4 ms·

What are those better options that HN likes? I just switched all my accounts to protonmail, but stories like this make me want to reconsider. The fact that they

What are those better options that HN likes? I just switched all my accounts to protonmail, but stories like this make me want to reconsider. The fact that they won't allow me to set up a forwarding rule in case I want to switch again doesn't help.

gobip 4y ago
HN is hooked on fastmail which is a great provider to be honest. Have a look at mailbox.org which is in business since the 90s too. Avoid the privacy trending providers promising you to encrypt your emails.
- akvadrako 4y ago
  I second mailbox.org. Didn't want to use fastmail since it's based in Australia instead of the EU.
- twleo 4y ago
  FastMail takes on PGP is very reasonable. https://fastmail.blog/advanced/why-we-dont-offer-pgp/ https://fastmail.blog/advanced/why-we-dont-offer-pgp/ I don't believe the encryption/key management from a company.
Toutouxc 4y ago
First of all, bring your own domain. That way you can just point the same address elsewhere if you need to switch again without having to deal with forwarding. edit: As mentioned by a sibling comment, my email is currently on Fastmail, zero problems.
- mr_mitm 4y ago
  Sounds reasonable. Any gotchas there? I already read that vanity TLDs are bad, obscure countries' TLDs are bad, and even .eu may be unstable. Which are good services that can sell me an .org or .de domain for a fair price?
  - severino 4y ago
    > and even .eu may be unstable Do you mean you can lose your domain if your country leaves the EU, or are you talking about other issues?
    - mr_mitm 4y ago
      Yes, that's what I had in mind, I may be wrong though. Did any Brits have issues with eu domains after Brexit?
      - c12 4y ago
        Yes, but that was due to Brexit. .eu domains may only be registered to a person or entity that exists within the EU. As soon as Brexit crystallised any British person or entity owning a .eu domain was unable to renew it unless they had an address they legally occupied within an EU country. I know a few companies who rented a small amount of office space in France so that they could retain their .eu domain.
        severino 4y ago
        I guess you can get a .eu domain for ten years. So that could be an option to make sure you have enough time to shift to another domain should your country leave the EU too. Assuming, well, that the EU won't take it away from you before the expiry date just because you lost your EU residence.
  - akvadrako 4y ago
    Obscure country TLDs are fine. I've been using https://doubly.so https://doubly.so for a decade and never had trouble with emails.
  - c12 4y ago
    I have heard people say "vanity TLDs are bad" but never experienced it myself. I have email addresses at .co.uk, .digital and .social never had deliverability issues with sending or receiving. When I worked at a large (100m emails/wk) email service provider the key thing was sending IP reputation followed by things like DKIM and SPF DNS records on the sending domain. IP reputation would be an issue if you self hosted your email, but using a reputable provider such as tutanota and fastmail should pose no issue.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  Fastmail user here with custom .org domain. Works great; Fastmail app and web. Very satisfied.
- gary_0 4y ago
  HN thread discussing Fastmail experiences: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31989061 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31989061
- jamil7 4y ago
  The only hesitation I have with switching now is Fastmail being based in Australia.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - creata 4y ago
    Why? They aren't offering an end-to-end encrypted service, so as far as I know Australia's laws aren't much worse than, say, the US' laws in this regard.
- Eumenes 4y ago
  I don't need a custom domain anymore and I find it trivial to change email addresses. I can use 1password to locate accounts, easily migrate, apply a tag, and work through the change over a few hours. I typically change email every 2-3 years and it serves as a good way to review security settings/change passwords. Modern email providers have mailbox porting tools, and they work fine. I use to like having a domain, but dunno, for a privacy nut, seems more secure to not use one.
  - return_to_monke 4y ago
    I don't think the hard thing is switching emails. The difficult thing is telling everyone about the fact that you switched.
  - severino 4y ago
    > I use to like having a domain, but dunno, for a privacy nut, seems more secure to not use one. Care to explain which are those concerns about privacy that you may find when owning a custom email address? Thanks in advance.
    - Eumenes 4y ago
      I was being a bit pedantic but ... a domain registrar could be an attack vector, its not as anonymous as something like proton/tutanota, not beholden to ICANN, if you use an alias related to your domain it could be tied to you. If I give up the domain in the future, it could be used against me in a social engineering way.
BluSyn 4y ago
FWIW, I went from gmail -> protonmail -> fastmail, and have been very happy with fastmail. protonmail is great as a secure disposable email, but as a go-to daily email service I found it too difficult to manage. Hard to use other email clients due to requiring this bridge, and their mobile apps and web guis are just not up-to-par with other offerings. Being able to use any frontend on mobile (and not deal with complicated proxy setups) was my biggest issue. Using a custom domain has made the switches easier, as I don't have to tell anyone to update their contacts or worry about forwarding. Just exporting/importing, change some MX records, and I can switch providers any time.
- tikkabhuna 4y ago
  I did the same thing. Custom domain with Protonmail. Ended up frustrated that I couldn't set up forwarding rules and alike. I realised I didn't need the privacy as much as I needed features. Swapping from Protonmail to Fastmail was super easy. Exported all my email, imported into Fastmail, and swapped over the DNS records. Took me a couple of hours in between other tasks.
mostafah 4y ago
I’ve been a Fastmail user for about a decade (I just checked; wow!) and am very, very happy with them. I wish more companies were like them. The service is very reliable, the product is great, their support is amazing and very kind. A lot of companies get distracted by big pivots and hyper-growth ideas, while companies like Fastmail focus on doing their main job very well.
- vr46 4y ago
  Today I've just given up on Protonmail, the Bridge is a POS. When things were reliable, I was ok to jump through hoops in maintaining a separate app, but I cannot be bothered any longer. Just set up a Fastmail account to see what it's all about.
twleo 4y ago
I uses FastMail after I discover this serious issue about Proton. I would say it work flawlessly and their web mail client is super fast; even faster than Gmail. Besides, FastMail exists before Gmail and the people in FastMail are active standard protocol developers like IMAP and recently JMAP (a modern mail protocol will replace SMTP/IMAP, FastMail as a reference implementation), which is good because at least I know they understand the protocol and implement it by themselves.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  > even faster than Gmail. It’s really fast, but come on, that’s one low bar to jump over. Gmail is the electron of mail interfaces.
RealStickman_ 4y ago
I've switched to mailbox.org. They allow boring old IMAP/SMTP (that's good) and are EU-based.
- uselpa 4y ago
  Same here, mailbox.org with custom .eu domain. Very reliable.
worble 4y ago
Happy user of Migadu here, mostly because they let you bring as many domain names as you want and just charge usage.
andrewmi 4y ago
I'm a happy customer of Zoho Mail
MrBuddyCasino 4y ago
Anyone has experience with hey.com?
- benhurmarcel 4y ago
  I tried it for a year. I'm quite positive on it, nice interface and unique useful features, and it's reliable in my experience. However you have to be ok with its particularities, mainly that it doesn't have IMAP, and it's expensive. Ultimately it's for people who love their unique interface/features, and don't mind paying so much for email.
wccrawford 4y ago
I've been using Purelymail for quite a while now and I've been happy with it.
alpaca128 4y ago
I personally use mailbox.org for years now. Granted, I don't have remotely the usage mentioned in the linked issue and I know users that aren't very satisfied with features like the integrated office webapp, but it does everything I need (emails & calendar sync) and I haven't found a reason not to trust them. Originally my reason to choose them instead of Protonmail was that Protonmail only works with their official client, which is a far too limiting dependency in my eyes.

gobip 4y ago

HN is hooked on fastmail which is a great provider to be honest. Have a look at mailbox.org which is in business since the 90s too. Avoid the privacy trending providers promising you to encrypt your emails.

akvadrako 4y ago
I second mailbox.org. Didn't want to use fastmail since it's based in Australia instead of the EU.
twleo 4y ago
FastMail takes on PGP is very reasonable. https://fastmail.blog/advanced/why-we-dont-offer-pgp/ https://fastmail.blog/advanced/why-we-dont-offer-pgp/ I don't believe the encryption/key management from a company.

Toutouxc 4y ago

First of all, bring your own domain. That way you can just point the same address elsewhere if you need to switch again without having to deal with forwarding. edit: As mentioned by a sibling comment, my email is currently on Fastmail, zero problems.

mr_mitm 4y ago
Sounds reasonable. Any gotchas there? I already read that vanity TLDs are bad, obscure countries' TLDs are bad, and even .eu may be unstable. Which are good services that can sell me an .org or .de domain for a fair price?
- severino 4y ago
  > and even .eu may be unstable Do you mean you can lose your domain if your country leaves the EU, or are you talking about other issues?
  - mr_mitm 4y ago
    Yes, that's what I had in mind, I may be wrong though. Did any Brits have issues with eu domains after Brexit?
    - c12 4y ago
      Yes, but that was due to Brexit. .eu domains may only be registered to a person or entity that exists within the EU. As soon as Brexit crystallised any British person or entity owning a .eu domain was unable to renew it unless they had an address they legally occupied within an EU country. I know a few companies who rented a small amount of office space in France so that they could retain their .eu domain.
      - severino 4y ago
        I guess you can get a .eu domain for ten years. So that could be an option to make sure you have enough time to shift to another domain should your country leave the EU too. Assuming, well, that the EU won't take it away from you before the expiry date just because you lost your EU residence.
- akvadrako 4y ago
  Obscure country TLDs are fine. I've been using https://doubly.so https://doubly.so for a decade and never had trouble with emails.
- c12 4y ago
  I have heard people say "vanity TLDs are bad" but never experienced it myself. I have email addresses at .co.uk, .digital and .social never had deliverability issues with sending or receiving. When I worked at a large (100m emails/wk) email service provider the key thing was sending IP reputation followed by things like DKIM and SPF DNS records on the sending domain. IP reputation would be an issue if you self hosted your email, but using a reputable provider such as tutanota and fastmail should pose no issue.
TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
Fastmail user here with custom .org domain. Works great; Fastmail app and web. Very satisfied.
gary_0 4y ago
HN thread discussing Fastmail experiences: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31989061 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31989061
jamil7 4y ago
The only hesitation I have with switching now is Fastmail being based in Australia.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- creata 4y ago
  Why? They aren't offering an end-to-end encrypted service, so as far as I know Australia's laws aren't much worse than, say, the US' laws in this regard.
Eumenes 4y ago
I don't need a custom domain anymore and I find it trivial to change email addresses. I can use 1password to locate accounts, easily migrate, apply a tag, and work through the change over a few hours. I typically change email every 2-3 years and it serves as a good way to review security settings/change passwords. Modern email providers have mailbox porting tools, and they work fine. I use to like having a domain, but dunno, for a privacy nut, seems more secure to not use one.
- return_to_monke 4y ago
  I don't think the hard thing is switching emails. The difficult thing is telling everyone about the fact that you switched.
- severino 4y ago
  > I use to like having a domain, but dunno, for a privacy nut, seems more secure to not use one. Care to explain which are those concerns about privacy that you may find when owning a custom email address? Thanks in advance.
  - Eumenes 4y ago
    I was being a bit pedantic but ... a domain registrar could be an attack vector, its not as anonymous as something like proton/tutanota, not beholden to ICANN, if you use an alias related to your domain it could be tied to you. If I give up the domain in the future, it could be used against me in a social engineering way.

BluSyn 4y ago

FWIW, I went from gmail -> protonmail -> fastmail, and have been very happy with fastmail. protonmail is great as a secure disposable email, but as a go-to daily email service I found it too difficult to manage. Hard to use other email clients due to requiring this bridge, and their mobile apps and web guis are just not up-to-par with other offerings. Being able to use any frontend on mobile (and not deal with complicated proxy setups) was my biggest issue. Using a custom domain has made the switches easier, as I don't have to tell anyone to update their contacts or worry about forwarding. Just exporting/importing, change some MX records, and I can switch providers any time.

tikkabhuna 4y ago
I did the same thing. Custom domain with Protonmail. Ended up frustrated that I couldn't set up forwarding rules and alike. I realised I didn't need the privacy as much as I needed features. Swapping from Protonmail to Fastmail was super easy. Exported all my email, imported into Fastmail, and swapped over the DNS records. Took me a couple of hours in between other tasks.

mostafah 4y ago

I’ve been a Fastmail user for about a decade (I just checked; wow!) and am very, very happy with them. I wish more companies were like them. The service is very reliable, the product is great, their support is amazing and very kind. A lot of companies get distracted by big pivots and hyper-growth ideas, while companies like Fastmail focus on doing their main job very well.

vr46 4y ago
Today I've just given up on Protonmail, the Bridge is a POS. When things were reliable, I was ok to jump through hoops in maintaining a separate app, but I cannot be bothered any longer. Just set up a Fastmail account to see what it's all about.

twleo 4y ago

I uses FastMail after I discover this serious issue about Proton. I would say it work flawlessly and their web mail client is super fast; even faster than Gmail. Besides, FastMail exists before Gmail and the people in FastMail are active standard protocol developers like IMAP and recently JMAP (a modern mail protocol will replace SMTP/IMAP, FastMail as a reference implementation), which is good because at least I know they understand the protocol and implement it by themselves.

Semaphor 4y ago
> even faster than Gmail. It’s really fast, but come on, that’s one low bar to jump over. Gmail is the electron of mail interfaces.

RealStickman_ 4y ago

I've switched to mailbox.org. They allow boring old IMAP/SMTP (that's good) and are EU-based.

uselpa 4y ago
Same here, mailbox.org with custom .eu domain. Very reliable.

worble 4y ago

Happy user of Migadu here, mostly because they let you bring as many domain names as you want and just charge usage.

andrewmi 4y ago

I'm a happy customer of Zoho Mail

MrBuddyCasino 4y ago

Anyone has experience with hey.com?

benhurmarcel 4y ago
I tried it for a year. I'm quite positive on it, nice interface and unique useful features, and it's reliable in my experience. However you have to be ok with its particularities, mainly that it doesn't have IMAP, and it's expensive. Ultimately it's for people who love their unique interface/features, and don't mind paying so much for email.

wccrawford 4y ago

I've been using Purelymail for quite a while now and I've been happy with it.

alpaca128 4y ago

I personally use mailbox.org for years now. Granted, I don't have remotely the usage mentioned in the linked issue and I know users that aren't very satisfied with features like the integrated office webapp, but it does everything I need (emails & calendar sync) and I haven't found a reason not to trust them. Originally my reason to choose them instead of Protonmail was that Protonmail only works with their official client, which is a far too limiting dependency in my eyes.