good email alternative to gmail that provides an SMTP server

hello i’m looking to move away from gmail onto another platform, that is preferably a paid site so that they’re less likely to sell my data.

The one caveat is that with gmail, I’m using their SMTP service, which means I’m sending email with code from a gmail address I setup. I also can send emails as another email address from a custom domain this way as well. I’d like to continue to be able to do that on whatever other platform. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, basically option 2 here:

I don’t really care much about my emails being encrypted. Email isn’t very secure anyway, so that really isn’t super important as long as the SMTP thing exists

Does anyone have any service they like?

Proton Mail is known for its security and SMTP is exclusively a paid feature beneath their Mail Plus plan which comes with encrypted storage, a calendar & a VPN for $3.99/mo.

Overall, their quality of service is pretty good in my opinion, but some people disagree with the direction they’ve been going since launch.

Worth checking out if you’re looking for a move, at least.

I use iCloud mail with custom domains.

SMTP is pretty much the standard email protocol. Off the top of my head I can’t think of any email that wouldn’t have it unless it’s some weird pseudo email. (email is also a lot more secure than a lot of communication services)

I made this post a while ago compiling different email services. Though my purpose was for using my own domain, many of the options there do not require having your own domain.