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I just used a temp email service to make several proton accounts for different things but last time I tried they didn't let me but that may have been some other issue
Considering I signed up for Piefed and Lemmy with a tutamail account, I think maybe you're not reading that correctly.
There's a 24 or 72 hour cooldown period where you can't just go an immediately sign up for things, but that's about all.
tutamail, for example, states that the free plan is not to be used to signup for services.
Just.. don't. Tuta is probably fine for paid services but they're well known for nuking free accounts for various reasons. And they might not enable you to send/receive from a free account to begin with - Last time I attempted to create a free account there, then asked support if they could enable me to be able to send/receive some emails, instead of responding they simply nuked my new free account.
You could check this website but be aware it's a long list for all kinds of services: https://riseup.net/radical-servers
I was able with Proton.
What?
I'm kinda surprised that any email would ask you to have a previous email to be able to create account... Proton surely didn't for me. The only way they could require identifying verification would be by demanding a cellphone number, because you can lie about everything else, hell, if you have an online service for that you can lie about that being your phone number as well.
There are several that do, namely protonmail. You can get an email address without having a previous one, but if you sign up to any website using a free protonmail account they require you to either pay, or give them another email account to verify you. Doesn't stop you from using disposable emails from what I remember though.
Well, this acc here, and several others I use, were created on free Proton email without giving them any contact information.
Could be a more recent change? I tried this about 6 months ago. I got around it using a temp email, though. Admittedly I don't use that account for much, and should probably delete it xD
I don't there would be many due to the liability concerns. Also, it's a classic case of "if something is free, then you are the product". You can pay for an email provider that won't ask questions from you, deal with the restrictions (and potential privacy invasions) of the "free" options, or self-host.
Thanks for the info.
Also, it’s a classic case of “if something is free, then you are the product”
While I agree that it's sensical not to offer this, I think this statement is too broad. Protonmail didn't require any verification for quite some time, and tutamail used to allow using the free plan to sign up for services.
Proton and Tuta both offered that as an initial hook, though. Once it became clear that it was no longer sustainable to have minimal restrictions on free accounts, they had to move the needle and incentivize purchases.
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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Privacy
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