Ask HN: Have you ever switched personal email providers?
33 comments
I migrated from iCloud to FastMail about 5 years ago, and I'm very happy with FastMail. They do support YubiKeys, as well as TOTP.
Forwarding everything from the old account to the new account made it pretty easy so I only had one inbox to check, and I could take my time migrating all of my accounts to the new address. I also created a rule to sort things coming from my old account to a folder so I knew which accounts and subscriptions and whatnot I still needed to update to the new address. To this day I still have the old email forwarding, and occasionally something real comes through on it.
Fastmail also makes it easy to add other addresses on custom domains, so I have several email addresses that all deliver to the same inbox, with rules to sort them into the right folders.
It's probably because it's a business account and Google and LinkedIn have sold my address, but fwiw I receive about 100x more spam in my work gmail than I do in my personal fastmail account.
Forwarding everything from the old account to the new account made it pretty easy so I only had one inbox to check, and I could take my time migrating all of my accounts to the new address. I also created a rule to sort things coming from my old account to a folder so I knew which accounts and subscriptions and whatnot I still needed to update to the new address. To this day I still have the old email forwarding, and occasionally something real comes through on it.
Fastmail also makes it easy to add other addresses on custom domains, so I have several email addresses that all deliver to the same inbox, with rules to sort them into the right folders.
It's probably because it's a business account and Google and LinkedIn have sold my address, but fwiw I receive about 100x more spam in my work gmail than I do in my personal fastmail account.
Do you use the web client with Fastmail?
I’m slightly annoyed that I can’t remap the keyboard shortcuts.
I’m slightly annoyed that I can’t remap the keyboard shortcuts.
I moved to Protonmail from Gmail in 2019 because GSuite was becoming increasingly annoying to use for multiple domains and what not. I just want my own domains and emails and GSuite’s GUI and layout for that was ticking me off — plus I was looking at ungoogling.
I then moved from Protonmail to Migadu in 2021 because Migadu prices per email volume not domain (which 99% of companies price by) and I frequently set up mini projects with their own [email protected]. Migadu lets me do that.. for free! I only pay for the sum total email volume that is used (or not!).
Also I had problems with Protonmail’s bridge on Linux at the time that I nor others via IRC could figure out. I was using Arch (btw) and it worked fine on Ubuntu but I didn’t want to use Ubuntu.
I then moved from Protonmail to Migadu in 2021 because Migadu prices per email volume not domain (which 99% of companies price by) and I frequently set up mini projects with their own [email protected]. Migadu lets me do that.. for free! I only pay for the sum total email volume that is used (or not!).
Also I had problems with Protonmail’s bridge on Linux at the time that I nor others via IRC could figure out. I was using Arch (btw) and it worked fine on Ubuntu but I didn’t want to use Ubuntu.
I moved away from Gmail a couple of years ago for this reason. I moved to Soverin.net first and then after a year I moved to mailbox.org because I had a couple of (minor) issues with Soverin.
A good list of providers can be found at https://privacyguides.org/providers/email/
Protonmail is best in class when it comes to encryption etc, but the trade-off is that it's not as easy to get it working with custom email clients, and it's also more expensive. That's what I understand from reading into all this, but I never actually used Protonmail.
If you're using a custom domain I don't think it needs to be painful. I haven't bothered to export all my mail to my new account; I just keep my Gmail account connected to my clients alongside my new email. But if you did want to export I believe there are tools that help with it.
A good list of providers can be found at https://privacyguides.org/providers/email/
Protonmail is best in class when it comes to encryption etc, but the trade-off is that it's not as easy to get it working with custom email clients, and it's also more expensive. That's what I understand from reading into all this, but I never actually used Protonmail.
If you're using a custom domain I don't think it needs to be painful. I haven't bothered to export all my mail to my new account; I just keep my Gmail account connected to my clients alongside my new email. But if you did want to export I believe there are tools that help with it.
Do you use the Gmail account for everything (bills, user accounts, personal correspondence, etc.)? That can determine how difficult and time-consuming it will be.
I've been reorganizing my email usage the past few years. I first adopted a ProtonMail email for all accounts related to financial data. That just involved going to each bank, credit card, loan, etc. and following the update email address process for each. It doesn't take too long.
More recently, I moved everything else from Outlook.com to an email address using my own custom domain. I set Outlook.com to forward/redirect all email to the new address and then made a filter/rule on the custom domain email address to drop all mail addressed into a folder. As mail comes into this folder, I take whatever action is necessary to either update the sender that my email address has changed, or stop receiving email from that sender by unsubscribing or whatever.
I've been reorganizing my email usage the past few years. I first adopted a ProtonMail email for all accounts related to financial data. That just involved going to each bank, credit card, loan, etc. and following the update email address process for each. It doesn't take too long.
More recently, I moved everything else from Outlook.com to an email address using my own custom domain. I set Outlook.com to forward/redirect all email to the new address and then made a filter/rule on the custom domain email address to drop all mail addressed into a folder. As mail comes into this folder, I take whatever action is necessary to either update the sender that my email address has changed, or stop receiving email from that sender by unsubscribing or whatever.
I migrated from Gmail to a hosted domain on a cheap cpanel account 10 years ago.
That was fine for a long time. The trick was to setup an auto responder with the new address, then systematically go through each incoming Gmail and go update the connected account. Took about 2 years to fully migrate. More recently i moved my custom domain to FastMail, and I am very happy with the added security and ease of use ( MFA, application specific passwords, wildcard email addresses, contact , calendar sync etc...). I briefly tried protonmail for the higher security, but the lack of imap was a real pain, and the 50 shades of purple UI was ugly to me ... FastMail just works very very well....
Yes. I moved other way from FM to Gmail six years ago. 2016. The FM spam filters were not up to it back then. I preferred the FM UI but..will revaluate decision if Google monetise me (more).
I also use Proton Mail, excellent free account.
A word of advice, always use a custom domain, alot easier to change providers.
As for switching, I did it few times.
From microsoft to migadu. Switched to custom domain at the same time. Migadu was good for the price but in the early days it wasnt very stable and I wanted something more private.
From migadu to Tutanota. More private but tutanota wasnt as polished and can only be used with their custom email clients. Again great value for the money but I was missing better UX.
Finally from Tutanota to Protonmail. It was painful to export emails from Tutanota. I am very happy with Proton. If money isnt a constraint I think it is the best option for privacy focused providers.
As for switching, I did it few times.
From microsoft to migadu. Switched to custom domain at the same time. Migadu was good for the price but in the early days it wasnt very stable and I wanted something more private.
From migadu to Tutanota. More private but tutanota wasnt as polished and can only be used with their custom email clients. Again great value for the money but I was missing better UX.
Finally from Tutanota to Protonmail. It was painful to export emails from Tutanota. I am very happy with Proton. If money isnt a constraint I think it is the best option for privacy focused providers.
Protonmail is solid, I've got the free version, you can just test it out to see how you like it first. Take a look at Tutanota also, it's fully encrypted as well. I use it with my domain and couldn't be happier.
I switched to my own server. I have an old FreeBSD box at home for different purposes. It took me a couple of nights to set up roundcube, dovecot, sendmail, spamassassin and friends. I did it a couple of years ago and I do not regret a single bit of it.
UPD: The poblem is that I still keep receiving some important mails to my gmail account which of course get forwarded to my home box, but I'm working on lowering this dependance. Couple of years more and I'll be able to shut my gmail account down. I had been using gmail since 2005.
UPD: The poblem is that I still keep receiving some important mails to my gmail account which of course get forwarded to my home box, but I'm working on lowering this dependance. Couple of years more and I'll be able to shut my gmail account down. I had been using gmail since 2005.
I like the security of Protonmail, but realized that its best use is when both sender and receiver are both using Protonmail, so messages can be fully end-to-end encrypted.
I moved my domain from G Suite Legacy to iCloud+ but kept a separate free Protonmail so other contacts who care about encryption can see the "@protonmail.com" email and message there.
With a custom domain, people wouldn't know if it's Protonmail encryption compatible without typing the email into the send message window first.
I moved my domain from G Suite Legacy to iCloud+ but kept a separate free Protonmail so other contacts who care about encryption can see the "@protonmail.com" email and message there.
With a custom domain, people wouldn't know if it's Protonmail encryption compatible without typing the email into the send message window first.
I went from Gmail to my own server using Mail in a Box. The initial setup was a pain, but after a few years I haven't needed to touch it beyond an update every once in a while.
I moved from my Gmail to Microsoft 365 Family. The move took around 2 years to slowly migrate all my accounts to the new one.
I have also connected it to my custom domain so that if I need to do this all over again to a new provider, it will be much faster - since I can point the domain to the new provider.
I am very happy with Microsoft 365 Family, since it gives me Office Apps, 1 TB storage, custom emails for upto 6 people in the family.
I have also connected it to my custom domain so that if I need to do this all over again to a new provider, it will be much faster - since I can point the domain to the new provider.
I am very happy with Microsoft 365 Family, since it gives me Office Apps, 1 TB storage, custom emails for upto 6 people in the family.
It's interesting you say that, because for me personally, security is one of the main benefits of a Google account.
If this is the main motivation here then I would look into Google's advanced protection program that allows you to lock down your account with two Yubikeys and disables all other forms of 2FA.
As far as I'm aware, you still can't use a YubiKey to secure a Proton Mail account.
If this is the main motivation here then I would look into Google's advanced protection program that allows you to lock down your account with two Yubikeys and disables all other forms of 2FA.
As far as I'm aware, you still can't use a YubiKey to secure a Proton Mail account.
Interesting point of view - for me security and privacy was the primary reason I moved from Google Account.
I moved to Microsoft 365 Family. I can connect using Yubikeys - one that lives in my keychain and the second stored security at home as a backup.
The way I see it, perhaps I can get some marginal privacy benefits from another provider, however I'd be compromising on security.
I am of the opinion that Google have the best security in the industry, have the best incentives, most investment and are pretty much guaranteed to be around in 20 years from now.
The most high value accounts in my life around banking, investment, taxes etc are all tied to my personal identity anyway, so privacy is less important to me, I'd rather have the most established and secure service. I don't use email for communication so E2E encryption etc is not hugely relevant to me.
I am of the opinion that Google have the best security in the industry, have the best incentives, most investment and are pretty much guaranteed to be around in 20 years from now.
The most high value accounts in my life around banking, investment, taxes etc are all tied to my personal identity anyway, so privacy is less important to me, I'd rather have the most established and secure service. I don't use email for communication so E2E encryption etc is not hugely relevant to me.
The way I see it, you need to differentiate between security and privacy. Gmail is one of the best providers security-wise, but obviously one of the worst ones wrt privacy.
Note that sometimes your account at Google is so secure that even you can't access it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30051054.
Ok but I found that 2FA even was a hoax since IMAP connection could still be established completely outside it. Any idea if you can still IMAP an email even if 2 yubikeys may be required to log in online?
I have done the exact migration you're considering. Or more accurately, in still in the process, but overall it's definitely been worth it.
Instead of thinking about it as a single migration, be a little easier on yourself. Even if all you do is start giving out your protonmail address starting now, Google will be reading a lot less of your emails.
Instead of thinking about it as a single migration, be a little easier on yourself. Even if all you do is start giving out your protonmail address starting now, Google will be reading a lot less of your emails.
I use Fastmail instead of ProtonMail, but the premise from my understanding from talking with others is the same.
Protonmail has an import feature that works extremely well when migration from Gmail, and from there you would forward any mail from Gmail to your custom domain. Whole thing takes maybe 10-15 minutes.
Your mileage may vary slightly however.
Protonmail has an import feature that works extremely well when migration from Gmail, and from there you would forward any mail from Gmail to your custom domain. Whole thing takes maybe 10-15 minutes.
Your mileage may vary slightly however.
As others have said, definitely go to a custom domain!
I would suggest organising your email how you want it in your current account and use imap to migrate - makes it take easy. I'm not sure if that was part of your question but I didn't see it mentioned in the other comments.
I would suggest organising your email how you want it in your current account and use imap to migrate - makes it take easy. I'm not sure if that was part of your question but I didn't see it mentioned in the other comments.
I have been using Fastmail for many years and when I switched ISP's 2 years ago made FM my default for all emails. Have found using aliases handy to give `sorted' inboxes by sender useful. FM do offer a 30 day trial period.
I'm not connected with FM, just a contented client.
protonmail is a good choice but I'm going to move over to zoho when legacy GSuite is finally canned. My main decider is price as I might receive and send 10-20 emails a year on my custom domain email and $5-$10 a month is just not worth it. They are pretty generous with multiple domain email aliasing too.
Incidentally, there might be a market opportunity for people like me who just want simple ultra-cheap low traffic email. Self hosting your email server just means your emails get sent to spam and all the services I've seen bundle calendars/cloud storage/groupware and charge >5$ a month. Maybe a PAYG model? I have no idea about the costs involved.
Incidentally, there might be a market opportunity for people like me who just want simple ultra-cheap low traffic email. Self hosting your email server just means your emails get sent to spam and all the services I've seen bundle calendars/cloud storage/groupware and charge >5$ a month. Maybe a PAYG model? I have no idea about the costs involved.
Migadu is 20$/yr for as many domains as you want and as many accounts as you want.
When I migrated to Fastmail, I didn't bother to copy my existing mail. Everything stays where it was delivered, and that's fine enough for me. Also using a custom domain, so no issues about letting people know the new address.
I don't use personal domain and that makes it almost impossible to transfer to another provider. Also if you, use SSO it could make things even more complicated.
I wanted to move to Protonmail but it doesn't support mail forwarding. I know this is the privacy implication but I need mail forwarding and alias at the very least.
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I have not, but evaluating Proton mail and Fastmail is on my todo list.
I went from Gmail to HEY. I have no intention of going back.
Gmail (2004 - 2018)
Fastmail (2019 - present)
Gmail to Fastmail
Has anyone migrated to Protonmail from Gmail?