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Our company is closing in on 100 employees and we use Fastmail. We don't miss the cloud integrations that google workplace, etc. have, but I personally do miss

Our company is closing in on 100 employees and we use Fastmail. We don't miss the cloud integrations that google workplace, etc. have, but I personally do miss the UI and UX polish that gmail had. + Calendar sharing in the organization is opt-in, so it can force more coordination to make a meeting. Maybe that's a good thing? + Other peoples' calendars often appear in the same color as mine, so if I have somebody else's calendar in my view I might think I've been invited to a ton of meetings. + Email contacts are weird in a way that I can't quantify. With gmail, when I hired somebody, I often ended up with both their personal email and their work email in my address book. Gmail knew to default to the work email after they were hired. Fastmail does the opposite so I have to remember to delete my new employees' personal emails from my contacts so that I don't accidentally send invites to the wrong address. All that said keyboard control of fastmail is cooler than gmail and the rules are really fun to work with. I like that you can use sieve rules with it. In fact the lack of tight integration makes it easier to use different services for different things. No longer do I have to unselect "make this a google meet" link or whatever that was.

giancarlostoro 4y ago
> but I personally do miss the UI and UX polish that gmail had. Is this not achieved by Outlook, Thunderbird or other desktop email clients? I cannot stand using web based mail clients. I know OP wanted webmail, but I'm just curious if anyone else has achieved a good UX with a desktop client / Fastmail combo.
- stingraycharles 4y ago
  I’ve been heavily dissatisfied with the performance of desktop email clients. Not sure if I’m classified as a heavy power user or not, but at least on Linux, the whole situation is a shitshow if you frequently have threads with 25+ replies. I’ve tried all email clients, either their Office365 integration sucks, or their Gmail integration sucks, or their performance sucks, or their compatibility sucks, or their UI sucks, and more frequently than not they suck in multiple of these dimensions. They also almost always lack calendar integration, which implies I need to get back to a webapp extremely often anyway. I have surrendered, just give me a good web app and I’ll manage.
  - helij 4y ago
    Same here as well. I use Zoho for personal email and find their web client adequate, calendar as well. For work I use web Outlook (we're MS based). On top of that everything goes through box.com which I find quite good. Usually I have three tabs open in my browser (Firefox). Calendar, Email and Slack. Works pretty well.
  - PascLeRasc 4y ago
    What do you think of Elementary Mail? https://github.com/elementary/mail https://github.com/elementary/mail I haven't used it in a couple of years but I really liked it for Gmail.
- blfr 4y ago
  No, certainly not with Outlook. I moved from a Workspace company to m365 one and expected to just change a habit here and there but that is not true. In terms of UX, Gmail and Calendar are light years ahead of Outlook.
- troyvit 4y ago
  Welp I'm on Linux and man all their email apps are awful for one reason or another.
- Macha 4y ago
  I mean, I'm in the minority where I actually like Thunderbird as it exists today (well ok, the create filter experience could use less clicks), but Fastmail works perfectly fine in Thunderbird. Actually a little better since I have my fastmail inbox set up as folders not labels, so it avoids that weird impedance mismatch where the Thunderbird UI wants folders but Gmail provides labels. Meanwhile in my employment they turned off IMAP for security reasons, so I'm forced to use the Gmail web interface and it is not up to the task of the volume of email I receive at all.
- glukkanta 4y ago
  We are an Apple devices outfit, and 3/5 employees use Apple's native clients for 99% of our emailing... but having a lightning-fast, modern web client with all of the features being discussed in this thread and others will be great for the 2 employees that prefer the browser and for the unique cases when we all need to log in on public devices. From the research I've done, Fastmail seems to be the only non-Exchange, non-iCloud option to get push notifications in Apple's mail clients, which is a huge plus.
- wrycoder 4y ago
  The Fastmail web client is far better than using IMAP/Apple Mail client. But the iOS Fastmail app is really good, so I use that on the phone. Fastmail works well for small business (at least). The limits are high, and there are a lot of features that Gmail doesn’t have. I don’t use the FM calendar, so I can’t speak to that. I’ve found their file storage very helpful in moving data between disparate platforms. You can even set up small static websites.
- asnyder 4y ago
  Vivaldi is making quite an effort to replace Thunderbird. They recently released very powerful local email management. Still has some ways to go for edge case features but seems to be a very nice local client overall.
- mrweasel 4y ago
  While not on Fastmail, I just use Apple Mail, it's fine. It a real issue though. There aren't really any amazing email clients out there, but I guess that also means different things to different people. Development seems to have stopped after Gmail arrived, which is weird for someone like me who thinks that the Gmail interface is confusing. If it wasn't for the fact that the majority of emails are HTML these days, I suppose Mutt or Alpine are good email clients.
- gizzlon 4y ago
  I use Fastmail + Thunderbird and like it quite a lot :) Quite dislike the gmail UX, esp. regards t threads and composing new email :(
glukkanta 4y ago
Thanks, troyvit! Very reassuring to hear that a company with that many users has found success with Fastmail. I'll keep those quirks you mentioned in mind should we decide to move forward, but they are definitely not deal breakers.
rufius 4y ago
I feel the opposite. My work email is gmail and I’m continually disappointed with it compared to my personal on Fastmail. Before moving to Fastmail, I was a gmail user for about 10 years. To each their own :).

giancarlostoro 4y ago

> but I personally do miss the UI and UX polish that gmail had. Is this not achieved by Outlook, Thunderbird or other desktop email clients? I cannot stand using web based mail clients. I know OP wanted webmail, but I'm just curious if anyone else has achieved a good UX with a desktop client / Fastmail combo.

stingraycharles 4y ago
I’ve been heavily dissatisfied with the performance of desktop email clients. Not sure if I’m classified as a heavy power user or not, but at least on Linux, the whole situation is a shitshow if you frequently have threads with 25+ replies. I’ve tried all email clients, either their Office365 integration sucks, or their Gmail integration sucks, or their performance sucks, or their compatibility sucks, or their UI sucks, and more frequently than not they suck in multiple of these dimensions. They also almost always lack calendar integration, which implies I need to get back to a webapp extremely often anyway. I have surrendered, just give me a good web app and I’ll manage.
- helij 4y ago
  Same here as well. I use Zoho for personal email and find their web client adequate, calendar as well. For work I use web Outlook (we're MS based). On top of that everything goes through box.com which I find quite good. Usually I have three tabs open in my browser (Firefox). Calendar, Email and Slack. Works pretty well.
- PascLeRasc 4y ago
  What do you think of Elementary Mail? https://github.com/elementary/mail https://github.com/elementary/mail I haven't used it in a couple of years but I really liked it for Gmail.
blfr 4y ago
No, certainly not with Outlook. I moved from a Workspace company to m365 one and expected to just change a habit here and there but that is not true. In terms of UX, Gmail and Calendar are light years ahead of Outlook.
troyvit 4y ago
Welp I'm on Linux and man all their email apps are awful for one reason or another.
Macha 4y ago
I mean, I'm in the minority where I actually like Thunderbird as it exists today (well ok, the create filter experience could use less clicks), but Fastmail works perfectly fine in Thunderbird. Actually a little better since I have my fastmail inbox set up as folders not labels, so it avoids that weird impedance mismatch where the Thunderbird UI wants folders but Gmail provides labels. Meanwhile in my employment they turned off IMAP for security reasons, so I'm forced to use the Gmail web interface and it is not up to the task of the volume of email I receive at all.
glukkanta 4y ago
We are an Apple devices outfit, and 3/5 employees use Apple's native clients for 99% of our emailing... but having a lightning-fast, modern web client with all of the features being discussed in this thread and others will be great for the 2 employees that prefer the browser and for the unique cases when we all need to log in on public devices. From the research I've done, Fastmail seems to be the only non-Exchange, non-iCloud option to get push notifications in Apple's mail clients, which is a huge plus.
wrycoder 4y ago
The Fastmail web client is far better than using IMAP/Apple Mail client. But the iOS Fastmail app is really good, so I use that on the phone. Fastmail works well for small business (at least). The limits are high, and there are a lot of features that Gmail doesn’t have. I don’t use the FM calendar, so I can’t speak to that. I’ve found their file storage very helpful in moving data between disparate platforms. You can even set up small static websites.
asnyder 4y ago
Vivaldi is making quite an effort to replace Thunderbird. They recently released very powerful local email management. Still has some ways to go for edge case features but seems to be a very nice local client overall.
mrweasel 4y ago
While not on Fastmail, I just use Apple Mail, it's fine. It a real issue though. There aren't really any amazing email clients out there, but I guess that also means different things to different people. Development seems to have stopped after Gmail arrived, which is weird for someone like me who thinks that the Gmail interface is confusing. If it wasn't for the fact that the majority of emails are HTML these days, I suppose Mutt or Alpine are good email clients.
gizzlon 4y ago
I use Fastmail + Thunderbird and like it quite a lot :) Quite dislike the gmail UX, esp. regards t threads and composing new email :(

glukkanta 4y ago

Thanks, troyvit! Very reassuring to hear that a company with that many users has found success with Fastmail. I'll keep those quirks you mentioned in mind should we decide to move forward, but they are definitely not deal breakers.

rufius 4y ago

I feel the opposite. My work email is gmail and I’m continually disappointed with it compared to my personal on Fastmail. Before moving to Fastmail, I was a gmail user for about 10 years. To each their own :).