
Ask HN: How can I escape Gmail and Outlook.com? - setquk
I&#x27;ve spent the last 15 years or so dodging between Microsoft and Google&#x27;s email solutions. I&#x27;ve tried escaping them to smaller providers including old fashioned pop3&#x2F;smtp, but I feel like I&#x27;ve been strong-armed back into using them. The smaller companies tend to have numerous problems with delivery to providers such as Yahoo and MSFT Office 365. It&#x27;s almost like there&#x27;s a conspiracy between the larger providers to automatically accept email but for the small guys, they don&#x27;t get a look in.<p>I want to move away because I entirely distrust them.
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graystevens
I’ve always had a good experience with fastmail.com, and I know it gets a lot
of love here on HN.

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setquk
Replying again. I've moved to fastmail and it's awesome. Thank you!

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graystevens
Awesome, glad you like it!

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kup0
I would like to move away, but the issue I'm running into is the amount of
services/sites/etc I've signed up with using my gmail account. I guess the
best option would be to have both (gmail and X, where X is fastmail or
something similar) for a few years and slowly migrate over, I don't know.

I don't like the fact that if a single email account of mine was compromised
that it would essentially compromise everything else. Email accounts can hold
a lot of power over someone's online life.

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setquk
These are some of the problems I have. I've spent a while now separating
everything. It's easy to hit that "log in with google button" but every click
just locks you in further.

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akulbe
[https://mailinabox.email](https://mailinabox.email)

I generally recommend against administering your own email server, but this
may be a good idea for you.

I use this for one of my own domains. I have it hosted on a Digital Ocean
droplet.

They take a lot of the complexity out of the picture. This is one of the
easiest ways to host your own email, that I’ve seen up to this point.

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craftyguy
Here's a decent list of mail providers (with the exception of proton mail,
because that's a walled garden):
[https://www.privacytools.io/#email](https://www.privacytools.io/#email)

Personally, I've been using mailbox.org for ~3 years without any issues like
you describe.

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pards
ProtonMail is also a good alternative. It's secure and hosted in Switzerland.

I'd suggest that you start using a new email for identity with online banking,
utilities and other essential services.

Better still, buy a domain and use that for the identity address so that you
can move the hosting around as you see fit.

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craftyguy
Having your own domain is definitely the way to go, for the exact reason you
mention. You're free to change mail providers without having to change your
mail address, which is nice for you and for your contacts!

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slipwalker
how about going full nerd and taking things into your own hands ?
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16392096](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16392096)

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setquk
Thanks for the suggestion. It is a valid one so not sure why you got
downvoted.

I actually did this for a number of years in the late 1990s to about 2004 and
currently am "fix it monkey" for our SES / DKIM / SPF / SMTP config and I
don't really want to take that job home with me :)

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tortasaur
Do you really need to fix that stuff often? I run my own mailserver, and it
seemed very "set it and forget it", but maybe it's more complex at large orgs.

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Spooky23
If you are in a “good neighborhood” from a network point of view and don’t
bulk send, it is not that bad.

Cheap hosts are a bad idea. I hosted mail on a local colo’s site and had zero
issues. When I ran a large enterprise system, we had issues all of the time
but even then resolution wasn’t terrible.

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leipert
I am using Berlin based posteo [1] since a few years, very happy.

[1]: [https://posteo.de/en](https://posteo.de/en)

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Endy
I still use Yahoo, but Excite and Juno are still around for email. Or you can
look into paid solutions.

