4d ago

Made Little Progress in Switching from Google, But Stuck on the root of the problem

Hey everyone!

So, I've made some small progress in switching things up on my Android:

        Replaced  Gmail app with Thunderbird
    Replaced Google Calendar with FOSSify Calendar
    Replaced Google Play Store with Aurora & F-Droid
    Replaced  Android file manager with FOSSify File Manager
    Replaced  Android keyboard with Heliboard

    But now I’m hitting a wall trying to find  ones on root of problem:
    free replacement for Gmail
    free Google Calendar alternative that works well
     on both Android and via Thunderbird    Windows

Self-hosting isn’t really an option for me, so I’d love to hear your suggestions!

If you’ve found something you really like, please share your experiences.

Thanks!

UPDATE

just started a free account with infomaniak so far happy with infomaniak except the free email extensions like @ik.me @etik.com or @ikmail.com addresses whether will be accepted / recognized by institutions like banks etc

also found a community group at https://www.reddit.com/r/Infomaniak/ will search if any group here as well

41 comments

In addition to an email provider I would also reccomend a service like https://addy.io/.
It creates email aliases that forward to your real email address. So you never have to give out you real mail address to any service. If you create a new mail address for every service you use you can easily deactivate it in case it gets spammed. Also you know that the service sold your data or got hacked if the mail gets spam.
Another benefit is that in case the CEOof your current email provider turns out to be a dick you can just go to another provider by changing the mail address where Addy.io forwards your other mails to.
- that's a good point I have already been using a similar one https://duckduckgo.com/email/

I fully switched to fairphone 5 but with proton paid accounts last year.(that was before the hoo hah of their CEO tweets making the rounds). At that time Murena did not support custom domains and I needed that.
Now the E/is and murenas web apps (running with nextcloud, you can get their cloud instead of nextcloud self host, and use a local drove for backups, (that is what I do).
That can work really well. Look at their compatible phone list. I flahsed on am old Sony I had and ran parallel with fair phone on Google android and got comfortable moving things. Then flashed eos on fp5 and formatted Sony. Now another family member will repeat the process.
And for calls and things I am using jitsi and signal.

Android file manager
It is a part of core AOSP, you don't need to change it. And this may be controversial, but try Proton.
- why would it be controversial? just switched to proton. is there anything i should worry about?
  
  The CEO has some interesting takes on US politics.

free
That's the thing, the Google services are only free on paper, you're basically paying with your data.
Get yourself a reliable paid email provider. Many of them are 10-15 moneys per year.

Proton or Tuta should suit your needs for email and calendar. Native apps are decent too.
- Thanks a lot
  I have asked: "free replacement for Gmail free Google Calendar alternative that works well on both Android and via Thunderbird Windows "
  Recommended by the members here: "have you tried infomaniak? They also have a calendar and an online office suite… and their free plan is nice"
  Then I picked "infomaniak"
  My latest UPDATE: " just started a free account with infomaniak so far happy with infomaniak except the free email extensions like @ik.me @etik.com or @ikmail.com addresses whether will be accepted / recognized by institutions like banks etc" ___>>

OK why is nobody suggesting Tuta?
I used the free version for about three years, till I needed a custom domain, so now I pay. Either way, I think its worth OP checking out.
https://tuta.com/
- Seconded - switched from Outlook 2 months ago to the free tuta plan and very happy so far: Android app works great, no ads and Linux app solid.

Posteo is 1$/mo and has email, cal, contacts, works with fairemail and dav5x.
If you really can't do $12/yr, you're stuck with advert subsidized. I personally would stay with Gmail in this case and just not worry that much. Your email in 2025 is probably not that sensitive.

For email provider Infomaniak provides as good of a service as google for free and their paid sub is 2 euros a month for 1TB of cloud storage. They've been a great alternative for me. Just need to find a calendar app you like if you want to use their calendar as it doesn't have a mobile app.
Edit: Also I suggest getting your own domain and using that email instead so switching is easier in the future. You can set up gmail to infomaniak forwarding in Gmail settings (reply if you need help with it)
I got myself kualdir.eu for 9 euros a year and infomaniak handles the rest. Got 2 inboxes and can add aliases if I want to use those. Can always transfer the domain elsewhere if I want to switch and don't have to worry about changing my email everywhere again.
- Seconding this. I'm also using Infomaniak here with my own domain, and would definitely recommend it. Their free tier comes with 15GB cloud storage on top of the 20GB mailbox cap, which is better than a lot. I'm more focused on data privacy these days, and haven't seen anything concerning about their service so far.
  Infomaniak offers their own mail app for Android, but the accounts are easy enough to set up over IMAP in whatever client you prefer. I've been favoring FairEmail personally. The same developer is behind NetGuard, which you might also find handy if you're on stock Android. (I'm using GrapheneOS now, which already has app network access control covered.)
  
  just started an account with infomaniak so far happy with infomaniak except the free email extensions like @ik.me @etik.com or @ikmail.com addresses whether will be accepted / recognized by institutions like banks etc
- If you're really pinching pennies you can get a 6-digit.xyz account on namecheap for 85c (ex:123456.xyz)
- just started an account with infomaniak so far happy with infomaniak except the free email extensions like @ik.me @etik.com or @ikmail.com addresses whether will be accepted / recognized by institutions like banks etc
  
  I used ik.me before going to my own email and no issues with any site, its a valid email if they have issues with it honestly just take your business elsewhere cause if they can't get an email validation figured out what else can't they do well 😂

You are not going to get a free email service that respects your privacy, as others have said if it's free you are the product.
I went with fastmail over encrypted alternatives like proton and tuta because they don't support using IMAP to connect with your email client of choice (Thunderbird android/windows) and that convenience was more important to me than the encryption. Fastmail also has calendar and contacts which you can also connect to Thunderbird.
Also if you are going through the effort of changing email providers then now would be a good time to look into buying your own domain to use in order to decouple your address from the email provider.
- Also if you are going through the effort of changing email providers then now would be a good time to look into buying your own domain to use in order to decouple your address from the email provider.
  How so you come up with an easy, memorable email for day to day use?

I use proton, but I think the calendar is a paid option. Tuta seems to include the calendar in their free tier Side note, I used to selfhost my mails, but over time this became a pain and I would not recommend anymore
- Proton calendar is free, though you're limited to the different colours you can use and the number of third-party calendars you can add
- Tuta seems to be OK but thunderbird integration is not free if I am correct

Why are you switching from Google? Is it privacy and data collection? Anything you switch to, will charge you, or sell your data. That's just how it works.
Free isn't a business model. Money needs to come from somewhere. If it's not coming from you, it'll be someone else.

There isn't a thing such as free. You pay with your data. I'm currently trying out the 7-day trial of StartMail. I use Tuta right now, but I see that StartMail offers disposable email beside their normal private email option. I can give you an update if you want after 7 days?
- I have been using StartMail for 1.5 years now, but will not be renewing. I like the general UI, however the email search is absolutely terrible. I am currently moving over to Runbox which seems to be pretty good so far.
- Mozilla offer something called Relay which can mask your email address (disclaimer: haven't tried it nor looked into their policies etc).
- Thank you, there's plenty of paid ones around.
  I have been testing the free one at infomaniak right now
  sync with thunderbird works ok in windows,
  sync with android via caldav ok
- I'm looking at options to maybe move from Proton, so I'm curious about both Tuta and StartMail

Honestly if you want privacy you gotta pay for it. I use proton and it's a great alternative to Google, but I pay for it.

I'm an early adopter of the Proton services, I always payed a subscription. The free plan could almost correspond to me, but as I can afford it I prefer to support them and free users 😁 one of the thing I love is Pass (password/key vault) and the 'Hide my email' function. The free plan let's you use every app : https://proton.me/pricing
- except that I cannot sync with thunderbird windows I think
  
  True. That requires a paid plan.

Proton has a free tier for email, calendar, Drive, password manager. They may do other things too but those are the 4 that I use.
- Proton has no free option for thunderbird integration I am afraid

I would recommend against Proton, it's just a matter of time before their CEO starts tweeting again.
Calendar+contacts: use Baikal
As for email, I went with a cheap no frills service like migadu
- Any CEO can tweet some garbage, this doesn't change the code and the developers views/work.
- I would recommend against Proton, it’s just a matter of time before their CEO starts tweeting again. I kind of agree on Proton, besides it has no free version works with Thunderbird email/calendar integration
  Calendar+contacts: use Baikal that is a self -hosting one if I am correct as I mentioned earlier as follows : Self-hosting isn’t really an option for me"

There is no such thing as free lunch.
- just started an account with infomaniak so far happy with infomaniak except the free email extensions like @ik.me @etik.com or @ikmail.com addresses whether will be accepted / recognized by institutions like banks etc

41 comments