by I’ve really liked Gmail for years with how easy it is to use but I decided it’s time to move away from Gmail.
My reasons for why were simple:
- I don’t like gmail (Google) knowning everything about me
- Because I’m not paying for gmail, my data is what pays for it
- Not a fan of a number of things Google is doing these days
After spending a lot of time looking through all the email options, I decided on ProtonMail. The question then is, why ProtonMail?
I choose ProtonMail because:
- It’s very secure – End to end encryption – based in Switzerland
- I’m paying for it, so it’s my data
- Has many of the same features gmail has
- Soon to have a calendar feature similar to gmail
- Open source
- Simple online inbox
- Not too expensive, $5.00 month
- VPN is apart of my account
- Enough storage 5GB
- The option to add a custom domain to my account
The process
The challenge was, I was heavily reliant on gmail. I setup everything into that email account. The challenge was updating everything. Alright, so after updating 100s of sites, I was able to get most of it moved to ProtonMail. Then the next challenge was moving emails.
Using the Import Assistant I was able to import all my previous emails into my ProtonMail account. SWEET!
Then I setup my phone. Draw back is you can’t use the built in mail app, so I had to download the ProtonMail app. Done. Logged in and all my mail was there. SAWEET!
I downloaded my contacts from gmail and imported them into ProtonMail next. No issues there.
Only thing I haven’t done is forwarded all my email from gmail to Protonmail, yet. But I will soon. And I believe I will setup an auto responder saying, I’ve changed my email address.
Final thoughts
I have had ProtonMail now for almost 30 days. I love it. Works flawlessly. I have all my data. I feel better that I’m not as tied into Google anymore. I will report more if I run into issues. I’m very excited about the new BETA calendar and inbox coming soon. I have no issues justifying the costs of ProtonMail and I highly recommend everyone I know to switch to ProtonMail.
Sign up to ProtonMail today!