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Ask HN: Custom domain name for personal email?

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11–20 of 29 posts

Re: Ask HN: Custom domain name for personal email?

#11
> For those who aren't using a @gmail.com, what are you using?

I use gandi.net. It gives me all the aliases I want for free. Other services I've investigated are better in some ways but are stingy about aliases. I understand about differential pricing and how it might make business sense to charge a premium for perqs that cost nothing to provide, but even if I were to self-identify as a rich person, the top tier on proton mail, for example, has a limit of something like ninety aliases. Barely a week goes by that I don't need a new alias for some business or institution expecting a permanent irrevocable claim on my attention, and when I printed a bunch of business cards, I put a different alias on every card in case a prospect's contact list were to get leaked to spammers.

> coming up with a domain name is hard!

I use [1] for pronounceable made-up names. It hasn't been updated in a while but is still working fine for me. With patience you can get words that sound like undiscovered chemical compounds, aristocratic dynasties, exotic circuit fabrication technologies, science fiction planet names, ancient goddesses, dystopian megacorps, etc..

[1] https://github.com/nwtgck/go-fakelish

Re: Ask HN: Custom domain name for personal email?

#14
post #13
post #12

> It must be professional! yourname.pro ;) As for a provider, currently using Proton but I'll switch to Migadu after it expires this year.

I'm using proton too. Can you share why you leaving proton?

1. I can't write an email from an alias. For example I can't send an email from something+yourservice@example.pro. This is possible from Thunderbird using their bridge, but not from their email app on Android. I can reply to an email and it will preserve the alias, but I can't write one from scratch.

2. Emails are not downloaded locally on Android so I can't access them when internet is not available.

These 2 have been consistent issues for me over the 3 years I've used them, and when I've contacted their customer support about it I was told they have no intention of fixing them.

Re: Ask HN: Custom domain name for personal email?

#16
post #14
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using proton too. Can you share why you leaving proton?

1. I can't write an email from an alias. For example I can't send an email from something+yourservice@example.pro. This is possible from Thunderbird using their bridge, but not from their email app on Android. I can reply to an email and it will preserve the alias, but I can't write one from scratch. 2. Emails are not downloaded locally on Android so I can't access them when internet is not available. These 2 have be…

I use Proton on Android and I can write a new email using one of my aliases. Maybe it was fixed recently.

Regarding n° 2, I think it will never be fixed, given the nature of the service itself, in which all emails are stored encrypted, and the encryption keys are in the server.

Re: Ask HN: Custom domain name for personal email?

#19
yes-this.com is available:

https://domains.cloudflare.com/?domain=yesthis

Register with Cloudflare. Use their email routing service:

https://www.cloudflare.com/developer-platform/products/email...

Fastmail is great. I use them. But you can keep using Gmail if you want with Cloudflare forwarding the emails from your domain to your existing Gmail address. You can also send messages using Gmail's SMTP servers using your own domain as the the From address.

Re: Ask HN: Custom domain name for personal email?

#20
I used to use {first name}@{first name}{last name}.{country code}, however you're giving away a lot of personally identifying data for free wherever you use it, or wherever it's leaked.

If you end up in a situation of online stalking or harassment, then you'll end up regretting making yourself so easily identifiable.

Instead, it may be prudent to use a TLD that isn't your country code as it's usually cheaper in the long run anyway.

As for the email server I use iCloud+ simply because it's bundled in, and you can create aliases, and share it with Family Sharing too. Of course this implies that you're in the Apple ecosystem and don't mind the lacklustre features of the Mail client. Otherwise my next choice is Proton Mail for cross-platform support and reasonable pricing and security.

You can get domains quite cheaply through Cloudflare, or more TLD options through Porkbun.

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