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Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?

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Re: Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?

#11
post #7
post #2

Fastmail natively supports JMAP, is pretty cheap ($3-5). I always like selfhosting either at home, or using a cheap VPS - iRedMail, MailCow etc.

Thank you, I will look into FastMail. I have always understood it to be a deliverability nightmare when self hosting email servers, would you agree or disagree with that?

I have sent emails back and forth between Fastmail and my self hosted servers to increase their trust. Sometimes I talk to myself...

Re: Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?

#12
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you, I will look into FastMail. I have always understood it to be a deliverability nightmare when self hosting email servers, would you agree or disagree with that?

It depends, it can be... But tbh just set up a cronjob (auto repeating task) that refreshes your ssl certificate via certbot and you should be good to go. The initial setup might that a few hours of tinkering, but once you've made it you can easily have a mail server for $1-3. If you really don't wanna fully self host you can buy a Plesk workspace for like 99ct-5$ which allows emails, websites and databases

Useful information, thank you!

Re: Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?

#13
If you’re already invested in the Apple ecosystem you can get iCloud+ for $1/month and get the email provider (bring your own domain) among other things (50GB storage mainly). This is incredible value for the price.

As long as you use your own domain you can migrate away at any point so there’s that.

Re: Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?

#14
post #8

Fastmail. They offer an MCP server, but keep the AI features out of the product. Data export is available and trivial. An MCP Server for Fastmail – National Email Day - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47870988 - April 2026 (14 comments) https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/360060590573-Dow...

Thank you for the suggestion. You are the second person to suggest it and I will look into it! On first glance, this may be exactly what I am looking for.

I see others who have suggested self hosting, I cannot speak for others, I simply do not have the time for that. I pay for a family plan, I hand out accounts, everything Just Works. I'll pay for the service forever. Hope this helps. No affiliation with them other than a satisfied customer.
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