4 ms·

I just got the email mentioned in the article (and that's the only blog source I found for it, including Microsoft.com). After the whole G Suite Free cancellati

I just got the email mentioned in the article (and that's the only blog source I found for it, including Microsoft.com). After the whole G Suite Free cancellation I thought about switching my domain email to Outlook for that benefit, but I decided against moving. Guess that was a good call.

borissk 4y ago
This would've not impacted you, if you did move - they stop offering the feature to new customers, but will keep it working for existing users. I've had a couple of free emails with custom domains setup probably 15 years ago (Microsoft went through a few different names for this service since) and they work to this day. The only difference is I can't create new email accounts in the custom domains.
- anoojb 4y ago
  I was in the same boat. Now feeling lucky I didn't make that mistake. Makes you wonder how much of this has to do with fraud and spam mitigation. It must be bad enough that they are throwing out the baby...
- smileybarry 4y ago
  It would, because I make aliases and other mailboxes occasionally. (E.g.: Apple/Google developer program public-facing alias) I don't want to be locked into just the one name forever.
bpye 4y ago
If you're looking for a new provider I'd vouch for Fastmail. I switched from Google's free plan back when they killed Inbox, and I've been pretty happy with it.
- nicce 4y ago
  Tutanota is not bad either. Still a small provider but growing. They have also E2EE calendar.
  - gaganyaan 4y ago
    Did not care for Tutanota, mostly because I don't want to have yet another Electron app running. I just wanted to use Tutanota as an email host, with E2EE enabled where available/feasible. Instead, I couldn't use Thunderbird to access my email, which kind of killed it for me.
    - nicce 4y ago
      PGP encryption is problematic, and Tutanota is not using it. Therefore, adding Thunderbird support is challenging. There are around 15 people working in Tutanota, and without Electron they really can’t provide it for every platform.
- smileybarry 4y ago
  My problem is that I use my G Suite Free as a sort-of alias, it all still goes to my main Gmail (that I can't change due to billions of accounts pointing to it) and I then send replies back with the @domain.name identity (and associated SMTP). I haven't been able to find a service to fill that niche that isn't a whole inbox, but also doesn't feel like some shaky registrar IMAP/SMTP setup. It's definitely a deliverability perk to have Google serve my domain. Cloudflare have a really nice incoming email redirection feature and I wanted to use it, but they don't support sending emails by design.
  - bpye 4y ago
    You can configure Fastmail to do that, but I guess it would be in reverse. I have some old Google accounts (old student email and pre-custom domain gmail) configured to forward mail to Fastmail, and then Fastmail configured to send email via Google for those email addresses too. https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000278022-Using-other-email-addresses https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000278022-Us...
  - nicoburns 4y ago
    I use Fastmail, and have it pull in my gmail account via IMAP. I actually don’t have too much sent to my gmail these days, as I was already using the custom domain with gmail for many years before I switched providers, but what does get sent to it comes through just fine.
  - cmeacham98 4y ago
    I'm not sure why this can't work with basically any email provider? Setup you domain like normal, and configure gmail to forward all incoming mail to your address on your domain. What is the feature you're missing here?
    - smileybarry 4y ago
      It can, but then pricing bothers me. I just got so used to G Suite free that I don't want to tack on a $10/month subscription for forwarding. (It's silly given the myriad of other subscriptions I'm fine with, though)
rainsford 4y ago
I had a similar thought, although I ended up actually trying out Microsoft's full O365 suite instead since I figured if I was going to end up paying for something, I might as well consider alternatives that might be less flaky than Google's commitment to products. Sounds like Outlook wouldn't have been a good choice with this feature getting killed, but O365 was a whole different kind of hassle. For my incredibly simple setup, it was amazing how complex Microsoft managed to make it. I have never had to read so much documentation in my life to do what were intuitive tasks in G Suite's interface. I ended up abandoning it for Cloudflare+Sendgrid which met my needs and was simpler to set up despite involving two different providers. Honestly I think configuring my own mail server from scratch would have been simpler than Microsoft made it. All that to say, my impression is that Microsoft is not really interested in serving the power user or small team market and is comfortable with a feature set and interface intended for what would otherwise be an Exchange admin at a Fortune 500. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but I get it from a profit margin standpoint at the very least.

borissk 4y ago

This would've not impacted you, if you did move - they stop offering the feature to new customers, but will keep it working for existing users. I've had a couple of free emails with custom domains setup probably 15 years ago (Microsoft went through a few different names for this service since) and they work to this day. The only difference is I can't create new email accounts in the custom domains.

anoojb 4y ago
I was in the same boat. Now feeling lucky I didn't make that mistake. Makes you wonder how much of this has to do with fraud and spam mitigation. It must be bad enough that they are throwing out the baby...
smileybarry 4y ago
It would, because I make aliases and other mailboxes occasionally. (E.g.: Apple/Google developer program public-facing alias) I don't want to be locked into just the one name forever.

bpye 4y ago

If you're looking for a new provider I'd vouch for Fastmail. I switched from Google's free plan back when they killed Inbox, and I've been pretty happy with it.

nicce 4y ago
Tutanota is not bad either. Still a small provider but growing. They have also E2EE calendar.
- gaganyaan 4y ago
  Did not care for Tutanota, mostly because I don't want to have yet another Electron app running. I just wanted to use Tutanota as an email host, with E2EE enabled where available/feasible. Instead, I couldn't use Thunderbird to access my email, which kind of killed it for me.
  - nicce 4y ago
    PGP encryption is problematic, and Tutanota is not using it. Therefore, adding Thunderbird support is challenging. There are around 15 people working in Tutanota, and without Electron they really can’t provide it for every platform.
smileybarry 4y ago
My problem is that I use my G Suite Free as a sort-of alias, it all still goes to my main Gmail (that I can't change due to billions of accounts pointing to it) and I then send replies back with the @domain.name identity (and associated SMTP). I haven't been able to find a service to fill that niche that isn't a whole inbox, but also doesn't feel like some shaky registrar IMAP/SMTP setup. It's definitely a deliverability perk to have Google serve my domain. Cloudflare have a really nice incoming email redirection feature and I wanted to use it, but they don't support sending emails by design.
- bpye 4y ago
  You can configure Fastmail to do that, but I guess it would be in reverse. I have some old Google accounts (old student email and pre-custom domain gmail) configured to forward mail to Fastmail, and then Fastmail configured to send email via Google for those email addresses too. https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000278022-Using-other-email-addresses https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000278022-Us...
- nicoburns 4y ago
  I use Fastmail, and have it pull in my gmail account via IMAP. I actually don’t have too much sent to my gmail these days, as I was already using the custom domain with gmail for many years before I switched providers, but what does get sent to it comes through just fine.
- cmeacham98 4y ago
  I'm not sure why this can't work with basically any email provider? Setup you domain like normal, and configure gmail to forward all incoming mail to your address on your domain. What is the feature you're missing here?
  - smileybarry 4y ago
    It can, but then pricing bothers me. I just got so used to G Suite free that I don't want to tack on a $10/month subscription for forwarding. (It's silly given the myriad of other subscriptions I'm fine with, though)

rainsford 4y ago

I had a similar thought, although I ended up actually trying out Microsoft's full O365 suite instead since I figured if I was going to end up paying for something, I might as well consider alternatives that might be less flaky than Google's commitment to products. Sounds like Outlook wouldn't have been a good choice with this feature getting killed, but O365 was a whole different kind of hassle. For my incredibly simple setup, it was amazing how complex Microsoft managed to make it. I have never had to read so much documentation in my life to do what were intuitive tasks in G Suite's interface. I ended up abandoning it for Cloudflare+Sendgrid which met my needs and was simpler to set up despite involving two different providers. Honestly I think configuring my own mail server from scratch would have been simpler than Microsoft made it. All that to say, my impression is that Microsoft is not really interested in serving the power user or small team market and is comfortable with a feature set and interface intended for what would otherwise be an Exchange admin at a Fortune 500. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but I get it from a profit margin standpoint at the very least.