What's a good alternative to Gmail?

Trying to de-google and looking for an alternative to Gmail.

Don't mind if it's a paid service if it's robust.

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In no particular order: Fastmail, Proton, ~~Outlook~~, ~~iCloud~~, ~~Yahoo~~, Gandi (free if you buy a domain), I've heard Hey is ok, but haven't used it.
- Gandi is getting rid of free email with domains. Was using them for a few years. Seems they got a acquired. Dumb move since it made me transfer all my domains as a result.
  
  That's good to know, I don't think I've had any communication about this 😕
  
  Gandi's pricing is in line with what most other quality email hosting services charge. And it is a very good email service. I was also sad when they announced there were dropping the free email tier but after shopping around for an alternative service I'm forced to admit it's what the market charges for the kind of features they offer.
  It's true though that the pricing doesn't work for everybody. For example if you have multiple domains but very low overall email volume it's not going to make sense to pay $60/year/mailbox. In that case a service like Migadu is probably better suite because they let multiple domains/mailboxes share the same storage/email limits for a much lower cost.
  I also wish Gandi offered a lower cost tier but it's their decision what kind of email users they want to target.
- I've tried Hey, it's nice, but you're stuck with their workflow.
  I decided to reproduce their workflow inside of Fastmail. Worked well and now I adapted it for my needs. Something I couldn't have done with Hey.
  Even today, I'm exploring Proton and I'm finding that some basic features offered by Fastmail are not available in Proton. The idea of encrypted emails is nice, but I'm not sacrificing some features that I use.
  
  What features in Fastmail are you missing in Proton?
  
  Syncing of calendar and contacts with android
  Infinite alias with my own domain
  no spam and trash in all mail
  read/write sync with external calendar (google calendar for example)
  catch all sending email address
  There is another important feature too that I need, but I don't know if proton supports it. Fastmail currently manage the emails from 2 of my domains. I also supply an email address from one of those domains to each member of my family. I need to be able to forward every email received to a specific address to a Gmail address. The emails must skip my mailbox completely and not look as a simple forwarded email in their Gmail.
  
  I share my Google Calendar with my wife (also on Google). If I wanted to modify or even view her calendar, is that still possible?
  
  This is also what I do, I think it's impossible with Proton, though you can with Fastmail. This is the feature request for proton mail: https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/932842-proton-calendar/suggestions/42344065-read-write-sync-with-other-calendars-office365-g
  I'm currently still using Google calendar with Fastmail, I can edit in fastmail and everything is synced with Google calendar.
  I'm willing to stop using Google services, but I can't ask the same from others. This is why I still use google calendar and google photos. To share with my family.
  
  So from Fastmail you can see/modify the calendar in Google that's been shared with you?
  I'd like to be able to keep the shared calendar feature that I currently use in Google with my wife. It's so handy for organising things.
  
  Yes, you can sync the calendars from a google account, so you can see/modify all the calendars that you have on that google account. Fastmail becomes a client for google calendar. But you can also have your own personal calendars inside Fastmail, not synced with google calendar.
  
  Sad to hear that about Hey: that was how I felt about Basecamp. It's a shame they are repeating the same mistakes.
  I'm halfway between proton and fastmail, mostly because I like and trust protonvpn. It's tough to choose. For pure email, I'd pick fastmail.
  
  It's not a bad service, their workflow is restrictive, but I think it is a good workflow though. Their goal is to make their user change the way they approach emails.
  It's ambitious, but I won't blame them. It showed me a way to manage emails that I didn't know before though and I adapted it for my needs.

305 comments