Ask HN: why no (big|known) Gmail alternative? (for non gmail.com addresses)

[o1iver]

I use Gmail as my mail client, but not really using the @gmail.com address, rather with my personal and university address. Now I was wondering why there isn't an alternative that offers similar functionality (ie. good client and great spam filter). Maybe I just don't know it, but I take it that it cannot be very famous then...

I was just thinking about this being a great startup idea. You could immediately make it a paid product, argumenting that you solve the privacy concerns many (especially here) have.

[tianshuo]

Did you try outlook.com? And notice that gmail could pick up your mail using POP3/IMAP or auto-forwarding, and could reply using your other address

[whichdan]

Check out FastMail.

[michaelbuddy]

zoho office / email. Fast mail. If you want a good client, go with Thunderbird. Who cares about web clients anyway? Any email worth anything has IMAP and let's you retrive / delete locally.