There have also been many other issues and reasons to leave gmail, including a hardly-usable mobile interface, continuously locking you out of your own account due to false alarms like trying to log in from a coffee shop or a friend’s house (since they immorally have been tracking your logins through IP geolocation and other unwanted tracking mechanisms), and worse, not letting you restore your own account despite knowing all your own information and even inputting a valid verification code.
I just got locked out of two of my primary gmail accounts today, and I did not log in through a new location. This is the second time in a matter of months that I have been locked out of both of these accounts – the other time I was locked out of them for a full month when I tried to access my accounts when I was traveling, because even though I received the verification email and input the correct verification code, it failed saying, “Unfortunately, based on the information you provided, we were unable to verify that you own the account.”
Oh yeah? So your own verification code wasn’t right, Google? Then why did you even bother to send it to me? Obviously, the verification code system with Google is simply broken, because the same thing happened with both accounts today, it sent me the verification code, I received it, I input it, and then it gave me the same error.
I am really fed up with gmail, and over the last couple years I have done a lot of research on gmail alternatives. The only reason I haven’t switched is because it is going to be a massive hassle – I manage many email accounts and it is a complicated setup that will take days to configure across all my accounts.
Additionally, I haven’t found a good free email provider that has some of the required features I want. This includes: dark theme (mandatory for me), delayed message sending (gets a whole lot of use from me – it is a gmail “labs” feature), pop3/imap support (yahoo does not have this in the free version), and html signatures that I can save different signatures for different “send from” emails.
Nonetheless, gmail won’t be able to hold me for much longer, and sooner or later I’m going to get so fed up I would rather compromise some of those features than have to use gmail anymore. So here is my top 4 list that is the result of many months of research and trial and error. I started out as a top ten list, but decided to make it a top 4 list because there are very few really good email providers out there worth using. However, I listed the other ones and some other alternatives after the list.
4 Zohomail
More info: I found the user interface to be clunky, but it is very easy to set up, and is a viable alternative to gmail. They make it very easy to set up an account, and you can even set up your account by logging into your gmail account. Ironic, I know.
It has withstood years of testing and still gets good reviews. It is worth checking out to see if you like it. It is not as privacy-focused as the others; however, I do think it's secure, and certainly a more secure option than gmail.
Visit them: zoho.com/mail
3 Tutanota
More info: Tutanota is another privacy browser. The user interface is very basic, and the features are limited. For example, there is not even any IMAP or POP3 support. I would like to see them update their UI and also add in a dark theme and expand their feature set. However, I do like that they are privacy focused. They support end-to-end email encryption, and also have a free mobile app for Android and iOS.
They started to gain recognition when Protonmail was still limiting accounts and people were looking for a good privacy browser. You can think of Tutanota as kind of a barebones privacy email. Worth checking out.
Wander over: tutanota.com
2 Yandex Mail
More info: Yandex comes out of Russia, and we know Russia is big about privacy. Since it comes from the Google competitor in Russia, the Yandex search engine, which is the biggest search engine in Russia, then you can be sure that this email provider isn't going anywhere. It also means that funding and support for Yandex will be able to hold up as more and more Americans and Europeans begin trying out Yandex.
If Yandex continues to improve their mail service, they can become a serious contendor as a gmail alternative. Additionally, they now have a Yandex.com domain (as to the formerly Yandex.ru), which really opens them up to the world, since not too many people can read Cyrillic (Russian letters are called Cyrillic). Better yet, they have a dark theme! The feature set is limited, but they do offer 10GB of storage. I hope they continue expanding their features!
Take a look: mail.yandex.com
1 Protonmail
More info: Protonmail started out of Switzerland as a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo (it's like Kickstarter), with the idea that they could make a truly private email client that was also flexible and easy to use. The Protonmail campaign raised half a million dollars, making it one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns ever.
I was in at the beginning, and have used it on and off ever since. It is certainly reliable and stable, the only trouble was that because it was so popular, and totally free, they had limited signups. Now, however, you should be able to sign up for a Protonmail account, as they have now fully opened it up to the public.
Some of their great features include a double password system for security - a login password and mailbox password, end-to-end email encryption, and a free mobile app. Some downsides are that the free version of Protonmail has limited storage (500MB) and limited number of emails you can send per day (150). However, even as a second provider, Protonmail is worth using for more important emails.
Check them out: protonmail.com
The only problem with a self-hosted solution is that not only is it notoriously difficult to manage for non-tech people, but also the interfaces of Roundcube and Squirrelmail lag far behind modern webmail clients. At least Roundcube has a decent web interface design. Squirrelmail’s interface looks like it is from 1990. This is a limitation with cPanel, and the absolute only reason I personally don’t use cPanel as a webmail solution.
There are also other self-hosted email software out there that you can actually install on your server; however, I highly recommend against this because it is really too difficult to do without constantly worrying about hackers using your server to send spam. It is more trouble than it’s worth, trust me.
Also, any of these self-hosted 3rd-party mail software worth using costs money – a lot of it. You might as well take that same money to pay for something like StartMail; at least then you would not have to deal with the splitting headache of managing a self-hosted email server and the constant privacy worries and hacker concerns. Instead, I strongly recommend only to use one of the three email software that ships with cPanel, if you do go the self-hosted route.
The third webmail that I didn’t mention that ships with cPanel is Horde; however, I didn’t mention it because I don’t recommend it; in fact, if you are a webmail administrator then I recommend to actually disable Horde in WHM to deter spammers. This might change in the future though because the last I checked, Horde has been redoing their software and this might improve in the future. Let’s give it some time though.
If cPanel ever does bring in a truly modern webmail client; or if one of the three it ships with decides to revolutionize their UI and cPanel supports the upgrade, then it will revolutionize the world of email, because it will allow anyone with a web hosting account and a domain name to have maximum email privacy by self-hosting their email. I am looking forward to that day!
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Source: http://docphy.com/technology/computers/software/top-4-free-email-alternatives-gmail-protect-privacy-best-gmail-alternatives-2016.html
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