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Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

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Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#581

Post by [deleted] »

sumek83 wrote: post #547
lvillani wrote: post #86

FastMail. It's one of the few third party hosts to support push email on iOS with the native Mail app (it's a custom protocol based on APNS), since Mail doesn't implement IMAP IDLE [1]. They are also the main sponsors behind the JMAP protocol [2] and some open source projects such as the Cyrus IMAP server. [1]: https://fastmail.blog/2016/12/21/what-we-talk-about-when-we-... [2]: https://jmap.io

Protonmail? Based in Switzerland, client-side encryption https://protonmail.com/blog/switzerland/

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#582

Post by etix »

brongondwana wrote: post #246
catwell wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all their servers are hosted in the US Not true, they have a lot of servers in Europe (Amsterdam). That doesn't make the issue less valid though, since I think they have a full copy of all the data on both sides of the ocean.

We are moving away from Amsterdam - so it will be full copies on both sides of the USA, and nothing in Amsterdam any more.

What a sad news. I was expecting more servers in EU in a near future and maybe an option to select the location of our primary DC (US or EU). I've been a happy customer since 2013 and for the first time since I joined I'll be considering other options.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#583

Post by ekovarski »

billysielu wrote: post #394
microtonal wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fastmail has an even nicer feature: subdomain addressing. If you are dave@mp.com, you can set up Fastmail to accept subdomains dave@hn.mp.com dave@lobsters.mp.com Avoids catchalls ;).

Tyvm! That looks epic. Link: https://www.fastmail.com/help/receive/addressing.html Might be tricky if the time came to migrate away from FastMail though.

I'm with @rb666; Don't rely on it as most will support plus+ addressing but not the the fast mail subdomain addressing as I am now in the process of migrating to Migadu.com and I need to go and unsubscribe and resub using the plus+tag. It's a PITA... lesson learned, stick with best industry practices even if there is an easier method because you'll thank yourself later.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#584

Post by ekovarski »

chrisper wrote: post #470
samlewis wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I tried this, I found a lot of corporate spam filters seemed to (silently) drop my emails, so I went back to using GMail out of frustration. Is there anything you do that helps with this? I was using GApps and I don't think my domain name was too spammy (samlewis.me).

Don't use any of the "unsual" TLDs, like .io, .me, .toys, etc.

I've used .io and other "unusual" TLDs for a while and never had an email bounce or flagged as spam.

As someone else pointed out, make sure you setup spf, dkim, and all the other jazz. Some providers will host and setup the dns for you but its always best to use your own dns provider as the records are relatively easy to setup.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#585

Post by danpalmer »

franga2000 wrote: post #328
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 also expensive compared to rolling my own. Using the standard plan, I'd be paying 200$/y for just a single address for each of my family members. Personally, I want at least 2 myself. Compare that to the ~120$/y I pay for my main VPS which has plenty of spare resources to handle not only my family's email, but also for some clients AND, since I make the rules, I also don't need services like Sendgrid for sending…

This might be what you mean, but I believe they charge by inboxes, not by addresses. I have lots of addresses, but a single inbox (which I use rules to file within), and that is relatively cheap.

I used to run my own email server, but found it difficult to get things like push email working reliably, and had a couple of issues with deliverability of emails.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#586

Post by snovv_crash »

earenndil wrote: post #575
snovv_crash wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fail to see how this is any worse than any of their competition, which does server side encryption. At least with ProtonMail there is the chance of them being caught serving backdoored client-side pages - with server-side you would never know. I feel like the hate is a case of people thinking not being perfect is worse than being average or bad.

If protonmail is billed as a pgp replacement, then people will think it is reasonable to use protonmail's encryption instead of 'offline' encryption, when that's not the case at all.

A version of ProtonMail with the application hosted locally, and no auto-updates, would fulfill your requirements I believe.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#587

Post by adiabatty »

mcjiggerlog wrote: post #190
lvillani wrote: post #86

FastMail. It's one of the few third party hosts to support push email on iOS with the native Mail app (it's a custom protocol based on APNS), since Mail doesn't implement IMAP IDLE [1]. They are also the main sponsors behind the JMAP protocol [2] and some open source projects such as the Cyrus IMAP server. [1]: https://fastmail.blog/2016/12/21/what-we-talk-about-when-we-... [2]: https://jmap.io

Does Fastmail provide any kind of "bundling" or "priority inbox" features? Since using Inbox on Android, I can't imagine going back to being notified about every single email. Automatic bundling of messages and the custom rules that you can then set on those bundles is a killer feature. If nobody comes along with a decent alternative before Inbox is shutdown then I don't know what I'll do!

I manually set up a bunch of rules that move inessential mail to a folder called "Bacn".

My rules list is about three screens tall now.

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#588

Post by yannovitch »

I haven't seen more traditional email providers with lot of focus on privacy, such as :

- infomaniak : https://www.infomaniak.com/en/hosting/e-mail starting at 1.5€ a month

- myKolab

However I have recently switched to a self-hosted solution, after years on gmail, because I wanted to be in control of my personal data, and because I can't be a proponent for privacy while being on a service like gmail. Time will tell ;)

Re: Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?

#589

Post by brewdad »

barrongineer wrote: post #217
TsomArp wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be wrong, but I also think it is expensive. When I can have a 5 family plan from office365, including, word, excel, powerpoint, outlook, etc, with 1TB per account, 60 minutes of skype calls per account, etc, for 10 per month, 25 per month (for 5 people) only for email seems too expensive to me. The only thing lacking is custom email address.

Premium outlook allows you to use a custom domain now. So long as it's registered with GoDaddy.

I would never register any domain I care about with GoDaddy. I did it once, but their spammy dark pattern practices really turned me off.
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