gmail alternatives

[reahjw6]

Hi all,

Was just wondering what your favorite gmail alternatives are.

Thanks
reahjw6

[Spearmint2]

Until this month I'd have said Yahoo Mail, but they just changed their system, abandoned their Classic Mail interface, and it's just some purple monster now, doesn't work as well. I switched the yahoo mail accounts I had over to MAPI access in Thunderbird which alleviated the misery of their new mail, so if you would like MAPI access in Thunderbird, then Yahoo is still a good choice. There is Juno Free and they have a decent mail program, works quick too, but they generate some of their own spam, about 3-4 per week. They were good during dialup for having free nationwide (USA) local numbers to call, which was great when traveling, but now most motels and many fast food places have free hotspots which are faster to use when traveling.

[gibbs1984]

My mum uses Outlook.com, I don't really like it.

Been using Gmail for a few years, works really well and syncs in my old Hotmail account as I haven't changed all my email addresses on websites I use.

I use Thunderbird as my mail client and with some addons I have my Gmail calendar sync'd to Thunderbird too.

As an Android user too everything syncs perfectly together.

[EmpireITtech]

The Watford man! (tough go of it lad, I'm sorry)

But yea, other than Gmail mail, I wouldn't use Yahoo at all. I believe they got hacked recently, and working in the IT department at my company, I can personally attest to the fact that every time someone in our office personal email gets hacked, it's a Yahoo account.
I'd try the Hotmail/Outlook option if you must. Not my cup of tea, but it's better than getting hacked lol

[gibbs1984]

The Watford man! (tough go of it lad, I'm sorry)

I'm still not talking about the Play-Off Final

[EmpireITtech]

I was pulling for them mate, tough break. At least you guys have an exciting team and looking on the up and up

[gibbs1984]

I was pulling for them mate, tough break. At least you guys have an exciting team and looking on the up and up

Cheers mate, as long as the Italians stay around then the future looks bright.

[Orbmiser]

The Watford man! (tough go of it lad, I'm sorry)

But yea, other than Gmail mail, I wouldn't use Yahoo at all. I believe they got hacked recently, and working in the IT department at my company, I can personally attest to the fact that every time someone in our office personal email gets hacked, it's a Yahoo account.
I'd try the Hotmail/Outlook option if you must. Not my cup of tea, but it's better than getting hacked lol

Yep happened to me back when Yahoo had that big email breach. And my account got hijacked. And was a Pita as required for my Flickr Images account. And having to setup a new Yahoo email account and have it linked as my primary for Flickr was a BIG HEADACHE as yahoo customer care is NOT!

I'll stick with Gmail for my personal and important emails. Use Yahoo as a junk email account to use when signing up at web sites & forums. Helps protect your important primary email account is to have another Yahoo or Hotmail to use as your decoy email account.
.

[EmpireITtech]

Oh yea, a diversion email account is a must these days lol. Good thinking to mention it!

[gibbs1984]

Hmm, never even thought about a decoy account. Might have to try that.

[DrHu]

I like yahoo as they didn't require contact info such as phone number verification

• I used to use hushmail, but I paid for it
  --when I recently tried it I forgot that you had to logon every so often (2 weeks I think) or the account diasappeared..

--also tried bigstring for their call-back(delete) email sent option..

• --although facebook does and I expect they all will soon, if not doing so already

I don't like that, since companies are woefully inadequate in protecting client data whether online (internet) or internally, even the IRS loses USB flashdrives: often unencrypted and being used as a personal backup for work data
--many companies have such failings, and since I consider NAD (Name and address, phone number, email or billing account numbers to be private); I don't think company's shouldn't be penalized for their lack of understanding or attention to their customer's security concerns..

Or I would use a throwaway account or a remailer

Free email services..
http://email.about.com/od/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.htm

[daveinuk]

I have used mail.com (owned by AOL) for years as an alternative to hotmail and gmail etc, they have a lot of domain endings available that may appeal like @computer.com,
@office.com etc etc as well as the default @mail.com which i prefer for the shortness. I use it browser based as well as with thunderbird and on android . . .. works for me . . . .

[Aleenik]

Well, I have a Yahoo account, but I only use it for junk mail. I use Gmail as my main email service. The recent privacy concerns worry me a bit, but not enough to make a switch to something else .

[EmpireITtech]

I have used mail.com (owned by AOL) for years as an alternative to hotmail and gmail etc, they have a lot of domain endings available that may appeal like @computer.com,
@office.com etc etc as well as the default @mail.com which i prefer for the shortness. I use it browser based as well as with thunderbird and on android . . .. works for me . . . .

Yea I've heard good things about mail.com although don't they require a subscription for using their mobile option and their Outlook option?

[daveinuk]

I have used mail.com (owned by AOL) for years as an alternative to hotmail and gmail etc, they have a lot of domain endings available that may appeal like @computer.com,
@office.com etc etc as well as the default @mail.com which i prefer for the shortness. I use it browser based as well as with thunderbird and on android . . .. works for me . . . .

Yea I've heard good things about mail.com although don't they require a subscription for using their mobile option and their Outlook option?

I know they have a 'premium' option available, the ad's for it are the only thing you have to 'put up' with when using it free,
I access it either by laptop/pc or Firefox on android for my mobile, there is a mail.com app in the android playstore but I already have K9 mail installed
pulling down pop and IMAP and i'm happy enough with that not to want to bother with an 'app' for the sake of it.

[st18009]

You can just use outlook.

Sent from my SGH-i677 using Tapatalk

[MtnDewManiac]

Hi all,

Was just wondering what your favorite gmail alternatives are.

Thanks
reahjw6

A recommendation for something to use other than Google's email service, lol? Just about anything up to and including writing on a piece of paper, wrapping it in used chewing gum, flushing it down the nearest toilet, and hoping for a response.

Until this month I'd have said Yahoo Mail, but they just changed their system, abandoned their Classic Mail interface, and it's just some purple monster now, doesn't work as well. I switched the yahoo mail accounts I had over to MAPI access in Thunderbird which alleviated the misery of their new mail, so if you would like MAPI access in Thunderbird, then Yahoo is still a good choice.

I'll second that. Yahoo.com (and Yahoo.co.uk) email addresses work fine from within Thunderbird and other email apps that can deal with the protocols (which is, I'd think, most all of them). Although I am not sure that you can use Thunderbird to send an SMS (aka "text") message via Yahoo, like you can with Yahoo's web-interface. The "conversations" show up okay in Thunderbird, so it may be possible - I just have not tried it. IIRC, Yahoo only requires people to sign in via their website once every six months. I am unsure whether or not using Thunderbird or another email app counts where that is concerned, but I use the web-interface once in a while to send SMS messages so I'm covered.

Other services that might be worthy of consideration:
Your ISP - it may offer free email accounts. They all used to. Then again, almost all of them used to offer free Usenet access, so YMMV.
One of the "international" Yahoo servers. See

Code: Select all

http://www.emailquestions.com/yahoo-mail/542-international-yahoo-mail-servers.html

for a list.

Zoho email (Zoho is, I believe, the company behind the Duck.go search engine.)
Bigstring
GMX
Hushmail
iCloud mail (Probably more for the users of various Apple devices, but can be used by anyone.)
Inbox
Lavabit
Mail.com
Yandex
Opera mail

Most of these support IMAP, POP3, or both. IMAP is probably better if you intend to access your email on more than one device, because it appears to keep everything synchronized.

Use PGP wherever possible.

I wouldn't use Yahoo at all. I believe they got hacked recently, and working in the IT department at my company, I can personally attest to the fact that every time someone in our office personal email gets hacked, it's a Yahoo account.

To be fair, much of that is people seemingly picking their email password from the first 50 or so choices on the list that every script-kiddie uses with their email "hacking" apps (although this may or may not be the case with your coworkers). And the issue is not exactly limited to Yahoo users - it seems to be a not altogether unheard of thing among webmail services. (Speculation: There are more "practical idiots" that CBA to set up a non-webmail account than those who do... In much the same way that you'll find less Princeton honors graduates at a roller-derby rink than at a more intellectual entertainment.) There seems to be a much greater percentage of hacked email accounts now than there was before AOL opened the door wide for the mouth-breathers during the Eternal September, lol.

I use Gmail as my main email service. The recent privacy concerns worry me a bit

The concerns are not recent. Google has been data-mining and profiling its users for years - and using all of its services in order to do so. It even monitors who you call using Google Voice. By now, Google should be able to charge the highest rates for information on its users in the industry. At least they have never really made a secret of what they do.

but not enough to make a switch to something else .

You value your privacy... but not enough to make a zero-effort (well, little effort) in order to hang onto it, lol?

I don't like that, since companies are woefully inadequate in protecting client data whether online (internet) or internally, even the IRS loses USB flashdrives: often unencrypted and being used as a personal backup for work data
--many companies have such failings, and since I consider NAD (Name and address, phone number, email or billing account numbers to be private); I don't think company's shouldn't be penalized for their lack of understanding or attention to their customer's security concerns..

Anyone who carries other people's private data into an uncontrolled environment - whether they then lose it or not - should be lined up against the nearest wall and shot. Those who not only do so, but carry that data in an unencrypted form should be shot in the ankles. And then the kneecaps. And then the hips. And then the... (Actually, they should just be gut-shot and then given all the water to drink that they want, lol; a person can live for quite some time in such a condition - but it won't exactly be pretty or fun.)

[Spearmint2]

Hi all,
Was just wondering what your favorite gmail alternatives are.
Thanks
reahjw6

I forgot to mention one of the best webmail and free POP access mail provider there is. AOL. Yes, that one. "You've got mail!" The Pablum network as we used to call it, or the Gerber's special back when they had their own proprietary "internet" program with browser, not to mention all the free coasters in the form of CD's they sent out regularly. My youngest uses not their children's mail, but the adult mail which is actually safer because you can set "postive only" mail filters. You can put just the email addresses you will accept mail from and no other mail ever appears in the account. Furthermore, unlike Yahoo, AOL doesn't charge for POP access to the account. The webmail interface looks great and also can open each message in a new page rather than being restricted to a "pane", which latter is a "pain". If not running positive only mail filter (regular filtering available) it also has a SPAM learning setup. The advantage of an email address that's independent of the ones your ISP allows is you don't lose it if you switch your ISP provider.

[reahjw6]

Wow Thanks so much for all the replies.
Its good to see what you all recomend and have used personally. I will take a long look at all your recomendations.
I am using Duck Duck go as my web browser and like to use something different for my email now.
No particular reason other than a world of choice out there.
It will be good to look into your recomendations more deeply and then make a move.
Thanks again to you all.
Great community.
Reahjw6

[Aleenik]

but not enough to make a switch to something else .

You value your privacy... but not enough to make a zero-effort (well, little effort) in order to hang onto it, lol?

Of course it's easy to switch to a different email service. The thing is, I like the services that Google provides. If I were to drop Gmail (Which I like) that would do little to help me privacy wise as I use a lot of other Google services, the main one being Google Search. So yeah, I don't plan on switching anytime soon.