From Gmail to Fastmail

#1

Post by etix » Sat, May 24, 2014, 9:56 PM UTC

Re: From Gmail to Fastmail

#2

Post by stevenleeg » Sat, May 24, 2014, 10:25 PM UTC

I also recently switched from Gmail to Fastmail and haven't looked back. The webmail is fantastic, they're not scanning my email to show me ads, IMAP works great across all of my devices (which makes me more inclined to use OpenPGP when I can), and I can use it with my own domain rather than gmail.com. They're also working on CardDAV and a web calendar (with CalDAV support), which will get me completely off of google once completed.

The only thing I really miss is push notifications to my phone, but I've found that 15 minute fetching works well enough for the time being.

Overall I've been really happy with it over the last 3 months. Definitely worth the $40/yr in my eyes.

Re: From Gmail to Fastmail

#3

Post by etix » Sat, May 24, 2014, 10:28 PM UTC

stevenleeg wrote: post #2

I also recently switched from Gmail to Fastmail and haven't looked back. The webmail is fantastic, they're not scanning my email to show me ads, IMAP works great across all of my devices (which makes me more inclined to use OpenPGP when I can), and I can use it with my own domain rather than gmail.com. They're also working on CardDAV and a web calendar (with CalDAV support), which will get me completely off of google…

IMAP IDLE works great, it's not as efficient as push on mobile because of the battery drain but at least you'll get instant notifications. That's what I use with K-9 on Android.

Re: From Gmail to Fastmail

#4

Post by Aoyagi » Sat, May 24, 2014, 10:29 PM UTC

Something I think is another huge plus people don't mention: you get an actual, living person for technical and other support.

Re: From Gmail to Fastmail

#5

Post by sandstrom » Sat, May 24, 2014, 10:32 PM UTC

I've been eying Fastmail for a while.

It's really sad that they won't offer Icelandic-only hosting, it would give some additional comfort. But perhaps that will change?

Re: From Gmail to Fastmail

#6

Post by dueprocess » Sat, May 24, 2014, 10:33 PM UTC

Aoyagi wrote: post #4

Something I think is another huge plus people don't mention: you get an actual, living person for technical and other support.

Responsive customer support is such a huge thing, and yet so few companies do it right.

Re: From Gmail to Fastmail

#7

Post by nilkn » Sat, May 24, 2014, 10:34 PM UTC

I just use the classic Gmail interface. I have for months now and will never go back. It's fast and cuts out all the cruft that I never use in Gmail, like the tabs and the G+ connectivity.

Re: From Gmail to Fastmail

#8

Post by etix » Sat, May 24, 2014, 10:37 PM UTC

sandstrom wrote: post #5

I've been eying Fastmail for a while. It's really sad that they won't offer Icelandic-only hosting, it would give some additional comfort. But perhaps that will change?

It would be a wise choice. I really hope they'll do it too.

Re: From Gmail to Fastmail

#9

Post by xkarga00 » Sat, May 24, 2014, 10:39 PM UTC

I have been looking for a free e-mail provider that takes privacy seriously. Isn't there anyone out there?

Re: From Gmail to Fastmail

#10

Post by bratsche » Sat, May 24, 2014, 10:39 PM UTC

I recently switched from Gmail to Fastmail as well, and I like it so far.

For me, scanning my email to show me ads didn't really bother me that much. But the thing that I really like with Fastmail is that my outbound email alias works the way I want.

The university I graduated from gives us email aliases for life, and I prefer to use my university alias instead of my Gmail address. It obviously works fine when I receive mail, but when I send mail from Gmail it would say "from me@gmail.com on behalf of me@jhu.edu" (or whatever). And so for a lot of people, when they would add me to their address books they'd end up adding my gmail address because that's how it was presented to them.

With Fastmail everyone just sees my jhu.edu address as I prefer.