Sorry, this has been brought up a number of times obviously, but I figured I’d still give it a shot. I’m not self-hosting email, because it sounds like a huge PITA. I was looking for a decent email provider, but coming up short for now, wonder what people here are using. My requirements:

  • support for a custom domain,
  • support for hooking up my applications via SMTP (just to send, like, update notifications, nothing spammy),
  • (optional, but would be good to have) nice apps for Android/iOS.

Things I’ve tried (all paid subscriptions):

  • Fastmail - felt excellent until I tried actually using it and found that 1) my SMTP messages are lost/delayed by a few hours. 2) SMTP-sent messages are not in the Sent folder, which makes things really hard to track. More details here: https://www.reddit.com/r/fastmail/comments/181tnuf/experience_with_fastmail_as_a_new_user/
  • Proton Mail - doesn’t have SMTP support, wat.
  • Purelymail - feels a bit hackish to me, and I don’t want my wife to input weird IMAP settings on her phone.

Any good recommendations? Thanks a lot!

  • SirLagz@alien.topBEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    Why not look into alternate methods of getting alerts? Like Gotify or ntfy?

  • TokyoExplorer@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I use a provider called Imageway (), and they seem to offer really good email hosting. They are non-Microsoft based, and offer just about every major open email based protocol (IMAP, POP, SMTP, CalDAV, CardDAV) available. They also have features you won’t find anywhere else like support for 2FA that works with IMAP/POP. Lastly they don’t charge per email account like most of the other providers listed, instead they use a shared storage concept.

  • FuriousRageSE@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Im going to use protonmail for my next domain im looking into getting (when i come up with a name for it :D)

    Custom domains
    sub-accounting or what its called, aliasing in email like gmail… yourname+something@mail.tld so you can tag and see where spam and such comes from (who sold/leaked your email?)

    Proton mail have both imap and smtp available

  • Simon-RedditAccount@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago
    • Google Workspace. Not the cheapest, and also by Google (although they claim they don’t mine as much data from business accounts)
    • Zoho, $1.25/mo
    • iCloud+, $0.99/mo, but a bit limited (don’t remember whether they have catch-all etc).
  • Kronepils@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I’m using Zoho after years and years of self hosting. Never looked back :) I’m on the free account wish my custom domain btw.

  • Plastivore@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    After running my own server for a few years, I got tired of the maintenance. I used ProtonMail for a while, and I didn’t mind using their app on my phone and the Bridge on my computer, but my parents kept forgetting to check and update it so Thunderbird would lose connectivity once in a while.

    I have since migrated to Infomaniak. It’s based in Switzerland as well, you can use your own domain and it’s cheap (€1.50 per month for 5 addresses with unlimited storage). I haven’t tried their smartphone app (I use the one from Apple on my iPhone), but I’ve heard good things about it.

    • nisnete@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Infomaniak

      Wow, I’ve never heard about this one before. Thanks, I’ll check it out!

  • ayoungblood84@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I self host Mailu and don’t have issues with it being blocked… If it’s configured correctly you won’t have issues.

    I’ve thought about creating a blog on how to build it but haven’t. Any interest in this?

    • lookq76@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      I self host too, using modoboa The issue with many VPS is they block outgoing port 25 Cant selfhost at home because ISP didnt give public ip For now im just relay outgoing via sendgrid

  • desnudopenguino@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I use a combination on ProtonMail and Mailgun. I only have a few automated messages going out with mailgun a month so it’s essentially free. I also started using mattermost as a notification channel for different things as well. It has the same API as slack, so you can hook it up to pretty much anything you can hook slack up to.

  • bmaeser@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    i have been using fastmail for about a year now, never had any issues with smtp delays or mails not showing up in ‘sent’

    i also use protonmail. for smtp (or any 3rd party client) you need to upgrade your account and install the bridge. this is because you need something to handle pgp.