Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Self Hosted vs. Gmail / Outlook?

news.ycombinator.com

1–10 of 66 posts

Ask HN: Self Hosted vs. Gmail / Outlook?

#1
I'm currently using Gmail and getting more and more worried about my privacy. I'd like to know my options if I decide to jump ship. Should I setup my own email server ? Or use another less invasive service ? What are your thoughts ? How do you concile email and privacy ?

Re: Ask HN: Self Hosted vs. Gmail / Outlook?

#3
http://mailinabox.email

Formerly, I'd say maintaining your own email server isn't easy. It was hell trying to set one up 10-15 years ago. This guy (and the contributors) have made it about as easy as it can get. I've hosted mail for one of my domains on a DO droplet, where I set up a mail server with that guide. Been running it for ~4 years. No issues. Highly recommended.

Re: Ask HN: Self Hosted vs. Gmail / Outlook?

#5
Use a paid service. I use Fastmail. It baffles me every day, how HN is obsessed with Gmail as if there was no alternative and are willing to trade a minor improvement in comfort over having every email read, analyzed, indexed, profiled and put into the Ad machine. I'm also surprised that so many people use the web client and not a native client with IMAP.

Re: Ask HN: Self Hosted vs. Gmail / Outlook?

#6
post #5

Use a paid service. I use Fastmail. It baffles me every day, how HN is obsessed with Gmail as if there was no alternative and are willing to trade a minor improvement in comfort over having every email read, analyzed, indexed, profiled and put into the Ad machine. I'm also surprised that so many people use the web client and not a native client with IMAP.

What are you talking about? HN is full of people pushing Fastmail over Gmail.

Re: Ask HN: Self Hosted vs. Gmail / Outlook?

#8
post #4

If you're concerned about privacy, don't use a free service. Pay for it and the privacy concern usually goes away. If you specifically concerned with US laws go German: https://posteo.de/ is a good one to consider.

This is true with Google, as well. Yes, my earlier comment was about setting up a domain on mailinabox. That said, for my business? I use G Suite. For everything. I pay. No ads. No privacy concerns. It just works.

I keep backups, but in ~13 years (I've been on Gmail since nearly day one) I've never had any issues.

Re: Ask HN: Self Hosted vs. Gmail / Outlook?

#9
post #8
post #4

If you're concerned about privacy, don't use a free service. Pay for it and the privacy concern usually goes away. If you specifically concerned with US laws go German: https://posteo.de/ is a good one to consider.

This is true with Google, as well. Yes, my earlier comment was about setting up a domain on mailinabox. That said, for my business? I use G Suite. For everything. I pay. No ads. No privacy concerns. It just works. I keep backups, but in ~13 years (I've been on Gmail since nearly day one) I've never had any issues.

I was amazed to find out that is just 4 euro a month per user. I mean, if someone ( or a company ) cannot afford this amount, then they don't really value their privacy.

Re: Ask HN: Self Hosted vs. Gmail / Outlook?

#10
post #4

If you're concerned about privacy, don't use a free service. Pay for it and the privacy concern usually goes away. If you specifically concerned with US laws go German: https://posteo.de/ is a good one to consider.

How is Germany any better?

Hier privacy is like a king. Everyone must ask permission to access any data, otherwise a legal hell will unleash.
Post reply on HN