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Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

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Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#401

Post by bluehatbrit »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #65
BlindRabbit wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the exact same problem. Then I found https://www.migadu.com/ "Have as many email addresses on as many domains you need, anytime. No extra costs. All your projects, ideas, employees, family members and IoT devices are welcome. Pets too. Migadu is a radically different, independent email hosting from Switzerland. We do not count your domains, mailboxes, gigabytes or teeth."

I'm just browsing their website and it seems a bit too good to be true... The only drawback I see are daily sending limits (which I'm very happy with).

I've been using them for 2 years now, I'm a big fan of the service. I thought it was a bit too good to be true at first but I was slowly transitioning from a gmail address to my own domain so it wasn't a huge issue if it fell over or something. Turns out to be pretty rock solid and I'm a very happy customer now.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#402

Post by newscracker »

danpalmer wrote: post #187
nadont8 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FastMail is good, but it's very expensive. I'm waiting for more competition in this space. I think, as people turn away from Google (and thus Gmail), more competition will arise and we'll finally see fair prices.

I don't feel like FastMail is that expensive for most people. Obviously, compared to free, it's expensive. But in real terms, I pay $70 every 2 years for it - works out about £25 a year for me, which is about the price of a meal out. I think that's worth it for secure and powerful email. I've never found it to be expensive.

Fastmail can get quite expensive when you need more than a few mailboxes (not aliases, but mailboxes). Cheaper options are Posteo, Mailbox.org and Runbox.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#403

Post by brongondwana »

microtonal wrote: post #379
brongondwana wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically the problem was datacentre network reliability, power reliability, and the pointlessness of having one EU datacentre which isn't reliable enough to run production out of. We'd still need to replicate to a second datacentre for multi-site safety. At that point, why bother? We'd have to run two EU datacentres to have data only in EU, and we'd still be under the same actual legal jurisdiction (Australia) eithe…

We haven't ever given data to US authorities directly, we point every single request from anyone to the Mutual Assistance Treaty with Australia, and that would be the same regardless of where servers are. The EU is outside the jurisdiction of FISA courts, whereas New York is not. I am definitely not an expert or lawyer, but I would think this is not just security theater. I was always hoping that Fastmail offer hosti…

For sure if we had two separate EU datacentres and no US datacentre contained a copy of the emails that would be not security theater. While there's copies in both jurisdictions, having a copy be outside the US really is security theater though.

The financials of running up two full EU-only datacentres don't make sense for us at the moment given the demographic distribution of our customers. And we haven't had any run-ins with the FISA courts in the nearly 20 years we've been operating.

Of course the past isn't a 100% predictor of the future, but US authorities have always been happy (or at least willing) to accept that our data is under Australian jurisdiction.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#404

Post by beagle3 »

paxswill wrote: post #263
kaivi wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this. Their service was exceptional for 3+ years I've been with FastMail. Got many small businesses I've worked with to migrate. Only thing which annoys me is that their push-enabled iOS app does not support multiple accounts. It has been like that for years, I've heard that a new app was in the making, but nothing came out yet.

You don't need to use their app for push on iOS. They worked with Apple to enable push in the built-in client.

Doesn’t anything that speak the exchange protocol (e.g. Zarafa and anything else that uses Z-Push) also support it?

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#405

Post by bluehatbrit »

eikenberry wrote: post #61
BlindRabbit wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the exact same problem. Then I found https://www.migadu.com/ "Have as many email addresses on as many domains you need, anytime. No extra costs. All your projects, ideas, employees, family members and IoT devices are welcome. Pets too. Migadu is a radically different, independent email hosting from Switzerland. We do not count your domains, mailboxes, gigabytes or teeth."

First I've heard of these guys but it looks like a great deal. It looks almost to good to be true for a family.

I'd highly recommend it, I've been a customer for about 2 years now I think. As per my comment above, I've found them to be rock solid so far. I also can't speak highly enough of their customer service either.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#406

Post by brongondwana »

ahje wrote: post #348
simfoo wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing to keep in mind about Fastmail is that all their servers are hosted in the US and they have no plan about changing this (I asked). Post-Snowden this means you can be quite sure that all mails will end up being analysed by the US authorities

While you're absolutely right, details that are sensitive in nature should be encrypted using end-to-end encryption. Otherwise you won't be safe regardless of email provider, as the other correspondents will often be using a US email provider anyway. If your threat model includes an actual threat from organizations like the NSA, then I'd say you have bigger problems than the choice of email provider. EDIT: I self hos…

Interestingly, as a self-hoster your email is much more prone to metadata analysis than anybody who is hosted at one of the big providers and has most of their email transferred to other big providers down TLS-protected port 25 streams.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#407

Post by newscracker »

nadont8 wrote: post #191
danpalmer wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't feel like FastMail is that expensive for most people. Obviously, compared to free, it's expensive. But in real terms, I pay $70 every 2 years for it - works out about £25 a year for me, which is about the price of a meal out. I think that's worth it for secure and powerful email. I've never found it to be expensive.

It's expensive if you think of what it costs to keep a mail server online. They have a price that clearly shows to me that they have no competition.

There is competition. It’s just that many people don’t know or haven’t tried them. Here are three providers on par with Fastmail but are way cheaper if you need multiple mailboxes — Posteo (posteo.de), Mailbox (mailbox.org) and Runbox (runbox.com).

But I do believe that even these cheaper ones are expensive for what they provide in terms of storage capacity, number of aliases, etc. Costs are supposed to go down over time, and prices too.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#409

Post by newscracker »

bennofs wrote: post #275
glandium wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you get for less than $35 per year? A cheap VPS? Are there plans for less than $3 per month these days?

mailbox.org and posteo.de are both 1€ per month. I haven't used either though.

I use Posteo and would highly recommend it. There may be occasional hiccups, but those seem to be few and far between.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#410

Post by vjsc »

plicense wrote: post #302
rajuvegesna wrote: post #94

Zoho Mail is a strong option. Comes with mobile apps, supports all standard protocols (IMAP/POP/ActiveSync), includes Calendar and many other modules. Zero tracking. Zero ads. Beyond Mail, Zoho offers several apps that can replace most of what Google offers. From Docs to office suite, note-taking to chat and many more. (Disclosure: I am with Zoho)

To be honest, I would stay away from Zoho. I know a couple of friends who work there and they frequently mention having access to raw email contents with minimal supervision. That's now how I want my email to be treated by the company hosting my email services.

Thanks for the information. It's quite amazing and shocking to hear that these guys are able to look at their customers emails.

That must be some kind of violation liable for a court case.

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