Ask HN: Alternatives to GMail?

8 points·KaeseEs··7 comments

I've gotten fed up with the UI changes that been made to (inflicted on) gmail in the last two years or so; new compose is the last straw. What are some good alternatives? SSL, non-"flat" UI and a good thread/conversation view are my only musts, skins/themes are a nice-to-have.

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I can recommend https://fastmail.fm/ which has been a really solid experience for me over the last few months. The UI is quite nice—see Mike Masnick's write-up for some screenshots.[^1]

Their servers are located in the US, tho, which might be a cause of concern for some—but that wasn't part of the question. (Personally, I will be probably moving my mails off of FM for that particular reason.)

[^1]: http://www.maxmasnick.com/2013/07/19/fastmail/

Here's another review of FastMail (shameless plug): http://blog.workhere.io/my-experience-with-fastmail-as-a-gma...

I'm fortunate enough to have the resources to run my own email server. I host a few VMs on a dedicated server and had some space left for a Zimbra 8 installation.

I hate to promote pay-for's, but their Open Source Edition is still very flushed out.

If that's any interest to you, I'd be happy to host a few accounts. Canadian servers so standard CIRA and Canadian Privacy Protection Act rules apply.

Domains at https://gandi.net include IMAP (1 GB). Combine that with Thunderbird or Sparrow and you're good to go. Another option is FastMail.

IMAP. Or search for previous Ask HNs, there are dozen on the topic.

> SSL, non-"flat" UI and a good thread/conversation view are my only musts

Your answer "IMAP" doesn't _entirely_ fit here.

IMAP + Thunderbird fits his requirements, as far as I can see (although I'm not sure what he means by non-"flat" UI).

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