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I also recently switched from Gmail to Fastmail and haven't looked back. The webmail is fantastic, they're not scanning my email to show me ads, IMAP works grea

I also recently switched from Gmail to Fastmail and haven't looked back. The webmail is fantastic, they're not scanning my email to show me ads, IMAP works great across all of my devices (which makes me more inclined to use OpenPGP when I can), and I can use it with my own domain rather than gmail.com. They're also working on CardDAV and a web calendar (with CalDAV support), which will get me completely off of google once completed. The only thing I really miss is push notifications to my phone, but I've found that 15 minute fetching works well enough for the time being. Overall I've been really happy with it over the last 3 months. Definitely worth the $40/yr in my eyes.

etix 12y ago
IMAP IDLE works great, it's not as efficient as push on mobile because of the battery drain but at least you'll get instant notifications. That's what I use with K-9 on Android.
- danieldk 12y ago
  IDLE opens a TCP connection for every folder the client is IDLE-ing on. It surely drains the battery. I haven't used it, but NuevaSync provides Exchange ActiveSync for IMAP accounts.
chjj 12y ago
Just curious, does it support 2FA for the web login and api key (or device keys, whatever google calls them) access for IMAP?
- etix 12y ago
  For the webmail yes, definitely. For IMAP I don't think it would work, I personally use OTP when I do IMAP on an insecure device.
- nnx 12y ago
  It does. You can append your current 2FA TOTP code right after the password when your email client requests the password.
- chmars 12y ago
  No, Fastmail does not support actual 2FA. You can add alternative login methods, for example Google Authenticator, but you can always login with your password only, i.e., it is not like Gmail where you have to use 2FA for untrusted devices or logins from strange locations plus specific passwords for IMAP etc. And the configuration screen is a mess: http://i.imgur.com/NzW8o5h.png http://i.imgur.com/NzW8o5h.png http://i.imgur.com/dmoBbpy.png http://i.imgur.com/dmoBbpy.png
kunstmord 12y ago
Never heard of FastMail before this post, and I'm considering switching now. I have a personal mail server, but it was a PITA to set up, and it probably needs AWS SES (since everything I send mostly ends up in people's spam folders), and there's always the possibility of the VPS going offline for some time.
daxelrod 12y ago
The iOS push notifications are what has been causing me to move my email over to GMail. Otherwise I'd much prefer something like Fastmail. I'm sure solutions exist for push notifications. Has anyone had success with any of them?
- Osmium 12y ago
  > The iOS push notifications are what has been causing me to move my email over to GMail. Don't rely on Gmail for push: they discontinued Exchange-support recently, though they grandfathered in old users. What's irritating to me is that when I set up my new phone I lost it, and am now back to using fetch-only Gmail unless I want to use one of Google's proprietary apps (unless they've changed this recently). Agreed that I'd like Fastmail to have push. Every time they come up on HN, I mention it, because I'm a paying Fastmail customer and would like to stay one because they're really perfect in every other way, but the lack of push email is just very disappointing. > I'm sure solutions exist for push notifications. Has anyone had success with any of them? On iOS there are options like Boxcar and the like, but they're usually sub-optimal and rely on passing your login credentials to a third party.
  - danieldk 12y ago
    Don't rely on Gmail for push: they discontinued Exchange-support recently, though they grandfathered in old users. What's irritating to me is that when I set up my new phone I lost it, and am now back to using fetch-only Gmail unless I want to use one of Google's proprietary apps (unless they've changed this recently). Google Apps for Business does have Exchange ActiveSync: https://support.google.com/a/answer/135937?hl=en https://support.google.com/a/answer/135937?hl=en
- tjtg 12y ago
  I wrote a ruby script which watches Fastmail's IMAP inbox, does some filtering and then sends a push notification when mail arrives using the Pushover app. https://github.com/tjtg/imap-pushover https://github.com/tjtg/imap-pushover
  - 12y ago
andrewmunsell 12y ago
I've also done the same recently-- though I always liked Gmail, FastMail has just been much better in terms of usability with the web client (e.g. no ads, it's fast, etc.)
lobster_johnson 12y ago
If you want CardDAV and CalDAV support, you should take a look at Fruux [1]. They are a "headless" contact/calendaring server, no GUI, just the API. I moved to them (off Google Calendar) around the same time as I moved from Gmail to Fastmail, and I'm extremely satisfied. [1] https://fruux.com https://fruux.com
- Semaphor 12y ago
  Does fruux now support keeping in sync with an ics file like facebooks private urls? Last time I checked that was the last hurdle I had to move away from google calendar.
  - lobster_johnson 12y ago
    Don't think so. I don't use that, I just plug external calendars into the apps that need them (or at least Calendar on Mac).
  - untitaker_ 12y ago
    I wrote a thing to synchronize ics files with caldav calendars: https://github.com/untitaker/vdirsyncer https://github.com/untitaker/vdirsyncer
danieldk 12y ago
The webmail is fantastic, they're not scanning my email to show me ads, [...] and I can use it with my own domain rather than gmail.com. In all fairness, if you use Google Apps for Business ($50 per year), you can also use e-mail with your domain and they are not scanning your e-mail to show you ads.
- chmars 12y ago
  Google will still scan your mails but you will not be shown any ads. I agree that Gmail (especially via Google Apps for Business) is a great mail provider. My main beef with Gmail is the sub-par IMAP support.
  - danieldk 12y ago
    Google will still scan your mails but you will not be shown any ads. For viruses and spam, yes. But Fastmail does that too. In addition to these increased security measures, as we recently announced, we’ve now turned off ads in Google Apps services. This means administrators no longer have the option or ability to turn on ads in these services. We’ve also permanently removed all ads scanning in Gmail for Google Apps, which means Google does not collect or use data in Google Apps services for advertising purposes. Source: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.de/2014/05/protecting-google-apps-customers-and.html http://googleenterprise.blogspot.de/2014/05/protecting-googl...
    - chmars 12y ago
      Thanks, I wasn't aware of that!

etix 12y ago

IMAP IDLE works great, it's not as efficient as push on mobile because of the battery drain but at least you'll get instant notifications. That's what I use with K-9 on Android.

danieldk 12y ago
IDLE opens a TCP connection for every folder the client is IDLE-ing on. It surely drains the battery. I haven't used it, but NuevaSync provides Exchange ActiveSync for IMAP accounts.

chjj 12y ago

Just curious, does it support 2FA for the web login and api key (or device keys, whatever google calls them) access for IMAP?

etix 12y ago
For the webmail yes, definitely. For IMAP I don't think it would work, I personally use OTP when I do IMAP on an insecure device.
nnx 12y ago
It does. You can append your current 2FA TOTP code right after the password when your email client requests the password.
chmars 12y ago
No, Fastmail does not support actual 2FA. You can add alternative login methods, for example Google Authenticator, but you can always login with your password only, i.e., it is not like Gmail where you have to use 2FA for untrusted devices or logins from strange locations plus specific passwords for IMAP etc. And the configuration screen is a mess: http://i.imgur.com/NzW8o5h.png http://i.imgur.com/NzW8o5h.png http://i.imgur.com/dmoBbpy.png http://i.imgur.com/dmoBbpy.png

kunstmord 12y ago

Never heard of FastMail before this post, and I'm considering switching now. I have a personal mail server, but it was a PITA to set up, and it probably needs AWS SES (since everything I send mostly ends up in people's spam folders), and there's always the possibility of the VPS going offline for some time.

daxelrod 12y ago

The iOS push notifications are what has been causing me to move my email over to GMail. Otherwise I'd much prefer something like Fastmail. I'm sure solutions exist for push notifications. Has anyone had success with any of them?

Osmium 12y ago
> The iOS push notifications are what has been causing me to move my email over to GMail. Don't rely on Gmail for push: they discontinued Exchange-support recently, though they grandfathered in old users. What's irritating to me is that when I set up my new phone I lost it, and am now back to using fetch-only Gmail unless I want to use one of Google's proprietary apps (unless they've changed this recently). Agreed that I'd like Fastmail to have push. Every time they come up on HN, I mention it, because I'm a paying Fastmail customer and would like to stay one because they're really perfect in every other way, but the lack of push email is just very disappointing. > I'm sure solutions exist for push notifications. Has anyone had success with any of them? On iOS there are options like Boxcar and the like, but they're usually sub-optimal and rely on passing your login credentials to a third party.
- danieldk 12y ago
  Don't rely on Gmail for push: they discontinued Exchange-support recently, though they grandfathered in old users. What's irritating to me is that when I set up my new phone I lost it, and am now back to using fetch-only Gmail unless I want to use one of Google's proprietary apps (unless they've changed this recently). Google Apps for Business does have Exchange ActiveSync: https://support.google.com/a/answer/135937?hl=en https://support.google.com/a/answer/135937?hl=en
tjtg 12y ago
I wrote a ruby script which watches Fastmail's IMAP inbox, does some filtering and then sends a push notification when mail arrives using the Pushover app. https://github.com/tjtg/imap-pushover https://github.com/tjtg/imap-pushover
- 12y ago

andrewmunsell 12y ago

I've also done the same recently-- though I always liked Gmail, FastMail has just been much better in terms of usability with the web client (e.g. no ads, it's fast, etc.)

lobster_johnson 12y ago

If you want CardDAV and CalDAV support, you should take a look at Fruux [1]. They are a "headless" contact/calendaring server, no GUI, just the API. I moved to them (off Google Calendar) around the same time as I moved from Gmail to Fastmail, and I'm extremely satisfied. [1] https://fruux.com https://fruux.com

Semaphor 12y ago
Does fruux now support keeping in sync with an ics file like facebooks private urls? Last time I checked that was the last hurdle I had to move away from google calendar.
- lobster_johnson 12y ago
  Don't think so. I don't use that, I just plug external calendars into the apps that need them (or at least Calendar on Mac).
- untitaker_ 12y ago
  I wrote a thing to synchronize ics files with caldav calendars: https://github.com/untitaker/vdirsyncer https://github.com/untitaker/vdirsyncer

danieldk 12y ago

The webmail is fantastic, they're not scanning my email to show me ads, [...] and I can use it with my own domain rather than gmail.com. In all fairness, if you use Google Apps for Business ($50 per year), you can also use e-mail with your domain and they are not scanning your e-mail to show you ads.

chmars 12y ago
Google will still scan your mails but you will not be shown any ads. I agree that Gmail (especially via Google Apps for Business) is a great mail provider. My main beef with Gmail is the sub-par IMAP support.
- danieldk 12y ago
  Google will still scan your mails but you will not be shown any ads. For viruses and spam, yes. But Fastmail does that too. In addition to these increased security measures, as we recently announced, we’ve now turned off ads in Google Apps services. This means administrators no longer have the option or ability to turn on ads in these services. We’ve also permanently removed all ads scanning in Gmail for Google Apps, which means Google does not collect or use data in Google Apps services for advertising purposes. Source: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.de/2014/05/protecting-google-apps-customers-and.html http://googleenterprise.blogspot.de/2014/05/protecting-googl...
  - chmars 12y ago
    Thanks, I wasn't aware of that!