Is Fastmail concerned about losing paying customers to Gmail?

Prognathous · 4 Feb 2010, 08:46 PM

A growing number of people I referred to over the years to Fastmail are not renewing their paid accounts and are moving to Gmail. Some say Gmail is easier to use, others just don't understand what's the benefit in paying for an email service if they can get an account with far larger quota for free.

I have many reasons to stay with Fastmail, but most of them are only relevant to geeks and advanced users. I can understand why the more typical users aren't so impressed by things like Sieve support.

I'm worried that at this rate Fastmail would lose too many paying customers to sustain profitability and will need to close shop. Hopefully the end is not near, but I don't see what could prevent this from happening. Actually, I do have a few ideas, but it doesn't look like Fastmail is going to implement them anytime soon.

Should I start planning for when the day comes, and Fastmail is no more?

Prog.

thelanboy · 4 Feb 2010, 09:52 PM

I understand your point, but it seems to me that Fastmail has always been, and will (hopefully) remain, a niche provider, one whose end-user revenues are presumably balanced by revenues from businesses using back-end mail services through The Messaging Engine. If this be true, then why would FM need to become a mail service for the masses?

I'm not a Fastmail rep - can someone who is more knowledgeable than I am comment on my theory?

William9 · 4 Feb 2010, 10:52 PM

I think that there is a need for a good IMAP email service for those with their own domain names. There have been relatively few good choices. Now that Gmail is providing just such a service for free, this is even more pressure on niche paid providers like Fastmail.

placebo · 5 Feb 2010, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thelanboy

I understand your point, but it seems to me that Fastmail has always been, and will (hopefully) remain, a niche provider, one whose end-user revenues are presumably balanced by revenues from businesses using back-end mail services through The Messaging Engine. If this be true, then why would FM need to become a mail service for the masses?

I'm not a Fastmail rep - can someone who is more knowledgeable than I am comment on my theory?

It's certainly true that FastMail doesn't have to appeal to the masses to be successful (though it wouldn't hurt if the growth was managed well). What's important is not marketshare, but profit. Apple, for instance, has a small marketshare in the computer industry, but over the past few years, it's been recording record sales and profit from the Mac while its competitors have struggled. As long as FastMail can maintain its appeal to a profitable segment of the market, it should be fine. It doesn't need to try win over customers whose needs are basic and who aren't willing to pay.

jackmfm · 5 Feb 2010, 08:50 AM

Thank you for your concern about FastMail.FM.
Yes, we always hate to see a customer leave us for a competitor. Gmail is a formidable competitor in the industry.

FastMail is very healthy financially. We have a large and growing customer base. We have been profitable for years. Our revenues are quite healthy. Our retention rate is very high. We add new customers (Business, Family, and Individuals) everyday. Our reseller partners offer FastMail as part of their IT services.

We recognize some individuals may choose other providers, yet we maintain our loyal customer base with many great features

One of the most compliant IMAP infrastructures in the industry
A unique architecture that improves our overall reliability (an outage for some rarely affects all)
High up-time statistics for several years in a row with public,
externally provable tests: http://www.pingdom.com/reports/lzdx4pr0pdhk/
Flexible mailbox features, accurate spam filtering, and flexible rules technology
XMPP chat services for all users
File storage with WebDAV, FTP and basic web services
Mailboxes that are always backed up and are simple to restore
Honest and open communication (our blog, the status blog, these forums)
Due to our compliant IMAP implementation, almost all IMAP-aware email client software works well with our services
Support for many security features and email verification technologies (DKIM, SPF, CSV, SSL, TrueDomain, YubiKey, SMS 1-time Passwords)
Our proxy technology available for all services to provide access through even the most highly-configured firewalls

In addition, we have many new customers that take advantage of our Business and Family features

Multiple domain, multiple personality support
The ability to easily manage all employee accounts within a company
Email Journaling Features. Easy to enable, provides critical audit trail for businesses in specific industries
Easy and Reliable DNS management for Business

Our support services are another major asset to our customers

We have a knowledgeable and dedicated group that has been part of our company for years
We continually go the extra step to ensure a problem is resolved (reviewing logs, researching backups, fixing customer DNS)
Our most senior engineers (including our founders) are still approachable via email and assist in resolving any major issues

Our Anti-Spam technology is reassuring to our customers
With *Normal* level spam checking, if the user doesn't define any discard rules, we guarantee that every email will either by rejected at the SMTP state, or if it is accepted, it will be delivered to some folder in the users account. Email will never just "disappear".

With regards to Gmail in general, we offer:

Our paying customers enjoy an ad-free email experience
7-day backups of all email accounts. Any customer can request a mailbox restore, free of charge
A fully compliant IMAP implementation, with full support of folders, compression, and auto-discovery of special folders
Easy-to-use DNS capabilities that are bundled with for all Enhanced, Business and Family accounts
Support that is accessible for a business of any size. For a small business, Google doesn't provide this guarantee
A profitable email company. Email is all that we do. We don't fund our email operations by using other profitable divisions of our company.

There are many features and partnerships we are working on to provide additional value to our customers. Some of these are large projects and will take time to complete.

We're confident we can continue to grow our customer base based upon our reputation as a reliable and innovative provider of email services.
We have great respect for the features that Gmail has implemented. FastMail offers a very competitive and compelling alternative.

Thank you for your continued use of our services.
We appreciate your business.

ChinaLamb · 5 Feb 2010, 03:35 PM

Prognathous,
I find more people moving away from Gmail.

Most that I know who are with Fastmail are very happy customers. Fastmail offers much that Gmail cannot and will not ever provide.

I have paid up for 3 years in advance, and expect that I will do so again in 3 years time.

My only wish is that they would implement a contact sync function...

Mystakill · 5 Feb 2010, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChinaLamb

My only wish is that they would implement a contact sync function...

I'll second the contact sync (for the umpteenth time) and add calendaring (again for the umpteenth time). FM needs to expand its featureset to encompass the full PIM stack. I still have to utilize Google for those because they support the standards which work with my software and devices.

alirezanasibi · 5 Feb 2010, 08:54 PM

I don't believe Fastmail can be compared with Gmail. No doubt Gmail is offering good email service comparing to Yahoo or AOL.

As a regular fan of Gmail, I gave up and preferred to keep Fastmail and PAY for such worthy service. Yes, one important factor I fell in love with FM was its unique concentration on Email service not other services.Gmail, let's say Google, has various concerns to make funds by investing different services...

Maybe FM email interface isn't so appealing but it's great in terms of fantastic features to a professional user. However, I suggest FM to improve the interface as the first impression,too.

**Sherry** · 6 Feb 2010, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alirezanasibi

However, I suggest FM to improve the interface as the first impression,too.

Hi alirezanasibi,

Just a little surprised to hear that particular suggestion as that's just what FM did and completed just one year ago adding "2 Fantastic Features" to their New UI. CSS and JavaScript tweaks.

New UI
New UI CSS
New UI JS

As you can see, many FM users have shared their Tweaks with others.

Can you say what it is you would like to see improved for your personal tastes. Perhaps it's doable?

I can't see FM users leaving for Gmail when they learn about "ALL" the many features FM has available like the above and their latest, just released, to "Restore from Backup". I sure don't think Gmail will let you restore email you accidentally permanently deleted?

Anyway, just input from a happy FM user who has no plans to change to Gmail.

Sherry

Terry · 6 Feb 2010, 08:54 AM

gmail is good for back up......so perhaps f/m should look at storage quota's, perhaps that is why a lot moved over to gmail....

sadly most of my family did

why don't they have just one level of enhanced service say for $25 and do away with all the others plans, most people I feel sure would be happy to pay $25.

In it's current form some of the lower accounts are useless and they not worth having....they could implement a free trial for 30 days so people can really see how good a f/m enhanced account is.

ChinaLamb · 6 Feb 2010, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terry

why don't they have just one level of enhanced service say for $25 and do away with all the others plans, most people I feel sure would be happy to pay $25.

It is an important part of marketing to have a wide appeal option, then premium options as well. If I remember correctly, there is a fairly sizable userbase that is at the Enhanced level. If They were to move all to $25, they would lose a lot of money. $25 is only $5 above the Full level (not sure they want to pay more) and significantly ($15) below the enhanced level.

I actually find their $39 per year option a very reasonable price for what they offer. They have good service, and a ton of options. Looking at other email service providers, $39 is a good price point.

Terry · 6 Feb 2010, 10:03 AM

yes good point Cl....but I feel somehow they need to get people to use the enhanced account with all its features.....perhaps $20-$25 for the first year.

David · 6 Feb 2010, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChinaLamb

I actually find their $39 per year option a very reasonable price for what they offer. They have good service, and a ton of options. Looking at other email service providers, $39 is a good price point.

What riles many 'Full' account holders, is that in order to get more storage you have to pay through the nose. You either pay an unreasonable amount of money for the extra, or pay for an Enhanced account. Fastmail upset a lot of their customers, when they pulled the privilege of hosting your own domain name, away from Full account holders (a few years ago now) literally forcing them to upgrade to Enhanced or to dump their domain name. At that time many moved away. Most other competing companies allow you to host your own domain for about $20 to $30 a year (a few charge less) It was the big squeeze (on Fastmail's part) and many were squeezed out.

Actually I agree with Terry

vivil · 11 Feb 2010, 07:49 PM

lot of answers

> Our paying customers enjoy an ad-free email experience
I accept to pay less to see more ads

> I have paid up for 3 years in advance, and expect that I will do so again in 3 years time.
You have paid for 2 years, the third is offered (for 2 or 3 beers max? i forgot)

> gmail is good for back up.....
yep

steventay · 1 Mar 2010, 01:44 PM

personal speaking..

i find gmail is good.. especiall in handling spam.

i have domain hosting in google mail free and it is great.

i have a free email account in fm and full of spam in inbox..

so what u think?

4 Feb 2010, 08:46 PM	#1
Prognathous Master of the @ Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Israel Posts: 1,060	Is Fastmail concerned about losing paying customers to Gmail? A growing number of people I referred to over the years to Fastmail are not renewing their paid accounts and are moving to Gmail. Some say Gmail is easier to use, others just don't understand what's the benefit in paying for an email service if they can get an account with far larger quota for free. I have many reasons to stay with Fastmail, but most of them are only relevant to geeks and advanced users. I can understand why the more typical users aren't so impressed by things like Sieve support. I'm worried that at this rate Fastmail would lose too many paying customers to sustain profitability and will need to close shop. Hopefully the end is not near, but I don't see what could prevent this from happening. Actually, I do have a few ideas, but it doesn't look like Fastmail is going to implement them anytime soon. Should I start planning for when the day comes, and Fastmail is no more? Prog.

5 Feb 2010, 08:50 AM	#5
jackmfm Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: USA Posts: 62	FastMail is a Healthy Business Thank you for your concern about FastMail.FM. Yes, we always hate to see a customer leave us for a competitor. Gmail is a formidable competitor in the industry. FastMail is very healthy financially. We have a large and growing customer base. We have been profitable for years. Our revenues are quite healthy. Our retention rate is very high. We add new customers (Business, Family, and Individuals) everyday. Our reseller partners offer FastMail as part of their IT services. We recognize some individuals may choose other providers, yet we maintain our loyal customer base with many great features One of the most compliant IMAP infrastructures in the industry A unique architecture that improves our overall reliability (an outage for some rarely affects all) High up-time statistics for several years in a row with public, externally provable tests: http://www.pingdom.com/reports/lzdx4pr0pdhk/ Flexible mailbox features, accurate spam filtering, and flexible rules technology XMPP chat services for all users File storage with WebDAV, FTP and basic web services Mailboxes that are always backed up and are simple to restore Honest and open communication (our blog, the status blog, these forums) Due to our compliant IMAP implementation, almost all IMAP-aware email client software works well with our services Support for many security features and email verification technologies (DKIM, SPF, CSV, SSL, TrueDomain, YubiKey, SMS 1-time Passwords) Our proxy technology available for all services to provide access through even the most highly-configured firewalls In addition, we have many new customers that take advantage of our Business and Family features Multiple domain, multiple personality support The ability to easily manage all employee accounts within a company Email Journaling Features. Easy to enable, provides critical audit trail for businesses in specific industries Easy and Reliable DNS management for Business Our support services are another major asset to our customers We have a knowledgeable and dedicated group that has been part of our company for years We continually go the extra step to ensure a problem is resolved (reviewing logs, researching backups, fixing customer DNS) Our most senior engineers (including our founders) are still approachable via email and assist in resolving any major issues Our Anti-Spam technology is reassuring to our customers With Normal level spam checking, if the user doesn't define any discard rules, we guarantee that every email will either by rejected at the SMTP state, or if it is accepted, it will be delivered to some folder in the users account. Email will never just "disappear". With regards to Gmail in general, we offer: Our paying customers enjoy an ad-free email experience 7-day backups of all email accounts. Any customer can request a mailbox restore, free of charge A fully compliant IMAP implementation, with full support of folders, compression, and auto-discovery of special folders Easy-to-use DNS capabilities that are bundled with for all Enhanced, Business and Family accounts Support that is accessible for a business of any size. For a small business, Google doesn't provide this guarantee A profitable email company. Email is all that we do. We don't fund our email operations by using other profitable divisions of our company. There are many features and partnerships we are working on to provide additional value to our customers. Some of these are large projects and will take time to complete. We're confident we can continue to grow our customer base based upon our reputation as a reliable and innovative provider of email services. We have great respect for the features that Gmail has implemented. FastMail offers a very competitive and compelling alternative. Thank you for your continued use of our services. We appreciate your business.

4 Feb 2010, 09:52 PM	#2
thelanboy Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: USA - Boston Posts: 54	I understand your point, but it seems to me that Fastmail has always been, and will (hopefully) remain, a niche provider, one whose end-user revenues are presumably balanced by revenues from businesses using back-end mail services through The Messaging Engine. If this be true, then why would FM need to become a mail service for the masses? I'm not a Fastmail rep - can someone who is more knowledgeable than I am comment on my theory?

4 Feb 2010, 10:52 PM	#3
William9 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,281	I think that there is a need for a good IMAP email service for those with their own domain names. There have been relatively few good choices. Now that Gmail is providing just such a service for free, this is even more pressure on niche paid providers like Fastmail.

5 Feb 2010, 03:35 PM	#6
ChinaLamb The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: a virtually impossible but finitely improbable position Posts: 2,320	Prognathous, I find more people moving away from Gmail. Most that I know who are with Fastmail are very happy customers. Fastmail offers much that Gmail cannot and will not ever provide. I have paid up for 3 years in advance, and expect that I will do so again in 3 years time. My only wish is that they would implement a contact sync function...

5 Feb 2010, 08:54 PM	#8
alirezanasibi Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: China Posts: 73	I don't believe Fastmail can be compared with Gmail. No doubt Gmail is offering good email service comparing to Yahoo or AOL. As a regular fan of Gmail, I gave up and preferred to keep Fastmail and PAY for such worthy service. Yes, one important factor I fell in love with FM was its unique concentration on Email service not other services.Gmail, let's say Google, has various concerns to make funds by investing different services... Maybe FM email interface isn't so appealing but it's great in terms of fantastic features to a professional user. However, I suggest FM to improve the interface as the first impression,too.

6 Feb 2010, 08:54 AM	#10
Terry The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: VK4 Posts: 3,029	gmail is good for back up......so perhaps f/m should look at storage quota's, perhaps that is why a lot moved over to gmail.... sadly most of my family did why don't they have just one level of enhanced service say for $25 and do away with all the others plans, most people I feel sure would be happy to pay $25. In it's current form some of the lower accounts are useless and they not worth having....they could implement a free trial for 30 days so people can really see how good a f/m enhanced account is.

6 Feb 2010, 10:03 AM	#12
Terry The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: VK4 Posts: 3,029	yes good point Cl....but I feel somehow they need to get people to use the enhanced account with all its features.....perhaps $20-$25 for the first year.

11 Feb 2010, 07:49 PM	#14
vivil Essential Contributor Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: France Posts: 472	lot of answers > Our paying customers enjoy an ad-free email experience I accept to pay less to see more ads > I have paid up for 3 years in advance, and expect that I will do so again in 3 years time. You have paid for 2 years, the third is offered (for 2 or 3 beers max? i forgot) > gmail is good for back up..... yep

1 Mar 2010, 01:44 PM	#15
steventay Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 187	personal speaking.. i find gmail is good.. especiall in handling spam. i have domain hosting in google mail free and it is great. i have a free email account in fm and full of spam in inbox.. so what u think?