Which is the BEST Secure Email Option? Let's Compare...

Which secure email service should you use? I’ve spent the past couple of months testing out 4 of the best encrypted email services and here’s a comparison of the most important features. I'll also share some things you should NOT do once you start using a secure email provider.

(some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that at no extra cost to you, I will be compensated if you purchase these services through my link; no service paid to be part of this video)

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Video Timestamps
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0:00 - Secure Email Options
1:26 - How Encryption for Secure Email Works
3:56 - Securing Your Email with 2FA
6:14 - User Experience: How Easy is Secure Email to Use?
9:06 - Which Secure Email is Best for You?
10:58 - Two Things You Should NOT Do
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If you're looking for a more private and secure way to handle your email, it's time you move away from services like Gmail and Yahoo. Instead, opt to use one of the best secure email services like StartMail, ProtonMail, MailFence, and Tutanota. In this video, Josh will walk us through each of these services, their features and how they compare to one another.

#secureemail #cybersecurity #privacy

[Leogcs]

Hi Josh! I'm from Brazil and I follow your channel almost 1 year (I think). I can say that is the best channel to know about privacy and security settings for all online services. Great job! Thanks for the tips and advises!

[spinningtop]

Another highly informative video Josh, many thanks. I really enjoy your content, and although nothing online is completely bulletproof I have made a number of security changes/improvements to my online accounts that would simply not have happened without the guidance in your videos. Keep up the good work.

[sovo]

Good video. Email aliases are the same thing as disposable addresses I think, that's the very reason why I'm still using Yahoo. Being able to obfuscate your main email address is a great security measure by itself.

[mailfence]

Thanks for the review! We plan on releasing an iOS/Android app. We hope you all like it ;)

[mo-ggg]

Really great info as usual Josh - thank you!

[RobinDhillonUxbridge]

Love your videos, Josh. Very clear and informative

[SplatterPea]

I like the landlord analogy. When I rented my house, the first thing I did was change the locks 😊

[colinmsmall]

I strongly suggest using a custom domain with these services. If they go away, you can simply shift your current email address to another provider. The Gmail's and Hotmail's are far less likely to shutdown or vanish.

If you plan on using one of these services for your primary email, and your email is important to you, use a custom domain that you can move around freely and you can have practically forever, regardless of the underlying service provider.

[carolinelvsewe]

Always excellent and informative. Thanks for your time

[agray]

Thanks, Josh. A timely discussion as I was looking to add secure email to my portfolio. If you were more apt to use your mobile device (iOS) to access your account, does anyone have a better look&feel on mobile screens?

[MrWhipple]

Great video as always, Josh. One thing you didn’t mention, though (unless my ADHD kicked in and I missed it) was that sending email is generally not a secure way of transmitting data. Any email you send across the internet is only as secure as the weakest link in the custody chain.

For example, Gmail uses TLS to encrypt messages going out. I use ProtonMail, which also supports TLS. If my daughter (who uses Gmail) and I exchange email messages, the contents and attachments are reasonably encrypted en route … although still readable by Google, whose servers will decrypt my message before dropping it in my daughter’s inbox. But if I use Protonmail or Gmail to send a message to someone at an email domain that *doesn’t* support TLS, my message (along with its attachments) is wide open for anyone to see en route, and that message will often hop through multiple servers that could store and analyze it.

Another thing: Messages stored in my ProtonMail account are secure, but if I send a message to Gmail, it will be stored on Google’s servers. Google will harvest everything it can from that message, and if a government agency asks them for messages I’ve sent to Gmail domains, I have no doubt that they’ll gladly hand it over. (ProtonMail is less likely to, but there are cases where it has handed over data to foreign governments.)

To be *truly* secure when using email, I (and anyone else using email) need to take specific steps, such as:

• Use a secure email (like one of the four you mentioned) and only send messages to other addresses in the same domain. (Messages sent in-network, from one ProtonMail address to another, are automatically end-to-end encrypted.)

• Use PGP and exchange keys with the recipient before sending email to them. ProtonMail, StartMail, and MailFence support PGP; Tutunota doesn’t (for reasons they explained in a blog post). Gmail doesn’t support PGP natively, although you can do it with a browser plug-in. The problem with PGP is that it requires people to take steps to create, manage, and exchange keys, which admittedly is hard. (My father, who’s in his 80s, could never manage it. In fact, I don’t personally know many people who can.) And the subject line of the message can’t be encrypted, so don’t send a message with “Super secret passwords and credit card numbers” as the subject line, even if you encrypt the body of the message.

• ProtonMail has an encryption feature that will send a message simply as a URL to a page on ProtonMail’s server. The recipient opens the web page and enters a password to read the message and open any attachments. The weak link in the chain is getting the password to the recipient—unless they already know it, you have to send it to them through some other secure method (i.e., not email or SMS). I’ve used Signal to do this, but then why would I bother to send a secure email *and* send the password through Signal, when I can just send the message in Signal in the first place?

• Which brings me to the last option, which is to use Signal or Telegram or another secure instant messaging client and skip email altogether.

Longest comment ever on one of your videos? Might be worth discussing in a follow-up video. FWIW.

Thanks for all you do. More people need to subscribe to your channel and watch your content!

[GalathNox]

Been using ProtonMail for a year or so. Love it. *This* close to being completely weaned off of Gmail.

[Francisco-vlub]

Hi Josh, thanks for the video.
Could you please explain how does thunderbird compromise the benefits of these providers?

[stellocut]

I tried setting up tutanota in the past and I don't like the interface. I also like making multiple emails to organize what each one receives rather that sorting recieved email into folders. It's also a good security measure just in case one email gets compromised I still have many others. Anyways for whatever reason tutanota doesn't like multiple emails and now they have my IP or something and I can't use it anymore. Glad I came across this video to learn about more options.

[jsp]

Awesome video Josh! With these secure services would you recommend using a conventional first name.last name sort of email username or something a lot more obscure?

[onionv]

Awesome video, Thank you! I have been using Protonmail now couple years, any knowing or protonmail bridge and Thunderbird?

[michaelsherratt]

Thanks so much for your videos. I have only been subscribed for less than 24 hours but have already changed my password and turned on 2FA on anything that i can do.
I haven't as yet made the switch to a secure email platform and have currently about 5 emails through the usual gmail, outlook, yahoo forums. Do you have a video/suggestion for 'more secure' client software for windows 11? I watched a YouTube that suggested Gmail, Windows Mail or Outlook are not secure but instead to use Mozilla Thunderbird, which I have done. Do you have any other comments on this issue?

[gabriel]

I know this has nothing to do with this video, but just wanted to thank you about all your videos on secure password managers. I purchased a 1password subscription through your affiliate link months ago and I absolutely love it. It is well work the 30 something bucks per year. Thank you!

[TheTechPianoPlayerKid]

Personally, I still use apple mail, because it’s the most accessible for the blind like myself. Proton mail is not too bad on the Accessibility side, but I am not too sure about Tutanota.

[michaeleichner]

Great video. I am confused about one thing. Since proton mail doesn’t have the encryption key does that mean that the person that I send or receive emails from have to use proton mail so that they can decrypt any email that I send them?