In 5 years...

[Werpon]

I need a 'business email service' that won't disappear in less than a few months, so the question is:

Which email service (free, paid or whatever) is going to last, say, 5 years?

I'm thinking about buying my own domain, but who knows... What would you do? Thanks...

[lux]

5 years??

Hotmail
Runbox
Fastmail

[FromLine]

I wonder and about that too. Will email services like runbox and fastmail be on a year-by-year basis?

Fastmail staff is only 2 people, correct?

[Werpon]

Originally posted by fb19
Will email services like runbox and fastmail be on a year-by-year basis?

That's exactly my question. I only know of three email providers that have been active for more than 5 years:

http://www.softhome.net
http://www.hotmail.com
http://sdf.lonestar.org (not exactly email, this is a shell acc.)

So I wonder if the guys who are beggining to provide email now will have the same ethusiasm in 5 years...

[Jeremy Howard]

FastMail.FM has been active for three and a half years. Most of that time we were providing the service for free as a "beta test" and then later a "preview release". For instance, here's our front page from around 2 years ago: http://web.archive.org/web/200010110...stmail.fm/mail

Given that we spent almost 3 years testing before we even started charging, I think you can see the level of commitment we have to this business for the long term.

[ikxu]

there are also email services in other countries other than the USA.
I like laposte.net and GMX.net.

[Edwin]

Originally posted by Werpon
So I wonder if the guys who are beggining to provide email now will have the same ethusiasm in 5 years...

If the email service is a viable BUSINESS that pays salaries etc. then of course - why not?

[Kyle Babich]

Originally posted by fb19
Fastmail staff is only 2 people, correct?

That's a good point. Where would Fastmail be if one day Jeremy and Rob for some reason or another suddenly drop of the face of the earth? (Not literaly of course; I mean if there was a car crash or something and were forced to stay in hospitol without access to computers for months or something like that.) However having no overhead means faster updates and more new features. I believe the reason RunBox's new features aren't implemented as fast as fastmails has something to do with them having overhead with that Hans guys to seems to be rich and own a lot, which would give RunBox greater financial stability. So they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

[FromLine]

Originally posted by Kyle Babich
Where would Fastmail be if one day Jeremy and Rob for some reason or another suddenly drop of the face of the earth?

I was thinking along similar lines, but each time I started posting, I stopped half way wondering how to put it. But it is a legitimate point. No company should fall apart because one or two people leave for any reason.

You are correct that the two of them are human and there can be any number of things that could happen, both within and outside of their control, that could affect their ability to run the service both in the interim and long-term.

[btn]

You could setup your own mail servers

[ReuvenNY]

Originally posted by Werpon
I need a 'business email service' that won't disappear in less than a few months, so the question is:

Which email service (free, paid or whatever) is going to last, say, 5 years?

I'm thinking about buying my own domain, but who knows... What would you do? Thanks...

Is your concern the disappearance of an email service company or your fear of having to change your email address?

If it is the company - there are no guarantees. Who would think in 1984 that Visicalc and Word Star would be history in 2002? How about Word Perfect a miniscule word processor in the shadows of Microsoft's Office? I am afraid that most of the forum members never heard of the above...
As a computer user in the past 20 years (my first was Kaypro II, using CP/M operating system) I have seen companies come and go. And I am not talking Dot.com companies. There are no guarantees...

When I evaluate a company to do business with I look at the people behind it: how innovative, creative and committed they are, how they respond to the needs of their customers, how hard working and intelligent they seem to be and ultimately I follow my gut.

Among email companies only Runbox and FastMail seem to fit the bill. Personally, I am sold on the IMAP concept, so at this point only FastMail is in the running.

But as you and many other voiced their concerns, nobody knows... So you buy “Continuity Insurance”. It’s called “registering your own domain”. Your email address will never change, and if the service goes out of business - it will be replaced by another. You just move your domain and keep smiling! My email address didn’t change since 1996.

Reuven

[mail2me]

Originally posted by lux
5 years??

Hotmail
Runbox
Fastmail

What a coincidence. Exactly the three services I use. Runbox is going to my primary one. I analyzed all three quite extensively before coming to a hard decision. Lifetime secured email address, 100MB of storage, no bandwidth limit and nice short DOTcom address.

I was wondering whether to do away with hotmail since I don't need it now for email except for their other services such as file storage and file sharing but then I remembered that a hotmail address is a must for both passport and MSN Messenger which is the standard already since it comes with windows.

[nic76]

Originally posted by Werpon
I'm thinking about buying my own domain, but who knows...

if you register your own domain, you can switch mail provider at any time without people noticing it

[ReuvenNY]

One more thought - I noticed that a lot of people, myself included, mentioned among their choices Runbox and FastMail. While those two are certainly fine services, we are a little biased toward them, as we routinely see positive comments about them on this forum. After all they have their own respective sections here.
I am sure there are other fine companies, most likely not free, who are possibly good and should be considered. I urge the forum members to investigate fee based companies too, as the quest for "free" is blinding at times.
Hotmail? How can anyone consider them as a equal among the best?? They are slow, require personal info (passport), loaded with advertizing on the web and in the actual emails, allow only 2Mb drive space, sell your info if you are not alert, threaten you constantly if you are close to 2Mb, are target of major Spam, and lock you account if you do not access it in 30 (?) Days. Just of the top of my head.

Are these attributes of a top notch email service company?

The only valid point some are making is the size and stability of the company behind the service. Yes, Microsoft is big and growing, rich and profitable. But do you trust their altruism? Did you ask yourself why this profit oriented company gives away something for free? They don’t - they will only do it as long as they get more then they give - which means as long as you give more then you get. (Look again at my points above to remind you of your “cost”).

I had three accounts with them, one going back to the times before Microsoft bought hotmail. Just recently, I abandoned them with determination of “never again”.

Thank you for reading this posting.

Reuven

[Werpon]

But do you trust their altruism? Did you ask yourself why this profit oriented company gives away something for free? They don’t - they will only do it as long as they get more then they give - which means as long as you give more then you get.

That's what I've been thinking for some time. I suppose Hotmail will go for-fee in 1 or 2 years, and that will be the end of free email. So I wanted to find a rock-solid service...

Back on topic - Do you know any (inexpensive) email hosting service that will manage the mail sent to my domain?