December 19, 2025
Episode summary
You have an email account, but how did you pick your email provider? Do you use Gmail simply because that’s what everyone you know uses?
I want your choice of email provider to be intentional, not accidental. Today is the first in a series of episodes where we’ll examine my most important considerations when picking an email provider.
Some will be "micro" considerations: specific, individual features. Do they have tags or folders? A "Report Phishing" button? How many aliases do they allow?
Some of them will be "macro" considerations: bigger-picture sorts of questions. How do they make their money? What kind of customer support do they have? Are they working to improve the email ecosystem for everyone?
I’m going to show you why I prefer Fastmail to Gmail and the other big free providers, like Microsoft, Yahoo, and Apple.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Super Simple Security Principles, where you learn how to think about online security, not just which apps to install.
I'm Nick Jackson, here to learn along with you from my good buddy and Master Guardian, McConaughey Mason.
All right. This is episode 94. Oh my gosh. 94 and 94, we're going to be rocking how to pick an email provider, right?
(00:33):
Don't just instantly run to Google. Let's find you the right email provider, okay?
Yeah.
So what do you think? Where are we going to start, man? We got to pick an email provider?
That's going to be the argument I'm going to make, right?
(00:53):
Like, obviously, as you pointed out, most people use Google.
And I'm not sure the exact percentages these days, but it's very high.
But I think where I want to start is just reminding why we're talking about this a little bit.
We talked a little bit last week about email provider versus client, and so now we're going to talk about picking one.
(01:18):
And, you know, the episodes before that, we talked about the different priorities in the email workshop.
Yeah.
And that's very much related to email provider because the email provider you pick dictates, to a large degree anyway, the email experience you have.
And email, as you know, it's just a huge part of our daily digital life.
(01:48):
And as we've talked about many times, email system is deeply flawed.
And so, right, yeah, exactly.
I mean, we've talked just endlessly about that, right?
And so, from my perspective, if we're going to try to deal with that the best we can, we want to have the best email provider, right?
(02:08):
We've got a lousy system, but at least we can compensate for that a little bit with the best email provider.
Right.
Yeah.
But most people only have experience with Gmail or maybe Yahoo, maybe some of the other free ones, Microsoft, Apple.
(02:28):
But unlike a lot of other things, right, you have those three.
Yeah.
Yahoo, Gmail, and Microsoft.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Because they're free, right?
Yep.
And that's just been a lot of the culture.
And there's been some good that's come from that, but there's been some bad things, too.
(02:52):
But because we have all these free options, people really, in general, haven't shopped around other than maybe amongst the free ones.
Right.
And so, my favorite provider, most people never even heard of, Fastmail, right, we've obviously talked about.
So, they can't compare.
(03:13):
They don't even know that there are significant differences that exist, right?
So, it's one of those things, they don't know what they don't know.
Right.
And so, why would you even bother looking, right?
Like, not only that, but testing takes time.
If you change, it's not just like a new app.
(03:33):
You have to tell everyone your new email address.
Even if I tell you about the differences or, like, you have this, you've got to explore them and learn them.
And then, to top all that off, the idea of paying for email is so crazy culturally that most people just are like,
but you even mentioned paid email.
(03:54):
And they're just like, no, not a chance.
Because that's just what people are used to.
There's the free ones that everybody flux to and they got all these flaws.
Like, run to Gmail, you're going to get spammed like crazy.
You know, like, you got all these flaws.
(04:15):
And it's like, man, maybe spending a few extra bucks a month so you don't get threatening emails,
might be worth it.
And it's, yeah.
Yeah, that is, you know, I know it's not for everybody.
Not everybody can pay.
But for most people these days, I think, at least amongst our listeners, is, I think, yeah, I agree with you.
(04:42):
And I think slowly, maybe it's just my, maybe it's hopeful, wishful thinking, but it feels like the more and more privacy and security issues and things come up in the news,
that maybe the idea of paying for a quality service, if they know about it, right, maybe that is going to become more and more acceptable.
(05:03):
That's, that's kind of my hope.
And I'm trying to obviously to throw my hat in the ring.
Yeah, hat in the ring.
Thank you.
That's what I was, yes, exactly.
That's what I was thinking, trying to think of.
Yep.
So, obviously, my campaign is primarily for fast mail.
And, you know, and against Gmail, right?
(05:26):
Mostly because Gmail is the biggest.
And it's the one, like, I have used and still use, actually, not through because I really want to, but I have a lot of email accounts for work, different organizations.
I have a lot of things going on with email.
I'm a software developer, a content creator.
I have a lot more email accounts and digital activity than your average person.
But Gmail and fast mail are the ones that I have, have a lot of experience with.
(05:51):
So, we'll sprinkle in some others because I do have a Yahoo, I have a Proton, I have a Tuta, I have a Microsoft.
But those are going to be the focus for fast mail and against Gmail.
But at the end of the day, I'm going to try to make it so any option that you can consider, you can apply these same things and look for the same thing, the features and things we talk about.
(06:15):
Um, because the, even more, like, even if, you know, you're listening to this and you don't decide you want fast mail and you stick with Gmail even, I just want it to be a more informed, more intentional decision at the very least.
That's, if that makes sense.
Yeah, makes total sense.
(06:35):
So, the next episodes we're going to do coming up, I want to set the stage for those just a little bit, is we're going to be talking about some reasons why, consider when you're picking an email provider.
And again, they'll mostly kind of be, you know, highlighting reasons why fast mail is better and Gmail and the free ones I don't like as much.
(07:01):
So, we're going to break it down and kind of take turns.
So, because I have two big categories of reasons or considerations that I think of in terms of micro considerations and macro considerations.
Another way to call that might be every day.
Those are micro, you know, and big picture are more than macro, short term, long term, that kind of idea.
(07:29):
Gotcha.
So, for the micro ones, it'd be just little specific features like, does it support tags or does it support folders?
Does it have a report phishing button or only a report spam button?
And then in their settings, what are all the different little settings that they have to customize how spam is filtered?
(07:54):
Yeah.
Things like that.
And then for the macro considerations, it's going to be things like the free or paid question.
Why do I care so much about that?
And if it's free, then how do they make money?
Is it an email service only or is it a whole suite of services like Gmail is and like Proton?
(08:21):
And a lot of them are.
Yeah.
How much do they respect your privacy?
How's their customer support?
Are they working on improving their email service?
Are they working on improving the email ecosystem as a whole outside of even just the service they provide?
These kind of things.
So, well, I'm going to try to go like a micro consideration, one episode and then a macro one and a micro one, because I know some will appeal to some people and others to other people.
(08:58):
And both of them are pretty important to me.
There's a lot of little ones and a lot of big ones.
So that's that's what we're going to do next.
Awesome.
But my summary is that I think for most people who listen to me, that fast mail is a better choice than Gmail.
(09:18):
I'm definitely campaigning for fast mail in general just to be upfront about it.
Right.
But like I said, even more than that is I just I care that you understand things and are picking intentionally.
Yeah.
So how about you?
What are any?
I got two takeaways.
(09:39):
I got two two thoughts.
One is completely random.
But so and I'm going to start with the completely random one.
Why isn't it that these email companies and email providers, I mean, clearly they've got to have some indication of all this spam crap that's going out.
(10:03):
Why don't they fight back?
Why don't they scam the scammers like they got the technology fight back?
And it brings me to my next point.
They're not going to fight back because in the old days, if you got something free, it was a free piece of crap.
(10:24):
And that's what they're providing is here's a free email service.
It's not going to be great.
It is what it is.
It's popular.
So everybody uses it.
But it's a free glorified piece of junk.
So, yeah, at the end of the day, Google, I'm calling you out.
(10:45):
Go do something.
Try and fight spam for a change.
Yeah, no, I that is a beautiful thought, Nick, because I think about the resources that Google has and it seems patently obvious almost to me that if they really wanted to solve the spam problem, they could do be doing way more than they are.
(11:10):
I think about if Fastmail had the resources that Google had, you know, the customer base, it blows my mind to think of.
Yeah, exactly.
And it just kind of thinking about in terms of that, to me, paints a pretty clear picture of that's just not their business.
They're not in the email business.
(11:31):
Their email is just a way to get customers into their real business, which is mostly serving ads and stuff like they're they're in.
And so it's just a means to an end.
And so that anyway, I that's a great thought.
Awesome.
Painful thought, but insightful.
(11:53):
Right.
I don't know.
Great, but insightful thought.
Yeah.
Yes.
OK.
OK.
That was a good one.
Yeah.
Are you ready to take action and wondering where to start?
Get my Bulletproof My Identity Starter Kit for free.
The seven most vital layers of protection everyone needs.
(12:17):
I'll send you one step at a time and help you if you get stuck.
Just go to BulletproofMyID.com and enter your name and email and I will send you the first step.
Again, that's BulletproofMyID.com.
Welcome to Super Simple Security Principles, where you learn how to think about online security, not just which apps to install.
I'm Nick Jackson, here to learn along with you from my good buddy and Master Guardian, McConaughey Mason.
All right. This is episode 94. Oh my gosh. 94 and 94, we're going to be rocking how to pick an email provider, right?
(00:33):
Don't just instantly run to Google. Let's find you the right email provider, okay?
Yeah.
So what do you think? Where are we going to start, man? We got to pick an email provider?
That's going to be the argument I'm going to make, right?
(00:53):
Like, obviously, as you pointed out, most people use Google.
And I'm not sure the exact percentages these days, but it's very high.
But I think where I want to start is just reminding why we're talking about this a little bit.
We talked a little bit last week about email provider versus client, and so now we're going to talk about picking one.
(01:18):
And, you know, the episodes before that, we talked about the different priorities in the email workshop.
Yeah.
And that's very much related to email provider because the email provider you pick dictates, to a large degree anyway, the email experience you have.
And email, as you know, it's just a huge part of our daily digital life.
(01:48):
And as we've talked about many times, email system is deeply flawed.
And so, right, yeah, exactly.
I mean, we've talked just endlessly about that, right?
And so, from my perspective, if we're going to try to deal with that the best we can, we want to have the best email provider, right?
(02:08):
We've got a lousy system, but at least we can compensate for that a little bit with the best email provider.
Right.
Yeah.
But most people only have experience with Gmail or maybe Yahoo, maybe some of the other free ones, Microsoft, Apple.
(02:28):
But unlike a lot of other things, right, you have those three.
Yeah.
Yahoo, Gmail, and Microsoft.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Because they're free, right?
Yep.
And that's just been a lot of the culture.
And there's been some good that's come from that, but there's been some bad things, too.
(02:52):
But because we have all these free options, people really, in general, haven't shopped around other than maybe amongst the free ones.
Right.
And so, my favorite provider, most people never even heard of, Fastmail, right, we've obviously talked about.
So, they can't compare.
(03:13):
They don't even know that there are significant differences that exist, right?
So, it's one of those things, they don't know what they don't know.
Right.
And so, why would you even bother looking, right?
Like, not only that, but testing takes time.
If you change, it's not just like a new app.
(03:33):
You have to tell everyone your new email address.
Even if I tell you about the differences or, like, you have this, you've got to explore them and learn them.
And then, to top all that off, the idea of paying for email is so crazy culturally that most people just are like,
but you even mentioned paid email.
(03:54):
And they're just like, no, not a chance.
Because that's just what people are used to.
There's the free ones that everybody flux to and they got all these flaws.
Like, run to Gmail, you're going to get spammed like crazy.
You know, like, you got all these flaws.
(04:15):
And it's like, man, maybe spending a few extra bucks a month so you don't get threatening emails,
might be worth it.
And it's, yeah.
Yeah, that is, you know, I know it's not for everybody.
Not everybody can pay.
But for most people these days, I think, at least amongst our listeners, is, I think, yeah, I agree with you.
(04:42):
And I think slowly, maybe it's just my, maybe it's hopeful, wishful thinking, but it feels like the more and more privacy and security issues and things come up in the news,
that maybe the idea of paying for a quality service, if they know about it, right, maybe that is going to become more and more acceptable.
(05:03):
That's, that's kind of my hope.
And I'm trying to obviously to throw my hat in the ring.
Yeah, hat in the ring.
Thank you.
That's what I was, yes, exactly.
That's what I was thinking, trying to think of.
Yep.
So, obviously, my campaign is primarily for fast mail.
And, you know, and against Gmail, right?
(05:26):
Mostly because Gmail is the biggest.
And it's the one, like, I have used and still use, actually, not through because I really want to, but I have a lot of email accounts for work, different organizations.
I have a lot of things going on with email.
I'm a software developer, a content creator.
I have a lot more email accounts and digital activity than your average person.
But Gmail and fast mail are the ones that I have, have a lot of experience with.
(05:51):
So, we'll sprinkle in some others because I do have a Yahoo, I have a Proton, I have a Tuta, I have a Microsoft.
But those are going to be the focus for fast mail and against Gmail.
But at the end of the day, I'm going to try to make it so any option that you can consider, you can apply these same things and look for the same thing, the features and things we talk about.
(06:15):
Um, because the, even more, like, even if, you know, you're listening to this and you don't decide you want fast mail and you stick with Gmail even, I just want it to be a more informed, more intentional decision at the very least.
That's, if that makes sense.
Yeah, makes total sense.
(06:35):
So, the next episodes we're going to do coming up, I want to set the stage for those just a little bit, is we're going to be talking about some reasons why, consider when you're picking an email provider.
And again, they'll mostly kind of be, you know, highlighting reasons why fast mail is better and Gmail and the free ones I don't like as much.
(07:01):
So, we're going to break it down and kind of take turns.
So, because I have two big categories of reasons or considerations that I think of in terms of micro considerations and macro considerations.
Another way to call that might be every day.
Those are micro, you know, and big picture are more than macro, short term, long term, that kind of idea.
(07:29):
Gotcha.
So, for the micro ones, it'd be just little specific features like, does it support tags or does it support folders?
Does it have a report phishing button or only a report spam button?
And then in their settings, what are all the different little settings that they have to customize how spam is filtered?
(07:54):
Yeah.
Things like that.
And then for the macro considerations, it's going to be things like the free or paid question.
Why do I care so much about that?
And if it's free, then how do they make money?
Is it an email service only or is it a whole suite of services like Gmail is and like Proton?
(08:21):
And a lot of them are.
Yeah.
How much do they respect your privacy?
How's their customer support?
Are they working on improving their email service?
Are they working on improving the email ecosystem as a whole outside of even just the service they provide?
These kind of things.
So, well, I'm going to try to go like a micro consideration, one episode and then a macro one and a micro one, because I know some will appeal to some people and others to other people.
(08:58):
And both of them are pretty important to me.
There's a lot of little ones and a lot of big ones.
So that's that's what we're going to do next.
Awesome.
But my summary is that I think for most people who listen to me, that fast mail is a better choice than Gmail.
(09:18):
I'm definitely campaigning for fast mail in general just to be upfront about it.
Right.
But like I said, even more than that is I just I care that you understand things and are picking intentionally.
Yeah.
So how about you?
What are any?
I got two takeaways.
(09:39):
I got two two thoughts.
One is completely random.
But so and I'm going to start with the completely random one.
Why isn't it that these email companies and email providers, I mean, clearly they've got to have some indication of all this spam crap that's going out.
(10:03):
Why don't they fight back?
Why don't they scam the scammers like they got the technology fight back?
And it brings me to my next point.
They're not going to fight back because in the old days, if you got something free, it was a free piece of crap.
(10:24):
And that's what they're providing is here's a free email service.
It's not going to be great.
It is what it is.
It's popular.
So everybody uses it.
But it's a free glorified piece of junk.
So, yeah, at the end of the day, Google, I'm calling you out.
(10:45):
Go do something.
Try and fight spam for a change.
Yeah, no, I that is a beautiful thought, Nick, because I think about the resources that Google has and it seems patently obvious almost to me that if they really wanted to solve the spam problem, they could do be doing way more than they are.
(11:10):
I think about if Fastmail had the resources that Google had, you know, the customer base, it blows my mind to think of.
Yeah, exactly.
And it just kind of thinking about in terms of that, to me, paints a pretty clear picture of that's just not their business.
They're not in the email business.
(11:31):
Their email is just a way to get customers into their real business, which is mostly serving ads and stuff like they're they're in.
And so it's just a means to an end.
And so that anyway, I that's a great thought.
Awesome.
Painful thought, but insightful.
(11:53):
Right.
I don't know.
Great, but insightful thought.
Yeah.
Yes.
OK.
OK.
That was a good one.
Yeah.
Are you ready to take action and wondering where to start?
Get my Bulletproof My Identity Starter Kit for free.
The seven most vital layers of protection everyone needs.
(12:17):
I'll send you one step at a time and help you if you get stuck.
Just go to BulletproofMyID.com and enter your name and email and I will send you the first step.
Again, that's BulletproofMyID.com.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.