January 7, 2026, 8:22pm 1

Hi y’all! I have been into privacy for a long time, and recently have been lurking this forum. I used to be a privacy purist and went to extreme and unnecessary lengths to maximise my privacy while also not fully knowing my threat model. After several years, I’m now more informed and self-aware of my own needs. As of now, my needs are:

• Avoid mass surveillance from big corpos and marketing folks etc
• Avoid any potential links/connections between different accounts, especially in the case of data breach
• Just generally a reasonable amount of security and privacy, anonymity would also be nice
• Autonomy over my own digital presence
• VPN for torrenting
• I would prefer email services that support 3rd-party client

The first of my switch is to switch from MacOS to a Linux distro. Well besides privacy, I have also been eyeing Linux for a long time because of customisability and Proton/Wine. I plan to eventually switch to GrapheneOS in the future too. So I’ve got the hardware/OS stuff somewhat figured out, what I’m wondering rn is my service setup. So I am thinking of doing a setup like this:

• A custom domain from Porkbun
• Email provided by either Posteo or Proton
• Either SimpleLogin or Anonaddy
• Either Mullvad VPN or Proton VPN
• Either Proton Drive or Peergos

So a custom domain should enable portability and more autonomy. I plan to use the custom domain for my main email address, associated with my real name, and thus I use this address for stuff like banking or gov account. Everything else uses aliases. VPN use for the occasional website that get blocked, but mostly for safe torrenting. And I don’t really need a lot of cloud storage rn but I got a drive failure spook a while back (I lost many stuff I downloaded, which I can just redownload anyways, but at least all the important files were intact) so I figured having a cloud backup would be nice. So here are some of my questions:

1. Is a custom domain really beneficial? Like I guess it’s more convenient in case an email provider went bankrupt but I don’t think I will use that many services with the custom domain mail address. Maybe I will change my mind.
2. Should I use Posteo or Proton Mail? Proton Mail subscription is a bit pricy, though it does support custom domain. Besides that, I heard Posteo got some problems to a lesser degree compared to Mailbox.
3. What would be my backup plans in case Anonaddy and SimpleLogin dies? How do I migrate like 20 accounts using custom aliases?
4. What are the pros and cons between Anonaddy and SimpleLogin? I have read through some threads and Anonaddy’s standard aliases are essentially useless, and the shared alias is limited to only 50 on the 1€ sub.
5. Should I really seriously consider Proton VPN over Mullvad VPN if I torrent? I honestly prefer Mullvad because of their vibes and what I have read about them, though I have no doubt Proton is also competent.
6. Is Proton suite still really bad on Linux? I think with VPN I can use it through Wireguard instead? Proton Drive uhh I just haven’t heard positive things about it in general not just on Linux.
7. Which leads me to the final question: should I just subscribe to the 8€ Proton Unlimited? It’s irrational but I don’t dig their corporate branding and the constant diversification of products while not properly improving their existing offerings (ie Linux thing). Also not putting all your eggs in one basket yadda yadda. But it’s definitely a financially superior deal to say: Proton Mail + Peergos + Mullvad VPN + AnonAddy.

Much thanks in advance for any answers. I am a bit sleepy rn (been scrolling and looking up past threads for answers to my inquiries) so pardon my incoherent ramblings. My replies will hopefully be more lucid.

JG January 7, 2026, 8:32pm 2

These are loaded questions and many will have much to say.

As for me, if you’re planning on using Linux full time, Mullvad is superior to Proton VPN on it. And if you can get away with using the website to use Proton Dive, then you’re fine. If not, I’d recommend finding another alternative. I personally use Koofr + Cryptomator. Cross platform compatibility with these is excellent and you can buy it anonymously should you want to.

If you’re getting Proton Unlimited, you also get Simplelogin. FYI. So you may not want to get Addy.io too.

If you want to diversify your set up, then that’s a valid option too: Mullvad for VPN, Proton for Mail + Calendar, Proton Pass or Bitwarden for credential management, and so on. I do have Posteo for encrypted CardDAV I use with my smartphone for my Contacts so you can get away from Google or iCloud here too.

There are many ways to go about it. That’s all I have to say for now.