this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2026
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Privacy
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I recently switched from Gmail to Proton which was a pain in the ass. I’m still migrating or deleting a couple accounts per week.
Fortunately I purchased two domains (one primary and one for aliases) so future migrations will be easy. I was looking at mailbox.org + addy.io, on top of hosting my own Vaultwarden. Does that seem reasonable?
Seems good. Mailbox is good, I've been with them for 2 years. With addy.io and your own domain you should be good.
Basically my plan. Haven't settled on a final provider email wise.
The nice thing about owning domains is you’re not committed to any provider. I just switched to Proton but if I feel like leaving I can do that in an afternoon.
Oh fuck... It just kinda clicked how that works. Yup. Fully the plan now. Thank.
The con is that others won't send you encrypted email because they don't know you're using proton
And the other con is that it ties together your different addresses, via the domain that nobody else uses.
This is definitely a downside but is why long-term accounts get an alias on my alias domain and garbage accounts get a random passmail or other address provided by SimpleLogin. Stability/portability vs anonymity. I’m not sure if it’s possible to have everything.
Good points. I agree. I guess separation of accts that are already tied to your IRL ID, like banking etc, vs throw-aways is a good policy.
I can relate, my first move from Gmail when I didn't have domains hurt. At least I got the option to clear out hundreds of random services I signed up to as a kid but the ones I wanted to move were truly a bother.
Yeah I'd say so. Moving from Bitwarden is a great addition :)
Sorry, but with the ability to create aliases, why would you care to own several domains for email? I could see owning 1 for customization, but then just create different users or addresses for different needs?
Well, if you own a few little companies, or different purpose websites (say, for open source projects), you’ll quickly end up with a whole bunch of domains.
Yep. For example I've got my own personal domain for email and my personal site. I also run a Rauthy instance for OICD for my hosted services which sends you an email to sign up after being invited, instead of using my personal domain which Rauthy isn't on I can add the domain to Purelymail and now the emails can come from noreply@rauthy.example. It's a small thing but it looks nice.
I just started doing this a few weeks ago so I might change my strategy if it becomes annoying to maintain, but I like it right now.
Oh dude I love doing this!! I shopped insurance recently and used a BS SimpleLogin address. When I was done shopping, I signed up for a company with a different actual alias and turned off the SL one. Now all emails from those other companies are rejected, and my info won't be sold of and shared because they'll get bouncebacks!! Now I won't get harassed with email. It's also easier to tell who sells my info.
I'll do the same thing next time I car shop. I have a 2nd phone number to do this with too, bc I can send everything to VM and just leave it full until I need it.
A second phone number is next for me. Apparently that’s the real key lots of data brokers use because it’s pretty rare to have more than one.
So, I got "Hushed" from stack social when there was a lifetime option. I get 5000 texts and 1000 minutes annually. I don't talk on the phone, so that's fine, and I get la than 5k spam texts for sure.
Anyway, if I'm expecting a call, I have it forward to my personal cell, when done, goes back to VM. Texts stay in the app.
I also have a number through Jmp.chat (number), Snikket (service), and Cheogram (app). That's strictly friends and family. Jmp & Snikket have a deal where of you pay for the number you can use Snikket so that's $5/mo. So, $20/mo thru Mint, $5 for jmp/Snikket, I've had Hushed for $50/life for a good 5-6 years. But this way, it's cleaner.
My cell, I only honestly have that for data. I hotspot my phone for my other cell that's LineageOS. It's better than a hotspot device with longer battery life. I've got all Google disabled on that one too. As soon as that mint plan runs out I'll probably just carry my work phone and use that for my LineageOS phone with VPN. I do this so the SIM and IMSI can't really be tracked. Tinfoil hat guy for sure lol. But I get minimal spam!!!
Are there any guides you follow so I can get a better idea how or what I should be aware of when moving from gmail go mailbox or something similar.
I have a few domain names, but wonder how I would use those names with mailbox for example, and what was your process for moving all emails from gmail to your new mail provider?
Dos you start by mostly forwarding everything and then slowly switching email accounts on all your online services? Or is there something I am missing?
Obviously there are different approaches. OP responded they skipped forwarding; I did exactly what you said which was forward my Gmail to Proton so I didn't have to sign in to Gmail anymore, and then slowly unsubscribe or delete accounts, or migrate the email to an alias for things I wanted to keep.
My first move was from Gmail without a domain so I had to manually move everything, personally I skipped the forwarding step and just spent a while moving everything. Currently I'm using my own domain so moving is just a matter of following the provider-given steps and switching out my email related DNS records which takes a few minutes at most.
Btw mailbox has a guide page for using your own domain: https://kb.mailbox.org/en/private/custom-domains/using-emails-with-a-custom-domain/