This article takes you through all the factors to consider when moving to a new email provider and leaving privacy-invasive companies such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo Mail.
Switching your email provider may feel as difficult as moving to a new house or changing your name. There’s so much to do: telling your contacts, updating the email for all your online accounts, exporting your old messages. But the reality is it’s fairly simple, and you don’t have to do everything at once. We want to help you make the move pain-free.
In recent months, we started a series of conversations with our users to find out how they made the switch. What we found is that many people make the transition gradually. They often start by directing the most sensitive emails to their secure Proton Mail inbox — such as those related to health, legal, and financial issues. Meanwhile, they may set up forwarding from their previous mail service while periodically informing their contacts and updating their newsletter and account preferences.
Others prefer a clean break. And we’ve made it easy to do this as well.
Whatever your preference, you don’t have to be chained to your email provider. Keep reading to find out why switching to a privacy-focused email service is worth it, along with information about how to make it happen.
Why switch email providers?
You might consider leaving your email provider because you want to avoid being profiled for advertising, to stay in control of your data, to avoid getting hacked, or simply because you need a fresh start with a more transparent service that puts you first. In 2014, when we started Proton Mail, we wanted the same things. Today, we serve millions of users — the largest encrypted email service provider in the world.
Proton Mail protects your privacy by encrypting your messages and attachments(new window) so that no one except you and your recipient can access them. Because transparency matters, Proton Mail is also open source and independently audited(new window). Proton headquarters and data centers are based in Switzerland(new window), so you are protected by strong privacy laws.
Moreover, Proton is funded by our own users(new window) who choose to upgrade to paid accounts for more features and to support our mission to expand access to privacy. Because we depend on our users for revenue rather than on advertisers, our interests are perfectly aligned with our community.
Learn more about why people trust Proton Mail.(new window)
How to break away from Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook
We created a series of step-by-step guides for those beginning their journey with Proton.
We encourage you to migrate one step at a time. Our guides show you how to set up mail forwarding, export your existing emails, and protect your new inbox from spam.
Get started now
Should you transfer everything to Proton Mail right away?
Keep in mind that you don’t need to move every conversation to Proton Mail before enjoying the benefits of a private inbox. It’s a good idea to prioritize the most sensitive information first: update your bank accounts, medical providers, newsletters and ecommerce purchases to go to your Proton Mail address. This is also a great opportunity to start fresh and get rid of unwanted emails.
You might not think about it, but your shopping data is among the most important information used by companies such as Yahoo to build your profile and target you with advertising (Google scans your inbox but not for ad profiling). You can keep your buying habits private by having your purchase receipts sent to Proton Mail instead.
You may decide to keep your old email account as a backup. But if you do want to transfer your whole mailbox to Proton Mail, our Import Assistant(new window) app, currently available in beta, makes it easy to select and transfer the emails you want to keep. Alternatively, users with paid plans can also use the Import-Export tool(new window). In the settings of your Proton Mail V4 web version, you can also find links to our other import applications(new window), Import Contacts and Import Events.
Keep your new mailbox safe and organized
If you decide to transfer everything to Proton Mail, it’s easy to keep your mailbox clean of unwanted emails and protect it from phishing attempts.
Here are a few options to consider to arrange your inbox:
- Use your inbox as your to-do list, as your list of most important emails, or unread emails.
- Star your most important emails or the ones you need to reply to.
- Create and color code folders and labels(new window) by sender (“family,” “colleagues,” etc.), topic (“newsletters,” “finance,” etc.), or action items (“to pay,” “to reply,” etc.).
- Create custom filters(new window) to automatically send certain emails to folders, or to tag, archive, or star them.
- Create a habit to archive emails you won’t need in the near future and delete those that are not important.
- Use Contact Groups(new window) to keep track of emails exchanged with a particular group of contacts.
- Use sticky labels for conversation mode to label all future messages you send or receive in a conversation. To activate it, go to your Proton Mail account’s(new window) Settings. Then, go to Appearance.
- Use extra email addresses(new window) to create different identities (for example, create an identity for your presence on forums that helps you keep track of the emails and notifications you receive from it).
- Blacklist(new window) dangerous or unwanted senders and whitelist those that are safe. Proton Mail protects your account against such attempts also through the Link Confirmation(new window) and the Report Phishing(new window) features.
- Use Proton Mail’s unlimited email aliases(new window): add a + when you register with your email address to hide it from potential spammers, to calibrate your custom filters, or to help you later track the source.
What’s next for your private inbox
We are developing more features for both Proton Mail and other Proton products connected to your email account, such as Proton Calendar(new window) and Proton Drive(new window). Together, they will help you break away from digital companies that invade your privacy and exploit you.
When you decide to make the switch, let us know about your journey on our social media channels below where you can join our active and engaged community. We’re looking forward to hearing your stories!
You can get a free secure email account from Proton Mail here.
We also provide a free VPN service(new window) to protect your privacy. Proton Mail and Proton VPN are funded by community contributions. If you would like to support our development efforts, you can upgrade to a paid plan(new window). Thank you for your support.
Feel free to share your feedback and questions with us via our official social media channels on Twitter(new window) and Reddit(new window).
