Skiff is shutting down - but your emails can stay private!

Skiff announced it is shutting down: All Skiff services will be closed six months from now as the company joins Notion.

2024-02-12
Skiff users were notified that Skiff would be shutting down in six months. After closing its services, Skiff will join Notion.
In a major surprise, end-to-end encrypted service provider Skiff has announced that they will be shutting down all their services as they merge with Notion. All Skiff services will be closing in a period of 6 months. This is sad news for the privacy community as having more options for secure encrypted communication is always a positive for growth, competition, and innovation. Yet, it is nothing new in the privacy scene. Tuta (formerly Tutanota) has been around for about ten years now, and we have seen alternative services like Lavaboom, CTemplar, and now Skiff, coming and going. Regardless, you can rest assured that Tuta is here to stay!

Skiff is closing shop; so it's time for everyone who tested the encrypted Skiff email provider to find a new home to keep their emails private. Luckily, we at Tuta are here to offer a safe haven to all the now confronted with the news of Skiff shutting down.

✅ Encrypted mailbox, contacts & calendar

✅ Unlimited email addresses with your own domain

✅ No tracking

✅ No ads

✅ Renewable energy

Pro tip: Use your own custom domain, which makes changing email providers much easier. Check why Tuta Mail is a great alternative to host your own domain!

We've also prepared a more comprehensive comparison of Tuta vs Skiff Mail.

More Services are always better

In any ecosystem, be it in the natural or digital world, diversity of species plays a key role in its health and stability. In a rather shocking announcement made at the end of last week, Skiff began notifying their customers that they will be shutting down all Skiff services in six short months. In the public statement made on their main website landing page, Skiff informed the world that they will close and merge with Notion, a popular cloud-based notetaking application. A recent player in the privacy and encryption space, Skiff first launched their project in 2022; despite its fast growth Skiff is now shutting down all its services - which came to a surprise to many. At this time the full conditions of the closure and the merger have not been made public, but this news of SKiff shutting down came as a shock to the millions of users who made Skiff their digital home.

When it comes to privacy and security, many people speak about points-of-failure. In this context, what they are specifically referring to is that when you create your own security model, it is important not to rely too heavily on a single point because if it breaks, or you lose access, your entire model will lose its strength and integrity. For this reason, we are sorry to see the Skiff Team closing their doors. When customers and privacy advocates have more options for choosing where and how they wish to protect their data, everyone is better off. It is a best practice to avoiding keeping all your eggs in a single basket and with Skiff shutting down, the pool of encrypted email providers grows thinner. Healthy competition between providers pushes all of us to work harder and create even better, more secure software.

Standing up to Big Tech is hard, and the team at Skiff can be proud of what they accomplished in the fight for privacy.

The Skiff online service will shut down after a six-month sunset period.

Tuta is here to stay

At Tuta, we remain committed to fighting for your right to privacy both on and off the web. That's why we want to make it clear that we are not going away. Our development team continues to grow, as does our user base. New features on being rolled out even faster and we are excited for what the future will bring.

We are constantly growing!

Our team has grown to its largest size yet! With more developers working tirelessly to protect your privacy, we have been able to roll out even more features and functions. In the last few months we have completely overhauled the Tuta Calendar and the latest update has introduced major updates to the Tuta Contacts.

Not only is the team protecting your privacy continuing to grow, but the number of privacy concerned people across the world who are choosing to trust Tuta to protect their emails, calendars, and contacts continues to expand as well. Every year since our initial launch in 2011, the Tuta (then Tutanota) user base has continued to steadily grow and last year we reached a new milestone with over 10 million active users!

We have persevered to anchor our position in the privacy space and have earned your trust. We don't take this responsibility lightly and we won't be going away.

We remain privately owned, with no investors and no venture capital.

Tuta is privately owned by our two CEOs Arne and Matthias. Tuta is not reliant on outside investor funding or venture capitalists. We exist by providing you with the best end-to-end encryption possible and for that we are extremely grateful. By being privately owned we are not liable to any outside pressure from boards of investors. Tuta is developed exactly how we best see fit as cryptography experts and privacy activists.

We're driven by a simple mission and not by profit.

At Tuta, our freedom from investor influence allows us to stay true to our ethics and our mission to bring secure encryption to the masses. This goal is at the heart of Tuta and every employee is committed to making this aim a reality. Our dedicated team of privacy advocates works to keep you and your data secure.

Another example of the difficulties of existing as an alternative to Big Tech

The fight against Big Tech's invasive tracking and advertising is a constant battle. Many voices have risen up to push back by building amazing products and platforms which aimed to keep you the private person safe and secure. Lavaboom and CTemplar were encrypted email providers, similar to Tuta, which offered a private alternative to Gmail and Yahoo. Unfortunately, these allies in the fight for privacy are no longer with us, and it seems that Skiff is suffering a similar fate.

Fighting back against the monopolistic practices of companies like Google and Apple is an ongoing battle. The work of teams like those from CTemplar, Lavaboom, and Skiff will not be forgotten and the impact which they had in building a better internet cannot be understated.

A Somber, But Full-Hearted Welcome

For those of you who are impacted by the Skiff shut down, we would like to extend a somber but full-hearted welcome. Changing digital homes can be a daunting task, but we are committed to making secure end-to-end encryption simple and easy to use. If you are looking for a new place to protect your emails, calendars, and contacts Tuta offers all of this and more. With a variety of affordable subscriptions, switching to Tuta is a fast and easy way to make sure that your data remains safe from Big Tech.

You are welcome to signup here. Let's continue making the internet a better place together.