Quote:
Originally Posted by lpn
Have you tried mailbox.org and is so, how do you find it?
I didn't think of hey.com, when I first looked at it, it seemed more oriented to people with much more email correspondence and busy workflows.
So far my thinking is that Fastmail might be the best contender as it matches most of the requirements, although I myself have mixed feelings about that provider. For that I was looking for other options.
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Generally, I try to have first hand experience with something before I recommend it, as I would hope most folks here would do!
So I've either tried extensively, previously or currently use/pay for these services, among many, many more. Just like lots of folks in this forum are experienced as you know, using many services over the years. Long live email. And any suggestion I make is always with the caveat that you need to check things out yourself of course.
As for mailbox.org, I currently am doing a long term test (they are very affordable), and use them for a project I'm running, and so far I like them, quite a bit actually, although there are some minor peculiarities I'm not a total fan of, but overall, I think they're very good and worth a look. I singled them out in comparison to the others since I do like their privacy policy much better than US based services. But that might not matter to you. EDIT: And BTW, I consider mailbox.org sort of the last departure point before someone decides to go deeper into privacy with services like ProtonMail, Tutanota, etc.... It's a nice balance IMO, somewhere in between FastMail and ProtonMail in some ways, although their encryption is nothing to sneeze at either. Pretty balanced, actually.
Hey.com is one of a new breed of providers that tries to re-think the entire email workflow. I've done a very extensive test of it, really like it TBH, and have to say they show a lot of potential for anyone who wants to try their approach. If their approach appeals to you in any way, give them a good test yourself. Again, they are still doing the business service ("Hey for Work") on an invitation-only basis as of right now, but you can get a good idea of how they work and hopefully soon they will open up the domain and business side so you can use it closer to your specs. It's a paradigm shift for some people, but again for others it will not be helpful. YMMV. I am STILL waiting for my business invitation, after which I'll be setting up an account for a side business and see how it goes for a year before I move more critical mail to it.
As for the giant services like Google, etc., I don't ever recommend those any more, but if you have considered the various issues with them (actual service, support, features, privacy, politics, philosophical, moral, whatever matters to you), they are solid services and millions and millions of folks use them obviously, so you can be part of the Borg Collective if you want to go for it. Otherwise if you have any hesitation with them, I'd suggest going for the smaller specialized email service providers and checking them out first hand to see if they fit your needs. Nothing like a personal test... what floats your boat will be different than what floats someone else's boat.
As for FastMail, it's a safe choice based on the specs you laid out. They are not perfect, but no one is. They have a pretty good balance, I'm still hanging with them for some of my email, and I've found they are an easy departure point for GMail users, as I've now got several low-tech family members using FastMail and they are happy. Decent middle ground, great domain and alias features, pretty solid company, average-slow support, very good webmail and related app, nice people, good integrity track record over the years IMO, pretty good overall, issues notwithstanding. I still recommend them to folks who want to move away from the big monopolies but haven't yet decided to take the deeper, more committed plunge into services with stronger privacy policies, jurisdictions, and encryption needs.
Don't forget about Runbox though... for everything they lack in polish in some areas that FastMail seems to do well at, for example, they make up for it in other ways, and their pricing is outstanding. One of their support team in particular, who is also one of their co-owners, Liz, is particularly fantastic. She's a class act that makes me want to stay with them for many years. In fact, I think my subscription with them is now paid up through around 2024. Obviously one person is not a reason alone to stick with a service, but Liz is emblematic of their personal approach and care, and honestly, no matter what service you use you have to trust their people with your email, right? And I have come to trust Runbox.
Again, good luck!