I've been trying to get away from Big Tech for years: Microsoft, Google, you know the ones. 🇺🇸
My first attempt was in 2021, when I moved my mail from Google Workspace to the Swiss Proton Mail. That went fairly smoothly. Because of the end-to-end encryption Proton uses, you can really only use their own apps properly. They do have a trick for using other mail apps like Outlook, called "Proton Bridge", but it never quite works right, and on mobile platforms like Android and iOS it doesn't work at all.
For my personal mail, that was fine. The Android app wasn't great at first: no support for email threads, slow navigation, no offline support. That changed in mid-2025, when they launched completely new apps. ✨
When I left my job in February 2026 and started working for myself, I quickly ran into the limits of Proton's closed ecosystem. A simple booking page on my website was asking too much. It was as if Proton was listening in, because in April 2026 they introduced public booking pages in Proton Calendar. But again, only inside Proton's closed ecosystem: there was no way to connect tools like Cal.com, which offer a much better experience.
So I went looking for alternatives once more and ended up at Soverin. Email and calendar 100% on Dutch soil, with serious certifications and a strong track record: they run email for every customer of the Dutch providers Freedom Internet and Mijndomein, among others. By now they manage more than a million mailboxes in Europe.
Moving from Proton Mail to Soverin didn't go well, again because of that closed ecosystem. Proton has an Export Tool, but exporting my mail took hours. To make matters worse, the Export Tool turned out not to keep the folder structure, so every email ended up in one big pile 🤦🏼♂️ Useless for moving to another provider. In the end, with some pain and effort, I got there with Proton Bridge: it could pull my mail onto my own computer over IMAP, so I could move it to my new IMAP account at Soverin with Thunderbird. Persistence pays off 😌
If you know me, you know I'll champion a product once it has really proven itself to me. But then it also has to be easy to use. Although Soverin works with open standards like IMAP (email) and CalDAV (calendar), it can't match the ease of use we've all grown used to over the past years:
- Email and calendar apps are the "wild west": Apple Mail, Samsung Mail, you name it... For business use, none of them can compete with Microsoft (Outlook) and Google Workspace, which offer one integrated experience that works the same everywhere. Take Samsung Calendar: it only supports Exchange, Google and Outlook.com. No CalDAV. You have to reach for yet another app just to get to your calendar. On an iPhone you can, but then you have to enter the server settings yourself three times (!): for IMAP (email), CalDAV (calendar) and CardDAV (contacts). Hello, it's 2026?! 🤷🏼♂️
- Scheduling meetings with other people is a nightmare: when someone sends you a calendar invitation, some email and calendar apps let you accept it, but even when you do, the organizer often never gets a confirmation. I'll spare you the details of why...
- No support for adding video meeting links like Zoom. Microsoft and Google have this built in too, and Google even supports Zoom directly in Google Calendar.
- Two-factor authentication makes setup even more complicated. Turn it on at Soverin and you have to set up so-called app passwords to reach your mail and calendar on other devices. Yet another step in the chain. With Microsoft and Google you simply sign in with your username and password, and enter the code from your authenticator app on that same screen.
In short: if I walked into any company today and recommended Soverin, setup and day-to-day use would fall apart in no time, especially with more than 10 employees. And that's a shame, because Soverin's service itself is extremely fast and reliable.
Now, I'm not one for complaining, and I'd rather build a real solution. After a little over two months of building, it's done! 🤩
Allodia Mail & Calendar is now available for Mac, iPhone, Android, Windows, and soon even Linux. It works with every email server (even Microsoft's and Google's, so you can already experience what it's like to be free to choose your own email app...), detects your settings automatically from your domain name, and ties email, calendar and contacts together in a smart way. That finally makes it a real alternative to Microsoft Outlook and Google's apps (Gmail). All of it built on open standards. 🔥
There's a lot more coming, so stay tuned.
Try Allodia Mail & Calendar completely free. And do let me know what you think through our contact form 😊