

Ask HN: Where to switch from Gmail? - realusername

Hello everyone,<p>I would like to switch from Gmail to another email provider with a bit more privacy. I know it won&#x27;t change anything but as they say &quot;Be the change that you wish to see in the world.&quot;. I have no problem to pay if it&#x27;s not so expensive. I don&#x27;t care much about external things like calendar but I would need some import to import all my old emails. I would like also to make my parents switch at some point if it works well for me, we will see.<p>Do you have any recommendations for a new email provider ? I would like to have some advice on this and your recommendations if you have done this in the past. Changing an email address is not something to take lightly and I would like to switch to a provider who is likely still going to exist in the next 5 years.
======
senjindarashiva
I am using [https://www.fastmail.com](https://www.fastmail.com) with great
results. They do have some features in there interface to ease the transition
like being able to both send and receive mail from your old address directly
from there interface.

~~~
spacemoelte
I also switched to fastmail from gmail. I setup gmail to forward all emails to
my new address, and then running the gmail importer in fastmail. So i have all
my emails in fastmail, and receive all emails sent to the old address. I'm
using a custom domain for my emails.

~~~
cweagans
This is exactly what I did. Also of interest is that Yubikey OTP is directly
supported, you can host static websites (I generate my site with Jekyll and
then rsync it to fastmail's web server), and you can have a ton of other
aliases for your mailbox (I've got like 12 addresses right now that all point
to fastmail).

------
gregmorton
Zoho.com is not bad.

But I switched to [https://runbox.com](https://runbox.com) a few years ago. 30
euros/year for 5 gb, 100 aliases, a very good hotline and the option to put
your mails on a server without backup, which means that when you delete a
message, it's deleted, not stocked on a backup (yes, if their servers fail,
you lost everything you didn't backup yourself, but for now, it has never
happened :)

And they can get you your own domain name for 15 bucks/year.

And they're green and in Norway and if you use their roundcube webpage, it
manages GPG keys and yes, I sound like a fanboy :).

------
fsk
Run your own mailserver - postfix + roundcube.

It'll take you some time to set it up, but it will be educational!

~~~
hobarrera
I'd use opensmtpd instead of postfix. Mostly because you'll learn how to
configure the former in a matter of tens of minutes when reading the man page,
and the config format is basically English. The latter. Not even close.

------
zhte415
Are you in control of your own domain?

Perhaps Gandi.net, if you're in control of the domain. Email is included as a
perk of domain registration, and more options as paid.

------
avinassh
I have switched from Gmail to Zoho sometime back. But problem is people I am
emailing use Gmail, majority of them. Last time I checked, I had sent about
85% of my emails to Gmail. So, my emails are anyways being ended up on Gmail
servers. I am trying to get my friends and family to switch to Zoho, but they
always end up back using Gmail :(

------
drethemadrapper
It is always exciting to see more people leave the NSA bobby traps to reclaim
their privacies.

You may want to try [https://www.hosteurope.de/E-Mail-
Hosting/#Vergleich](https://www.hosteurope.de/E-Mail-Hosting/#Vergleich)

It's in Germany. I am not in full support of services in the US. I however
understand that there is not guarantee that they/NSA/BB can't get an
order/subpoena to access your server though.

Here are the product details: Mailboxes: 1 Storage per mailbox: 5 GB Webmailer
Pro: Yes POP / IMAP: Yes Daily backup: Yes Mobile Sync: Yes Shareable
calendars, address books and tasks: Yes One-time setup fee: € 9.99 € 4.99

You can get up to 5 mailboxes by paying $5-$10 more I think.

------
veddox
In case you're a German speaker, there are some native German Email providers
that afaik are pretty good on privacy (our laws are very strict there, and
there is what is known as). And as their servers should be in Germany, the NSA
will have a slightly more difficult task of sniffing.

Examples are gmx.de and web.de. (Although I'd caution you with the latter - I
use their free version and am not impressed with their customer service:
nonexistent. Also, they send you their own advertising. I don't know if their
paid tier is any better, I haven't tried it.)

------
muhpirat
I switched to mailbox.org. Also posteo.de is good. Booth are email hosters for
several yeahrs now.

I think booth are awesome but only if you use a mail client like thunderbird.

------
toby1k
My advice is if you manage to encrypt your email with good encryption, stick
with a popular provider (i.e. gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc). A privacy-aware
email provider called Lavabit was shut down a while ago. Thankfully I hadn't
lost much but some people did.

~~~
hobarrera
Yeah, privacy is a lot harder than you think. For example, gmail probably has
> 50% of my email, since the recipients use gmail. And other compromised
providers.

If you really need privacy, try going the gpg way.

------
gesman
You email is as private as your addressees's email provider.

So if many people you are communicating with are using gmail - it won't buy
you much to switch.

~~~
realusername
I know that it's not going to change much, I've mentioned it but it's still
better than nothing. I respect other people choices and that's why I need to
switch. In the same way, I've installed Textsecure, even if just one person I
know is using it, maybe one day, some other people will contact me through it,
it does not hurt me to keep it.

------
vmay
protonmail.ch

