7 ms·

Ask HN: Best Paid Gmail Replacement?

50 points by smaps 6y ago

I’ve been getting on the privacy and anti-tracking bandwagon big time recently and am looking to replace gmail. What are good email services that allow you to use your own domain name?

gsimons88 6y ago
Ha, I was just like you, just recently starting to look away from GMail, though mostly because of all the incessant and obtrusive ads. I am using protonmail now, which has the option for a bunch of aliases that I really like, the web interface works fine though it's missing bells and whistles - I do miss the smart grouping of GMail! - and you get to use custom domains. It also provides encryption and you can even get VPN to go with it. Here's all the options you get per tier: https://protonmail.com/pricing https://protonmail.com/pricing Still an early user, but so far quite happy with it!
jborak 6y ago
I use ProtonMail and overall it works pretty good and the value is great. The product is focused on security first so I think user experience suffers a bit. It's works fine but if you previously used a mail client like Spark on your phone you'll definitely miss it. The mobile app is okay, it's good enough for reading and sending short replies. The web interface is alright. I like to use the bridge application from ProtonMail on my desktop and use a mail client like Thunderbird or Apple Mail.
- markjgx 6y ago
  I like protonmail and consider it mostly a suitable replacement to gmail. I say mostly because some websites don't accept emails with the protonmail domain. Weird huh. My understanding is that protonmail might of been used by some bad actors and it's been labelled as the bad people email. https://community.netlify.com/t/email-domain-protonmail-com-is-not-supported/18389 https://community.netlify.com/t/email-domain-protonmail-com-...
  - dharmab 6y ago
    The solution for that would be to bring your own domain name: https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/custom-domain-support/ https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/custom-domain-...
- jidiculous 6y ago
  I just wish it had a feature to nest folders :(
smt88 6y ago
There's no great way to know that your emails are private when they're hosted by a SaaS email provider. It's easy to get around third-party audits if you want to. The most private solution by far is to self-host, but that's also very challenging these days. And any email you send to a non-private service (Gmail, Yahoo, anyone's work account) is instantly going to be just as insecure as if you yourself used that other person's service. What I'm getting at is that email is inherently a not-very-private communication method and you should try to avoid it. The amount of time required to make it more private is not going to have much benefit for most people (whose contacts will be using Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.) You also can't easily or meaningfully get E2E encryption with email, so there's a lot of surface area to lose your privacy.
- specialp 6y ago
  The thing about self hosting too is that you then own your identity. I have had my own domain and email for 20 years now while many "free" email services have gone away or merged. The problem as you say with difficulty is that due to the centralization of email providers, it is hard to get your outgoing mail accepted everywhere. I now have no problems but it took a while. The worst were Yahoo and Verizon straight up denying my email as spam despite having DKIM/SPF/DMARC set up perfectly. These things too there are subtle problems that can make them invalid such as hostname differences.
  - smt88 6y ago
    > The thing about self hosting too is that you then own your identity. You can do this without self-hosting, though. As long as you control the domain and MX records, you can just switch providers when you need to. A lot of people are now doing the "your domain + Fastmail" approach, for example (or at least they were before Australia's government went completely insane).
  - TheMog 6y ago
    I've also been self hosting since the last century, and as you point out, the big issue these days is making your email server play with all the other email services, including those that aren't always playing nicely. Not to mention that not all hosters are too keen on having people run mail servers due to the danger of hosting spammers and getting blacklisted. With the last two or three hosters, I had to jump through a couple of hoops every time and get permission to run one. I still think it's worth it, especially if you own a bunch of domains, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to someone starting from scratch these days.
anuragsoni 6y ago
I've been using Fastmail [1] for around five years now. I've been pretty happy with their service and I use it with my own domain name. I find the pricing to be reasonable, and their webmail interface is really fast, and I've found their spam detection to be really good. [1] https://www.fastmail.com/ https://www.fastmail.com/
- apazzolini 6y ago
  Fastmail's web UI is incredibly good. I've also been using it for several years on my custom domain and have zero complaints. The migration process was pretty painless. I did a one time import of my historical mail from gmail and then set up an autoforwarder --> specific fastmail folder that I look at from time to time and either unsubscribe from whatever sent an email there or update the address as appropriate.
  - notacoward 6y ago
    Cosigned. I just leave a tab open, don't need an app except for my phone, and I've never been anything but satisfied with the experience. Since 2011, according to my archives.
    - StavrosK 6y ago
      Agreed. Their UI is the fastest web app I've ever used, bar none.
- lukeqsee 6y ago
  Came here to say this. Fastmail is rock-solid, well-priced, and has basically every feature I find important for business or personal email. Been with them for years and never regretted it!
- frakt0x90 6y ago
  Nothing of value to add to this convo but I de-googlified 2 years ago and chose fastmail since it's cheap and extremely easy to convert to. I've also had 0 complaints.
diehunde 6y ago
Another happy ProtonMail user here. I've been using it for about 2 years now. You can also import you Gmail content to your proton account if you want. Their VPN also works really well.
emehex 6y ago
I've been using https://hey.com/ https://hey.com/ for the past 6 months. Big fan!
uniqueid 6y ago
I'm happy with Fastmail. It's certainly more pleasant to use than Gmail ever was. I miss nothing, but absolutely nothing, about Gmail.
papaf 6y ago
I am a happy user of startmail: https://www.startmail.com/en/#pricing https://www.startmail.com/en/#pricing
- ConfusedDog 6y ago
  What's your experience with it? I haven't found any particular reason to switch from fastmail. The price is pretty much the same.
muttantt 6y ago
Fastmail is the best out there
waynesonfire 6y ago
don't underestimate the importance of the calendar.
shafyy 6y ago
I use Fastmail (for work) and Hey and ProtonMail for my private mail. I pay for Fastmail and Hey (free plan on ProtonMail). If I would pick one I would go with Hey, since I really love their Screener feature which helped me reduce a lot of noise. When they launch Hey for Work we'll probably switch from Fastmail (not that anythig is wrong with it).
- InternetCTO 6y ago
  I like fastmail because they have the shortest address I could find. My email address is xxx.mm.st
justusthane 6y ago
Fastmail. If it’s helpful, I wrote a short guide to switching off of gmail here: https://www.justus.ws/tech/how-to-ditch-gmail/ https://www.justus.ws/tech/how-to-ditch-gmail/
Eddy_Viscosity2 6y ago
Protonmail for me. Using it over a year now and no complaints.
actuator 6y ago
Google Apps version of Gmail or the Microsoft equivalent? You can use your own domain and I don't think data there is used for ads. I am really scared to put my trust in a small provider from a data security and availability view. Security is really really hard and emails are a critical part of your online and offline identity. YMMV
- MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
  I think too many people get up in arms about privacy but when push comes to shove, these smaller people will most likely cave to governments. I think HN just dislikes the idea of google maintaining a service.
  - actuator 6y ago
    As much as I would want small players to succeed. Email is one of the spaces where it just doesn't make much sense to trust the small guy.
ravenstine 6y ago
I pay for ProtonMail and really enjoy it, but you have to appreciate a certain level of minimalism. It's obviously not going to have some of the bells and whistles of Gmail. Personally, I don't like those bells and whistles anyway.
eurasiantiger 6y ago
Be mindful of the fact that any service recommended here is likely going to be ”unofficially pentested” for a while.
busterarm 6y ago
Migadu. https://drewdevault.com/2020/06/19/Mail-service-provider-recommendations.html https://drewdevault.com/2020/06/19/Mail-service-provider-rec...
- dschuler 6y ago
  I can’t recommend Migadu. I used them for a year, and I spent many hours dealing with delivery issues and somewhat frequent unannounced outages/upgrades which go unreported. Spam filtering is generally broken and ignores whitelists. They tend to respond to about 50% of support emails, the last one being rather petty when I left the service. I should have seen the yearly plan fee as a sunk cost and moved on sooner. Hope this helps someone else.
  - busterarm 6y ago
    If you're going with a smaller email provider, you kind of have to know what you're getting. Keep in mind that several large email providers blacklist competitors by default and _literally charge an extortion fee_ to get off the blacklist. Migadu's issue is that they refuse to pay it.
- amanzi 6y ago
  I can recommend Migadu too. They are great value - especially if you have lots of low traffic domains and email addresses.
- tweetle_beetle 6y ago
  I really wish Migadu had a very basic standards compliant contacts and calendar system to make it easier to switch away from the big suppliers. I respect the absolute focus on email, but unfortunately there is no equivalent style of provider for these services. There are some providers but they're expensive.
  - busterarm 6y ago
    They've offered CalDAV and CardAV since June, they just don't advertise it particularly well. Check the Thunderbird documentation. Oh and it's in Beta. It's just much easier for me to host that myself, as opposed to email, so I do.
qznc 6y ago
http://mailbox.org http://mailbox.org I'm on their cheapest 1€/month plan for three years and happy.
- fileeditview 6y ago
  I also use them. Their web client is not the prettiest/greatest but it is OK and I mostly use Thunderbird anyways.
- akvadrako 6y ago
  I moved to mailbox.org a year ago from Exchange Online after a lot of research and trying several other providers. It's not perfect but I think it's the best out there for any price, including the consideration they are based in the EU. I do wish they supported 2FA over IMAP/SMTP and CardDAV.
holstvoogd 6y ago
I use mailbox.org, pretty cheap, super focus on privacy, EU hosted etc. The web ui is a bit dated, but works fine
TnkBldr 6y ago
ProtonMail is very good.
gspr 6y ago
I'm happy with Mailbox [1]. Been around for a while. Cheap, but a clear business model. IMAP and SMTP (should be obvious, but apparently not anymore). Under German and EU jurisdiction. It works well with my own domain, but my understanding is that it's not great if you have a lot of users with email on that domain (you have to pay more). [1] https://mailbox.org/en/ https://mailbox.org/en/
linuxlizard 6y ago
Many years ago, someone asked this same question on HN and recommended runbox.com I started using them then and still subscribe. Good IMAP support. New web ui (v7) is quite nice but I still hit the older config pages. tl;dr. runbox.com
toomuchtodo 6y ago
FastMail
ulfw 6y ago
I'm on Exchange Online ($48/year) for Exchange push email to iPhone and iPads on my own domain - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/exchange/compare-microsoft-exchange-online-plans https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/exchange/compa...
- LUmBULtERA 6y ago
  Also a nice perk if you up to the $60/year "Microsoft 365 Business Basic" plan is 1 TB of OneDrive for Business storage (and a Teams license, if that's worth anything?).
zarkov99 6y ago
Fastmail is brilliant, better in every way than gmail. Great mobile versions, great web ui, super easy to import mail from gmail, super easy to setup local desktop clients to use it. I made the exact switch you are aiming for, for the same reasons, 6 months ago and I am very satisfied.
gmoore 6y ago
Protonmail - for sure
creyes 6y ago
I'm a big Hey fan. Have been using it since launch. The screener feature is great, and I like being able to organize my feeds. They've also done a good amount of iteration in the ~9 months I've had it so I'm hopeful for a consistent release of features. I do with it had better calendar integration, or maybe it's own calendar. I'm not sure, but that's the big thing that Gmail has that I really miss
kapep 6y ago
I switched to Posteo [1] and am very happy with them. 1€ per month, based in Germany (but you can choose from many country TLDs [2]) and they take privacy very serious. [1]: https://posteo.de/en/ https://posteo.de/en/ [2]: https://posteo.de/en/help/which-domains-are-available-to-use-as-a-posteo-alias-address https://posteo.de/en/help/which-domains-are-available-to-use...
- WillYouFinish 6y ago
  I've been a Posteo user for over 7 years now and I couldn't be happier. I also use it for calendar and contacts sync. It just works. But I doubt it is a Gmail replacement. It is a great email service provider though.
miles 6y ago
They've definitely gone downhill since their peak, but Rackspace still has decent, US-based phone support. Called about a sub-account user who had had their mailbox frozen; re-enabling the account via the control panel was of course no problem, but the cool part was this: the support rep was able to find and confirm the source of the problem (a group message which had been flagged as spam by some number of recipients). I haven't seen many other email hosts that can provide this level of detail.
allthecybers 6y ago
Hey.com - blocks trackers, good modern web apps and mobile apps. Brought to you by the team behind Basecamp. I’ve used it since early access was available and have completely switched over.
gtf21 6y ago
I looked at Fastmail and many others when I made this switch at the end of 2018. I moved my whole family's email setup from google. Fastmail is based in Australia, which is a five-eyes country so I ruled it out (sadly, as would have loved to use it). I wrote all of this up here: https://www.gtf.io/musings/moving-away-from-google-email/ https://www.gtf.io/musings/moving-away-from-google-email/ Spoiler: ended up using Runbox (www.runbox.com). I disagree with them on this but I think the webmail UI is pretty crap. I don't use it though, and instead use neomutt (on Linux) and Apple Mail (on iOS). I've found it to be pretty reliable and the support is very responsive.
- ireland352 6y ago
  Runbox user as well. Their support is quite responsive and helpful when needing to troubleshoot. Security is great, number of alias available for the price can't be beat. I agree the UI is terrible in the browser, even their latest "Runbox 7" is slow and sluggish.
patel011393 6y ago
Hey.com for personal + work email and ProtonMail for secure personal mail.
bsg75 6y ago
Fastmail: Supports domains Good UI, web and mobile app Support for multiple other providers to federate into one system Calendar, notes, files
stanski 6y ago
I use Zoho Mail. They're not super popular but everything has been up to my expectations. I also use their Invoice product for time tracking and invoicing.
- _huayra_ 6y ago
  Wow they seem to be a super deal for features (e.g. multiple domains, multiple aliases, decent storage) for <1 EUR/ month. I guess some folks group this into "big corp" email perhaps compared to the smaller providers, but I think if one just wants to not give google the ability to end your online life at its whim Zoho could be a good option.
frettchen 6y ago
I've been using Mailfance (https://mailfence.com/ https://mailfence.com/) for around two years now and been very happy with them - the interface isn't the most beautiful thing ever, but it is simple to use and it works, and the pricing is reasonable (from free to 25,00€ a month depending on storage space needed). I use my own domain and I do still have a separate Gmail account that I mostly use for newsletters, promotions, coupons, and other "semi-wanted spam" to keep things clean in my inbox. Mailfence is in Belgium, so they're outside of the main Five Eyes but are still in a cooperating area and part of the Fourteen Eyes, which may matter depending on your precise personal privacy/risk levels, but for general personal privacy it's plenty for my use case.
joyed 6y ago
https://mailbox.org/en/ https://mailbox.org/en/ Helpful support, secure, privacy oriented.
antisthenes 6y ago
Personally using https://soverin.net/ https://soverin.net/ atm. No idea if it's better than any of the other alternatives. I also still have my Gmail account, as it would take way too much effort to change emails on all the websites I use.
mbirth 6y ago
Since this is HN, why not get some cheap managed server with email service? E.g. I'm using uberspace.de (shared server available for as low as 1€/month) and they run qmail. Big advantage: You can setup as many aliases as you like (one for each site you've signed up to) and also install whatever web frontend you like (Roundcube, Nextcloud, etc.). And you can keep as many mails and as long as you like (and pay storage for). You'll need to read a bit into qmail rules, though.
LaSombra 6y ago
I’m very happy with mailbox.org
djaahk 6y ago
ProtonMail [1] Plus user for the past 4 years now with my own domain. They've since added the VPN, which I find excellent and use all the time. They have most recently added ProtonCalendar and ProtonDrive [2], which were the features I was missing the most. Thus, I moved everything over and pay for the bundle of all products which comes at just under EUR 8.00 a month (Mail, VPN, Calendar and Drive). As mentioned by others, the webmail and UI of all 4 products is minimalist, but it is snappy and pleasing (to my taste, at least). The mobile apps on both iPhone and Android work very well, just missing threaded messages on the Android one. Finally, of course, end-to-end encryption, hosted in Switzerland and abiding by stringent national privacy laws [3] and out of the US, 5 eyes network as well as EU realms. [1] https://protonmail.com/ https://protonmail.com/ [2] I believe they're still in Beta [3] https://protonmail.com/security-details https://protonmail.com/security-details
sparrc 6y ago
I use AWS Workmail. If you have a personal aws account then it's very easy to setup. The web UI is pretty basic but I just use Apple calendar and Spark for email anyways so it doesn't matter to me. It's $4/month and you can very easily bring any domain you have registered in route53. They also let you create as many aliases as you want. It also supports both the microsoft exchange protocol and plain SMTP.
xtiansimon 6y ago
If we’re just talking about email, why not just sign up with an isp and use Horde or Squirrel web access? Because Gmail has better spam filtering?
eecks 6y ago
I use Hey. I plan to renew with them next year too. I switched to Hey when email had become unmanageable for me using Gmail. I also wanted to move away from Google.

50 points by smaps 6y ago

I’ve been getting on the privacy and anti-tracking bandwagon big time recently and am looking to replace gmail. What are good email services that allow you to use your own domain name?

gsimons88 6y ago

Ha, I was just like you, just recently starting to look away from GMail, though mostly because of all the incessant and obtrusive ads. I am using protonmail now, which has the option for a bunch of aliases that I really like, the web interface works fine though it's missing bells and whistles - I do miss the smart grouping of GMail! - and you get to use custom domains. It also provides encryption and you can even get VPN to go with it. Here's all the options you get per tier: https://protonmail.com/pricing https://protonmail.com/pricing Still an early user, but so far quite happy with it!

jborak 6y ago

I use ProtonMail and overall it works pretty good and the value is great. The product is focused on security first so I think user experience suffers a bit. It's works fine but if you previously used a mail client like Spark on your phone you'll definitely miss it. The mobile app is okay, it's good enough for reading and sending short replies. The web interface is alright. I like to use the bridge application from ProtonMail on my desktop and use a mail client like Thunderbird or Apple Mail.

markjgx 6y ago
I like protonmail and consider it mostly a suitable replacement to gmail. I say mostly because some websites don't accept emails with the protonmail domain. Weird huh. My understanding is that protonmail might of been used by some bad actors and it's been labelled as the bad people email. https://community.netlify.com/t/email-domain-protonmail-com-is-not-supported/18389 https://community.netlify.com/t/email-domain-protonmail-com-...
- dharmab 6y ago
  The solution for that would be to bring your own domain name: https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/custom-domain-support/ https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/custom-domain-...
jidiculous 6y ago
I just wish it had a feature to nest folders :(

smt88 6y ago

There's no great way to know that your emails are private when they're hosted by a SaaS email provider. It's easy to get around third-party audits if you want to. The most private solution by far is to self-host, but that's also very challenging these days. And any email you send to a non-private service (Gmail, Yahoo, anyone's work account) is instantly going to be just as insecure as if you yourself used that other person's service. What I'm getting at is that email is inherently a not-very-private communication method and you should try to avoid it. The amount of time required to make it more private is not going to have much benefit for most people (whose contacts will be using Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.) You also can't easily or meaningfully get E2E encryption with email, so there's a lot of surface area to lose your privacy.

specialp 6y ago
The thing about self hosting too is that you then own your identity. I have had my own domain and email for 20 years now while many "free" email services have gone away or merged. The problem as you say with difficulty is that due to the centralization of email providers, it is hard to get your outgoing mail accepted everywhere. I now have no problems but it took a while. The worst were Yahoo and Verizon straight up denying my email as spam despite having DKIM/SPF/DMARC set up perfectly. These things too there are subtle problems that can make them invalid such as hostname differences.
- smt88 6y ago
  > The thing about self hosting too is that you then own your identity. You can do this without self-hosting, though. As long as you control the domain and MX records, you can just switch providers when you need to. A lot of people are now doing the "your domain + Fastmail" approach, for example (or at least they were before Australia's government went completely insane).
- TheMog 6y ago
  I've also been self hosting since the last century, and as you point out, the big issue these days is making your email server play with all the other email services, including those that aren't always playing nicely. Not to mention that not all hosters are too keen on having people run mail servers due to the danger of hosting spammers and getting blacklisted. With the last two or three hosters, I had to jump through a couple of hoops every time and get permission to run one. I still think it's worth it, especially if you own a bunch of domains, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to someone starting from scratch these days.

anuragsoni 6y ago

I've been using Fastmail [1] for around five years now. I've been pretty happy with their service and I use it with my own domain name. I find the pricing to be reasonable, and their webmail interface is really fast, and I've found their spam detection to be really good. [1] https://www.fastmail.com/ https://www.fastmail.com/

apazzolini 6y ago
Fastmail's web UI is incredibly good. I've also been using it for several years on my custom domain and have zero complaints. The migration process was pretty painless. I did a one time import of my historical mail from gmail and then set up an autoforwarder --> specific fastmail folder that I look at from time to time and either unsubscribe from whatever sent an email there or update the address as appropriate.
- notacoward 6y ago
  Cosigned. I just leave a tab open, don't need an app except for my phone, and I've never been anything but satisfied with the experience. Since 2011, according to my archives.
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    Agreed. Their UI is the fastest web app I've ever used, bar none.
lukeqsee 6y ago
Came here to say this. Fastmail is rock-solid, well-priced, and has basically every feature I find important for business or personal email. Been with them for years and never regretted it!
frakt0x90 6y ago
Nothing of value to add to this convo but I de-googlified 2 years ago and chose fastmail since it's cheap and extremely easy to convert to. I've also had 0 complaints.

diehunde 6y ago

Another happy ProtonMail user here. I've been using it for about 2 years now. You can also import you Gmail content to your proton account if you want. Their VPN also works really well.

emehex 6y ago

I've been using https://hey.com/ https://hey.com/ for the past 6 months. Big fan!

uniqueid 6y ago

I'm happy with Fastmail. It's certainly more pleasant to use than Gmail ever was. I miss nothing, but absolutely nothing, about Gmail.

papaf 6y ago

I am a happy user of startmail: https://www.startmail.com/en/#pricing https://www.startmail.com/en/#pricing

ConfusedDog 6y ago
What's your experience with it? I haven't found any particular reason to switch from fastmail. The price is pretty much the same.

muttantt 6y ago

Fastmail is the best out there

waynesonfire 6y ago

don't underestimate the importance of the calendar.

shafyy 6y ago

I use Fastmail (for work) and Hey and ProtonMail for my private mail. I pay for Fastmail and Hey (free plan on ProtonMail). If I would pick one I would go with Hey, since I really love their Screener feature which helped me reduce a lot of noise. When they launch Hey for Work we'll probably switch from Fastmail (not that anythig is wrong with it).

InternetCTO 6y ago
I like fastmail because they have the shortest address I could find. My email address is xxx.mm.st

justusthane 6y ago

Fastmail. If it’s helpful, I wrote a short guide to switching off of gmail here: https://www.justus.ws/tech/how-to-ditch-gmail/ https://www.justus.ws/tech/how-to-ditch-gmail/

Eddy_Viscosity2 6y ago

Protonmail for me. Using it over a year now and no complaints.

actuator 6y ago

Google Apps version of Gmail or the Microsoft equivalent? You can use your own domain and I don't think data there is used for ads. I am really scared to put my trust in a small provider from a data security and availability view. Security is really really hard and emails are a critical part of your online and offline identity. YMMV

MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
I think too many people get up in arms about privacy but when push comes to shove, these smaller people will most likely cave to governments. I think HN just dislikes the idea of google maintaining a service.
- actuator 6y ago
  As much as I would want small players to succeed. Email is one of the spaces where it just doesn't make much sense to trust the small guy.

ravenstine 6y ago

I pay for ProtonMail and really enjoy it, but you have to appreciate a certain level of minimalism. It's obviously not going to have some of the bells and whistles of Gmail. Personally, I don't like those bells and whistles anyway.

eurasiantiger 6y ago

Be mindful of the fact that any service recommended here is likely going to be ”unofficially pentested” for a while.

busterarm 6y ago

Migadu. https://drewdevault.com/2020/06/19/Mail-service-provider-recommendations.html https://drewdevault.com/2020/06/19/Mail-service-provider-rec...

dschuler 6y ago
I can’t recommend Migadu. I used them for a year, and I spent many hours dealing with delivery issues and somewhat frequent unannounced outages/upgrades which go unreported. Spam filtering is generally broken and ignores whitelists. They tend to respond to about 50% of support emails, the last one being rather petty when I left the service. I should have seen the yearly plan fee as a sunk cost and moved on sooner. Hope this helps someone else.
- busterarm 6y ago
  If you're going with a smaller email provider, you kind of have to know what you're getting. Keep in mind that several large email providers blacklist competitors by default and _literally charge an extortion fee_ to get off the blacklist. Migadu's issue is that they refuse to pay it.
amanzi 6y ago
I can recommend Migadu too. They are great value - especially if you have lots of low traffic domains and email addresses.
tweetle_beetle 6y ago
I really wish Migadu had a very basic standards compliant contacts and calendar system to make it easier to switch away from the big suppliers. I respect the absolute focus on email, but unfortunately there is no equivalent style of provider for these services. There are some providers but they're expensive.
- busterarm 6y ago
  They've offered CalDAV and CardAV since June, they just don't advertise it particularly well. Check the Thunderbird documentation. Oh and it's in Beta. It's just much easier for me to host that myself, as opposed to email, so I do.

qznc 6y ago

http://mailbox.org http://mailbox.org I'm on their cheapest 1€/month plan for three years and happy.

fileeditview 6y ago
I also use them. Their web client is not the prettiest/greatest but it is OK and I mostly use Thunderbird anyways.
akvadrako 6y ago
I moved to mailbox.org a year ago from Exchange Online after a lot of research and trying several other providers. It's not perfect but I think it's the best out there for any price, including the consideration they are based in the EU. I do wish they supported 2FA over IMAP/SMTP and CardDAV.

holstvoogd 6y ago

I use mailbox.org, pretty cheap, super focus on privacy, EU hosted etc. The web ui is a bit dated, but works fine

TnkBldr 6y ago

ProtonMail is very good.

gspr 6y ago

I'm happy with Mailbox [1]. Been around for a while. Cheap, but a clear business model. IMAP and SMTP (should be obvious, but apparently not anymore). Under German and EU jurisdiction. It works well with my own domain, but my understanding is that it's not great if you have a lot of users with email on that domain (you have to pay more). [1] https://mailbox.org/en/ https://mailbox.org/en/

linuxlizard 6y ago

Many years ago, someone asked this same question on HN and recommended runbox.com I started using them then and still subscribe. Good IMAP support. New web ui (v7) is quite nice but I still hit the older config pages. tl;dr. runbox.com

toomuchtodo 6y ago

FastMail

ulfw 6y ago

I'm on Exchange Online ($48/year) for Exchange push email to iPhone and iPads on my own domain - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/exchange/compare-microsoft-exchange-online-plans https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/exchange/compa...

LUmBULtERA 6y ago
Also a nice perk if you up to the $60/year "Microsoft 365 Business Basic" plan is 1 TB of OneDrive for Business storage (and a Teams license, if that's worth anything?).

zarkov99 6y ago

Fastmail is brilliant, better in every way than gmail. Great mobile versions, great web ui, super easy to import mail from gmail, super easy to setup local desktop clients to use it. I made the exact switch you are aiming for, for the same reasons, 6 months ago and I am very satisfied.

gmoore 6y ago

Protonmail - for sure

creyes 6y ago

I'm a big Hey fan. Have been using it since launch. The screener feature is great, and I like being able to organize my feeds. They've also done a good amount of iteration in the ~9 months I've had it so I'm hopeful for a consistent release of features. I do with it had better calendar integration, or maybe it's own calendar. I'm not sure, but that's the big thing that Gmail has that I really miss

kapep 6y ago

I switched to Posteo [1] and am very happy with them. 1€ per month, based in Germany (but you can choose from many country TLDs [2]) and they take privacy very serious. [1]: https://posteo.de/en/ https://posteo.de/en/ [2]: https://posteo.de/en/help/which-domains-are-available-to-use-as-a-posteo-alias-address https://posteo.de/en/help/which-domains-are-available-to-use...

WillYouFinish 6y ago
I've been a Posteo user for over 7 years now and I couldn't be happier. I also use it for calendar and contacts sync. It just works. But I doubt it is a Gmail replacement. It is a great email service provider though.

miles 6y ago

They've definitely gone downhill since their peak, but Rackspace still has decent, US-based phone support. Called about a sub-account user who had had their mailbox frozen; re-enabling the account via the control panel was of course no problem, but the cool part was this: the support rep was able to find and confirm the source of the problem (a group message which had been flagged as spam by some number of recipients). I haven't seen many other email hosts that can provide this level of detail.

allthecybers 6y ago

Hey.com - blocks trackers, good modern web apps and mobile apps. Brought to you by the team behind Basecamp. I’ve used it since early access was available and have completely switched over.

gtf21 6y ago

I looked at Fastmail and many others when I made this switch at the end of 2018. I moved my whole family's email setup from google. Fastmail is based in Australia, which is a five-eyes country so I ruled it out (sadly, as would have loved to use it). I wrote all of this up here: https://www.gtf.io/musings/moving-away-from-google-email/ https://www.gtf.io/musings/moving-away-from-google-email/ Spoiler: ended up using Runbox (www.runbox.com). I disagree with them on this but I think the webmail UI is pretty crap. I don't use it though, and instead use neomutt (on Linux) and Apple Mail (on iOS). I've found it to be pretty reliable and the support is very responsive.

ireland352 6y ago
Runbox user as well. Their support is quite responsive and helpful when needing to troubleshoot. Security is great, number of alias available for the price can't be beat. I agree the UI is terrible in the browser, even their latest "Runbox 7" is slow and sluggish.

patel011393 6y ago

Hey.com for personal + work email and ProtonMail for secure personal mail.

bsg75 6y ago

Fastmail: Supports domains Good UI, web and mobile app Support for multiple other providers to federate into one system Calendar, notes, files

stanski 6y ago

I use Zoho Mail. They're not super popular but everything has been up to my expectations. I also use their Invoice product for time tracking and invoicing.

_huayra_ 6y ago
Wow they seem to be a super deal for features (e.g. multiple domains, multiple aliases, decent storage) for <1 EUR/ month. I guess some folks group this into "big corp" email perhaps compared to the smaller providers, but I think if one just wants to not give google the ability to end your online life at its whim Zoho could be a good option.

frettchen 6y ago

I've been using Mailfance (https://mailfence.com/ https://mailfence.com/) for around two years now and been very happy with them - the interface isn't the most beautiful thing ever, but it is simple to use and it works, and the pricing is reasonable (from free to 25,00€ a month depending on storage space needed). I use my own domain and I do still have a separate Gmail account that I mostly use for newsletters, promotions, coupons, and other "semi-wanted spam" to keep things clean in my inbox. Mailfence is in Belgium, so they're outside of the main Five Eyes but are still in a cooperating area and part of the Fourteen Eyes, which may matter depending on your precise personal privacy/risk levels, but for general personal privacy it's plenty for my use case.

joyed 6y ago

https://mailbox.org/en/ https://mailbox.org/en/ Helpful support, secure, privacy oriented.

antisthenes 6y ago

Personally using https://soverin.net/ https://soverin.net/ atm. No idea if it's better than any of the other alternatives. I also still have my Gmail account, as it would take way too much effort to change emails on all the websites I use.

mbirth 6y ago

Since this is HN, why not get some cheap managed server with email service? E.g. I'm using uberspace.de (shared server available for as low as 1€/month) and they run qmail. Big advantage: You can setup as many aliases as you like (one for each site you've signed up to) and also install whatever web frontend you like (Roundcube, Nextcloud, etc.). And you can keep as many mails and as long as you like (and pay storage for). You'll need to read a bit into qmail rules, though.

LaSombra 6y ago

I’m very happy with mailbox.org

djaahk 6y ago

ProtonMail [1] Plus user for the past 4 years now with my own domain. They've since added the VPN, which I find excellent and use all the time. They have most recently added ProtonCalendar and ProtonDrive [2], which were the features I was missing the most. Thus, I moved everything over and pay for the bundle of all products which comes at just under EUR 8.00 a month (Mail, VPN, Calendar and Drive). As mentioned by others, the webmail and UI of all 4 products is minimalist, but it is snappy and pleasing (to my taste, at least). The mobile apps on both iPhone and Android work very well, just missing threaded messages on the Android one. Finally, of course, end-to-end encryption, hosted in Switzerland and abiding by stringent national privacy laws [3] and out of the US, 5 eyes network as well as EU realms. [1] https://protonmail.com/ https://protonmail.com/ [2] I believe they're still in Beta [3] https://protonmail.com/security-details https://protonmail.com/security-details

sparrc 6y ago

I use AWS Workmail. If you have a personal aws account then it's very easy to setup. The web UI is pretty basic but I just use Apple calendar and Spark for email anyways so it doesn't matter to me. It's $4/month and you can very easily bring any domain you have registered in route53. They also let you create as many aliases as you want. It also supports both the microsoft exchange protocol and plain SMTP.

xtiansimon 6y ago

If we’re just talking about email, why not just sign up with an isp and use Horde or Squirrel web access? Because Gmail has better spam filtering?

eecks 6y ago

I use Hey. I plan to renew with them next year too. I switched to Hey when email had become unmanageable for me using Gmail. I also wanted to move away from Google.