Messages and folder structure

Let’s dive into this data. One of the first thing you will notice when comparing the result of TrueSwitch and YippieMove is the way that TrueSwitch won’t preserve neither the message status (ie. read/unread) nor the folder structure. When the messages land on the destination account, they will all be marked as read. Moreover, TrueSwitch doesn’t give you the option to maintain the folder structure from the source account. This means that all messages will just land in the same folder. YippieMove on the other hand takes care of both of these. A message that was unread on the account you transferred from will remain unread on the destination side too. The same thing goes with folders. If you had a folder with 15 messages in on the source side, a folder will be created with 15 messages on the destination side too. The switch is completely seamless.

Usage, status and reporting

While doing research for this article I gave TrueSwitch a try. In my test-case, I transferred messages from a Yahoo account over to Gmail. Setting up a TrueSwitch transfer is pretty simple, as it is integrated in the Gmail interface. Getting started with YippieMove is as easy, but you will need to visit YippieMove.com to do it. Once I started the transfer with TrueSwitch I wanted to check in on the status of the transfer. Well, there wasn’t any. The only thing I received was the following message:

Importing – It may take several hours (sometimes up to 2 days) before you start to see imported messages. You can leave this page and the import will continue.

Now compare that to YippieMove. In addition to the status-page below, YippieMove will also automatically email you when the transfer starts and when it has been completed.

Supported providers

When you use TrueSwitch within Gmail you are limited to a list of 53 providers (not counting duplicates). Interestingly enough, Gmail is not on the list. Hence you cannot transfer messages between two Gmail accounts. YippieMove on the other hand can be used with almost any email provider or server on the market. As I’m writing this, there are are 153 pre-configured providers, but you can also use the ‘Other’ option and enter the information by hand if your provider is not listed. All you need to know is the IMAP settings for your email provider.

Contacts

This is a win for TrueSwitch. If your provider is supported, TrueSwitch can automatically transfer your contacts. That said, transferring contact data between email service usually only takes a few clicks. We’ve posted a instruction on how to do this between some of the most popular email providers in the help-section.

Transfer and timeframe

To do a fair comparison between TrueSwitch and YippieMove I did a test. The source account was a Yahoo account with 3508 messages in it (and only 28.2 MB total). I transferred these messages to Gmail using both TrueSwitch and YippieMove. My intention was put a chart comparing the transfer time int the post. That idea failed. I gave gave TrueSwitch a good head start by starting it 3.5h earlier than the YippieMove transfer. It took YippieMove slightly less than an hour to do the transfer (48 minutes to be precise). I checked the status of the TrueSwitch transfer throughout the day. Not until 11 hours after the transfer was started it appears to have been completed. (It should be noted that I don’t know exactly when the transfer was completed, as there is no way to tell.)

Pricing

Last but not least is the pricing. If you use one of TrueSwitch’s partner providers, it is free. This is obviously an advantage. If you are not switching to one of TrueSwitch’s providers, it is $19.95. YippieMove is $14.95 per account.

Verdict

While still trying to stay unbiased, here is my verdict:

If you are moving to one of TrueSwitch’s partners providers and don’t care about folders, message statuses, customer support, and you are willing to let the transfer run for several days even for a fairly small email account — go for TrueSwitch.

If you do however prefer to end up with an organized mailbox with folders and have it done in timely fashion — then go for YippieMove.

1) All messages transferred with TrueSwitch were marked as ‘read’ on the destination.
2) TrueSwitch doesn’t support folders. All messages will end up in the same mailbox.
3) Not counting duplicates (ie. yahoo.fr, yahoo.com). See this page for a list of all supported providers.
4) All services that support IMAP can be used. For a list of the pre-configured providers, see this page.
5) For single-transfers, email support is included.
6) Free for TrueSwitch’s Partner-providers, otherwise $19.95.