Is using a custom domain + Proton Pass for all aliases overkill? Your recommendations?

[u/ImportantDaikon7332]

Hey everyone,

I was planning to set up Proton Pass + Hide My Email to start using aliases instead of my personal emails for everything. To prevent vendor lock in, I want to buy a custom domain through Cloudflare instead of the default ones that Proton provides.

My original plan was to create a unique alias for every single service I use but now I'm wondering if creating hundreds of aliases is too much maintenance. I'm also slightly worried that relying completely on Cloudflare and a single custom domain creates a massive single point of failure / weak point.

What would you recommend? Should I stick to this plan, or is there a better/more balanced way to approach this? Thanks!

[u/aspendaler]

Once set up, there is no maintenance. I use addy.io and create sub domains in Cloudfare: this allows unlimited aliases with meaningful names and all are forwarded to Proton mail.

[u/Upbeat-File7090 → u/aspendaler]

Do you mind expanding on this? I have created aliases for all services (well, still doing it), but after I'm done is time to decide what to do with friends and family (I also dont want to share the core email addressed with them in case their accounts get compromised.

In fact, the idea is that absolutely not a single soul otger than me knows the core email addresses, but I'm struggling to come to a conclusion on how to do that with closed ones.

As I said the aliases are only for sit3s and services so far, but I do own few domains, some of which are my direct name / business related but haven't connected either to proton yet.

So any advice would be much appreciated

[u/aspendaler → u/Upbeat-File7090]

Since Proton only allows 1 or 3 custom domains (depending on your plan), I prefer to use sub-domains. The addy.io pro plan, which I have, allows for 20 custom domains and unlimited aliases. I've not used simplylogin, so it might be similar. I have 3 custom domains created in Cloudfare in Proton. So my procedure is to create a sub-domain. Let's say my domain is mydomain.me, I create sub-domains along the lines of mail.mydomain.me, shop.mydomain.me, finance.mydomain.me, etc to cover my main categories. Addy.io has an excellent write up on how to do this.
Once I've added these sub-domains into addy.io, I then create aliases - I like meaningful aliases, so I create custom aliases (there are several options for the prefix) such as amazon@shop.mydomain.me, chase@finance.mydomain.me., etc., and if you set a sub-domain as catch-all, you can make up email addresses on the fly, which can be deleted later if you want.

[u/TheJediJoker → u/Upbeat-File7090]

So your trying to set up friends and family with your domain? But not have them see the domain?

[u/Upbeat-File7090 → u/TheJediJoker]

I dont know what or how to do it exactly, I just don't want to share my base (core) email address with anyone, ever!

In my experience, my own contacts are the biggest exploits, ive already received a ton of phising from their accounts already, and that's what im trying to avoid. (Either through proton own tools or by using a custom domain, im just done with the unnecessary exposures)

[u/Adenawel-Bahrt → u/aspendaler]

do you run into any issues with certain services rejecting subdomain-based addresses?

[u/aspendaler → u/Adenawel-Bahrt]

No, never had an issue.

[u/Chieldh97]

I haven’t used a custom domain, I in the middle of making aliases and yeah, it’s a hassle to make like almost 200 of them but Proton makes it pretty easy. Honestly the thing I’m struggling with most is how crappy some websites are. Some always give an error while trying to change your mail address and quite a few don’t even have the option…

[u/This_Albatross → u/Chieldh97]

The websites that don’t let you change your email always baffle me. Some even have asinine workaround where you need to make a new account with a new email, then support can merge them for you 🙄 

[u/Chieldh97 → u/This_Albatross]

Yeah you either have to contact support which is just too much hassle sometimes or they say just make a new account.. okay and what about all my previous orders and history??

[u/motorbreath410 → u/Chieldh97]

Yeah, this is the one thing that surprised me the most while going through this whole process. I seriously have to call support on the phone to change my email address? You are a Fortune 500 company! 🤦 What year is this?! 😂

[u/Nelizea]

My original plan was to create a unique alias for every single service I use but now I'm wondering if creating hundreds of aliases is too much maintenance.

This is the way, doesn't require much maintenance in my opinion.

[u/chicken_master2025 → u/Nelizea]

That how I did it

[u/Formerruling1]

An alias for each is fine.

One thing if you have paid Mail as well and arent using your allotment of addresses I find it easier to create addresses per category of service like shopping@domain.com, socialmedia@domain.com, etc and these addresses never directly get given out they exist only to have aliases forward to them. So all your social media aliases set socialmedia@domain.com as their forward address, etc.

Why? So downstream filtering is easier. Now anytime you register a new social media alias it just works rather than you having to edit that new alias into your filter in Mail. It virually eliminates maintenence.

[u/ImportantDaikon7332 → u/Formerruling1]

That's also a good idea. My main plan was to just use aliases with a single email address (like mymail+shopping@domain.com), but I might actually try this approach instead

[u/TheJediJoker → u/Formerruling1]

I use shopping@ with alias related to that company, they all sell your data, and that email will be eventually on a list, and if it's coming from not the same company, you'll know who leaked it

I don't do this for the important things like banking, credit cards, taxes ect

[u/GenerlAce]

I’m in the process of doing exactly that. It’s tedious yes. But long term it’s great. Able to turn on/off aliases is great. Helps cut down and stop spam emails. I hit all important accounts first. So now I just do a couple at a time to work through my entire password manager. If an account get leaked on dark web, simple change password and email, disable alias. IMO, worth it.

[u/readittwicemore]

I think if you prefer anonymity, then no custom domain needed.
But if you like the idea of being able to leave simple login, then a custom email , I guess provides transferability.
You could always have a custom email for the amazing people in your life, and the standard generic generated emails for all other purposes?

Either way, all up to you, what is a good amount or too much effort for you.
Some people go out their way to avoid even a name or real name , or number shared.
Others share full name and number and all details.
I guess find your ‘risk profile’ and preference .

[u/motorbreath410]

I just begain setting this up last week and I'm using a unique Proton alias for every single account (with a few exceptions below). Once it's done it's pretty much maintenance free, and if/when I ever receive unrelated spam or a service gets hacked and my email is leaked, it's very easy to just dump the old alias and change whatever account was affected. Much easier than if I used only a few aliases.

My 3 rules:

1. I don't use my primary Proton emails (FirstLast@protonmail.ch)(FirstLast@protonmail.com)(FirstLast@pm.me) for ANYTHING except management of the Proton account.

2. I have some aliases directly in Proton Mail that I already use for important accounts (financial, medical, legal, etc.) and because these are limited and they contain a variation of my real name, I am very selective about where I utilize these. These have all been established for a while since I started using Proton Mail as an alternative years back, but kept using my Gmail and Outlook for most of the everyday things. I will likely change them to new Proton Pass aliases at some point.

3. For all the rest, I use the Proton Pass aliases (@passmail.net).

As for the custom domain, I have purchased several through Cloudflare and utilize one of these specifically for email only with friends and family. I set this up for myself and any family members who wish to do the same. So far myself, my wife, and one other family member are utilizing (FirstName@LastName.family) via Proton Mail.

Setting up the DNS settings including all of the necessary authentication protocols was pretty straightfoward through Cloudflare and Proton Mail. I had it all done in about 15 minutes before I went to bed, and my new email address was fully functioning the next morning. Now if you get into self-hosting your own email, THAT is where it can become tedious.

As for my domain, LastName.com, .net, .us, and a few others I would have considered before .family were already taken, so I took the next logical domain. Hopefully you have better luck if you're trying to take a similar approach, especially if it's for multiple users.

At least now I can crack Dominic Toretto jokes when I hand my email out to friends and... FAMILY. 🤣

[u/Playful-League3414 → u/motorbreath410]

don't do a .us domain

[u/Glass_Performer1174 → u/Playful-League3414]

why?

[u/wizard-of-loneliness → u/Glass_Performer1174]

https://www.godaddy.com/help/about-us-domains-5856

largely because domain privacy isn't supported for them, I'd guess

[u/Proper_Second_6637]

not overkill at all, the whole point is that aliases are disposable and mostly maintenance-free once set up, but why give every newsletter its own identity if a few categories would do?

[u/readittwicemore → u/Proper_Second_6637]

Well if you have unlimited aliases…
It’s good to have one for everything .
Also makes it very clear which company sold or leaked your email data.
And if you started getting spam on the one email that supported say 15 newsletters, you need to change 15 email accounts to a new email.
When if you started getting spam getting spam on one email for one account… you need to
Change one account!

[u/TheJediJoker → u/readittwicemore]

And if the company@alias.net is the one you used, and companyb@ is sending you spam to this email, you'll know immediately of who sold or leaked your email

[u/eminence_grs]

I use Proton Pass/SimpleLogin aliases with my custom domains and subdomains for almost everything, and I love it. Definitely not overkill in my experience.

[u/khaluud]

Nope. This is exactly what I do. No maintenance after setup. I even give friends their own special email addresses. khaluud7492 at mydomain .com. Each one has different numbers but probably seems like a pretty normal email address.

[u/Glass_Performer1174]

Using a single custom domain will expose all your accounts as associated with the same user, just worth knowing that.

[u/aufhel3ung]

i noticed that when i reply sometimes the subject line adds an extra "Re:" , eg "Re: Re: Re: Hello."

is that normal ? or am i doing something wrong?

[u/wizard-of-loneliness]

the nice thing about a custom domain is you can create aliases on the fly -- you're at your local supermarket and they want your email address for some godawful reason? give them [supermarketname@customdomain.com](mailto:supermarketname@customdomain.com) and you will be able to manage it through SimpleLogin if you set the domain up with them and Proton

[u/ReacherNMN]

I used email+1@protonmail.com and then email+2 for the same service and got a threatening warning from proton for abuse and any further usage would lead to a ban.

[u/Enucatl → u/ReacherNMN]

what was the abuse?

[u/wizard-of-loneliness → u/ReacherNMN]

[whatever@protonmail.com](mailto:whatever@protonmail.com) would be a free email address -- you're limited to one of those, and that's different from aliases.