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What are you most concerned with? Keeping the email address active yourself for new mail or keeping your mail archive? For the first point, you are already set

What are you most concerned with? Keeping the email address active yourself for new mail or keeping your mail archive? For the first point, you are already set. You have your own custom domain and can point that to any provider you find trustworthy, including Gmail, Fastmail, ProtonMail, Outlook, etc. For the second point, nobody is as responsible for keeping proper backups as you are. Every provider could go under or have a glitch, as unlikely as it is with the bigger providers. Every provider allows you to take your data out, be it through reular syncing or downloading periodic snapshots.

nottorp 8y ago
Hmm no, I know how to handle my own mail. My concern is that gmail is a good backup solution that always works, including when I'm in the middle of nowhere with no time or inclination to fix my custom domain. What I'm most concerned with is the email address as identity. It's the key to all my online accounts via the reset password form. Jumping from provider to provider with my own custom domain works the same, but with more hassle. I'd rather move (my identity) to another online service, as long as I'm reasonably certain that my email addy will exist for 20+ years.
- auslander 8y ago
  > the key to all my online accounts Most services support primary email/login change
  - nottorp 8y ago
    > Most services support primary email/login change They do, but would you like to do that every couple years if, say fastmail or any other service goes out of bussiness? Do you even remember all of them, so you can change the email in time if your provider gives you advance warning that they're shutting down? Long term, it's complicated.
    - toomuchtodo 8y ago
      You buy your own domain, and change the MX record if you move. Yes, you have to plan ahead unfortunately until someone comes along and offers an "email address for life" you can forward anywhere.

nottorp 8y ago

Hmm no, I know how to handle my own mail. My concern is that gmail is a good backup solution that always works, including when I'm in the middle of nowhere with no time or inclination to fix my custom domain. What I'm most concerned with is the email address as identity. It's the key to all my online accounts via the reset password form. Jumping from provider to provider with my own custom domain works the same, but with more hassle. I'd rather move (my identity) to another online service, as long as I'm reasonably certain that my email addy will exist for 20+ years.

auslander 8y ago
> the key to all my online accounts Most services support primary email/login change
- nottorp 8y ago
  > Most services support primary email/login change They do, but would you like to do that every couple years if, say fastmail or any other service goes out of bussiness? Do you even remember all of them, so you can change the email in time if your provider gives you advance warning that they're shutting down? Long term, it's complicated.
  - toomuchtodo 8y ago
    You buy your own domain, and change the MX record if you move. Yes, you have to plan ahead unfortunately until someone comes along and offers an "email address for life" you can forward anywhere.