Posteo.de - E-mail service. How good?

[malcontent]

I've seen 'Posteo.de' mentioned in a few threads on this forum. Can anyone who is using this service regularly give their opinion or review of the service?

Are they reliable? Any accessibility issues?

How are their anti-spam and filters? Are they user configurable?

Aliases?

Are their emails regularly mistaken for spam in some parts of the world?

Are they good enough to be a primary email address for a user?

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Thank you for sharing your experiences with this service.

[north]

Originally Posted by malcontent

I've seen 'Posteo.de' mentioned in a few threads on this forum. Can anyone who is using this service regularly give their opinion or review of the service?

I'll try.

Are they reliable? Any accessibility issues?

The service is reliable, stable and offers all the security features that are common. They anonymous paying works well (send for example a 20 € banknote and get the full service for 20 month!)

How are their anti-spam and filters? Are they user configurable?

I dont use filters.

Aliases?

Two for free. More for 0,10 € per month.

Do they send user IP addresses in their emails?

No.

Are their emails regularly mistaken for spam in some parts of the world?

I do not really know.

Are they good enough to be a primary email address for a user?

Yes I think so. Its not that new service but after the lavabit desaster posteo becomes more popular. But posteo is a german company and there are some legal issues in germany that mailproviders have to give data to the state (secret) service in case of murder e.g.

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Thank you for sharing your experiences with this service.

You are welcome.

There is just one thing that I do not like that much. Posteo seems to be a bit "hipster-driven" and based in a part of berlin where hipsters like to live because the use "grün, sicher, werbefrei" (green, save and addfree") that are very popular words nowaday in germany in the political discussion. As long as you are green, left (wing), gender(whatever), antiwar, antiatomicenergey and pro abortion and vegetarian or better vegan than you are a "good-one". Posteo in my point of view is dealing with this stuff. They support a group called "Freiheit statt Angst" the is powered mostly be leftwing and militant green groups.

Please keep this in mind.

[Dutchie007]

Didn´t sign up with this because it´s NOT free...but imho there are better options out there if you wanna use a German based email provider.

Also it´s a bit TOO political for my taste....but thats personal.

If you realy want that NSA (or their german equivalent) is watching your emails you should sign up at Posteo.de;-)

Dutchie.

[malcontent]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll keep looking around.

[Tsunami]

Originally Posted by north

I'll try.


The service is reliable, stable and offers all the security features that are common. They anonymous paying works well (send for example a 20 € banknote and get the full service for 20 month!)


I dont use filters.


Two for free. More for 0,10 € per month.


No.


I do not really know.


Yes I think so. Its not that new service but after the lavabit desaster posteo becomes more popular. But posteo is a german company and there are some legal issues in germany that mailproviders have to give data to the state (secret) service in case of murder e.g.

---------


You are welcome.

There is just one thing that I do not like that much. Posteo seems to be a bit "hipster-driven" and based in a part of berlin where hipsters like to live because the use "grün, sicher, werbefrei" (green, save and addfree") that are very popular words nowaday in germany in the political discussion. As long as you are green, left (wing), gender(whatever), antiwar, antiatomicenergey and pro abortion and vegetarian or better vegan than you are a "good-one". Posteo in my point of view is dealing with this stuff. They support a group called "Freiheit statt Angst" the is powered mostly be leftwing and militant green groups.

Please keep this in mind.

If they are serious about those ideals, shouldn't they be giving them for free to those who have the same political believes? I am vegetarian (almost totally vegan), I support environmental causes, ... where can I apply for an account for the sake of spreading their ideals ?

On a serious note, I don't mind the political issue, but what worries me a bit is the same as with EVERY relatively new provider: how are they guaranteeing long term survival in the shadow of the big players? And this is a concern I have with any email service that has not been around and been stable for several years at least. What is their plan to guarantee long term survival?

[David]

Originally Posted by Tsunami

If they are serious about those ideals, shouldn't they be giving them for free to those who have the same political believes? I am vegetarian (almost totally vegan), I support environmental causes, ... where can I apply for an account for the sake of spreading their ideals ?

On a serious note, I don't mind the political issue, but what worries me a bit is the same as with EVERY relatively new provider: how are they guaranteeing long term survival in the shadow of the big players? And this is a concern I have with any email service that has not been around and been stable for several years at least. What is their plan to guarantee long term survival?

I don't know Tsunami but why would long term survival be an issue (you don't need long term survival in order to maintain an email address these days, for sure)

If you support the same ideals as this company, why would you want to be able to do this for free.

[Tsunami]

Because I don't want the hassle of storing emails with a provider who isn't giving me the impression they'll stick around for many years to come ; I don't want the hassle of having to change email addresses regularly ... And with any smaller provider competing against the "big guns" (Gmail, Microsoft, Yahoo, maybe I should include AOL, Mail.ru and Zoho ?) the risk is that the initiative is idealistic and full of enthousiasm but that after a short while there are problems to keep the service running. Lavabit for sure won't be the only idealistic service who experienced that it's hard to compete out there and survive without solid long term business plan.

The political side of a provider doesn't bother me ; first of all few people receiving an email will look up the political ideals of the provider, most won't pay attention to that. Secondly, it's not a crime to express your political ideals.
What bothers me with any such initiatives (Posteo, Protonmail, Autistici, ...) is : what gives me the impression the service won't be short-lived?

I've tried many smaller providers the last 15 years. Except Safe-Mail, all those accounts I've lost because the service was too unstable or simply ceased to exist. Safe-Mail has been the one exception (and EUMX but that doesn't really count since it's not a free provider, even though they have gift accounts for forum members).
The hassle of losing stored emails, having to notify all my contacts and friends of once again changing email address, is quite unpleasant.

[David]

Originally Posted by Tsunami

I don't want the hassle of having to change email addresses regularly ...

I've tried many smaller providers the last 15 years. Except Safe-Mail, all those accounts I've lost because the service was too unstable or simply ceased to exist. Safe-Mail has been the one exception (and EUMX but that doesn't really count since it's not a free provider, even though they have gift accounts for forum members).

The hassle of losing stored emails, having to notify all my contacts and friends of once again changing email address, is quite unpleasant.

I do understand your point of view Tsunami but think that you should never be afraid of giving anything new: ie posteo, a fair shot.

As Posteo do not support own domain hosting (for obvious reasons) I am forwarding my mail to them (from my registrars) - I only use registrars who's forwarding I can trust...

Posteo's business model looks good to me. After much research I doubt that they will be closing down their company any time soon...

In a worst case scenario I can easily move my mail over to another service (at short notice if needed)

I will also mention that I only give out email addresses associated with my domain names.

I appreciate reading your posts (and point of view) Tsunami

Cheers

[FredOnline]

Originally Posted by David

As Posteo do not support own domain hosting (for obvious reasons) I am forwarding my mail to them (from my registrars)

This may be of interest:

https://posteo.de/site/postmaster

Customers' domain names

Posteo customers may choose to use their own email address in the From-header of their emails. If you plan to implement a corresponding SPF record for your own domain, you can end it with a redirect=posteo.de mechanism, or add an include=posteo.de mechanism.

[David]

Many thanks - though I have not set SPF records (as yet) I plan to do so very soon.

I will mention that when I set up Posteo to pull in mail from Outlook.com that Microsoft complained loudly - they disabled my account and I was unable to login until I had completed a 2FA like routine, by receiving and entering a confirmation code (received on my mobile phone) In future I will likely just set up forwarding for this account, or keep it separate.

[FredOnline]

I got something similar when I set up a transfer of e-mails into my Posteo account.

It's good that, when a German based company wants to initiate a download of e-mails and you're not in Germany, it gets questioned.

[David]

Originally Posted by FredOnline

It's good that, when a German based company wants to initiate a download of e-mails and you're not in Germany, it gets questioned.

Agreed: I am located in Canada (mostly) these days but have had problems accessing my Outlook account, when I visit Europe and the UK.

[William9]

Originally Posted by Tsunami

...

I've tried many smaller providers the last 15 years. Except Safe-Mail, all those accounts I've lost because the service was too unstable or simply ceased to exist. Safe-Mail has been the one exception (and EUMX but that doesn't really count since it's not a free provider, even though they have gift accounts for forum members).
The hassle of losing stored emails, having to notify all my contacts and friends of once again changing email address, is quite unpleasant.

This is why searching for and using little-known, small providers is risky form several standpoints. Losing data -- and what do they do with their customers' account information and messages when they close down? Since you can't actually see the operator, it could be a kid with a computer in his/her dorm room. And I agree with Tsunami that it's a hassle to notify people of ones new address. There is a big risk in not receiving important messages, since former addresses never seem to go away.
For me it's servers in data centers, service providers that are more that one man companies, and a business model that supports being around for the long haul. The service provider should have privacy policies that protect the customer as much as good business practices and the law will allow.

[Tsunami]

Originally Posted by William9

For me it's servers in data centers, service providers that are more that one man companies, and a business model that supports being around for the long haul. The service provider should have privacy policies that protect the customer as much as good business practices and the law will allow.

Exactly. It may sound easy to say to your friends that you've changed email address, but some people out of habit will just keep sending emails to your old address, not realising they won't even arrive. Plus, the hassle of losing stored emails ... I've been there and done that too often in the past, which made me wary of trusting new services that may be full of idealistic views but may not stick around very long when the reality sinks in that they have to compete against huge corporations.

The only free services outside of the big ones out there that I've seen surviving for many years are some Everyone.net hosted services, Safe-Mail (which I've been using myself for 7 years now), Mail.be (which I've heard is great, but then this is just one testimony and despite being Belgian myself I know hardly anyone who uses it), Web.de, Spray.se, Seznam.cz, LaPoste.fr, Hushmail, Walla, ...

Very few in numbers compared to the number of services I've seen disappearing after a relatively short time. I had an account with Lavabit which vanished. I've had an account with Belgian service AdValvas.be which claimed to be "an email address for life" but ceased to exist within the 2 years of having signed up for an account with them. Some others survived only by switching to paid accounts only (eg Fastmail). Friends of mine used services like oxygen.ie (if I remember that name well), ilse.nl, and plenty of others ; after a while they switched to Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail as their respective email providers all ceased to exist.

The hassle of frequent loss of stored emails and frequent change of email address after a while just becomes too much of a bother, after which one concludes that unless a "small" (= non Gmail/Yahoo/Microsoft) provider has a solid business plan and finances to assure long time survival, it's not worth the hassle of trying. I do value the enthousiasm and idealism of services such as Posteo, Autistici, Protonmail, ... but I would like to see a sort of plan to convince me the services will survice for a reasonable number of years.

I realise I can Always just use a forwarding address of my own domain name, and that way there is no bother of having to inform friends of a new mailbox, you just change the email address to which you forward. However, this doesn't solve the hassle of losing a lot of stored emails.

[FredOnline]

Originally Posted by Tsunami

I realise I can Always just use a forwarding address of my own domain name, and that way there is no bother of having to inform friends of a new mailbox, you just change the email address to which you forward. However, this doesn't solve the hassle of losing a lot of stored emails.

IMHO, this last paragraph makes the previous ones irrelevant.

From what you've posted previously - over the years - I would have thought you would be best using your own domain, and having a LOCAL archive back-up of your e-mails, instead of relying on storing them online.