Yeah, I don't get all the hype about Fastmail. To me, every US hosted solution is like uploading your content to the US. As mentioned by countless blog posts, I don't have anything to hide, but I should have the right to privacy.

Until I find a proper email solution within Europe, I don't see any reason to switch from Gmail.

For me my primary motivation to move away from Gmail was to leave Google's umbrella (ads/being-a-product-not-a-customer/worse usability as time went on), not to escape the USA/NSA (I moved before the NSA stuff came to light).

I'm the same way, although I went with Hushmail. I still use Google for search but I no longer have a Google account.

There's Runbox (http://www.runbox.com/ - servers hosted in Norway), but their web mail client is terrible, both on mobile and desktop. If you use IMAP/POP I'm sure you'll be alright, though.

I think the point should be to find a dependable email provider in the same country you live in. That way, your data is subject to the same jurisdictian you are and can only be used against you with a court order.

Also, look for a service with good support. You don't want Google shutting down your account for no reason with no person to talk to for getting your data back.

I am German. Thus I use a German paid mail provider with good customer service track record.

Which Mail provider are you currently using?

I am also German and currently checking out solutions for moving my mail, calender, etc. off of outlook. A major requirement for me is to manage different E-Mail addresses and send via different SMTP servers.

1&1 Hosted Exchange looks quite nice, but 9,99€ isn't that cheap, and there is no tryout unfortunately and afaik does Exchange lack an alias-Feature (+ send via another SMTP, so it gets send without "on behalf of...").

I am using domainfactory for email and a raspberry pi and owncloud for calendar and contacts.

Jottacloud looked interesting, and I signed up. But then they pulled the stunt that really aggravates me, which is:

Easy signup, only needing email and password. But then on first login, require personal information to continue, and will not allow to skip.

I always feel scammed when software does this to me.

I just took a look at Jottacloud. Unfortunately, they don't offer a Linux client which is a deal breaker for me.

There's also https://www.wuala.com/en/learn/technology which has a linux client