Top 5 Skiff alternatives that respect your privacy

With Skiff abruptly shutting down(yeni pencere) operations, many people are on the lookout for alternatives that don’t compromise on privacy — and won’t suddenly disappear.

People were attracted to Skiff because it promised privacy, no ads, end-to-end encryption, open source code, scalability, interface design, and a growing product suite of user-friendly online tools. These are all great criteria for choosing a Skiff alternative. 

In this article, we highlight five services you can consider if you’re migrating away from Skiff or you were considering switching to Skiff. They all meet the above criteria and, in fact, offer additional benefits beyond those of Skiff products.

And if you’re migrating away from Skiff and already know you want to use Proton? We’ve put together a simple guide for migrating from Skiff to Proton. If you need any help with the process, you can contact our support team.

• Skiff Pages alternative: Standard Notes
• Skiff Mail alternative: Proton Mail
• Skiff email alias alternative: SimpleLogin
• Skiff Calendar alternative: Proton Calendar
• Skiff Drive alternative: Proton Drive
• What about self-hosted email?
• Final thoughts on the switch to privacy

Skiff Pages alternative: Standard Notes

Skiff Pages was a powerful note-taking tool that protected your writings with end-to-end encryption in the cloud. But there are other privacy-focused options available. We recommend Standard Notes because of the company’s mission-driven approach, “founded on an ethos of software sustainability and ethical data practices”. Standard Notes is not venture-backed and earns all its revenue from its customers. It has developed a rich but lightweight feature set, including a web app, desktop apps, and mobile apps.

Here are some other reasons we love Standard Notes:

• End-to-end encrypted
• Open-source(yeni pencere) and audited(yeni pencere) code
• Password-protected notes, 2FA, and other advanced security features
• Multiple Note Types, including markdown, plaintext, code, spreadsheets, and more
• Offline access
• Note revision history
• Up to 100 MB of notes free
• 100% money-back guarantee

Get Standard Notes(yeni pencere)

Skiff Mail alternative: Proton Mail

With over 100 million user accounts, Proton Mail is the world’s most popular end-to-end encrypted email service, and it’s integrated with our entire encrypted platform for calendar, cloud storage, VPN, and password manager.

We built Proton Mail as our first product back in 2014 after a successful crowdfunding campaign, and Proton remains 100% community-funded to this day. Founded by a group of scientists who met at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, we’re still based in Switzerland, so your email account benefits from the same privacy laws that Swiss citizens enjoy.

As an alternative to Skiff Mail, Proton Mail offers several critical benefits:

Get Proton Mail

Skiff email alias alternative: SimpleLogin

Using Skiff Mail as an email alias provider? SimpleLogin can take its place, offering a robust email alias service that protects your main email address from spam and tracking. With SimpleLogin, you can generate multiple aliases that forward to your real email, giving you control over who can reach you.

There are multiple benefits of SimpleLogin that Skiff fans would appreciate:

• 100% open source(yeni pencere) and independently audited(yeni pencere)
• Both receive and send emails from aliases
• PGP support, so emails remain end-to-end encrypted between SimpleLogin and your encrypted email provider (such as Proton Mail)
• Available on browser extensions, Android (including F-Droid), and iPhone
• Forward to multiple mailboxes(yeni pencere)
• Swiss legal jurisdiction(yeni pencere)
• Up to 10 aliases free

Skiff Calendar alternative: Proton Calendar

Another big reason to switch to Proton Mail is the seamlessly integrated calendar. As with our email service, Proton Calendar uses end-to-end encryption, and incoming calendar events are secured with zero-access encryption, so we can’t see your schedule. The title, description, location, and people invited are all encrypted.

Here’s what’s included:

• Add events directly from your Proton Mail inbox
• Available on web, Android, and iPhone
• Calendar sharing (choose to share event details or just when you’re available)
• Customize notifications and reminders
• Open source and independently audited
• Based in Switzerland
• Create up to three calendars free

Get Proton Calendar

Skiff Drive alternative: Proton Drive

For those who relied on Skiff Drive for secure file storage, Proton Drive offers a secure alternative for your documents, photos, and other sensitive files. With end-to-end encryption, Proton Drive ensures that your files are private and cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties, including Proton itself. Once again, you get the peace of mind that Proton Drive is developed by the same trusted team behind other Proton products.

Top Proton Drive features include:

• End-to-end encryption, including important metadata like file names and modified dates
• Open source and independently audited
• Secure sharing of large files with no size limits
• Password protection for shared files and links
• Expiration dates for shared links to enhance security
• Easy drag-and-drop interface for file uploads
• Seamless integration with Proton Mail for secure email attachments
• Multi-platform support for access on any device
• User-friendly file and folder management system
• Automatic backup (including photo backup for Android and coming soon to all platforms) and file sync across devices
• Up to 1 GB of storage on the Free plan, easily expanded up to 3 TB with a paid subscription

Thoughts on self-hosted email

Since Skiff announced it would shut down, some people have considered using self-hosted email rather than relying on another service provider. While this is perfectly reasonable, there are several issues to consider before making the investment of time and money.

Sourcing hardware and configuring software requires significant technical knowledge. Even if you have such knowledge, you’ll need to commit to the ongoing work of monitoring the security of your network and installing patches to address new cybersecurity threats. It may be more efficient to outsource this work to a trusted service provider with greater resources.

Uptime and deliverability are major headaches with email. Power outages or internet outages in your area could result in permanent email loss. Additionally, many ISPs block emails from residential servers, so you would probably need to rely on a third-party hosting provider anyway.

We’ve created a guide to setting up a private email server that explores these considerations in depth.

Keeping your data safe for the long haul

The reality is that data privacy requires a level of resilience and investment that venture capital investors aren’t usually willing to make. This was Skiff’s weak spot, and it’s a vulnerability for all companies that prioritize profits.

Proton’s foundation is built on the principle that privacy is a fundamental right. This belief sets us apart from mainstream and Big Tech companies, which face challenges reconciling their own privacy commitments with investor expectations.

Our approach is distinct because we’re supported directly by our community, with no other source of revenue. This means our priorities align with our community’s needs for privacy and security rather than the demands of external investors. By choosing Proton, you’re opting for a platform where decisions are made first on the basis of whether they protect your privacy and security.

Join us to support a future where everyone has control over their personal information, and privacy is a right, not a buzzword.