Differences between Fastmail and POBox?

TenFour · 11 Apr 2019, 05:27 AM

I think this has been asked before, but are there major differences in the "back ends" between Fastmail and POBox.com (same company). For example, I noticed they use different nameservers.

Terry · 11 Apr 2019, 06:40 AM

Have a look here but may be a bit out of date now.

http://www.emaildiscussions.com/show...mail+OR+PO+Box

Berenburger · 11 Apr 2019, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TenFour

I think this has been asked before, but are there major differences in the "back ends" between Fastmail and POBox.com (same company). For example, I noticed they use different nameservers.

FastMail and Pobox use the same backend (originally from FM). The differences are mainly for historical reasons (before the takeover) to stay compatible.
See further: http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=72615

TenFour · 11 Apr 2019, 06:55 AM

Thanks--I even commented in those earlier threads about functionality, but I was thinking more about the "back end." Things like servers, DNS systems, engineers, etc. They seem to use different nameservers, indicating to me that the back ends are likely different. Not saying it is the case with POBox and FM, but with other providers I have tried there are often pretty dramatic differences in the performance of things like the web interface, speed of delivery, and even deliverability. Frankly, I'm rather surprised they haven't merged the two systems, taking the best features of both hopefully. It makes me wonder if POBox is going to be around much longer as it seems to have changed very little in several years, and obviously all the public facing activity seems to emanate from FM (blogs, news updates, etc.).

Berenburger · 11 Apr 2019, 11:43 PM

In 2016 Pobox services are moved to the datacenter of FastMail in NY. To what extent they have already been consolidated into 1 infrastructure is unknown to me.
Pobox is positioned as a forwarding service and FastMail as the email/calender service.
I think most of the users of Pobox has no Mailstore account (email inbox). That's what's FastMail is for.
Two of the eight staff members are formerly Pobox Inc. employees.

https://www.fastmail.com/about/company.html

Quote:

FastMail
Email on your side.
Get the privacy and respect that you deserve while using thoughtfully designed email, calendars and contacts.

Topicbox
Where teams share.
Help your team share and preserve the knowledge you put in email every day by giving the right people access to the conversations that move work forward.

Pobox
Take email further.
Email forwarding that gives you control of your email identity, regardless of where life may take you.

TenFour · 12 Apr 2019, 06:44 AM

I wouldn't know what percentage of customers on POBox use Mailstore, but it appears to be a much better deal than FM. POBox provides 50GB of storage for the same price FM provides 25GB. However, maybe FM's spam filtering is so much better it is worth it? I used to use POBoxes email forwarding, which worked well overall. It is a good solution I think for many people, but I found the spam filtering rather tedious to deal with. It required me to log into POBox way more than I wanted to.

11 Apr 2019, 05:27 AM	#1
TenFour Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: USA Posts: 1,722	Differences between Fastmail and POBox? I think this has been asked before, but are there major differences in the "back ends" between Fastmail and POBox.com (same company). For example, I noticed they use different nameservers.

11 Apr 2019, 06:40 AM	#2
Terry The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: VK4 Posts: 3,012	Have a look here but may be a bit out of date now. http://www.emaildiscussions.com/show...mail+OR+PO+Box

11 Apr 2019, 06:55 AM	#4
TenFour Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: USA Posts: 1,722	Thanks--I even commented in those earlier threads about functionality, but I was thinking more about the "back end." Things like servers, DNS systems, engineers, etc. They seem to use different nameservers, indicating to me that the back ends are likely different. Not saying it is the case with POBox and FM, but with other providers I have tried there are often pretty dramatic differences in the performance of things like the web interface, speed of delivery, and even deliverability. Frankly, I'm rather surprised they haven't merged the two systems, taking the best features of both hopefully. It makes me wonder if POBox is going to be around much longer as it seems to have changed very little in several years, and obviously all the public facing activity seems to emanate from FM (blogs, news updates, etc.).

12 Apr 2019, 06:44 AM	#6
TenFour Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: USA Posts: 1,722	I wouldn't know what percentage of customers on POBox use Mailstore, but it appears to be a much better deal than FM. POBox provides 50GB of storage for the same price FM provides 25GB. However, maybe FM's spam filtering is so much better it is worth it? I used to use POBoxes email forwarding, which worked well overall. It is a good solution I think for many people, but I found the spam filtering rather tedious to deal with. It required me to log into POBox way more than I wanted to.