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To a first approximation there is no market for paid consumer email. Google, Microsoft, Apple, None of them offer it. They may offer expanded storage, but that

To a first approximation there is no market for paid consumer email. Google, Microsoft, Apple, None of them offer it. They may offer expanded storage, but that's shared with other products and a different motivation. They may offer paid email as well, but that's always got a business focus, at least for SMEs. Yes, companies like Fastmail, Hey, and many small email providers will offer paid personal email accounts, but even these put an emphasis on business use, and they are many orders of magnitude smaller than the big email providers. Gmail will remain free as long as email is expected to be free by users. Gmail is the ad-supported free product, and Google Workspace is the no-advertising, business focused version that you can pay for. (Disclaimer, I'm a Googler but have no inside information on this, these are my opinions)

dmcgowan 5y ago
>Gmail will remain free as long as email is expected to be free by users. This was also the expectation of G suite users. Forcing non-business users onto a paid business product which didn't even exist when users signed up was not the expectation. The original question should be looked at from that perspective. How long until Google creates a business focused Gmail plan and forces any user who uses their Gmail for business onto that plan. That could be done with a simple change in terms of service as well.
- treesknees 5y ago
  I would expect there to be more pushback and revolting if Google suddenly said you can't use the free Gmail product for business. I can't even guess the number of contractors, artists, coffee shops, Etsy stores, food trucks, etc that I've personally interacted with that are using Gmail, Yahoo, and AOL email accounts for their business.
  - dmcgowan 5y ago
    I also couldn't imagine this happening, just think it is a better way to frame to conversation and understand how G suite users are feeling right now. There is a counterpoint though based on what you said, the large number of business users also means a larger business opportunity for them. The G suite to workspace transition has been 10 years in the making, you could imagine spreading the outrage over a longer period of time and many users not even noticing it is happening.
jabroni_salad 5y ago
Microsoft does actually have M365 Personal which is mainly about the Office apps but also removes advertising on the webmail. The big difference from the business plans is that you don't get the admin center or the things inside of it like the exchange control panel. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/outlook-personal-email-plans?ocid=PROD_outlook_cons_outlook_ups_OL-Web_Ads-O365&rtc=1 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/outloo...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
charrondev 5y ago
Apple offers paid consumer email (with custom domains) as part of their iCloud+ subscription offering. I migrated my personal email to it from GSuite at the end of 2021.
- ariwilson 5y ago
  Apple's business model is fleecing customers in exchange for brand recognition and privacy marketing.
- tomjen3 5y ago
  But they just throw that in if you upgrade, right? You don't actually pay for the extra email? It is just another thing to make your subscription more sticky.
- rogerbinns 5y ago
  iCloud+ custom domains has one nasty gotcha at the moment - you can't have a catchall address, which you could with Google.

dmcgowan 5y ago

>Gmail will remain free as long as email is expected to be free by users. This was also the expectation of G suite users. Forcing non-business users onto a paid business product which didn't even exist when users signed up was not the expectation. The original question should be looked at from that perspective. How long until Google creates a business focused Gmail plan and forces any user who uses their Gmail for business onto that plan. That could be done with a simple change in terms of service as well.

treesknees 5y ago
I would expect there to be more pushback and revolting if Google suddenly said you can't use the free Gmail product for business. I can't even guess the number of contractors, artists, coffee shops, Etsy stores, food trucks, etc that I've personally interacted with that are using Gmail, Yahoo, and AOL email accounts for their business.
- dmcgowan 5y ago
  I also couldn't imagine this happening, just think it is a better way to frame to conversation and understand how G suite users are feeling right now. There is a counterpoint though based on what you said, the large number of business users also means a larger business opportunity for them. The G suite to workspace transition has been 10 years in the making, you could imagine spreading the outrage over a longer period of time and many users not even noticing it is happening.

jabroni_salad 5y ago

Microsoft does actually have M365 Personal which is mainly about the Office apps but also removes advertising on the webmail. The big difference from the business plans is that you don't get the admin center or the things inside of it like the exchange control panel. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/outlook-personal-email-plans?ocid=PROD_outlook_cons_outlook_ups_OL-Web_Ads-O365&rtc=1 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/outloo...

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

charrondev 5y ago

Apple offers paid consumer email (with custom domains) as part of their iCloud+ subscription offering. I migrated my personal email to it from GSuite at the end of 2021.

ariwilson 5y ago
Apple's business model is fleecing customers in exchange for brand recognition and privacy marketing.
tomjen3 5y ago
But they just throw that in if you upgrade, right? You don't actually pay for the extra email? It is just another thing to make your subscription more sticky.
rogerbinns 5y ago
iCloud+ custom domains has one nasty gotcha at the moment - you can't have a catchall address, which you could with Google.