What's a good alternative to Gmail?

i_am_hungry@meganice.online to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 448 points –

Trying to de-google and looking for an alternative to Gmail.

Don't mind if it's a paid service if it's robust.

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I am always suspicious of free. How do they make money? Have to pay for things in life, and I've learned that you are either the customer, or the product. If your the customer, pay up. If your the product, your data is being dished out to somebody OR ad-a-palooza. If the free option is just ads, I can live. If every time I log on I feel like I am getting a vitual colonoscopy, pass.

Proton is freemium. You can use the basic package but you only get 500 MB drive storage. Expanding that is cheap, which is how they draw you in.

They also offer package deals, like their VPN stuff.

The Proton free tier is pretty limited compared to Gmail, in particular for me, you're only allowed 1 label. The basic paid tier opens up a lot more. They definitely want you to upgrade to the paid tier.

How do they make money?

Buy selling a subscription that comes with more perks. For example, more storage for your email, custom email domain, etc.

Pre-paying for 2 years upfront is the most cost effective.

Your doubts are warranted, but with Protonmail and Tutanota there is no reason be suspicious. They are basically feemium products and their goal is to respect user's rights