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Tuta, previously known as Tutanota, is one of the most well-known secure email providers, and this German business doesn’t take the approach of some rivals by offering companion products, like cloud storage, VPNs, or office tools.
Instead, Tuta commits to secure email, displaying a near-obsessive approach to encryption alongside a rock-solid set of features.
Tuta has been around for just over ten years and claims to have over two million worldwide users, so the developers behind this secure email product are clearly doing something right.
Tutanota: Plans and pricing
You can get a free account, for starters, which is a boon – it means you don’t have to fork out any money to get access to secure email. And even at that tier, your email is fully encrypted with no tracking, even if it’s restricted to 1GB of storage and one calendar.
Tuta’s Revolutionary plan costs €3/$3.15/£2.52 and includes 20GB of storage, fifteen email addresses, three custom domains, a family option and usage of the tuta.com domain, and the €8/$8.40/£6.73 Legend tier delivers 500GB of storage, 30 email addresses and ten custom domains – and priority support.
There are business options, too, with Essential, Advanced and Unlimited products costing €6, €8 and €12 per user per month with varying levels of storage, addresses and support.
Sadly, Tuta does not yet support cryptocurrency payment, but that’s a feature that is planned for the future.
Tutanota: Features
Thanks to its zero-knowledge architecture, Tuta has some of the most robust email security you’ll find anywhere. The service uses AES 256 and AES 256/RSA 2048 symmetric and asymmetric encryption with TLS and is the first secure email provider to deploy quantum-safe algorithms to protect against attacks launched from quantum computers – a future-proofed addition, undoubtedly, but something that other providers will inevitably offer.
When both parties email using Tuta, all emails are automatically protected with end-to-end encryption, and passwords are used for decrypting messages delivered to non-Tuta recipients.
Tuta’s end-to-end encryption protects emails, subject lines, attachments, search indexes, calendars, and address books alongside IP addresses.
Tuta also goes to great pains to stress that they do not use PGP encryption, even if they use some of the algorithms in that system, like AES, RSA and ECC. This is because PGP does not encrypt subject lines – a weakness in some other providers, like Proton.
There are plenty of other thoughtful and well-considered features here, too. The GDPR-compliant service has desktop, web, Android and iOS apps and all of Tuta’s clients have open source code. That guarantees no backdoors to the service’s end-to-end encryption, and it’s further than most secure email providers go.
Independent experts audit Tuta’s apps, and the entire client code for Tuta is published on GPLv3 as free software.
Tuta supports two-factor authentication and has a genuinely anonymous sign-up process – even if some accounts have to wait 48 hours to be authorized. Tuta regularly publishes transparency reports, and the company uses 100% clean energy.
There are only a couple of issues we need to mention. Unusually in this field, Tuta does not support IMAP, SMPT or POP3 for emails because emails retrieved using these protocols – for instance, imported from another service – could have been stored without encryption, and Tuta cannot guarantee the safety of that data.
It’s the kind of move we expect from a service that puts security first, even if it means that Tuta will be a little less convenient for some people.
And because Tuta is a strict email and calendar tool, you don’t get access to services like VPNs, cloud storage or password managers, which you’ll find included with other tools like Proton or Mailbox.org.
Tutanota: Interface and use
Like most of its rivals, Tuta uses a traditional three-pane interface, with folders on the left, a list of your emails in the middle and the actual email content on the right-hand side. Along the left edge of the window are links to settings and support, and at the top of the window you’ll find the search bar – a particular highlight, as it’s a comprehensive search module.
The interface is minimal and uncluttered, so it shouldn’t be an issue for anyone familiar with online email clients. And it’s similarly straightforward on mobile, too.
Tuta’s desktop client functions just as well, and you can find the iOS app on the Apple app store. The only wrinkle here is the Android app – it’s not available on Google Play, so instead you need to download and install the AFK directly or use the F-Droid repository.
Tutanota: Support
Tuta offers customer support via email, and if you’re on a pricier plan, you get priority support to address your issue within 24 hours.
Elsewhere, there’s a forum, knowledge base, and tutorials, but no live chat or phone support, which is something often offered by rivals.
Tutanota: The competition
Indeed, if you want more support or features then it’s worth considering a rival like Proton Mail or Mailbox.org, with the former offering a VPN and cloud storage and the latter providing office tools and video conferencing.
They’re great, but Tuta’s encryption is arguably stronger than either of its rivals, and that’s what’s really important here. Tuta is a bit cheaper than most competitors, too.
Tutanota: Final verdict
Tuta delivers an exceptional level of security and privacy to its users, and if that’s the key thing you’re after with a secure email provider then it won’t matter that Tuta lacks extra features, like a VPN or a cloud storage account.
There are no big issues here. The Android app is awkward to download and you may get frustrated by a potential 48-hour verification period when you sign up, and support could be better, but that’s it.
Tuta is a powerful, robust and affordable secure email provider that’s well-suited for technical, privacy-conscious users who are not swayed by additional features.
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