Skiff mail encrypted and simple?

[truemagic]

Skiff is one of if not the most generous secured provider that provides 10Gb + 4 aliases on FREE plan. Would be very interested to take the jump but some small little things still hold me back. Guess I will have to wait and see, their rapid growth can make them be on par with ProtonMail/Tutanota one day/soon.

One of the things I don't quite get used to for now is the inconsistency of opening new window as they wish, like when switching to Calendar/Drive apps and from some other links all over the places!

[emebrs]

I learned something today about Skiff Drive. Files have to upload within five minutes or the operation fails. That's a problem if the file is bigger and one's connection is slower.

[Avion]

https://skiff.com/blog/free-tier-custom-domain-launch

Today, we’re announcing a radical change in how email works and making custom domains available for free on Skiff Mail.

Note: Only 1 custom domain allowed on the free plan.

I've just opened an account, and added a spare domain to test the service. Instructions are very clear, and within minutes I was able to send/receive using my domain without problem.

I'm not sure how many aliases are allowed for free, I just set up 3 aliases which is sufficient for me to test the service.

The one thing I don't like is that there's no IMAP available, so cannot use an alternative email client.

[jarland]

I gotta say, I really like Skiff. Their mobile apps are so damn clean. The mail app reminds me of the hey.com app (which I also love). Sincere props to them, I'm hosting my personal domain on it right now.

[Bamb0]

I got an account to see if its good...

Do you host mail for them Mr Jarland?? (I wonder if you saw my email I sent the other day pass thru your network)

[jarland]

Originally Posted by Bamb0

I got an account to see if its good...

Do you host mail for them Mr Jarland?? (I wonder if you saw my email I sent the other day pass thru your network)

I don't, but anytime a new host pops up that looks promising I like to give them a good try. Always be a customer first!

[Bamb0]

Yes indeed thats important!!

[emebrs]

I noticed that after signing out, Skiff provides the option of signing out again. The second option appears on the name and password form. Next to the name is a drop down menu with the option to sign out after having already signed out.

[TenFour]

Skiff is constantly releasing new features. I have a free account so I get their newsletters. Ironically, one of their new features just announced:

Unsubscribe button released
Cleaning out newsletters or marketing emails from your inbox is now even easier. Every email thread with an unsubscribe link or address now has an "unsubscribe" button to opt-out in one click.

Anyone using them regularly care to comment on how reliable the service has been?

[ioneja]

Originally Posted by TenFour

Anyone using them regularly care to comment on how reliable the service has been?

It's surprisingly acceptable, and even good, so far. I tend to have low expectations for relatively new services like this, with a higher level of skepticism for one that makes ambitious claims about privacy, but this one has continued to improve in terms of features (as many of us have mentioned), and it's been reasonably solid and reliable so far, at least recently. Overall, I'm pretty happy with them and I don't regret paying for an account. Yes, I did subscribe since my last post in this thread.

Two of my own feature requests have already been implemented (I'm sure I wasn't the only person to request them though! ), and the mobile apps have been pretty good, with regular updates and useful new features. All in all, I give it a good rating.

I'd provisionally put them in the upper tier of privacy-oriented providers right now, subject to them continuing a good track record. And I'm not aware of any big red flags at this point.

YMMV, and keep in mind this is a *rapidly* evolving product. There are upsides to that, but I do wonder sometimes if they release some features too early, before they're properly cooked. I think I mentioned this before. While the apps have been stable for the most part (at least recently for sure), I have continued to notice growing pains and some issues with their Drive/Pages apps more than the others, for example. I had issues with the calendar app when it launched, but it's been stable IMO for a while now.

So in their quest to replace Google cloud productivity apps with their encrypted offerings, I do wonder if they might try to be moving too aggressively adding features. However, overall, I am pleasantly surprised and have had a positive experience so far. Again, IMO, they're even worth paying money for. At least right now.

Give me another year or two with them and I'll see if they continue on track!

[TenFour]

Again, IMO, they're even worth paying money for. At least right now.

Give me another year or two with them and I'll see if they continue on track!

One of the things that worries me is how many services have come and gone. Even ones that seemed from a distance to be popular. I wonder if their funding is sufficient to get them to where they are generating real profits? https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/30/sk...ed-workspaces/

[ioneja]

Originally Posted by TenFour

One of the things that worries me is how many services have come and gone. Even ones that seemed from a distance to be popular. I wonder if their funding is sufficient to get them to where they are generating real profits? https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/30/sk...ed-workspaces/

Yes, no company is immune to this potential fate, especially new companies, which have a higher failure rate, so I agree there's a risk. I have no idea how solid they are with funding right now, burning through their venture capital, or where they are re: their profitability goals, but from the outside looking in, I decided to take the risk and support them as a customer. So far, so good. I've come to believe we need a US-based alternative to Proton and Tutanota, despite the inferior US jurisdiction. So I'm hoping they succeed. Best way to help them succeed is taking a chance and paying for some services.

One never knows which companies will succeed or fail though. You win some, you lose some. Considering the "privacy" market seems to be picking up steam, I think Skiff is as good a potential winner as any out there. Proton surpassed 100 million users recently. I'd say there's a market for this kind of stuff. As of today at least, I'd put Skiff right up there in the upper class of privacy services, and I've used or tested pretty much all of them on the market, including ones that have already come and gone.

The primary downside (to me) of Skiff is really the jurisdiction, which is one of the worst jurisdictions for privacy laws of the major democracies. However, despite that, and given Skiff's approach, including open source components and white papers, and publicly known track record so far, I think they are making a case for themselves as a good option in the privacy market. Thank goodness they haven't had a "Hushmail" moment yet, that I know of. So that's good news. Even Proton has some questionable moments in the past. And if you compare them to Tutanota, which is subject to German laws, you never know when some awful new invasive German law will be passed, despite the advantages of the GDPR. That's all a big discussion right there, but even the disadvantage of being based in the US doesn't by itself necessarily disqualify Skiff as a decent privacy option IMO.

Obviously, someone who needs the next level of privacy won't be using most of these "privacy" services anyway, they'll be managing their own keys, etc...

As with any service that claims privacy and encryption, you have to trust the company. And your threshold of trust might be different than mine. Skiff is still new in that regard, and they haven't been on the market long enough to prove they can go through fire yet IMO, at least for critical privacy requirements. So I would hesitate to put mission critical stuff in there. BUT to be fair on the other hand, they haven't done something to my knowledge to betray reasonable expectations of trust either. And if you compare them to Google or MS, I think it's clear Skiff is a big upgrade in terms of privacy. So for those users just looking to get out of the telemetry-profile-generating ecosystems of Google or MS, Skiff meets those needs well. At least from what I can tell so far.

Anyway, bottom line is that of the major "privacy" players, I think Skiff has quickly become one of the upper tier services IMO, barring some unknown scandal. And as such, I think they're worth spending some money on. Anyone who cares about privacy issues should at least consider them as an option.

And even re: pure functionality, they are making a good case for themselves there too. With each update, their apps are getting more and more capable, where they've released features now in some ways that surpass both Proton and Tutanota.

But going back to your point, I agree there's always a risk. So if you decide to subscribe, I definitely suggest using your own domain name, and then, like with anything new and shiny, be mentally prepared to exit if they go downhill.

There's really only one feature that they are missing before I commit more email to them BTW, and that is they don't have a total bulk email export feature yet. (At least as of the last time I checked! Who knows, they might have just introduced it, and I missed it! That's how fast they are at releasing features!)

As of the last time I checked, yes, you can export emails in batches, which is very tedious, but not your whole account. So should the need arise to dump them quickly, it will be a pain in the neck to export all the email. I do believe they will add that though, at the rate they are going, probably within the next 6-12 months IMO. But that, to me, is a critical feature before I put more email into their system. Other than that, the feature set is really pretty good, especially when you compare it to their privacy-oriented competitors.

Anyway, didn't mean to go on so long! It's been a while since I posted something in this forum!

[ioneja]

Originally Posted by jarland

I gotta say, I really like Skiff. Their mobile apps are so damn clean. The mail app reminds me of the hey.com app (which I also love). Sincere props to them, I'm hosting my personal domain on it right now.

Wow, this is quite a comment from you, @jarland, as you are a well-known email provider yourself, with a respected email product with many thousands of users. MXRoute is known for its good deliverability and affordability, and it's a favorite of hosting providers too, if I recall. So it's a different market than Skiff and Hey, but it's kind of amazing to me that you'd post that, and a big compliment from you to both Skiff and Hey.com. So kudos and respect to you from me for your honesty, transparency, and inquisitive nature to always be researching other email providers.

[emebrs]

Originally Posted by ioneja

There's really only one feature that they are missing before I commit more email to them BTW, and that is they don't have a total bulk email export feature yet.

I have the same concern -- but for Pages, not Mail. One can export page-by-page, but how about exporting everything?

How do they expect people to back up their Pages, or do they think we won't need to?

[Avion]

Originally Posted by emebrs

I have the same concern -- but for Pages, not Mail. One can export page-by-page, but how about exporting everything?

In, for example, the 'Everyone' folder, if you check the box next to 'Name' it selects all, then you can export all into a zip file.

It may not be exactly what you're wanting, but at least the ability is there.