Best Alternative to Gmail with Great UX?

Other
#1

Just got a nice dose of realism from watching The Social Dilemma, and I’m feeling it would be a great idea to end my relationship with Gmail to switch to a platform that is not collecting my information…

In the past, I had signed up for and tested a few different platforms, but none felt as natural and usable as Gmail as far as the convenience is concerned.

Some of my favorite features that keep stuck with Gmail for the extreme, life-changing convenience over other platforms include:

  • Unsubscribe feature (they have this on Gmail app, so useful!)
  • Sorting and labeling
  • Pre-written, predictive responses (“Thanks, I’ll check it out!” is one of my favorites, haha)
  • Syncing large files with a cloud / integrating with a Drive
  • Ability to handle attachments without running out of space
  • Smooth and thoughtful user experience (not “jerky”, like being able to drag things around and see it moving vs. a status checkbox to click makes it feel much more “usable”… whereas the other way feels like a prison, and it’s more common among less-developed platforms with less money to spend on thinking about / shaping UX)

But what I really feel a need for in addition to all of this is also:

  • Ethical tech / privacy values / human-centered and humane, not business-centered with ads
    …which I don’t see Gmail doing anytime soon.

As far as I know, there isn’t a platform that exists other than Gmail that has anything near these features… but would love to hear what you all are using outside of Gmail if you value a smooth UX and privacy?

(Also, Mudita, consider this a call for my wishlist for a future email platform :grin:)

5 Likes
#2

I use Protonmail. It doesn’t have all of the features, but most of them are there plus some encryption :slight_smile:

4 Likes
#3

I only have a google account due to the smart tv. I use Apple e-mail. Since Apple is starting with 5G and a strange marketing strategy for their phones (audio jack, and portless for the next phones), I’m looking for other alternatives. I don’t want to be arrest in an ecosystem. The big challenge will be read iBooks on other system, since I’m limited to read them on iBooks…

ProtonMail is a good one yes. I have an account there but I don’t use too much.

3 Likes
#4

I use ProtonMail, it’s a very good service.
Tutanota, Hey and Posteo and are also great alternatives you can check out.

3 Likes
#5

I moved to Tutanota. So far so good.

3 Likes
#6

@moon9river , There are a few suggestions that come to mind in terms of balance and great user experience. I suggest investigating all of them to which one may grab you. Some do integrate cloud storage in various ways. be sure to check.
These make migration very easy, ease of use, nice UI and plenty of features.
Fastmail - https://www.fastmail.com/ Features - fastmail(dot)com/features/
Compare to Gmail - https://www.fastmail.com/gmail-alternative/
Soverin(dot)net
Mailo(dot)com
Mirgration for these take a little effort but maybe worth it,
Mailbox(dot) org
Mailfence(dot).com Features (click on link and scroll down to see)
Startmail(dot)com

3 Likes
#7

Hi there! How would you say your experience with tutanota has been thus far? I’m currently looking to remove my gmail account as well, and am looking into some of the email options others have posted on here.

2 Likes
#8

It has been great for me!

3 Likes
#9

I’ve been using Tutanota for nearly a year now and find their apps pretty good. Some features are lacking for me though, notably:

  1. Offline access to my messages. This became a problem while Tutanota was the victim of cyberattack, during which noone had access to their emails…
  2. Being able to give email addresses for my custom domain (person2@myfamily.email) without having potential access to their inbox.
  3. Support for encryption protocols that other people may use (you cannot send encrypted emails to Protonmail for example, but they offer a secret-message-fetch-service with notification by e-mail to the intended recipient)

Offline access to the emails is apparently highest priority since those cyberattacks, the rest seems unlikely to ever change.

2 Likes
#10

I use Mailfence for business purposes, it has everything I need like calendars, docs. contacts etc. Offers encryption and it has a very simple design give it a try. Support is also very helpful :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#11

As I said, so far so good. I remember it being offline for an hour or so at some point but that was about it. If you check Tutanota’s forum on reddit for example it gives you the impression that the service is not good, but that’s not my experience at all.

3 Likes
#12

The best Gmail alternative is Outlook. We can use the outlook for our day-to-day office usage. I use Mailfence for commercial enterprise purposes, it has the whole thing I want like calendars, docs. contacts etc. Offers encryption and it has a completely easy layout provide it a try. Support is likewise very helpful

UI and UX design course in Pune

2 Likes
#13

I’ve tried alternatives to Gmail, but for me using Gmail in my Mail App (Windows) rather than another email provider seems to be the solution that has helped me be more intentional with my emails.

1 Like
#14

Vivaldi webmail is quite good. I also really like some of the smaller federated services such as Disroot. My Disroot account provides e-mail, “cloud” storage, a SearX instance, and so on - so if you want a drop-in ethical replacement for Google, they could be a good option. I find their webmail interface a little faster and easier than Google’s.

A lot of the features you specify are not unique to Google. You can file your messages away in folders, in most mail services. That’s largely what Google’s “labels” really are. There are other “cloud” storage providers. Disroot provide a Nextcloud instance and also a temporary file upload service for sending large files to other people. On that note, even if GMail lets you add a massive file to a message, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the recipient’s mailserver will accept it. So I’d say the ability to send large attachments isn’t an argument to stay with GMail. When sending large attachments it is better to use a temporary upload service, or grant access to your Nextcloud/Dropbox/whatever storage.

1 Like
#15

Thank you for sharing. Zoho Mail is another option you can consider if you’re looking for a Gmail. What makes Zoho Mail a seductive choice is that it offers an announcement-free experience indeed for free druggies. You also get 5 GB of storehouse in the free league, along with access to Zoho’s different plant apps.
UI UX Design Training in Pune.

#16

I am tempted by ProtonMail. However, I’ve had the same email for 15 years now (Gmail), and it would be a big disruption to change it. So if I am going to change it, I am only going to do so once.
ProtonMail has gotten WAY better in recent months, and I don’t think there’s anything I would miss from Google. However, I am wondering if it is worth waiting for the Mudita Space email app? Does anyone know how far away the Beta version is? I have access to the beta storage in Mudita Space, but don’t have much need for it now. Email & calendar would be way more useful, especially if it has similar privacy features to PortonMail, which it sounds like it will. Thoughts?

1 Like
#17

Here’s my gripe with ProtonMail. I’ve noticed that it doesn’t play well with GMAIL. Over the last 3 months, I’ve noticed that emails sent from proton mail routinely end up in my spam folder. The person could be on my contact list, but the message will still end up in SPAM. Anyone else have this issue?

#18

@urszula I do not (yet) have a Protonmail account, but am not surprised at this behaviour from Google, as I experience the same issue from both Microsoft and Google regarding my main two accounts.

I think Microsoft and Google intentionally block smaller mail providers on the flimsy excuse that “…they could be used by spammers” or “they don’t comply with our ‘security’ policy regarding x…”.

Microsoft (Outlook/Hotmail) was intentionally and indefensibly blocking Disroot for a while, for arbitrary and inexplicable reasons. Mails from my Vivaldi account rarely get delivered without issue to GMail or Hotmail/Outlook users. Sometimes, the first message will arrive, but the subsequent conversation will either be silently dropped or end up in the SPAM folder. Sometimes, not even the first message arrives.

The excuse is to do with ‘reputation’, ‘risk of spam’ or not complying with some arbitrary policy that Google or Microsoft has, but I’m confident that the real reason is to keep people hooked in their toxic ecosystems by making the alternatives look unreliable or ineffective.

2 Likes
#19

This is what I noticed with ProtonMail. The first message arrives, we begin a conversation & then POW, I feel like I’ve been ghosted, until I look in my spam folder.