I switched to Purelymail a bit over a month ago now. I had been looking for an alternative to Fastmail for the last year or so. I allowed a month of overlap in case I needed to switch back, but it was clear pretty soon that I was in good hands.
For some people a month may not seem like enough time for an accurate appraisal, but really I can't say enough good things about Scott and Purelymail. Here are my top likes:
- As far as I can tell, everything is built with existing open source components, with some in-house patching. The webmail is RoundCube, and the Purelymail skins are just slightly modified versions of Larry and Elastic (e.g. branding and links to support), but you can still use the vanilla Larry or Elastic skins. Often internet companies take a Not Invented Here attitude that cripples their ability to ship a solid product, then when you find bugs, not only do you need to deal with the bug, but the hubris too. Open source avoids this.
- All the must-haves are there: custom domain, SPF, DKIM, 2FA with backup codes.
- The issue tracker is completely public: https://issues.purelymail.com/Scott/Purelymail/issues
- Scott is incredibly responsive with any problems. You never need to wait more than 24 hours for a response, and the response is usually that he's already solved the issue. None of that garbage with a customer service rep responding to say they're "escalating" the problem so someone competent.
- Scott is very open to suggestions for improvement, e.g. this suggestion of mine was implemented within a day I think: https://issues.purelymail.com/Scott/...mail/issues/40
- The choice of advanced billing. The basic billing is virtually unlimited, but I prefer paying for what I use. This may look complicated at first, but your account page gives a crystal clear view of exactly how much every individual email sent, received and stored costs you.
- The price is so cheap! I really hope he raises prices, because I do not feel that I am paying enough for the quality service I'm getting. (This is another reason I prefer the advanced billing; if I use more than my share I want to pay for it.)
- There's no superfluous junk. It's purely mail. With the webmail you can of course store contacts, but there's no calendar, notes, collaboration portals, smart bookmarks, social mention streams, Dropbox integration, etc. etc.
- Being able to write an actual sieve script file then upload it is pretty cool.
- The service is user-friendly but doesn't treat you like an idiot. You are perfectly able to write a sieve script that will delete all your incoming mail.
- Anecdotally, since Fastmail began pouring their energies into JMAP, their mail delivery seemed to get slower on regular IMAP apps (e.g. iOS Mail). It's good to return to the regular speed of IMAP.
- The complete absence of limits. No limits on number of users or domains or storage. No limits! You can literally open a single account and create separate email accounts for all your friends, family, employees, etc.
I've had some very minor hiccups with deliverability, i.e. some of my emails have bounced from servers that have been poorly set up. These have been when I've needed to email a place who had their IT setup by a guy named Gavin who arrives in a van. I've had no deliverability problems with the major providers.
I know some people are reluctant to use a mail provider run by a single person but I don't really understand this. Most people would only have one doctor, one lawyer, one accountant, etc. It seems weird to put your email above that.
For those curious about how the advanced billing actually breaks down, here's my billing for May:
Code:
Total: $0.84
Mail import/export job (seconds running): 3447 ($0.02)
Storage (GB/month): 1.02 ($0.05)
Shared-domain user fees (dollars/year): 0.00 ($0.00)
Emails received (GB): 0.43 ($0.02)
Emails received: 2559 ($0.09)
Yearly account fee (days): 24 ($0.26)
Metadata (GB/month): 0.00 ($0.00)
Emails sent to non-Purelymail accounts: 196 ($0.39)
Emails sent (GB): 0.00 ($0.00)
Emails sent: 207 ($0.01)
https://purelymail.com