Hey, what’s up?
Are you looking for a private Canadian email provider? Today, I want to talk about Typewire, an email service hosted in Canada that focuses on privacy. I’ve been using Typewire for about two weeks now, and I wanted to share my experience.
1 – Why I Looked for a New Email Provider
A few weeks ago, I was hesitating between two options:
- Hosting my own email server on a VPS
- Using a third-party email provider
Hosting your own email server sounds great on paper, but in reality, email can be tricky to manage. You have to deal with configuration, deliverability, spam filtering, and ongoing maintenance. Because of that, I decided to go with an email provider instead.
Over the years, I’ve used many services, including Gmail and Outlook. More recently, I was using Spacemail, which I actually liked a lot.
The problem is that Spacemail is hosted in the United States. The US is generally considered one of the worst places for online privacy, so I decided to look for something more privacy-friendly.
2 – Why I Didn’t Stick With Proton Mail
That search led me to Proton Mail.
Proton Mail is well known for its strong focus on privacy and security, and it is based in Switzerland. Recently, Switzerland has been discussing changes around online privacy laws, and Proton Mail has started expanding to other countries.
Another issue for me was that I only needed email. I didn’t need the full Proton ecosystem, and for my personal use, Proton Mail felt a bit overkill.
So I started looking for a privacy-focused email service that was hosted in Canada, under Canadian laws, and run by a Canadian company.
3 – Discovering Typewire
I first heard about Typewire after asking ChatGPT for Canadian alternatives to Proton Mail.
After doing some research, I noticed that there isn’t much information about Typewire yet. There are not many reviews and not many videos, which is partly why I wanted to document my experience.
4 – Typewire Features at a Glance
Here’s what Typewire offers according to their website:
- Canadian hosted infrastructure
- Ad-free email with no tracking
- Encrypted email storage
- Tracking and tracking pixel blocking
- Email aliases
- Anti-spam and phishing detection
- A mobile app similar to the webmail
Typewire claims to operate on privately owned Canadian infrastructure and to use 100 percent in-house custom code. That means they control both their servers and their software, which is something I respect.
5 – Security and Encryption
Typewire advertises security and encryption by default.
They support PGP encryption, which allows you to encrypt emails end to end if you choose to use it. You can configure PGP keys directly inside the webmail and encrypt messages manually.
They also advertise zero-access storage, meaning emails are encrypted at rest on their servers. This provides better protection than unencrypted storage.
Overall, this makes Typewire the closest Canadian alternative to Proton Mail, at least in terms of privacy-oriented email services.
6 – Differences Compared to Proton Mail
There are some important differences between Typewire and Proton Mail:
- Typewire is still relatively new and not battle-tested
- The platform appears to be closed source
- It has not been independently audited yet
- Canadian privacy laws are weaker than Swiss privacy laws
Because of this, using Typewire requires a higher level of trust compared to Proton Mail.
7 – Pricing
Typewire currently offers four pricing plans.
I am using the Basic plan, which recently gained support for custom domains and multiple aliases. There is no free plan at the moment. The cheapest option is the Starter plan, which starts at around one dollar per month.
The Basic plan is fairly comparable to Proton Mail Plus, except Proton Mail also offers a free tier.
8 – Account Creation Issues
When I created my account, I ran into some problems.
I completed the signup process, but never set a password. The activation link didn’t work, and I was left with an unactivated account. I had to contact customer support, who manually activated my account and provided a temporary password.
Hopefully, this is something that has already been fixed.
9 – Webmail Experience and Issues
The webmail interface looks good at first, but daily use revealed several issues:
- Image attachments sometimes appear twice
- Inline images do not display correctly
- The email composer has problems with lists
- Random timeout errors occur
- “Unable to parse data” errors appear
- Sessions disconnect frequently
- Logging back in can fail temporarily
- No inbox refresh button
- A dangerous “Empty inbox” button
- Invoices cannot be viewed or downloaded
For me, the invoice issue is particularly annoying, since I need invoices for tax purposes.
10 – Switching to IMAP and Thunderbird
Because of the webmail issues, I switched to using IMAP with Thunderbird.
Once configured, everything works reliably. I now only use the webmail for:
- Domain configuration
- Billing
- Account management
There are some privacy tradeoffs when using IMAP, but for my needs, this setup works well.
11 – Final Thoughts
I’ve been using Typewire for about two weeks, and for now, I’m sticking with it. I even purchased a full year subscription.
Typewire is not perfect, but it offers a Canadian-hosted, privacy-aware alternative to mainstream email providers. The webmail needs time to mature, but when used with IMAP, it works well for my workflow.
Conclusion
That’s pretty much it.
If you’re looking for a Canadian email provider with better privacy than Gmail or Outlook, Typewire is worth considering, especially if you’re comfortable using an email client like Thunderbird.
I hope this help, peace!
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