If you’re like me, you’re really beginning to get fed up with Gmail. What was once the go-to email provider in the world, millions have been leaving as Google began violating users’ privacy, instituting draconian policies, removing all customer service support whatsoever, and altering the user interface in ways that millions of users protested. 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?
Email clients come in all shapes and sizes, but when it comes to the options available on the Mac, we feel that Airmail is the best email client for most people. ProtonVPN has hundreds of secure VPN servers all around the world, including several free VPN servers. This ensures that there is always a high bandwidth server nearby no matter where you are connecting from, providing a low latency VPN connection for best performance.
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. 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: 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: 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: 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: Now, keep in mind that unfortunately, none of these solutions are as powerful feature-wise as gmail.
Gmail simply wins hands-down when it comes to features, especially with Gmail Labs with features like delayed sending (including an “undo” sent mail up to a minute later), Canned Responses, and the Unread Messages browser tab icon. However, are all these cool gmail features really worth sacrificing your privacy, or having to deal with all the problems like getting locked out of your account every time you travel and total lack of customer service? For me, anyway, I’m beginning to get so fed up that I’m about willing to forego that, because it may in fact be less hassle to have to double-check my emails before I send rather than be able to read it afterward and undo if there was a typo; or have to copy and past a canned response from a text file rather than have a dropdown menu to do it. It might actually be less hassle to do that than to have to deal with gmail problems. Better yet, some of these email providers in the list have revolutionized email privacy, especially Protonmail, which is why I put it at number one on the list.
If you are really concerned about email privacy, you absolutely should not be using gmail! Instead, choose an email provider which emphasizes privacy. Email can never be 100% private (for reasons too long and complicated to fit in this post, but try ), but at least it can be way more secure than gmail. Then again, I have many accounts and a very complicated setup.
If you only have one gmail account and that’s all you use, then there is no reason for you not to switch today. After all, you can forward gmail to your new email address, so you always get any old emails from anyone who you forgot to send your new email address. Some of the other free alternatives include (many issues with receiving mail), (no IMAP or POP3), (major privacy concerns), Mail.com (a “1&1 Company”, and 1&1 is a terrible web host), or paid email providers such as. Self-Hosted Solutions Another viable alternative to gmail is self-hosted mail, such as or that is available through in many web hosts including. 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 and 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; 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; 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!
You can’t be serious advising Yandex for privacy. The Russian Internet is heavily monitored, and censored, by the state. They just banned Telegram, because the company would not allow them to read their users’ messages. Russian Internet services might be alternatives for users banned from Facebook or Twitter for political reasons. As a last resort. The Russian state is far more nosy into its Internet users than any of its Western counterparts, including the United States.
Russia has tried to ban VPNs, for God’s sake. Depends on who you want privacy from. If you live in Russia and are a Russian citizen, that might be another story.
But if you are from the U.S., chances are Russia doesn’t care what you have and they certainly aren’t going to be sharing your data with the United States government. It’s true that Russia censors its own news and such but that is to control the Russian media. It’s too bad CNN isn’t censored in America.
Russia has the right idea, of course, it can be abused. Anyway if you are from a country other than Russia you’re probably going to have a better chance of avoiding the U.S. Government from reading your stuff. Because Google shares 100% of your data with the government in your gmail account, you signed away all your rights just by using gmail. Because of the article and comments, I switched out of google search and am using StartPage. It is simple and the results are very similar to google, which is really important as they have the best intelligence. Another extremely important benefit is that conservative sites are visible, unlike google’s (what will it be next with google?
Hiding anti-establishment science and medicine?) Google is very creepy and I don’t use their email, and never sign in on my non-chrome browser, but still they know everything about me and you just from the searches and visits you make. Of course, gmail and yahoo et-al all read your private writings (breaking the 4th Amendment laws). If anybody wants to see what a provider knows about you-here is the link to a site where you can search AOL’s database of what they had on their customers in 2006. I’ve tried duck-duck-go, but sorry to say, the results are weak like bing.
I, too am searching for an email provider that does not spy and try to manipulate me like BIG BROTHER, and so far, a paid subscription is the only solution (if one wants some space IMAP, etc.) I think it is worth it, considering what malevolent mind-controllers we are up against. I would only sign-up for an EU company as they still value privacy. I have used mail.com and don’t find it has spam, but there is no free IMAP, and if Russia bothers you, well, it’s not for you. Speaking of which, after the new presidency, I am a lot more concerned about the internet monopolies abusing their search powers than the government. In all fairness and understanding of our times, the security departments of the state, should be able to invade someone’s privacy–IF there is justifiable cause, as in a terror cell.
I remember when google annihilated the various search engines and it concerned me and I remember where I was standing when I learned about it – it left that big of an impact on me. I never say, “google it,” because google is so invasive (I worked my career in various slots in IT). I do say, “Search it.” I use duckduckgo and google if I’m looking for something I want to be tracked. I want a different ISP if and when we move. That may land in whatever cable company is owned. If we stay here, my plan is to use a couple IDs on Charter aka Spectrum aka Comcast. They already have our phone number, so I’m okay with that.
I won’t use an ISP if they demand a phone # or worse. I may not have access to the internet at some point Stay away from anything related to google, folks.
They are the worst and the biggest privacy offenders. Yahoo became a joke but at least it enabled me to quickly find and identify who hacked my account and I got the guy responsible and killed his ratings (he was a car/motorcycle mover broker). Ugh, I loathe google and people don’t understand why still. If you need to download malware or virus protection, don’t use a third-party site because they will add invasiveness to the invasive product. Obviously stay away from Kaspersky. According to the Wikipedia article “Horde (software)”, there was a security problem because the open-source project’s server had been breached: “While preparing the last Horde 3 maintenance release in February 2012 the Horde developers discovered that hackers breached the security of the Horde FTP server and managed to place a backdoor into three of the distributed packages. The attack had taken place in November 2011 so that the modified packages were distributed over three months.
One of the tainted packages was picked up by the unstable branches of Debian and Ubuntu and were fixed immediately after the successful attack was disclosed. I can’t say if Horde is a good or bad software solution today, but since it is “groupware” and provides much more than just email services, it may be more than an individual user needs.
Hi, loved the conversation, and so many interesting comments to be read. I am user of Yandex mail almost from its beginning, full 18 years. Back then, I was living in Russia as an expat (European born) and for me Yandex was a perfect solution exactly because of what you said – they wont be likely to hand my mail over to anyone, let alone US.
For these 18 years, i never had any issues with spam, data leaking etc. And it was my goto mail for all the personal businesses, which didnt stop me from using other mail services as well, for other purposes. I will be looking into protonmail thanks to your article Thank you! Be forewarned: Yandex is a little more than phishing machine for acquiring information about you. I have never seen a service so nosy and insistent on invading my privacy – they even asked me for a drivers license, passport, or military ID. This happened after I refused to give them my telephone number. They had the nerve to ask me if the name I used to register was my real name – thank goodness it wasn’t.
Beware of this company – they are up to no good; they have all the accouterments and earmarks of an organization that is up to criminal or nefarious activities. Do not – I repeat: do not do business with them and certainly do not give them any of your personal information. Yandex is sneaky, and here’s how they work – it will begin with an incremental collection of information accompanied by the inconvenient “step” of filling out the difficult to read code in the box.then they ask you for another piece of private information. Don’t start down this path. It’s all very deliberate. When you write to them informing them of your difficulties – they intimate that you are the one who’s a crook and they need this information to protect themselves and their sacred and almighty “terms of service”.
Does this add insult to inconvenience, or what? I see a lot of positive reviews for this company – either Yandex is stacking the deck with reviews, or else there are an awful lot of naive people out there getting robbed (and they just don’t know it yet). Even if you have a secure browser, you can still download malware without your knowledge by just accessing a website (drive, click and download), many websites have malicious malware just waiting to be downloaded by someone passing. Never play these games like the money tree or chase the monkey they will download malicious malware onto your computer. Opening email attachments in a viewing pane can also download malicious code and malware. Anti virus software is NOT trustworthy. License software that you purchase sometimes comes with malware.
The tech companies are doing everything they can to gain control of your computer. There is no such thing as 100% secure when it comes to electronic devices. Most software applications are installed out of the box with default configuration settings, which open vulnerabilities, threats, threat agents and risk to your system. Patches fix one problem but open other vulnerabilities.
If you computer is not properly hardened the bad guys still have another avenue to get into your computer. Nothing can be trusted. Back in 2012 during research there were 740 fortune 1000 companies that were hacked, and two dozen government agencies- now why would this be true if these organizations are spending millions on securing their systems? Poor patching, misconfigured software, software flaws etc. Many software vendors develop poorly developed software products. Microsoft does not certify their products they let the public do it for them so that they dont have to spend the money. No one can be trusted, it is your responsibility to secure your own data!!
If you really want privacy when surfing the Internet use either TOR Browser and/or Startpage. ALL technology companies are in bed with the government to spy on you.
ISP are their front line soldiers for collecting data on you. If you use Windows and have auto updated turned on they are downloading spyware, trojans, backdoors, viruses, worms etc. Onto your computer without your knowledge. If you are using a third party firewall or virus checker they are they ones that are creating and releases the malware that affects your computer – think about it if there were no malware people wouldn’t need to buy their products. For ever one problem solved, they implant many more.
The intelligence agencies and law enforcement have full control of your computer, tablet, cell phone, and anything connected to the Internet including all email accounts – all they have to do is ask the ISP and access is granted. Everything that crosses the airwaves, and Internet is captured and stored and use to create a profile on every person on the planet. Now do you think your privacy is safe?
![Is Protonmail Best Secure Email For Mac? Is Protonmail Best Secure Email For Mac?](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125602309/331751004.png)
Not unless you create the technology yourself. Even if you unplug you computer from the Internet they can still gain access to your data.
It is better to go without then to be with if you are concern about your privacy – If you are using Youtube, Fakebook or FAKETwitter you are being censored. The Deep State is in control and we are their slaves!! Gmail, Google, Netscape, Mail, Twitter, Fakebook and others are all in bed with the Deep State and NWO – they are monitoring everything you do and say so that they can categorize you and one day they will use it to kill or in prison you. Encryption is s a total joke, vendors are required by law to create a backdoor and give access to the federal government so they can access your accounts – its NOT hacking, they cant hack so they need to private keys to gain access.
Nothing that is connected to the network (wireless, wired) is there for ONE PURPOSE and that is to monitor you! Jade Helm was an exercise conducted by the military to learn to control your thoughts and actions – they call it total domain.
If you want total privacy you have to cut off ALL technologies!!! Technologies are used to enslave you and your family. I hate to say it but they make you believe that the latest iPhone, Smart TV etc is the latest and greatest technology, but that is their scam to get you to buy it so that they can control you! Turning off these devices will not protect you. Buy a prepaid phone, replace ut every 6 months, get rid of the Smart TVs and go spend time with your family; dont call people talk in person; don’t use email for sensitive information; turn it all off and communicate using face-face means!! Electronics are our enemy not our friend. Anything that crosses the Internet is captured and stored in very large mainframes and computes.
Nothing is ever deleted, profiles are created on every human on the planet. How do think law enforcement can track down criminals in a matter of hours? License plated, driver licenses, VIN numbers, birth certificates etc are there to track and control us!
I know many of you dont want to hear this but it is the truth. Data is captured and stored on all of us from the hour we are born until the time we die. How this data is used or could be used by the elite might scare you even more if you only knew. The elite believe they own us! ///-( YES, You R so right my friend! We have been play’d from the 1st breathe till there is none left as we to. Elites, Religion, Monarchs, Governments, N.W.O., iLLUMiNATi, U.N.
VATICAN, all of us have been lied to from the Garden till now. No difference! Now we have become the sellouts we have no need for in all of Society as they had planed by giving of all of these New Improved Products of the Technological World, which leaves A.i.’s & it’s only a trickle of it all. When we part take, we allow!!!! We Sellout!!!!
Since i 1st fell down the Rabbit hole, from what I can make out of it all we been phish’d, pharm’d, become the perfect product of New Digital Malwear Spam Virus of Plague’s. By all we needlessly need, but have being programmed to receive & we accept. 2easy 2push a button or touch a screen 2 get results. Like nothing new under the Sun! Just look History is a lie!!!!
John, Thank you so much for writing this because, as you pointed out in one of the comments about our liberties, anyone who cares about our freedom and privacy should NEVER use Google!! Did you know that they said they want to be “the voice of God” over all of us? I wouldn’t really trust the Russian thing either though because even though they look like a liberty beacon of freedom compared to our tyranny, they still shouldn’t be trusted. Putin was KGB and still has ties to it.
True freedom is only in individual systems that work around the big govt thugs because none of them are ever out for the interest of the people. Be the RESISTANCE! God bless and thanks again. I’ll be dumping my gmail account right away so I sure appreciate your research on this topic. Hi Judy, it’s true, Russia is not perfect, in fact no big government is going to have freedoms. Sure, Russian email is probably less likely to read by U.S.
Officials, especially if you’re just a regular user (whereas every citizen in the U.S. Can have their gmail accounts read without a warrant for any reason whatsoever). However, it’s true it is not a perfect solution. The perfect solution is the self-hosted solution.
In fact I wrote another post about this detailing it quite well and it will be posted soon. There I explain how to really keep your email 100% (or at least 99%) private. Of course, no matter what you do, once an email is sent, it is most likely to be stored in the internet forever, accessible by someone. So the best thing to do is watch what you write. However, even if what you write is innocent, still you don’t want government officials and other strangers reading your personal mails, so it’s best to protect yourself. There is a search engine called StartPage that protects your searches as well as an email service StartMail.
I’m sure there are other free email accounts that protect your email from snooping eyes. I believe StartMail is one of the first to offer a paid version that will keep your emails private. I’m thinking of switching to them. Still deciding which way to go. The other is Protonmail, I understand it costs less than Startmail.
It is supposed to be the most secure email service in the world and its servers are in Switzerland. The other way I found was to do the encryption yourself using GPG tools. It allows you to encrypt your mail before you send it out along with a key so that someone could email you back an encrypted email. This method is free just download GPG tools.
I hope this information will be helpful in providing you some options to traditional free email services which will give you more privacy. You are on point in your posted comments here. Furthermore, to the concerned folks here, see: Echelon Project, Carnivore Project, Lantern Project, then Congressional internal scandal articles published/archived Jan 2000 and April 2000 Netscape.net (stealing emails off of satellites using pirated software by the “law makers” themselves), optical signal splitting of telephone/cell phone lines at AT&T in Oakland, California, anything of YOU and by YOU belongs to YOU as per Davis v. Mississippi which means secret data mining = stealing, and there is lots more info out there.
See EPIC.org and their tools section. God did Bless America. Now it’s for Us to enforce His blessings! Sending good wishes to all. I would trust Russia with my personal mail long before I trusted the U.S. Russia is probably the least likely to hand my mail over to the U.S. Government, especially since I am no one of political importance!
Gmail on the other hand doesn’t even need a court order, the U.S. Government can probably already read all my emails in my gmail account! Government does not have access to mail servers in Russia. Therefore Russia servers are far safer. Plus, few Russians know English very well at all.
So most Russians can’t read my mail even if they wanted to just like most Americans can’t read Cyrillic. I sense a liberal tinge to your many unfounded and erroneous assertions. Sounds like you are listening to the liberal conspiracy theories. Russia had nothing to do with our election. Trump won by the electoral college. Don’t you know that popular vote does not elect the President? You can’t “hack” electoral votes, there aren’t enough of them to “hack”.
There are only a few hundred electoral votes (538 to be exact). (America is a republic, not a democracy.
America was never intended to be a democracy. America is a Constitutional Republic.) Also your comment about “I don’t care about the government looking at my emails because I have nothing to hide” – obviously you do not care about freedom, which is the fundamental principle of the United States.
Your comment is a common liberal cop-out. “Oh, I’m doing nothing wrong so I don’t care if they take away all my freedoms”. Samuel Adams, one of the founding fathers of America, said, quite aptly: “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom — go from us in peace.
We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!” I will translate this for you: “If you love to be a slave to your masters, the liberal socialists, and give up your freedoms to do so, suit yourself.
We Americans don’t care what you say and we will ignore you. May you crouch down and lick the liberal hands which feed you. May your chains of liberal bondage to the slavery of comfort at the cost of your freedom weigh you down,” (he was being sarcastic when he said, “sit lightly upon you”) “and we deny you as one of our fellow Americans!” Remember this isn’t even me saying this (although I agree), this is one of our founding fathers of America saying this. Thank you so much for this. I stumbled across your informative article on my quest to find an alternative to gmail. Totally fed up. Like you, I don’t relish migrating multiple accounts to a new platform, but the time has come.
I am a frequent international traveler and am heartily sick of losing access to my gmail because Google has deemed the activity “suspicious”. I have experienced everything you described, including Google continuing to deny me access even with their own valid access codes. And traveling overseas, I rarely have the ability to receive a two step verification code by phone anyway, as I use different SIMs in each country. If you do manage to jump through their hoops and change your password and gain access to your accounts, you’re still not home free. And it’s not just, “Thank you very much, User.
You have proved that it’s you and you’re in Spain.” The next night you’re at a different hotel a hundred miles away, and you have to go through the entire nonsensical exercise yet again. On a recent trip to Ireland, I went through (no joke) 12 passwords that I had to create AND REMEMBER (insert angry emoji here) for just one of my accounts. And you’re right – Customer Service isn’t a concept that Google embraces. I’ve tried for months to find an email address to suggest to them that they offer a service, such as bank credit cards do, where you could inform them of upcoming travel plans so that they know it’s you in advance. There isn’t one. I even asked my son-in-law, who works for Google.
He just shrugged. There isn’t one. I am currently sitting in a hotel room 23 miles from my house, and once again I have been shut out of my gmail.
23 freaking miles – I didn’t even leave the State. I had already done some research, and heard of two of the services you recommended. I appreciate your reviews of them, as it helps narrow down my choice. You can be sure that one of them will shortly be obtaining a new account.