gmail alternatives?

[m4lte]

I think google's really taking it too far with the new privacy policy. Time to drop out.

What are the alternatives? Are there any trustworthy and reliable email providers?
I wouldn't mind paying a little if the services is good.

[lisati]

I started with Hotmail, moved to Yahoo then gmail. Now I run my own email server because I wasn't particularly happy with any of them. gmx is another possibility.

[monkeyKata]

I use fastmail and I recommend it. What's nice is there really aren't any ads. Some higher bandwith is for pay, though.

Curious to know if anyone else uses this or has heard of it.

Also, what are some specific points to the new privacy policy that have you considering a switch? I haven't read up on it yet.

[whatthefunk]

I use fastmail too. I was using Yahoo mail but left them when they forced the upgrade to the new Yahoo mail and tried to force a privacy policy change on everyone.

Fastmail is good, but the free service has limited space and bandwidth. Works well for me though.

[PaulW2U]

I use fastmail and I recommend it. What's nice is there really aren't any ads. Some higher bandwith is for pay, though.

Curious to know if anyone else uses this or has heard of it.


I've been using FastMail.FM (http://www.fastmail.fm/) for years. As well as using several of their domains for my email I also host my own domains there, use their DNS, store files and even hosted a simple website at one time. They're now owned by Opera Software so they aren't likely to disappear unexpectedly. Yes, I do pay for the extras but they work well.

[winh8r]

GMX is reliable in my experience:

http://www.gmx.com/

I agree fully with the OP about the google privacy policy changes.


see here:http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/27/us-google-privacy-idUSTRE80P1YC20120127

They are not changing the privacy policy for the benefit of service users, they are changing it to improve profiling of users and better targetting of users with advertising which they call "improving the user experience"!!!

[Phoenixie]

I think google's really taking it too far with the new privacy policy. Time to drop out.

What are the alternatives? Are there any trustworthy and reliable email providers?
I wouldn't mind paying a little if the services is good.

http://www.hushmail.com/

[Dry Lips]

http://lavabit.com has an awesome privacy policy!

[aeronutt]

I got fed up with all the changes with yahoo also, and hate their new interface. And didn't like google mail's interface or the way they're moving with privacy. Did a lot of looking around, and picked:

zoho.com

Pretty happy so far. Lots of reviews out there.

And, just looked at lavabit, looks interesting.

[ikt]

Have my own email server using Zimbra on Ubuntu 10.04 but still use my gmail account as a sort of catch all account for stuff I don't want to put my personal email address on.

[m4lte]

Also, what are some specific points to the new privacy policy that has you considering a switch? I haven't read up on it yet.

I also haven't read it in detail. The main point seems to be that they are pulling together data from all their services (search, gmail, google+, maps, youtube, ...) to create a more detailed user profile that they use for advertising.

It's not like _this_ is the reason why I want to stop using google. But it's the general fact that they make money by collecting your data. So you can expect that they try to gather more and more of your data and use it to make money. The same incentives exist for any company that makes money from advertisement. That's why I think that non-free providers might be more trustworthy.

[monkeyKata]

Hey there are some good-looking options suggested here.

It doesn't look like Hushmail has any advertisements. Can anyone confirm this? Also, two things I really like about Fastmail is that you can use aliases and that you can upload files. The latter feature I have used extensively in school to print things. Does Hushmail offer this? Or any other features you think are great?

Zoho looks good, too. More like an email suite.

[linoseros]

Get a server and a domain and install your own mail server. That's the best solution.

[ubuntu27]

Lavabit (https://lavabit.com/) sounds good.

We need a non-US email provider.


Get a server and a domain and install your own mail server. That's the best solution.

Yes, but not everyone knows how to do it.

Also some ISP (like mine--Charter Communications (http://www.charter.com/)) prohibits the use of any server.

[koleoptero]

http://lavabit.com has an awesome privacy policy!

+1

[Frogs Hair]

Another GMX person here , but they don't have encryption .

[urukrama]

zoho.com

Zoho is great, and offers much more than an email client. I too recommend it.

[FuturePilot]

I love Gmx. They don't screw around with their IMAP service like Google does.


Another GMX person here , but they don't have encryption .
What do you mean they don't have encryption? SSL?

[Dry Lips]

Hey there are some good-looking options suggested here.

It doesn't look like Hushmail has any advertisements. Can anyone confirm this? Also, two things I really like about Fastmail is that you can use aliases and that you can upload files. The latter feature I have used extensively in school to print things. Does Hushmail offer this? Or any other features you think are great?

Zoho looks good, too. More like an email suite.

Husmail is great, but they only offer a ridiculous smallish free account. 2mb or so. If you want encrypted mail, I would recommend the combo of lavabit and thunderbird/enigmail.

[aeronutt]

Get a server and a domain and install your own mail server. That's the best solution.

I looked into this, and quickly got confused and frustrated from all the options and recommendations I had. (Even just the 'get my own domain' part.)

[aeronutt]

lavabit looks pretty good, other than they are a startup (<300,000 users). I'd hate to have to change all my email addresses...again. :) I might grab a few of my favorite addresses there. ;)

I do know (but don't know why) zoho mail behaves much better than yahoo via thunderbird. Yahoo (IMAP) hangs or is quite slow quite often via thunderbird. Pffft to yahoo.

I've been with 'full in' with zoho about 2 months now, no problems.

[Frogs Hair]

I love Gmx. They don't screw around with their IMAP service like Google does.


What do you mean they don't have encryption? SSL?

Sorry for the wording . See the cons list @ the link .

http://email.about.com/od/gmxmail/fr/Gmx-Mail-Review-Free-Email-Service.htm

[FuturePilot]

Sorry for the wording . See the cons list @ the link .

http://email.about.com/od/gmxmail/fr/Gmx-Mail-Review-Free-Email-Service.htm

I'm still not sure what they're referring to. GPG? All of those cons can be taken care of with a mail client.

[aeronutt]

FYI;
http://email.about.com/od/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.htm

Looks like about.com is also doing a users choice awards poll for email.

[aeronutt]

Just read this about lavabit, which I don't care for:
"•For free "Personal" accounts, Lavabit inserts ads in incoming messages"

Is this true?

[LowSky]

gmail is fine enough for me. policy be damned I really don't care what they know about me. Between facebook, google, and any website I signed up for and/or purchased from The internet knows more about me than my own mother. Sounds pretty scary but in the gist of things that is just the way the world is these days. Identity theft has been around since the dawn of time no stopping it now.

[aeronutt]

gmail is fine enough for me. policy be damned I really don't care what they know about me. Between facebook, google, and any website I signed up for and/or purchased from The internet knows more about me than my own mother. Sounds pretty scary but in the gist of things that is just the way the world is these days. Identity theft has been around since the dawn of time no stopping it now.

Enabler!!! :):)

[ubuntu27]

Sorry for the wording . See the cons list @ the link .

http://email.about.com/od/gmxmail/fr/Gmx-Mail-Review-Free-Email-Service.htm

If only they didn't tie to Facebook.... :(

[FuturePilot]

If only they didn't tie to Facebook.... :(

They didn't...

[ubuntu27]

They didn't...

http://email.about.com/u/ntn/awards/Nominate-Your-Favorite-Free-Email-Service-For-The-2012-Readers-Choice-Awards/form.htm


To participate you must Log In using your Facebook or About.com account.

Who has about.com account anyways? [I didn't even know you can make an "account" at about.com until now]

[FuturePilot]

http://email.about.com/u/ntn/awards/Nominate-Your-Favorite-Free-Email-Service-For-The-2012-Readers-Choice-Awards/form.htm

Quote:
To participate you must Log In using your Facebook or About.com account.

Who has about.com account anyways? [I didn't even know you can make an "account" at about.com until now]

Oh, I thought you meant GMX.

[Dry Lips]

Just read this about lavabit, which I don't care for:
"•For free "Personal" accounts, Lavabit inserts ads in incoming messages"

Is this true?
Well, yes and no. You have two choices. The basic account is ad free, but you only get 128 megs of storage space. With the personal account you get 1 gig of storage, but there are ads at the bottom of incoming messages. I have the personal account, and I usually never even notice that the ads are there. The ads are a single line of text at the end; in other words there are no glaring images or flashy animations to grab your attention.

I think most if not all providers of email use ads, even gmail has ads. Unless you want to pay for your email I think lavabit is as good as it gets. The ads are very unobtrusive, and nothing to worry about.

[skathed]

dont know if its been posted yet. (not going to look through all the pages to check) but i have had a good experience with zoho.
has a free membership option too.

[tersogar]

Thank for the recomendations. Just swich to lavabit.com with Seamonkey. Works great.:popcorn:

[nec207]

You could try hotmail or just use a outlook on your computer:P

[tersogar]

=;=;=;
you could try hotmail or just use a outlook on your computer:p

=;

[ServL]

I have a shared hosting account on which I am running Horde. I haven't found anything else that comes even close. And don't get me started on the new Google privacy policy...