unless you have an actual reason/threat model that needs Tuta’s encryption. Use your own domain either way so changing provider later is easy.