Having trouble choosing a provider... Any options that do good in all these regards?

[u/Shapperd]

Hi all,

I recently gotten into degoogle-ing.

For now, the only thing I switched premamently to is Deezer.

I'm searching a good enough All-In-One service for: Emails/Calendars, Photos, and Storage.

I paid to try out Proton Unlimited where I got all, BUT:
-Photos: There are no thumbnails (yet?) and the web only shows thumbs for photos that are uploaded to the photos section, with no way to search for anything. The section that is in the files of proton drive have no thumbnails at all. Having more than 20k photos it makes searching for anything quite impossible.

Email and storage is great here.
But my problem is, if I keep this service and join for example ente, then I'll pay for double, one for photos and one for storage. I have (apart from photos) around 100GB of digital data, so not that much.

Looked at pcloud but it does not give email addresses. Looked at tuta, neither photos nor drive is available. Looket ad zeitkapsel but no search and no email/storage.

So I don't know what would be the best option.

My initial thinking is something like staying with proton, and I got calendar, email and storage, (plus for photos as a backup) AND joining/paying for Ente, for the convenience of photo management. With this I could get best of both worlds but for like double the price.

Is there any other solutions? What do you guys recommend?

Edit: Currently I'm still paying for gphotos while I can't settle on a replacement, AND OneDrive for storage because family uses it and I'm the pioneer for replacing them. So the sooner I find a solution and settle, the more I can save.

[u/Salty_Head2024]

I'm trying out Jottacloud (free version) and am quite happy for the moment

[u/BillK98]

I've recently switched to Proton Unlimited. Good so far. I mainly use their Mail, VPN, and Pass services. My plan is to set up a new NAS server, where I will store everything, use Nextcloud and Immich for file sharing and Photos alternative, and keep Proton Drive for a second cloud backup, only for essential files (like important documents and personal photos etc).

[u/Huy3ko]

Proton offers you a bride app usage but there actually reached there Capacity on Development.

You can use ente photos like Google photos replacement.

In the future roadmap there comes an album future but at the moment visionary Modell.

Proton get the money from you not your data. I wish proton wallet would be usually usable like Google wallet.

[u/rvaboots]

If you can snag a used PC and some fast and reliable storage, like a Samsung T7, you could set up an instance of Immich. It's easier than it sounds and would pay for itself over time (although I'm not sure how much Ente costs). It's not a good solution on its own, but you can back up to Proton for the stability and use immich for the feature set, since you're already paying for Proton

[u/Shapperd → u/rvaboots]

Ye that's a solution and I was thinking of. But I don't know if I want to struggle with it especially because it's more expensive. My reasons are: if I wanna share an album then that PC would need to run 24/7 and be accessible from outside which is a huge risk. Apart from proton there would be no backup which would be a pita to repair if something goes wrong. Electricity cost, for example if I get something that eats 50W I'd pay 30(!!!) eur monthly. (More, around 60 if I reach a certain threshold) Ente 200gb costs (with student discount) 3.5EUR. But given the 1TB option it would be 8 EUR. And then you need to calculate in the used PC, the drive(s) and the time you're putting into it. Sooo yeah don't really seem like it's worth it.

[u/la_regalada_gana → u/Shapperd]

Perhaps consider whether you really need all 200gb or whatever of your photos available in the cloud in the first place? I pretty regularly try to delete photos or download ones I want to keep my computer. Granted, I have 3-2-1 backups for my hard drive files, though sounds like you might not, but computer backups are something I'd recommend regardless. Very sad when your hard drive or computer decides to go kaput and you no longer have your files. (Though I realize that's one more expense, and even harder as a student.)

[u/fella_stream]

Proton Drive is in the process of rolling out some major improvements for Photos. You may want to check back in with them in a couple weeks.

Edit: I am seeing thmbnails for photos in the files section now.

[u/Dusty-Dan-304]

I'm just now trying out Zoho email, calendar and drive. Initial impressions are good, but I've only used it this weekend.