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What is so great about fastmail? I keep hearing people talk about it but haven’t “gotten it” yet.

by borski 4y ago

rb666 4y ago
I have been a paying customer for years, and I don't expect to ever leave. My favorites are: - DNS capabilities - Friendly and fast customer support - Great, smooth, pretty UI on all platforms
- LibertyBeta 4y ago
  See, I don't get this. Last time I tried fastmail I ended up on proton because it was just slightly... Kludgy. DNS was slow. Webmail was a mess. And the mobile client scene wasn't worth it. That said, the billing side wasn't bad.
  - bovermyer 4y ago
    That's fascinating. My experience is exactly the opposite - Proton is slow and awful, and Fastmail is fast and clean.
    - JasonFruit 4y ago
      Mine lines up with yours: Fastmail has been great, Proton started okay and has gotten progressively worse.
justusthane 4y ago
It's just really good at being an email provider. Reliable, privacy-respecting, good support, and with a webmail client to rival (or beat) Gmail. Plus they frequently develop new useful features, like partnering with Bitwarden and 1Password to generate throwaway email address on the fly at your domain.
nailer 4y ago
I find latency on gmail (for work or otherwise) makes gmail unusable. I am more latency sensitive than most of my colleagues though.
fooqux 4y ago
I tried fastmail once when I was looking for a new provider. Free trial, they said. So I created an account, switched over my MX records, changed my mail client, etc. Seemed fine. That is, until I received an email from my father. I couldn't open it. It was so perplexing that I eventually opened a ticket with support to see what I screwed up. Turns out their "free trial" only worked with other fastmail addresses until verified my account. The only supported method of verification was to create a paid account. Support wouldn't or couldn't help until I verified. I was pretty pissed; felt like I got bait and switched. What good is a trial that only works with a service that (relatively) very few people use? I closed my account, moved to purelymail, and haven't looked back. I still have no idea what email my dad sent me. They might be a great service otherwise, but this gave me a very sour experience.
- rob 4y ago
  I'm on a FastMail free trial and have no restrictions like that. It's been great. Maybe they've updated their free trial policy since you've tried it.
- dasil003 4y ago
  I would be very curious to hear from a Fastmail rep on this as my demo account never did anything like this to my recollection, though that was a long time ago at this point and I’ve been a happy subscriber for 5+ years.
jxdxbx 4y ago
Fastmail is just normal IMAP unlike Gmail, so it works with email clients without weirdness around folders and archiving. It also supports native push notifications on iOS, which Gmail does not. And it works well with your own domain names. That said I switched to using iCloud mail with my own domain as soon as it was available.

What is so great about fastmail? I keep hearing people talk about it but haven’t “gotten it” yet.

by borski 4y ago

What is so great about fastmail? I keep hearing people talk about it but haven’t “gotten it” yet.

I have been a paying customer for years, and I don't expect to ever leave. My favorites are: - DNS capabilities - Friendly and fast customer support - Great, smooth, pretty UI on all platforms

LibertyBeta 4y ago
See, I don't get this. Last time I tried fastmail I ended up on proton because it was just slightly... Kludgy. DNS was slow. Webmail was a mess. And the mobile client scene wasn't worth it. That said, the billing side wasn't bad.
- bovermyer 4y ago
  That's fascinating. My experience is exactly the opposite - Proton is slow and awful, and Fastmail is fast and clean.
  - JasonFruit 4y ago
    Mine lines up with yours: Fastmail has been great, Proton started okay and has gotten progressively worse.

justusthane 4y ago

It's just really good at being an email provider. Reliable, privacy-respecting, good support, and with a webmail client to rival (or beat) Gmail. Plus they frequently develop new useful features, like partnering with Bitwarden and 1Password to generate throwaway email address on the fly at your domain.

nailer 4y ago

I find latency on gmail (for work or otherwise) makes gmail unusable. I am more latency sensitive than most of my colleagues though.

fooqux 4y ago

I tried fastmail once when I was looking for a new provider. Free trial, they said. So I created an account, switched over my MX records, changed my mail client, etc. Seemed fine. That is, until I received an email from my father. I couldn't open it. It was so perplexing that I eventually opened a ticket with support to see what I screwed up. Turns out their "free trial" only worked with other fastmail addresses until verified my account. The only supported method of verification was to create a paid account. Support wouldn't or couldn't help until I verified. I was pretty pissed; felt like I got bait and switched. What good is a trial that only works with a service that (relatively) very few people use? I closed my account, moved to purelymail, and haven't looked back. I still have no idea what email my dad sent me. They might be a great service otherwise, but this gave me a very sour experience.

rob 4y ago
I'm on a FastMail free trial and have no restrictions like that. It's been great. Maybe they've updated their free trial policy since you've tried it.
dasil003 4y ago
I would be very curious to hear from a Fastmail rep on this as my demo account never did anything like this to my recollection, though that was a long time ago at this point and I’ve been a happy subscriber for 5+ years.

jxdxbx 4y ago

Fastmail is just normal IMAP unlike Gmail, so it works with email clients without weirdness around folders and archiving. It also supports native push notifications on iOS, which Gmail does not. And it works well with your own domain names. That said I switched to using iCloud mail with my own domain as soon as it was available.