Since close to 15 years, I've been using Google products for most of my daily tasks. That includes from Gmail to Contacts Management, from Calendar to Google Keep, from Google Drive to Google Tasks. It's very convenient, it has excellent synchronization across devices, excellent search and much more. Of course the downside is that they know way way too much about me and at some point that's enough. So a few weeks back I decided to look for alternatives and slowly get out of Google.
First thing I needed to solve was email. My setup was to manage all my emails (two personal, four work) from Gmail. Using labels, snoozing and archiving was a great way to organize my work for the day, so I needed something similar. Inspired by Derek Sivers excellent article "Have a private email account", I decided to have a generic Gmail account (without using my full name) to be used in social media, Internet sites, etc and a very private email used only with friends & family. That's in addition to all my work emails. After looking for some alternatives I decide to use mailbox.org for my private email. They offer the option to use my domain and in addition to email offer contacts management, calendar, storage, etc. With 1 euro/month the price is worth. Next issue to solve was the email client for mobile (Android) and desktop (Windows). That turned out to be difficult and complicated. My requirements included:
- Manage multiple accounts including gmail
- Support for CardDAV protocol (so I can sync my contacts across devices)
- Calendar integration and support for CalDAV
- Integration with other platforms such as Slack, Todoist, Trello, etc.
- Easy way to archive emails and maintain Inbox Zero
- Snoozing support
These features would be nice in mobile, but are very very important in desktop. After testing some alternatives, I settled (for the moment) to use Outlook for Android in mobile. I'm not very happy, but that's the best I could find. For desktop, I spent much more time testing alternatives and crossed out Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, Hexamail, Claws Mail and more. Only Mailbird, EM Client and Postbox made my final list and here are my notes on them:
Mailbird
+++ Nice integration with todoist/slack/others
++ Snooze feature
+ Archive support
- Kind of expensive ~40 euro with coupon
-- Slow sync with server
-- No CalDav support, maybe it works with Kin Calendar (has support for google calendar)
--- No CardDav integration (only gmail/exchange!!!), alternative to import contacts.
EM Client
+++ CalDav/CardDav Integration (Native)
+ Nice UI
+ Fast sync
- Kind of expensive $50
- No todoist integration - use separate app (maybe widgets?)
- No snoozing - use todoist/categories
-- No archive support (can use move to folder shortcut). Planned for v8, 1st quarter 2020
Postbox
+++++ Great UI
++ Support Archives
- No snoozing - use todoist
- No todoist integration - use separate app (maybe use home button)
- messed up threads
-- Must pay $30/year - a bit too much
-- No Calendar - ???
--- No CardDav support :( - import contacts regularly
Even though, I really liked Postbox great UI and Mailbird archive and snooze support, I did settle for EM Client at least for now. Lack for CardDAV was a deal breaker for both Mailbird and Postbox. Until now EM Client seems solid and using some workarounds I have emulated manual snoozing (using categories), archiving (using move to folder) and todoist integration (using widgets). With CardDAV support from EM Client, Davx5 app for Android and mailbox.org support for contact management, I did solve contacts issue as well. Next in list are notes :)