Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org

I wish there was something like cell phone number porting for email addresses. I don’t know how it would work on the technical side or how you could secure something like that, but the idea of switching email providers is too daunting, so I stay with Gmail despite abandoning all my other Google accounts and services.

It exists: just port your domain name to a new registrar, and/or point your mx records to a new email provider.

Phone number is just a user number. Email addresses are a user name at a server name. A little harder to do if you're looking for something as ubiquitous as phone number porting.

The closest thing to a server name when it comes to phone numbers, would be the network it is on. For example, there is the public switched telephone network (PSTN), then there is the Defense Switched Network (DSN)

You kinda get that with your own domain. I think that's the best you are going to get

Not as easy, but could do it in phases:

- set up new email address, hosted where you like

- https://support.google.com/mail/answer/10957?hl=en (forward your email)

- update your email address as many places as you can

The closest would be having your own domain that’s linked to an email service provider (like mailbox.org or Google Workspace or several others). But to your point of switching email providers being daunting, first buy your own domain and then use that domain with an email provider of your choice. Then start chipping away at the emails you receive in your Gmail account and switch each of those senders to your new domain (and a new email address there). Do it a few at a time, give yourself a whole year to complete it and get going.

It’s even easier if you list out the most important senders in a checklist and move those first. But give yourself at least a few months time. It’s certainly possible.

Once you have your own domain, future migrations to another email provider would be a matter of moving the emails and updating DNS.

Isn't losing your domain a huge risk for any common user?

The problem is that I would still need to "port out" my email address manually to a new domain name. It's not an exaggeration to say that there are probably over a hundred places I would need to make that change.

What's the problem? Do it during a slow day when you're bored. Doesn't take a lot of time or effort. Keep the old e-mail around for any strays that you forgot.

Unless you use some sketchy TLDs, I've not heard of that

I've seen plenty of stories of people who forget or are unable for whatever reason to renew their domain names on time.

You can pay for your domain upto 10 years in advance. It's a frontloaded cost, but if you can do that (or even just 5 years), you'll have a pretty good buffer if you just happen to be busy at whatever time of year you need to renew. This assumes you still check up on your renewal yearly, but you'd need to do that anyway if you pay yearly.

It took me 20 years with Gmail to realise that I had screwed up by not starting with a custom domain.

When I finally changed, it was a lot easier than I thought. I just gradually migrated my accounts everywhere. I still have my old Gmail address, but I almost don't use it anymore.

Also (but I didn't try), couldn't you setup your own domain with Gmail? So that you still have everything in Gmail while you migrate all your accounts... but honestly for me it was really fine to deal with two email addresses for a while.

Well if you have any issue with Gmail, you're screwed. There is exactly zero support there.

With a custom domain, you can find a registrar where there are actual humans on the other side.

You are usually warned by email a lot of times before it ever happens. Make sure you receive them on devices and an email address you actually pay attention to. I also put an entry in my calendar a month before every renewal.

The funny part is you need an email address already to register a domain, at least during a bootstrapping phase. I have several domains across 2 registrars with renewals at different time of the year.

Where I live, auto-renew is the default, and the annual fees automatically get debited from your credit card or bank account. The ToS of my registrar give a two-months grace period in case of payment issues. I haven't had to do anything manually in over 20 years to keep my domains.