recommendations for small business email with own domain

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by jarland

Just a heads up: huge problem with Fastmail. ....

...
...Your inbound mail is being sent to a third party without your action or consent.

Actually I think it is done with the user's consent: it requires that the user check a box when setting the spam filtering options.


To the subject of this thread: this issue probably should not affect a business's decision if FastMail's system is appropriate or not to their needs, as the customer can turn it off and on (in addition the user can leave it on and do it on a per folder basis, because the user can set each folder separately as "spam learning" or not, and the user can completely take over the spam filtering system for their account and rebuild it using filtering rules).

[jarland]

Originally Posted by hadaso

Actually I think it is done with the user's consent: it requires that the user check a box when setting the spam filtering options.

Is it off by default? I genuinely don't know as I wasn't the primary account holder. I know I didn't enable it on my individual account.

[TenFour]

There's a check box under Settings/Filters and Rules/Spam Protection/Advanced. The option is to "Share spam with other companies fighting it." I don't recall ever making that selection, so I believe it is on by default. However, the description implies that it is only messages you mark as spam that will be shared with other companies.

Help fight spam by sharing emails you report as spam with spam-fighting companies. These emails are used to improve spam detection for everyone.

As a nonprofit communications professional I find that one problem is the average person has no idea what "spam" means, and they might mark your unwanted email as spam instead of simply unsubscribing from the email they originally signed up for.

[nerolniwroc]

Originally Posted by ioneja

Trying to leave you with the last word, but as clarification to your specific comment about me being a competitor, I have no association with Fastmail other than I'm a normal end user customer of Fastmail and several other email providers. I am not an email provider, nor would I want to take on that stress. It's obviously a very tough business. (And BTW I don't expect you to read my other posts in this forum, but it will be obvious by looking at them that I have no connection to Fastmail other than as a customer, including a critical customer during times when Fastmail was having problems.)

Just making sure it's clear based on your comment, "As a competitor of mine who clearly has something to gain from painting me as unprofessional, I firmly reject the notion that you are the authority who dictates that. I assume you're a competitor, right?" Again, you assume incorrectly.

By the way, I don't "wish that you'd shut up," I don't and haven't accused you of "being corrupt to the core," and I have never accused you of being "evil." On the contrary, I wish you'd actually take ownership of your comments in light that you are an email provider and follow through at this point. And I stand by calling your posts unprofessional in this thread, and I consider your comments about Fastmail to be a drive-by attack -- "huge problem with Fastmail" as you said -- and that's a pretty strong thing to say as you are a trusted email service provider in this email forum, without taking ownership and then walking away, and I felt it was fair to call you out on it, as you are an email representative in this forum and your words are taken seriously by a lot of people. You are an expert-level email professional -- not a normal end user here, so what you say has ramifications beyond what a typical user might share about his/her opinion. You are obviously entitled to feel otherwise.

I can see you've taken extreme personal offense at what I've called you out on and interpreted it very strongly, and I'm saddened that this exchange took such a profoundly negative turn. I do hope we can leave it now, but again, I'm trying to give you the last word and you're leaping to things I didn't say (please review my comments to confirm I didn't call you evil, for example). I think beyond me not wanting to be a customer of yours (which I'm entitled to think and say and yes, it can be considered rude to say it), you seemed to have taken that very strongly, and I do regret writing that sentence at this point since it was unnecessary to make my other points that I consider very legitimate. It's clear we're not on the same page and never will be, but I think we're shooting right past each other right now. Again, wishing you the best, and hope the dust can settle on this, but please do take the last word.

I'm really sorry to respond to this year+ old topic, but since it got bumped up, I felt I had to chime in my 2 cents.

I don't know what people think of jarland, or of you in this forum, but based on this one exchange, I don't see jarland doing anything wrong.

All he did was share his exact knowledge, and I respect that. You asked whether he tried it with disabling the feature and he honestly didn't know. I see this as a positive exchange. I would have expected fastmail to potentially chime in on this and make it even better.

The only thing that made it negative IMO was you personally attacking jarland for reasons unknown to me. He was NOT being unprofessional here. He was leaking some inside secrets. In fact, without small businesses like this sharing such information, you and me would never have the understanding that we do. Besides, we are in a small forum that's focused on email, this is right on par. This also wasn't a "Booo booo fastmail sucks" post. It was something that I think jarland is genuinely concerned about.

Apologies if I'm committing some faux pas here.

[JeremyNicoll]

Originally Posted by nerolniwroc

I would have expected fastmail to potentially chime in on this and make it even better.

Fastmail staff hardly ever post here these days.

[ioneja]

Originally Posted by nerolniwroc

I'm really sorry to respond to this year+ old topic, but since it got bumped up, I felt I had to chime in my 2 cents.

That was from almost 2 years ago and I'd like to think we've both moved on from that little exchange. We've both participated perfectly respectfully in several other threads. I wish jarland all the best and I hope his business thrives. This is a great forum and there's a wealth of thoughtful commentary here from many good folks. Cheers!

[Bamb0]

Yes sometimes it can be tough!

Welcome to EMD

[Feistyzx]

When I set up my small business email, I went through a similar process, and it?s definitely worth considering a few options. I ended up going with Zoho because of the price and features, but I made sure to read up on their support after hearing mixed reviews. For reliability, I?ve heard good things about G Suite, even if there have been some hiccups with access.

[ankupan]

I m using all 3.

Google Workspace (main account, search is always exceptional)
Office 365 (for team as lower cost)
Zoho (for team as lower cost)

All three are best and can be used for businesses.

Originally Posted by Feistyzx

When I set up my small business email, I went through a similar process, and it?s definitely worth considering a few options. I ended up going with Zoho because of the price and features, but I made sure to read up on their support after hearing mixed reviews. For reliability, I?ve heard good things about G Suite, even if there have been some hiccups with access.