Best Alternatives for Gmail

Google's Gmail is one of the world's most used email applications. Given its widespread use, digital privacy is well known to be invasive and evil.

Lately, people are waking up with a more secure email client and want to protect their digital footprint. It's time to join the tide of people turning away from Gmail, if you value your privacy. The good news is there are hundreds of secure alternatives available to choose from on the market.

Problems with Gmail:

Google is doing quite a lot of good. It's useful to detect spam, it warns users to malware, and it maintains an active track on where people sign in to their accounts-trying to potentially detect intruders from.

So where's the problem and why people are looking for its alternatives?

• Google is popular for searching keywords in emails. It used to do this in order to serve adverts and create a stream of revenue. Since then, however, it has said that it no longer does so.
• Also if you use ad blocking tools; Google's (and probably third-party 's) hands are building a database about you. If Google still searches emails for keywords but does not use this information explicitly to display ads-the question arises-why is Google doing this at all?
• Third-party apps you are downloading, installing, and using may also scan your email content to serve ads. Many people don't know that they allow a third party to search their emails directly when they grant App permission. Google has been accused of having access to email accounts for hundreds of businesses.
• Google is a US-based corporation that may theoretically force the US government to collect and provide consumer data. The US enforces warrants that can compel businesses to pass on data and keep it a secret (gag orders). The result is Google might let the government look at your emails and you'd never know it. Additionally, U.S. companies can force U.S. legislation to have access to all data on all servers around the world; not just those servers in the U.S. That means the US could snoop on your data even though you're not an American (thanks to FISA, the Patriot Act and the Cloud Act, in fact, it's even more likely to do so).
• As far back as 2009, Gmail is known to have been compromised by the invasive PRISM program of the US authorities. The software allowed them to intercept and read emails from everybody. Whether the NSA or CIA continue to intercept emails en masse or not is not clear, but many people suspect they do.
• Gmail does not have a native way to send encrypted emails in secure End to End (E2E). For example, PGP encryption has to be achieved through the use of an extension such as Mailvelope. Also, while Google can't scan encrypted PGP emails, it can see the metadata (headers, from whom, to whom and when).

PAID Gmail Alternatives:

1. ProtonMail:

FREE OPTION- YES

PRICING- FROM $4.00 - $8.00

This famous email provider has its headquarters in Switzerland. It was created by CERN engineers, and is still being built. It is a completely featured email client that incorporates PGP encryption entirely within the app. ProtonMail is open source, and it's packed with features that make the mail flow easy to control.

ADVANTAGES:

• Much more secure than regular email
• Emails are not spied on for advertising purposes
• Easy to use and looks great
• Completely open source
• Can send encrypted emails to non-users
• Self-destruct emails
• Genuinely useful premium options (including own domains)

2. Posteo:

PRICING- FROM $1.13

This provider has its head office in Germany. It is a highly respected, feature-rich Open Source email client. Also, the service is incredibly cheap, coming in at only 1 Euro a month.

ADVANTAGES:

• Costs only 1 EURO per month
• POP3 or IMAP to be used on any OS X, iOS, Android, Windows or Linux client
• Focus on privacy , data reduction, zero tracking, green energy, sustainable development , social justice
• Fully featured: Email encryption on the server side, calendar and contacts, E2E with other clients / users, cross-client compatibility if required
• You can also encrypt the Email metadata

3. Tutanota:

FREE OPTION- YES

PRICING- FROM $13.23 - $66.00

This is yet another fantastic email client based in Germany. Tutanota is known for providing powerful end-to - end encrypted emails from a good email client and many important features required. It is not as complete as the above options, but it can be used free of charge. But if you want features such as custom domains and unlimited searches, you'll need to pay $12 a year.

ADVANTAGES:

• Good SSL encryption
• Good privacy protection
• Client & apps are fully open source
• Solid Android and iOS apps
• Bulk contact import via vCard is possible
• Encrypted reply from regular email users can be received

4. CounterMail:

PRICING- FROM $29.00 - $79.00

It is a common email service which receives a great deal of support from the privacy community. It provides access to encoded email from an OpenPGP server. It supports IMAP, as well. Nice also: CounterMail lets you set up a dual authentication USB drive. This prevents hackers from getting into your email even if they steal your password.

ADVANTAGES:

• Lots of customizability
• Supports email filters.
• Uses anonymous email headers.
• Works in your browser and with an iOS app.
• Comes with multiple identities that you can use in your primary CounterMail inbox to receive email.

FREE Gmail Alternatives:

If you want access to all the apps, most email providers will make you pay for their service. There are however some that will allow you to use the client's stripped back version for free. Most of these have limited storage capacity and allow only one email address per free account:

• ProtonMail
• Tutanota
• Mailfence
• Unseen.is
• SCRYPTmail
• Signal 

Conclusion:

If you're sick of hearing stories about Gmail 's privacy pitfalls, it might be time to move over to another company. Many email providers offer a limited service, free of charge. And if you like, being able to email the cost of upgrading to a premium account with end-to-end encryption is cheap even with the best secure email providers.