Alternatives to Gmail

Updated on Jun 1, 2022. You know that we here at PinpointVPN are huge fans of maintaining your privacy on the internet using tools like IPVanish and Ivacy. However, there are other ways to ensure that you’re as secure as possible on the internet, including using the right email provider. Today, we’re going to go over some of the best alternatives to Gmail.

Outlook

If you remember Hotmail, then you probably know about Outlook. Outlook is what Microsoft rebranded Hotmail to in 2013. Outlook is one of the largest email providers on the internet and the only one that can hold a candle to Gmail’s dominance, making it an excellent choice if you’re looking for a popular platform.

There are a few advantages to Outlook, including the fact that it’s a lot more user-friendly than the other email providers on this list. All you need to start using Outlook is a Microsoft account, and if you’re a PC user, you likely already have one of these accounts, you just need to come up with an email address.

Another benefit to using Outlook is that it’s closely integrated with other Microsoft services, including OneDrive. This allows you to easily share things through OneDrive in your emails, much like you can use your Gmail to share things that you have stored in your Google Drive.

However, if you’re used to Gmail, you might find Outlook a little more convoluted at first because it’s a little less user-friendly. The interface for Outlook requires a few more steps for key actions, so you won’t be able to transition between them seamlessly, but you can easily get used to Outlook over time.

ProtonMail

If you’re looking to keep your correspondence as private as possible when you send an email, there aren’t many email providers that can compare to ProtonMail. This company is based in Switzerland and they take their users’ privacy much more seriously than platforms like Gmail.

This secure email provider encrypts all of the emails that you send and they don’t even keep your emails on their servers. This means that even the people working at ProtonMail can’t see what you’re sending through your emails, making this provider a great choice for use in fields like healthcare.

Another great thing about ProtonMail is that it is entirely open-source, meaning that you can see exactly how it runs so that you can confirm that it’s truly as private as they say it is. Another great thing about ProtonMail is that the inbox is designed to be as easy to use as possible.

ProtonMail can also be used for free, and they give you 500MB worth of storage, which is more than enough for most casual users. If you’re using ProtonMail for business, you may have to pay for one of the premium ProtonMail plans that features more storage as well as multiple email addresses.

Tutanota

If you don’t like the idea of using ProtonMail but you’re a huge fan of their insistence on privacy above all else, you’ll probably be a big fan of Tutanota. Tutanota is based in Europe like ProtonMail, mainly due to the fact that European countries like Germany (where Tutanota is based) have better privacy laws than the US.

This secure email provider ensures that all of your mail is kept private through encryption that is only decrypted once your email arrives on the device of the person you sent it to. Since emails are decrypted locally, there’s a much lower chance of someone intercepting your mail and seeing what’s in it.

The encryption key will only be available to the person who sent the message as well as any recipients of the message. Keep in mind that you can also send emails that aren’t encrypted by Tutanota, and these will use a password-based system that you can use to ensure that your recipients see what’s in it.

With the password system, you can then use the same password to access any replies that others send you in the same thread. One of our favorite things about Tutanota is that it is a lot easier to use than other secure email providers, so if you’re new to secure email, Tutanota is an excellent starting point.

Zoho Mail

Zoho Mail is primarily centered around being an email provider for businesses, and Zoho has plenty of features that make them suitable for business use. One of the best things about Zoho is that it’s a lot easier to create a custom email address with your business’ domain name in it.

However, you don’t necessarily have to be a business to use Zoho, and they also market themselves to individuals looking for a Gmail alternative. Zoho is a great provider for individuals looking to keep their communication secure because of their advanced encryption algorithms and their privacy policy.

You can also secure your inbox through two-factor authentication to ensure that someone who has your password won’t be able to access all of your mail. Zoho also has apps on a wide range of platforms so that you can easily access your inbox in the most comfortable way possible on your phone, tablet, or PC.

Another great thing is that Zoho Mail offers up to 1TB in storage, making them an excellent choice if you often send and receive large files through your email. Keep in mind that the free Zoho Mail plan only offers 5GB of storage, so you’ll have to pay to take advantage of further storage.

iCloud Mail

If you’re looking for the Apple alternative to something like Outlook, iCloud Mail is an excellent choice. iCloud Mail is the default email platform featured on both Apple computers and devices, so if you have an iPhone or a Mac, it’s hard to argue against using iCloud Mail as your main provider.

Another great thing about iCloud Mail is that you only need an iCloud account, which most people have if they own or have ever owned an iPhone. One of our favorite things about iCloud Mail is that it’s a lot more user-friendly than other email providers, which is to be expected from Apple.

Keep in mind that iCloud stays true to Apple’s design philosophy and it doesn’t feature a huge number of integrations or extra features. However, iCloud Mail is highly reliable and once you learn to use it, you’ll realize that it’s a lot easier to navigate than many other email providers.

Of course, iCloud Mail is not without its weaknesses, and the single most significant one is that it doesn’t work on Windows. If you have a Windows computer, you’ll be much better served by one of the other email providers on this list, unless you like exclusively reading your emails on your iPhone.

Why You Would Want to Stop Using Gmail

There are a few reasons why people are flocking away from Gmail and one of the major reasons is that Gmail addresses are less professional and they feature Google’s branding. You can’t use custom domain names with Gmail, so you’ll always be like a billboard for Google whenever you send an email.

On the other hand, if you’re using a branded email address, this will make your brand grow in people’s minds. This is essentially free marketing that you’re giving up if you run a business and you’re using a Gmail account. This will also seamlessly integrate with any email marketing campaigns you may have going.

Another issue is that Gmail is a lot less private than other email providers, especially secure ones. Secure email providers ensure that you can send and receive messages that are encrypted that will be a lot harder for people to see if they’re snooping around and trying to figure out what you’re sending.

Gmail has had several large data breaches and the company has even come out and said that people can’t reasonably expect their correspondence to be private. This is a huge red flag and one of the main reasons why people are moving away from Gmail and adopting other providers.