← Back to context

Comment by maccard

10 years ago

I'm interested in keeping my data private, and willing to pay for it, I'm just not interested in maintaining a server, and dealing with 1) keeping it up, and 2) keeping it secure.

I'd just rather pay someone a small monthly/annual fee to do it for me, along with keeping my data private.

16 comments

maccard

Reply
keybits  10 years ago

Try Radicale contact and calendars on Sandstorm[0]. 1 click install[1]. Can be self hosted or as part of their hosted service[2] (free while in beta).

[0]https://sandstorm.io/

[1]https://apps.sandstorm.io/app/8kr4rvyrggvzfvc160htzdt4u5rfvj...

[2]https://oasis.sandstorm.io/

  • maccard  10 years ago

    I wasn't aware that sandstone had a hosted option, I was under the impression you had to provide your own hardware/vps. I'll check it out, but I'm still not that interested in maintaining and keeping it up to date!

StavrosK  10 years ago

That's true, but many people have a home server anyway, so this is a very nice addition.

As an aside, after this article I wanted to give Fastmail a shot, but I had already signed up a while ago and then never logged back in. I asked support if they could give me another trial so I could actually try it out, but they said I had to pay. Not great customer support there, especially since I had sent or received zero emails and creating another account for a trial is trivial...

  • maccard  10 years ago

    Absolutely. I'm not bothered with allowing an externally facing system inside my home wifi network, and I'm not interested in ensuring I keep my systems patched and up to date. Id also not like to leave a box running 24/7 when I can leech a teeny amount of power from a data entire only when it's needed!

runejuhl  10 years ago

Would you be interested in a service where you buy your own server (metal/VPS/whatever) and through an API/web interface select which profile to run? E.g. webserver (apache, nginx, ...), mail server (postfix, exim, ...), load balancer, database (mysql, pgsql, ...), or "app" (ownCloud (has CalDAV support), Wordpress, etc.)?

The idea is that the server is yours, and yours only. We manage the setup, monitoring, alarms and all the boring stuff. If you need any assistance, we have sysadmins that can help for a fee, and depending on how critical it is for you, we'd offer multiple levels of subscription with different service levels and response times.

  • maccard  10 years ago

    Honestly, I'm not sure what I want.

    You mention response times and priority support, and are talking about choosing nginx vs Apache. That's far more detail than I care about. I want to click a button, give you my card details, have an inbox and calendar that I can easily access on my phone, work machine and home machine, and with some level of guarantee about the security and privacy of my data. I'm not bothered about support response times - 99.9% of the time I'm not going to need it.

    I want google mail + Google calendar, without the Google.

    • runejuhl  10 years ago

      Thank you for responding.

      The listed roles were just to show the idea of the service; an role providing mail and calendar (e.g. Kolab) would only have a few required options (if any). Any additional detail would be optional and have our default recommended values.

      1 reply →

tijs  10 years ago

I'm using https://soverin.net for €29/year (€39 if you don't have your own domain) to limit my google dependence. Added benefit that they are based in EU. Disclaimer: our company works with them so I'm definitely biased.

  • acqq  10 years ago

    Looks nice, but my worry is if they'd be alive in a year. I have actually used an e-mail provider before that's no more.

    I'd like the European level of the data privacy but also a company that is set to live long, and the web site looks too much like a startup that can disappear tomorrow (as in "it didn't grow enough, who cares, it's just a web address, let's kill it and do something else.")

hughw  10 years ago

Tuffmail

Edit: Not saying it's modern or user friendly. It has worked for me for 10 years without touching it, though.

lisper  10 years ago

How much would you be willing to pay?

  • maccard  10 years ago

    Honestly, I don't know. It depends on how usable the service is. I'm currently paying $36/yr for a vpn, $20/year for mail, and $12/year for password sync. Ideally I'd like to spend about the same, and be able to move my file syncing away from Dropbox/google drive, and my calendar off google. I'd be willing to pay a little more to support a cause though.