10 Best Alternatives to Gmail
Even though Gmail has been able to hold the title of the most popular email provider in the world since it overtook Hotmail in 2012, don’t think even for a second that other email providers have been resting on their laurels. If you’ve been using Gmail exclusively for the last several years, you might be surprised by just how much competing email providers have improved their products. What’s more, there are now several popular privacy-oriented Gmail alternatives that have proven themselves to be trustworthy and reliable.
1. Outlook.com
In 2013, Microsoft transitioned Hotmail users to its new web-based suite of webmail, contacts, tasks, and calendaring services, called Outlook.com. In addition to a brand-new user-interface, Outlook.com featured a much tighter integration with other Microsoft services, such as OneDrive.
Today, Outlook.com is arguably the best email alternative to Gmail for people who want virtually unlimited storage space, seamless integrations with other accounts, and all the productivity tools one might need to stay organized and on top of all tasks.
👍🏼 Pros:
- Modern design.
- Tightly integrated with other products from Microsoft.
- Support for attachments up to 500 MB.
- Virtually unlimited storage space.
👎🏼 Cons:
- Some actions take more steps than Gmail users are used to.
2. AOL Mail
Also called AIM Mail, this alternative to Gmail is provided by AOL, which was acquired by Verizon in 2015. It offers all the important features one would expect an email service to provide, including spam protection, virus scanning, spellchecking, integrated calendar, and both POP and IMAP access from third-party email clients.
AOL Mail allows you to import an existing contact list, but it has to be in CSV, TXT, or LDIF format. What's not too great about AOL Mail is the fact that the web client is infested with ads. The web client also lacks more sophisticated email management features that most Gmail users have gotten used to over the last few years.
👍🏼 Pros:
- Virus and spam protection.
- Built-in spellchecking.
- Integrated calendar.
- Support for third-party email clients.
👎🏼 Cons:
- Way too many ads.
- Lacks certain email management features.
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3. Titan
Titan is one of the best alternatives to Gmail if you are looking for a custom email address for your business. It is designed for small businesses to grow their brand and develop meaningful relations with their customers by providing an email at their domain and features that streamline productivity.
Titan is the highest-rated email service with a 4.8 rating on G2 and ranks in the top 5 platforms for business email.
With features such as Schedule Sends, Email Templates, Follow-up Reminders, and more, Titan offers the tools that are needed for small businesses to focus on growing their business. Titan’s contacts, calendar and storage provide efficiency from right within the inbox.
👍🏼 Pros:
- Cost-effective business email solution
- Multiple accounts can be viewed at the same time
- Works across all mobile and desktop platforms
- Designed specifically for small businesses
- Support for custom domain names
👎🏼 Cons:
- Does not provide email marketing service
4. Zoho Mail
Zoho Mail is an ad-free alternative email to Gmail that focuses mainly on businesses but offers professional email with calendar, tasks, notes, and bookmarks to individual users as well. Zoho Mail makes it very easy to get a custom domain email for your business so that your customers instantly recognize your emails.
All Zoho Mail users get to enjoy 99.9% uptime guarantee, integrations with products across the Zoho suite, expert 24x7 technical support, and powerful control panel where admins can set up individual mailbox quotas and privileges, email policies, group accounts, and more.
👍🏼 Pros:
- 99.9% uptime guarantee.
- Up to 1 TB storage.
- No ads to ruin the experience.
- Many business-oriented features.
👎🏼 Cons:
- Additional storage beyond 5 GB costs money.
5. ProtonMail
Founded at the CERN research facility by Andy Yen, Jason Stockman, and Wei Sun, ProtonMail is not just one of the best Gmail alternatives out there, but it’s also an excellent alternative to Tutanota. Just like Tutanota, ProtonMail offers secure email with end-to-end encryption and modern inbox design.
ProtonMail’s servers are located in Switzerland and protected by strict Swiss privacy laws. All new users get 500 MB of email storage for free, and there are three premium plans available for those who need more.
👍🏼 Pros:
- Based in Switzerland.
- Community supported.
- Modern inbox design.
- 100 percent open source.
👎🏼 Cons:
- Problematic integration with desktop email clients.
6. Tutanota
Email privacy has become a huge issue in recent years, with increasingly more email users rebelling against large email providers like Google because they share their personal data with third-parties.
If you believe that nobody has the right to go through your online purchase and read your bank account statements, you should consider using Tutanota, one of the best email alternatives to Gmail for privacy-conscious individuals. Tutanota has been around since 2011, and it offers free and open-source end-to-end encrypted email that’s funded exclusively through premium subscriptions.
👍🏼 Pros:
- Transparent revenue model.
- Clean and clutter-free user interface.
- 100 percent open source.
- Allows users to use their own domain names.
👎🏼 Cons:
- No third-party integration.
7. GMX
Like Mailbox.org, GMX (Global Mail Exchange) is another trustworthy email service provider based in Germany, and it’s also one of the best alternatives to Gmail. Users can register up to 10 GMX email addresses, with each email address offering 65 GB of storage space, which is enough for approximately half a million of emails.
GMX users also get to enjoy a free online calendar, advanced antivirus, effective spam filter, mobile access, and the ability to display emails from different accounts in one place.
👍🏼 Pros:
- Up to 10 email addresses.
- 65 GB of storage space per email account.
- Support for large attachments.
- Free online calendar.
- Effective spam filtering.
👎🏼 Cons:
- Doesn’t support two-factor authentication.
- Clunky user interface.
8. Mailbox.org
For over 20 years now, Mailbox.org has been offering ad-free email accounts to home users and businesses alike. Their domain name (@mailbox.org) is easily recognizable and looks very professional.
The service is based in Germany and powered by eco-friendly energy. Users can choose from three different plans, with the most affordable plan costing just 1 euro a month. The plan include 2 GB of email storage, 100 MB of cloud storage, 3 e-mail aliases, mobile sync, and access to the user forum and e-mail helpdesk.
👍🏼 Pros:
- Ad-free email service that doesn’t analyze your emails.
- Up to 100 GB of storage space for emails and documents.
- Reputable company protected by EU’s privacy laws.
- Elegant web interface.
👎🏼 Cons:
- Customer support could be better.
- Doesn’t have a mobile client.
9. iCloud Mail
All users of Apple’s iCloud cloud storage and cloud computing service can send, receive, and organize email on any device because iCloud Mail is accessible via IMAP. Free iCloud Mail accounts are limited to 5 GB. Users can send up to 20 MB large attachments or use Mail Drop to send attachments that are up to 5 GB large.
The interface of iCloud Mail is just as well-designed and polished as all Apple products, but it lacks some of the more advanced features Gmail has implemented in recent years, making it suitable mostly for casual email users who receive just a couple of email messages every day.
👍🏼 Pros:
- 5 GB of free email storage space.
- Ad-free experience.
- Works on all devices.
- Polished user interface.
👎🏼 Cons:
- Not meant for people who don’t use Apple products.
- Lacks advanced features.
10. MsgSafe.io
MsgSafe is a privacy-oriented Gmail alternative with features that make it appealing even to those who don't stress too much about email privacy. For example, MsgSafe allows its users to create virtual identities and email addresses and use them to separate groups of contacts.
You can create one virtual email address and use it exclusively for online shopping and have a different one for communicating with friends and family. Each email address you create is automatically encrypted by MsgSafe with 4096-bit GPG encryption, so no one—not even MsgSafe—can read your email. With MsgSafe.io you can:
- Protect your email address and personal information
- Protect your communications from interception and hackers
- Strip Metadata from your emails that companies use to track or find out information on you
- Increase your level of security with end-to-end encryption
- Receive email analytics and enrichment
You can use MsgSafe on the web or download its new Android and iOS app, which is currently in testing.
👍🏼 Pros:
- Virtual email addresses.
- 4096-bit GPG encryption.
- Available for Android, iOS, and the web.
- Free plan available.
👎🏼 Cons:
- More difficult to set up than other Gmail alternatives.
How Clean Email Can Simplify Email Management
Clean Email is an easy-to-use email organizer that works with most major Gmail alternatives, including Outlook and any other private email services that use the IMAP protocol. With Clean Email, you can instantly group your emails into easy-to-review bundles and move/delete/archive them just like you would individual emails.
Besides helping you organize your inbox with just a couple of clicks, Clean Email can also intelligently unsubscribe you from unwanted newsletters and subscriptions, so you’re not constantly bombarded with emails you don’t even read.
If you’ve always found emails filters to be unnecessarily complicated, you will be pleased to know that Clean Email comes with highly accessible automation features that allow you to apply any action to new emails coming to your mailbox without any manual work with a simple click. For example, you could tell Clean Email to always mark all social media emails as read or to move all emails from your coworkers to a different folder.
If you’re concerned about your privacy, you have nothing to worry about because Clean Email doesn’t need to read the content of your emails to do its job—all it needs is unimportant metadata. To get started with Clean Email, simply log in with your email address and use its powerful features to effortlessly organize your inbox.
Conclusion
As you can see, Gmail isn’t by far the only email service worth considering. Today, there are many Gmail alternatives to choose from, each with its own set of pros and cons. Regardless of which alternative email to Gmail you ultimately go with, you can always simplify your email management with the help of Clean Email.