The hardest part is changing the email addresses for all of your accounts.
Good opportunity to adopt a password manager and make your passwords strong.
Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?
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Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?
#32My recommendation is posteo.de. It’s a lot cheaper than Fastmail if you need multiple mailboxes. Browse through the site and read through the company’s values. A bonus is its focus on being better for the environment.
One point to note about Posteo is that it doesn’t allow custom domains (but there are plenty of Posteo domains to choose from). I don’t see this as a disadvantage for my use though.
Other recommendations are Runbox and mailbox.org, both being near the price of Posteo while also allowing custom domains for certain plans.
Posteo, Runbox and Mailbox.org provide IMAP support. So you’re not stuck with the provider if you want to move your mails out (unlike ProtonMail, which has an IMAP bridge only for paid accounts and is a bit more cumbersome to install/use than the alternative of just picking any email client of your preference).
Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?
#33https://protonmail.com privacy first
https://posteo.de/en secure and green
Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?
#34The hardest part is changing the email addresses for all of your accounts. Good opportunity to adopt a password manager and make your passwords strong.
I found that what’s even harder is dealing with commercial entities who can’t propagate the email address change throughout all their systems. So don’t release your existing accounts soon.
Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?
#35I like fastmail personally because aside from being a fast experience, I like their well written guides and articles. It helps me set stuff up without feeling like I'm just following instructions and helps me understand what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.
I can't recommend them because they recycle email addresses when you stop paying for them. Not really something I can take seriously. They should just hold your email hostage until you start paying them again. Instead, they leave money on the table and create an amateur security failure.
On this matter, Runbox is clear that it will not release/recycle the email address ever. Posteo, which I like and use, has a policy of recycling addresses after six months, which is quite harmful.
Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?
#36I use Thunderbird on desktop and K9-Mail on Android.
That doesn't actually provide an alternative, those are just clients.
There are tons of options for mail server if you can find a client UI you're happy with over Gmail's web UI (or Inbox's :'( ).
IMO that's the hardest piece to replace, and I'm still not happy with any alternative
Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?
#37Fastmail
Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?
#38I'd love to switch away from Gmail, but its security is so compelling that, afaik, nobody else comes close. How many other companies have Tavis Ormandy's on staff to do security audits for their users, let alone free users? Is there a single other email provider that gets security right to the extent Google does?
Well, you could argue that your mail is safe from everyone except one.
I’m not really sure if Google is more likely to fuck me over than any external actor, but it doesn’t feel right.
Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?
#39I'd like to switch to Fastmail, but I have a handful of seldom-used secondary accounts (e.g., for family members), and it doesn't make sense to pay $5/mo/each when they're free on G Suite. Their pricing structure is designed for organizations or single users, but somehow my use case falls in between. It seems a bit off that my household can stream as many movies as we want for $11/mo, or have unlimited access to an e…
I had the exact same problem. Then I found https://www.migadu.com/
"Have as many email addresses on as many domains you need, anytime. No extra costs. All your projects, ideas, employees, family members and IoT devices are welcome. Pets too.
Migadu is a radically different, independent email hosting from Switzerland. We do not count your domains, mailboxes, gigabytes or teeth."
Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?
#40I'd love to switch away from Gmail, but its security is so compelling that, afaik, nobody else comes close. How many other companies have Tavis Ormandy's on staff to do security audits for their users, let alone free users? Is there a single other email provider that gets security right to the extent Google does?
Yeah I completely agree this is something that needs consideration. I do have an email address with my own domain but for security reasons any accounts I create are tied to my gmail address. I've known too many people who have had personal domain email addresses intercepted, particularly through compromised domain/DNS settings. One simple MX record adjustment could mean every single bank account, social media profile, etc. all can be taken over.