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Ask HN: Free mail service for custom domains - G Suite alternative
Free alternative to paid G Suite.
Your custom domain.
Unlimited amount of users.
No storage limit, but attachments stored only for 1 month.
Option for saving attachments before deleting.
Some safe ads in web client.
Would you register?
- em-bee 5y agoput the question into the title and start with "ask HN:". otherwise this post will be ignored. i almost flagged it as bogus.
- andreinwald 5y agodone
- DamonHD 5y agoPossibly
- em-bee 5y agofree or not, i'd rather have a storage limit but no time limit. either way i'd have to forward all emails to my local machine, so the storage won't do me much good other than as a temporary buffer. with a storage limit the worst that can happen is that mails get rejected, but the senders do get notified. and, if set up well, forwarding should work even if the storage is full, so even rejections would not happen. with a time limit i am relying on the forwarding always working, and, in case of failure i'd be loosing mail possibly without noticing. because it's attachments from old mail that i am not looking at now that would get deleted. that's not something i'd want to ever happen.
- andreinwald 5y agoOld emails will be saved. But without attachments. Is it okay for you?
- em-bee 5y agoany system that deletes stuff automatically without oversight is dangerous and can lead to critical loss of data. the only time it is ok is when it is backups that are superseded by new backups, or a trash storage where i put things manually, and even there i prefer to empty the trash manually too. but this is just how i am used to working. i realize that i accept messages in irc disappearing if i don't log them too (but then i set up logs for quite a number of channels that matter to me), and i could accept this service for certain use cases like for mailing lists which are usually archived elsewhere anyways. but i could not use it for emails from family, friends or customers who might send me things that i want to keep. furthermore, if you consider encrypted email you can't even tell what is an attachment and what is the body. removing the attachment would also affect unencrypted, but signed emails.
- andreinwald 5y agoThank you for your detailed opinion! I understand the importance of attachments. But it's the only way to make email hosting cheap or free, bc attachments occupy 99,9% of disk space.
- marcos100 5y agoNo, a lot of times, the attachment is more important than the text of the e-mail.
- andreinwald 5y agoI understand the importance of attachments. But it's the only way to make email hosting cheap or free, bc attachments occupy 99,9% of disk space.
- thunderrabbit 5y agoYes, email attachments take up a lot of space. But anyone who tries to auto-delete my attachments will never get my patronage. Why do you want to cripple email to create a free service? This seems like a race to the bottom, with very little upside for you.
- doctoboggan 5y agoI would register if there was a storage limit and you were prompted to manually delete attachments when you are nearing it. I’d rather do it myself and save what’s needed that risk losing important documents.
- andreinwald 5y agoGood idea! Thanks.
- rosndo 5y agoYandex already offers this for free, but without disappearing attachments. You can sign up right now :)
- andreinwald 5y agoNo longer so https://360.yandex.ru/business/tariff?from=landing https://360.yandex.ru/business/tariff?from=landing
- sofixa 5y agoAt 129 RUB(~1.50 EUR)/month, it isn't free but it's drastically cheaper than O365 or G Suite. However i wonder how often it would be blocked by useless "block all Russia and China" firewall rules.
- cnbeining 5y agoThere is a free version - 10GB mailbox, 1000 seats. https://admin.yandex.ru/select-organization?productId=free&from=promo&promo=mail360 https://admin.yandex.ru/select-organization?productId=free&f...
- cplli 5y agoNo. I would much rather have a paid plan, with limits. Nothing is free, and an ads model service isn't one I'd move email to.
- andreinwald 5y agoAre you ok with G Suite/Zoho/etc prices?
- maccard 5y agoNot OP but yes. Perfectly happy with the prices, and would be willing to pay more if the featureset provided. The only thing that keeps me on gmail is the inertia of my existing email address.
- cplli 5y agoFor my personal email I use the new iCloud+ service, as I already had a plan and they have the "Hide my email" feature which is a plus. For company email: Fastmail. They're professional, I trust them, the price value ratio is good. Can't complain
- voisin 5y agoWhat did you use before? How did you find the transition? I am on gSuite and would move over but all the ways of getting past emails up to iCloud seemed messy.
- cassianoleal 5y agoCan't you just use regular IMAP to migrate the mails? IMAP download the whole mailbox, then upload to the new service.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- cplli 5y ago
- dym_sh 5y agowhats the point of unlimited storage if stuff that needs it – gets deleted anyways? mega-silos have 3 major points: reliability, convenience, and network effect. get 2 of them, add privacy – and its a viable alternative. ---- but no, not personally – i run my own vps with poste.io install – you asking the wrong crowd.
- andreinwald 5y agoIMHO people don't need most of old attachments, and it creates possibility for ADs-based service.
- newscracker 5y agoI disagree completely on this. People get bank statements, investment transaction statements and other important information as attachments, and they may need to get those years later from emails (it may not be easy to get from the original source and they may have lost their local copies). Like it or not, e-mail is a document storage medium for most people.
- beardyw 5y agoI just use redirection to a standard Gmail account. It works.
- sh4un 5y agoYou can't have your cake and eat it to. If you want free, build it yourself. Lots of guides out there.
- ryandvm 5y agoAnd it's only free if your time is worthless...
- Nasreddin_Hodja 5y agoOnly for first time. If you are already experienced, it's not so hard to setup a server. Or you can hire a freelancer to do the job for you.
- sh4un 5y agoCan literally go from any Linux to a mail server in about 15 minutes if you can read. Maybe an hour of pausing and rewinding a YouTube video on the subject if you are a millennial.
- newscracker 5y agoNo. But if it were with a paid option and no ads or marketing/data sharing partnerships of any kind and if it has limited storage and lets the user manage it (or move to a higher pricing tier), then I might consider it. I really dislike the per user or per mailbox pricing model followed by some platforms. It gets very expensive to use for a few people in the family. Copying my other comment on attachments [1]: > People get bank statements, investment transaction statements and other important information as attachments, and they may need to get those years later from emails (it may not be easy to get from the original source and they may have lost their local copies). > Like it or not, e-mail is a document storage medium for most people. Note the following services that provide what I’ve listed above, except that they don’t meet some other criteria I have: - Mxroute - Migadu [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30008723 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30008723
- jasonpeacock 5y agoNo, because when a product is free then you are the product. I'd much rather pay for the services I use (e.g. Fastmail) knowing that there's company who's purpose is to build and support a product for me, not advertisers or some other interest.
- StellarTabi 5y ago> Free alternative to paid G Suite. > > Your custom domain. I love it! I need more than one domain. > Unlimited amount of users. For the free tier specifically, maybe organizations otherwise giving you $0 should have a limit like 20 or 100. Or "unlimited users" could be a $10/month addon for the free plan. > No storage limit too unfair for you, I'd rather pay B2 style prices for each GB past 10GB or something. > but attachments stored only for 1 month. Surprise deletions are an instant No. Most inboxes just show you your % usage in the corner and allow me to handle deletions on my schedule.
- scim-knox-twox 5y agoFastmail has auto-purge: https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000280301-Setting-up-and-using-folders https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000280301-Se... > Auto-purge - Automatically delete messages after they have been in the folder for a certain amount of time, from 1 day to 1 year. Pinned messages are never deleted.