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Instead of Gmail

Proton Mail

End-to-end encrypted mailbox with its own apps. Free tier exists; the paid tier is a few dollars a month.

What it is

A hosted mailbox where the provider cannot read the body of your messages. Runs in a browser, on iOS and Android, and through a local bridge for desktop mail clients. Tuta is the closest equivalent and works the same way — pick either.

What you give up

  • Search across a decade of old mail is slower and less clever than what you are used to.
  • Encryption only holds end-to-end when both sides use it. Mail to a Gmail address is ordinary mail.
  • Desktop clients need the bridge app running, which is one more thing that can be off.
  • No free-form filters as powerful as Gmail's on the lower tiers.

How to move

  1. 01Create the account. Do not import anything yet.
  2. 02Set Gmail to forward a copy to the new address. Leave Gmail running — this is a bridge, not a burning of it.
  3. 03Change the address on the five accounts that matter: bank, phone carrier, employer, tax, whatever holds your money.
  4. 04Live on the new mailbox for two weeks. Anything that still arrives at Gmail is a login you forgot; fix them as they surface.
  5. 05Use the provider's import tool to pull the archive across once you have stopped relying on Gmail day to day.
  6. 06Only then consider closing the old account, and keep the forwarder alive for a year.