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GMail alternatives? Anyone reliant on iCloud or Proton?
- Thread starter Grifter
- Start date
I use ProtonMail as my professional email and for important things like bank accounts. It's great.
The owners of Hey, 37signals, are peak douchebags too. Worth considering if people are looking for an alternative to Gmail for ethical reasons. DDH and Jason Fried showed their ass by issuing a horrifically stupid and out of touch statement around civil rights "political" discussions a couple months back.
OP
OP
Anything you miss about GMail?
Dang that's a nice domain, but seems steep. I guess another bonus of iCloud is using "me.com."
I use iCloud mail. The new privacy feature that can hide your e-mail by using proxy random adresses is useful when signing up for certain stuff.
Proton gives you @pm.me. There's two more that you get as well and can use any of them.
The new UI looks exactly like Gmail which is a huge improvement over the old one. I plan on moving everything over soon. It's also nice being able to get extra emails tied to the same inbox so you can create one off or temporary addresses.
OP
OP
You mean the coming Hide My Email thing or the Apple sign-in thing that some sites implement now?
Probably Outlook just for ease of use and feature set, aliases are also useful for junk and stuff without putting out your main address.
Don't get the big deal with Proton, it's only really useful for privacy if both ends are private and general emails not between two proton emails ain't that.
Don't get the big deal with Proton, it's only really useful for privacy if both ends are private and general emails not between two proton emails ain't that.
Sign in with Apple also uses random adresses but Hide my E-mail can suggest one on the spot for any input field where you enter an e-mail adress. It's pretty neat.
Tutorial: Keep your mail safe (Gmail/Outlook)
VERSION: 2022-01-19 Many people depends of e-mail services like Gmail to do business and they are complete hostage of Google's grace to keep their accounts. And there is a real possibility of automatic ban from Google. And it can make your life miserable in this scenario because you will lose...
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Not really, it has all the features of gmail that I used. Though I'm not a power user.
How do you do this?
It's an option that says "Hide my e-mail" when editing an e-mail input field.
It's in beta right now and not live yet until the fall. It's also a paid feature for if you have iCloud storage.
OP
OP
That works w/any email and forwards over, by my impression.
Ah ok, thanks. I do pay for storage so all good there.
OP
OP
Sure, just weighing options and whether I can go Apple first considering their privacy push not knowing I won't be served ads.
As far as I know you still can't use Protonmail for custom domains, so while I have an account with them, I can't use it for any real business. The app is also not great from a UX perspective. Feels really klunky. But it's more secure than the competition; journalists use it quite often.
I like Protonmail a lot. I also just switched to their calendar too. The android calendar app can't open .ics files though (yet?), which is major pain, but it's otherwise good. The pm.me addresses solved having to spell out protonmail.com for people so that's nice.
I pay like $30/year to Hover for a unique email that has my last name as the domain. Definitely makes an impression on resumes etc.
Whatever I can do to minimize the amount of data Google has on me. They already get enough from YouTube. Don't need their algorithm reading my personal emails too.
Whatever I can do to minimize the amount of data Google has on me. They already get enough from YouTube. Don't need their algorithm reading my personal emails too.
OP
OP
Hmm, I stand corrected. I guess they added that feature since I last looked. I'll have to look into switching away from Google as well then!
I went through this journey recently. I tried a bunch of different providers. I recommend checking out privacytools.io for a good run down of some privacy-oriented providers. Email is a naturally insecure / not-private communication medium, so there's no silver bullet, but there are a lot of better-than-Google choices.
If you want something that's free, ProtonMail is one of your only not-adware choices.
If you're willing to pay a bit, you have a bunch of options:
OH and definitely buy a custom domain. Then you can easily move providers around in the background without having to distribute a new email address each time.
If you want something that's free, ProtonMail is one of your only not-adware choices.
If you're willing to pay a bit, you have a bunch of options:
- Fastmail isn't explicitly privacy oriented (they're based in Australia where encryption is banned IIRC), but they promise not to scan your mails or serve ads and they have a great reputation for usability and reliability.
- ProtonMail's paid options offer great features, and it's all encrypted at rest so your emails are about as protected as emails reasonably can be. The big downside is that ProtonMail doesn't play nice with standards like CalDAV, CardDAV, etc, so you HAVE to use their apps. I get why they did this -- those standards aren't encrypted -- but that means you're stuck with a so-so mobile email app, a beta calendar app, and no great contacts solution. I hope that over time Proton can replicate the Google ecosystem, but it isn't there yet.
- Mailbox.org has a suite that roughly matches Google -- Mail, Docs, Sheets, Drive, Tasks, etc. Of course, none of these options are as fast, feature-rich, or intuitive as Google's options, but they do all work, and they interface easily with IMAP/CalDAV/CardDAV/etc. Mailbox isn't as private as Proton by default, but it can be configured to be roughly as private, and even at default it's far better than Google. Mailbox.org is also pretty cheap.
- Honorable mentions to some other services I tried that weren't as compelling as FastMail, Proton, or Mailbox, but are still good: Tutanota, Posteo, and Mailfence.
OH and definitely buy a custom domain. Then you can easily move providers around in the background without having to distribute a new email address each time.
I use Protonmail, and it's pretty good. I use a paid plan, and with that you can also use a desktop mail program like Thunderbird, while still having E2E encryption.
I am keeping eyes on their calendar, and hope they can extend their Bridge app to also allow CalDAV like features integrating it with Thunderbird. Until then I continue to use Google Calendar for that.
I am keeping eyes on their calendar, and hope they can extend their Bridge app to also allow CalDAV like features integrating it with Thunderbird. Until then I continue to use Google Calendar for that.
My entire municipality uses g suite 😂
So Im gonna keep using it. Google Classroom is a great tool for schools for example and I hope they develop ut even further.
So Im gonna keep using it. Google Classroom is a great tool for schools for example and I hope they develop ut even further.
This is the main reason I haven't switched from gmail to iCloud. It would just be all the pain in the ass.
I've tried leaving gmail... every other of the "privacy" related options are just not good enough, and the tradeoffs aren't worth it to me. If workspace would allow you to use your email as a sign in for Nest, then you can go to workspace to remove them from scanning and keep the same feature / functionality (plus you get push notifications on apple mail with workspace accounts).
mailbox.org and protonmail were both I tried, and both just were too much of a hassle to stay with, along with the fact that trying to tell someone your email is something other than the well known ones is an exercise in futility.
I'll give iCloud+ a try with my custom domain, that's what I'm waiting for
mailbox.org and protonmail were both I tried, and both just were too much of a hassle to stay with, along with the fact that trying to tell someone your email is something other than the well known ones is an exercise in futility.
I'll give iCloud+ a try with my custom domain, that's what I'm waiting for
I recently switched to Tutanota. They're alright so far, but I've not used then much.
The important thing to note, though, is that if you want true email independence, you should also buy your own domain name. That way, you can forever be [email protected] regardless of what happens to whatever email provider you choose.
This is very important, because one day a service might ban you or go under, and you'll lose your email... which means you may not be able to log into other web sites (e.g. if they email you to verify your login). This is especially important to note with larger companies like for example Google, who can ban you because of YouTube activity and cause you to lose access to your email.
The important thing to note, though, is that if you want true email independence, you should also buy your own domain name. That way, you can forever be [email protected] regardless of what happens to whatever email provider you choose.
This is very important, because one day a service might ban you or go under, and you'll lose your email... which means you may not be able to log into other web sites (e.g. if they email you to verify your login). This is especially important to note with larger companies like for example Google, who can ban you because of YouTube activity and cause you to lose access to your email.
iCloud is no frills. But it's all I need for personal email. It's what I've been using primarily for years now.
What's the easiest way if one wanted to transfer from gmail to iCloud for email? Ideally that's what I'd like to do, but the process has put me off.
Not judging your decision to switch, OP, but I am curious what made you decide to stop using Gmail. I personally like having Google's algorithms scan my emails. I like that if I book a plane ticket, an algorithm adds my flight details to my Google Calendar. On the day of my trip, an algorithm sends a notification to my phone telling me when I need to leave for the airport if I want to be there two hours before my flight. A week before my trip, Google Maps will ask me if I want to download a local copy of the map of the area I'm going to be traveling to. I find all of this to be really helpful. If there were Google employees or contractors just sitting there, reading my emails, and doing these things for me, I wouldn't tolerate it, but it's just a computer. If Google wants to put a couple ads in my inbox or search results about plane tickets or whatever, I am happy with that tradeoff.
OP
OP
Cheers on the notes.
I hadn't even heard of half of these providers, and never considered that specific benefit to a vanity domain. Kinda pictured that leading to a painful process akin to porting my cell number.