I trust only two providers

[jeffpan]

Thought I am an email geek and run my own mail service.
But for personal email choice I trust only two:
Gmail and fastmail.
But G is blocked in my location, so I become a happy FM user for many years.
Never had main issues on it.

[TenFour]

Would mostly agree with this, though I have had a couple of problems with FM in the past that prevented me from sending or receiving for over a week. It had to do with some sort of problem at their end with my domain, and the difficulty was the slow customer service response with each back and forth taking a day or so. I chalk that up mainly to Fastmail being on the opposite side of the world from me. Also, it took awhile before customer service acknowledged that the problem was at their end, not mine. That soured me on FM, though I do think they are one of the best. The main issue with Gmail is the possibility of being locked out of your account for some reason with no recourse other than automated systems that don't always work the way they are supposed to. Also, I'm getting less and less enthused about AI being larded into everything where I don't want it.

[just1acc]

I second that. Both has most functional UI too. However as FM is paid one and my organisation uses own domain, I usually prefer ZOHO for personal use alongside Gmail.

[TenFour]

Originally Posted by jeffpan

Thought I am an email geek and run my own mail service.
But for personal email choice I trust only two:
Gmail and fastmail.
But G is blocked in my location, so I become a happy FM user for many years.
Never had main issues on it.

What are your reasons?

[Bamb0]

Gmail shouldnt be trusted at all!!

They use AI!!

Im surprised to see you say that Jeff!!

[frtrsysli]

Originally Posted by Bamb0

Gmail shouldnt be trusted at all!!

They use AI!!

Im surprised to see you say that Jeff!!

G is actually notorious in terms of privacy stuff, even before the AI age. Do a search on "G privacy lawsuit", you'll find a tremendous number of reports about things like

"Sep 4, 2025 - A US federal court has told Google to pay $425m (?316.3m) for breaching users' privacy by collecting data from millions of users even after they had turned off a tracking feature in their Google..."

"A federal jury has ordered Google to pay $425.7 million for improperly snooping on people's smartphones during a nearly decade-long period of intrusions."

"Google LLC must pay $425.7 million in compensatory damages for violating the privacy rights of almost 100 million Google users who asked that their account data not be tracked, a jury decided Wednesday."

And that's just a recent example.

[jeffpan]

Originally Posted by TenFour

What are your reasons?

this is because, I have used many paid/free email services, most of them have the issues that I can not bear. such as:
https://open.postno.de/email-issues

So I choose gmail and FM only.

[Bamb0]

Ya shouldnt use gmail Jeff!!!

I prefer your site or safe-mail..

Yes I knew Gmail was bad even before AI!!

[dryoldlime]

Originally Posted by jeffpan

this is because, I have used many paid/free email services, most of them have the issues that I can not bear. such as:
https://open.postno.de/email-issues

So I choose gmail and FM only.

I looked at and read the contents of most of the link. Bunches of complaints but none of those complaints resemble my experience in using GMail.

[RFK]

Gmail is not private but reliable and integrated with other Google service

Fastmail has much more provacy and reliable, but not integrated with Google ecosystem.

I use both.

Outlook.com/hotmail, in general, reliable too and better for business (then Gmail).

[RFK]

Originally Posted by Bamb0

Ya shouldnt use gmail Jeff!!!

I prefer your site or safe-mail..

Yes I knew Gmail was bad even before AI!!

Safe-mail has a few features but considering its jurisdiction, it is OK for most users if we are talking about privacy. US and Israeli law enforcement potentialy can get access to user info, but there are very few users that actually should worry about this.

Main problem of Gmail is AI (you entire Google account could be banned because of false trigger of some image in Google Photos) and Google privacy policy, not law enforcement. But if you want real privacy with email, you should use PGP/GPG and, technically, you can do it with both Gmail and Fastmail (and safe-mail too).

Still, lack of features, no integration with calendar and CardDAV makes it problematic for me.

[truemagic]

No doubt, privacy aside, Gmail is one of the most trustworthy and reliable provider.

But if I love Gmail that much I probably woudn't be here 15+ years ago looking for fun, cool, and new email providers to try and thank God after so many years email is still relevant and that new providers popping up every month!

[Tsunami]

Originally Posted by RFK

Gmail is not private but reliable and integrated with other Google service

Fastmail has much more provacy and reliable, but not integrated with Google ecosystem.

This is what mainly turns me off with Gmail. I prefer a stand-alone email provider. Calendar, agenda, contacts etc is fine. But with Google, signing in to Gmail means signing in to YouTube, Blogspot (if you have one) and plenty of other services. That turns me off, I prefer an email account that focuses primarily on email, with as few other features as possible.

Other than that, I've seen Gmail change over the last years in a direction that I don't really like.

I still like it for day-to-day conversations, but the more important stuff I've moved on to a paid service.



If I'd need an additional mailbox, I'd consider Posteo, Secria and maybe Inbox.eu (but for the latter I'd need more testimonies).

Zoho could be an option too, but don't they have a lot of services integrated into the package too? Or can you easily ignore the other features and use it for email only?

[dryoldlime]

Tsunami said:

I prefer a stand-alone email provider. Calendar, agenda, contacts etc is fine. But with Google, signing in to Gmail means signing in to YouTube, Blogspot (if you have one) and plenty of other services. That turns me off, I prefer an email account that focuses primarily on email, with as few other features as possible.

You can use GMail, and just GMail (Google account but not/never use other Google services). Just do not sign into other services; but, if you sign into GMail, you'll need to sign OUT when you finish your email session if you visit any other Google service (such as YouTube).

[webecedarian]

Have you tried others? Or is your mistrust just based on online opinions from strangers?