Helm’s Private Email Server Is an Alternative to Gmail

That’s the promise of Helm, a tool that provides an various to company e-mail providers like Gmail and Microsoft’s Hotmail, that are free however give the businesses entry to your messages. Helm, against this, permits you to function your individual e-mail server (sure, like Hillary Clinton) and retailer your emails in your individual dwelling.

I made a decision to give it a attempt by buying and selling in one in every of my two Gmail accounts (admittedly, the one I exploit much less steadily), and briefly changing it with a Helm-based e-mail as an alternative. I needed to see if I used to be prepared to take the privateness plunge, and absolutely embrace a service that permits you to divorce your company e-mail supplier.

The Helm Personal Server evaluation unit arrived in a small field, and the arrange proved straightforward sufficient. The system itself is light-weight, 5 inches excessive, and appears like one thing you’d discover at Ikea.

Though the Helm server can join to the web by way of your house or workplace’s Wi-Fi community, I opted hard-wire it instantly into my router utilizing an included ethernet cable. Next, I paired the system to my cellphone utilizing Bluetooth, and downloaded the Helm app, which prompted a collection of directions for guiding e-mail onto the system.

This was really a two-step course of. First, you enter the server title and new e-mail deal with into the Helm app. (Instead of “@gmail” or “@hotmail,” the brand new suffix of the brand new e-mail will likely be based mostly on the area title you decide for the server. For occasion, my new e-mail could possibly be “[email protected]”—or no matter). This meant my iPhone’s native e-mail app was now configured to obtain messages despatched to the newly created e-mail.

This new e-mail is tied completely to a site you choose and that lives on the server in your home. So, if somebody sends a message to your new e-mail deal with, it gained’t contact Google or Microsoft’s servers in any respect. But there’s additionally the query of what to do with all the e-mail you’ve gotten already, and what to do about messages despatched to your outdated Gmail. That’s the second step of the method.

This entailed asking the Helm app to import all of my current Gmail messages into the brand new e-mail account. This took about 24 hours to full however, positive sufficient, by the point it was performed, all 6,651 messages had been moved onto the Helm server in my front room.

If I used to be assured that I needed to break up with Gmail for good, I’d then have deleted all of the messages from my Gmail account, and arrange a forwarding service that relayed any new messages and in addition knowledgeable my correspondents of my new e-mail deal with. But I wasn’t that assured—this was only a trial—so I left my Gmail account because it was. Finally, I added the brand new Helm e-mail deal with to the e-mail consumer (Apple Mail in my case) on my laptop computer so I may obtain incoming messages there as effectively.

Should you purchase it?

So what was the decision? First off, I preferred the sense of management that got here with the Helm system. It was empowering to notice my private messages had been sitting on a server proper there in my front room, and never simply on some far-flung Google laptop. Our expertise with expertise is just too usually passive, and this was a superb reminder you don’t want to reduce a Faustian information cut price with Big Tech to use an on a regular basis device like e-mail. I ought to add the Helm system additionally notes and calendar purposes, which means you would shed the company variations of these too.

Another cool function of the Helm is that one can add dozens of different e-mail accounts, which means it might be straightforward sufficient to arrange relations with non-public emails of their very own. It’s not exhausting to think about a virtuous cycle taking off as extra individuals uncover an straightforward choice for e-mail privateness, and resolve to additionally attempt privacy-focused net browsers and telephones as effectively. Finally, the safety of the Helm system seems to be fairly tight. I’m no professional in what goes on beneath the hood of servers, however those that are—such because the folks at Ars Technica—say Helm is safe.

And but. As a lot as I like the concept of the Helm, I cannot be chucking my Gmail accounts (even my secondary one) anytime quickly. One purpose is price. The Helm unit prices $299 plus an annual subscription $99 price after the primary 12 months. The worth feels completely cheap for what you’re getting nevertheless it’s nonetheless a giant leap from free.

But the larger difficulty has to do with comfort. The Helm service doesn’t allow you to entry e-mail from a browser, which might be a tough behavior to break. Then there may be Gmail’s stupendous search options and its throughout ease of use. Sure, Google has dedicated extra privacy violations than I care to think about—together with a latest one involving third events having access to Gmail—however none of those have had a direct impression on my day to day life.

The backside line is I like Helm and consider its mission (“privateness is a proper not a setting”) is a noble one. But except the corporate can provide one thing as handy as Gmail, it could have a tough time increasing its buyer base outdoors of hard-core privateness hawks. Meanwhile, the remainder of us are left hoping lawmakers get their act collectively to go a significant privateness legislation—maybe one which forces firms to provide paid variations of their merchandise that don’t plunder our information.

An earlier model of this text acknowledged an outdated worth for the Helm unit.