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Mailotte vs Gmail
Most Gmail alternatives ask you to give up the smart features to get the privacy. This is a straight comparison of what each one actually does — including where Gmail still wins.
The usual pitch for leaving Gmail is that Google reads your mail to sell ads. That was true, and then it stopped being true: Google announced in 2017 that it would stop using message content for ad personalisation. Gmail still shows ads in the Promotions and Social tabs, but they are targeted from your wider Google activity — search, YouTube, the rest — rather than from the text of your email.
So the honest reason to leave Gmail in 2026 is not "Google reads my mail for ads." It is narrower and, if it matters to you, sharper: your mailbox sits inside an advertising company, on infrastructure spanning US jurisdiction, and the smart features are wired into an account that exists to know you. Mailotte's bet is that you can have the smart inbox without any of that attached.
Side by side
| Mailotte | Gmail | |
|---|---|---|
| Ads in your inbox | None. Mailotte has no advertising business, so there is nothing to profile you for. | Yes — ads appear in the Promotions and Social tabs. Since 2017 they are targeted from your Google activity, not from message content. |
| Where your mail is stored | Servers in the EU only, for every account. | Google's global infrastructure. Consumer Gmail does not offer a region guarantee. |
| Who operates it | MAILOTTE LTD, registered in England & Wales (no. 17119010). | Google LLC, a US company. |
| AI trained on your mail | Never. Your mail is not used to train any model — ours or anyone else's. | Google states consumer Gmail content is not used to train its models without permission; the smart-features settings govern how your data is used across Google products. |
| Where the AI runs | Runs on Mailotte's own servers in Europe, with an EU-resident fallback that is contractually barred from training on your content. | Google's own infrastructure. |
| End-to-end encryption | No. Mail is encrypted in transit, and attachments and stored files are encrypted at rest with a key Mailotte holds — but Mailotte's servers can process your mail. That is what makes search and triage possible. | No. Client-side encryption exists only on some Google Workspace enterprise tiers, not consumer Gmail. |
| Desktop & phone mail apps | Native IMAP, SMTP and POP3 with an app password. Apple Mail, Thunderbird and phone mail apps connect directly — no bridge, no desktop helper. | Full IMAP and SMTP. |
| Free storage | 5 GB, on the Free plan. | 15 GB, shared across Gmail, Drive and Photos. |
| Aliases | 3 on Free, 10 on Zen, unlimited on Haven. | Unlimited +tags (you@gmail.com → you+shop@gmail.com), which reveal your real address. |
| Tracker-pixel blocking | On by default, with a dashboard showing what was blocked. | Images are proxied through Google, which hides your IP but still loads the pixel. |
Where Gmail is still better
Gmail is free at 15 GB, twenty years mature, and welded to Docs, Calendar, Drive, Meet and Android. Its spam filtering is the best in the industry because it sees more mail than anyone. If you live inside Google Workspace for work, leaving Gmail for personal mail means running two worlds. None of that is a small cost, and no comparison table makes it go away.
Where Mailotte does not compete
Mailotte is not end-to-end encrypted. Its servers can process your mail — that is precisely what lets it sort your inbox and search by meaning. If your requirement is that the provider must be technically incapable of reading your mail, you want Proton Mail or Tuta, and you should accept the feature trade that comes with them. Mailotte is a different bargain: a provider that can read your mail and contractually, verifiably does not monetise it.
So which one should you pick?
Mailotte, if: You want out of the advertising ecosystem, you want your mail in the EU, and you are not willing to lose search, smart sorting and a normal mail client to get there.
Not Mailotte, if: You need free 15 GB, deep Google Workspace integration, or a zero-knowledge provider that cannot read your mail at all.
Every new account gets 14 days of the top plan with no card, and Mailotte imports from Gmail or any IMAP provider — so you can run both for a fortnight and decide with your actual mail rather than a table.
Questions
Does Gmail read my emails?
Google stopped using Gmail message content for advertising personalisation in 2017. Gmail's automated systems still process message content to provide the service — spam filtering, search, smart replies, and features you enable. It is not end-to-end encrypted, so Google's systems can access message content.
Can I move my Gmail to Mailotte without losing old mail?
Yes. Mailotte imports from Gmail or any IMAP provider, so your existing messages come across rather than starting from an empty inbox. Set up forwarding from Gmail during the switch so nothing sent to the old address is missed.
Can I keep using Apple Mail or Thunderbird?
Yes. Mailotte speaks native IMAP, SMTP and POP3. Create an app password in settings and connect any standard mail client — no bridge application required.
Is Mailotte free?
There is a Free plan at 5 GB with 3 aliases, and every new account starts with a 14-day trial of the top plan with no card required.