I migrated to an almost all-EU stack and saved 500€ per year

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Blogging / Newsletter Platforms and Substack Debate

  • Several commenters dispute the claim that Substack has “no alternatives,” listing Ghost, Hyvor Blogs, Beehiiv, boosty.to, Keila, and others, plus classic options like WordPress and “BCC in an email client.”
  • People note few non‑US platforms match Substack’s combined bundle: blog + newsletter + social network + monetization + recommendation engine.
  • Criticism of Substack centers on dark patterns, VC incentives, weak moderation, and “free speech absolutism” enabling Nazi/extremist content. Others argue some hate speech is a necessary cost of broad free speech, while opponents counter that private platforms have no obligation to host Nazis.

Cost, Budgets, and Self‑Hosting

  • One thread explores running on ~€10–20/month by mixing free Proton, Backblaze, and a cheap mini‑PC; pushback says €10 is unrealistic once domains, backup, VPN, and hosting are counted.
  • Strong advice against self‑hosting email due to deliverability, IP reputation, and maintenance, though some insist it’s manageable with correct DNS (SPF/DKIM/DMARC) and a “clean” IP.

Email and Productivity Providers (Proton, Google, Microsoft, Others)

  • Many comments compare Proton, Zoho, Google Workspace, Infomaniak, Posteo, and local EU providers.
  • Google Workspace is seen as highly polished and great value (2 TB storage, admin tools, Gemini), but people worry about privacy, AI training on personal data, lock‑in, and arbitrary account bans.
  • Infomaniak receives repeated praise as a Swiss/EU‑friendly alternative, though its docs suite is criticized as ugly/clunky.
  • Some report positive migrations from Microsoft 365 to Proton, calling M365’s admin UX fragmented and confusing. Others argue Microsoft’s products are increasingly unreliable and over‑AI‑ified.

Proton’s Strengths and Limitations

  • Proton is valued for privacy, EU‑like legal protections (Swiss), bundling mail, VPN, storage, password manager, and AI at a competitive price.
  • Major criticism: weak or absent server‑side full‑text search in Mail and Drive due to end‑to‑end encryption. Workarounds (local indexing, Proton Bridge + Thunderbird) are seen as too technical or slow for many users.
  • Some claim Proton’s E2EE is over‑marketed “snake oil” for most users, since email is frequently decrypted at the recipient’s provider anyway. Others see the reduced search as an acceptable trade‑off for genuine E2EE.

EU, Switzerland, and Surveillance / Free Speech

  • Debate over whether moving to EU/European‑adjacent providers truly improves “privacy and data sovereignty.”
  • Critics highlight EU “chat control” proposals and hate‑speech laws as threats to expression; supporters reply these are proposals or long‑standing criminal norms, distinct from US‑style commercial surveillance and mass data mining.
  • Some stress Switzerland is not in the EU; for a few, that’s a feature (GDPR‑like protections without EU‑level surveillance proposals).

Ecosystems and Lock‑In (Google, Apple, Proton, Local‑First)

  • Some are deeply embedded in the Google or Apple ecosystems and find it practically hard to leave due to integration, polish, and family/work expectations.
  • Others refuse to trade privacy for convenience and prefer owning domains, using standards (IMAP, CalDAV/CardDAV/WebDAV), and self‑hosting parts (Nextcloud/Baïkal, Syncthing, KeePassXC).
  • Commenters warn that moving from Google to Proton is still entering another ecosystem; the long‑term safeguard is owning your domain and keeping independent backups.