[lvillani]

FastMail. It's one of the few third party hosts to support push email on iOS with the native Mail app (it's a custom protocol based on APNS), since Mail doesn't implement IMAP IDLE [1].

They are also the main sponsors behind the JMAP protocol [2] and some open source projects such as the Cyrus IMAP server.

[1]: https://fastmail.blog/2016/12/21/what-we-talk-about-when-we-... [2]: https://jmap.io

[simfoo]

One thing to keep in mind about Fastmail is that all their servers are hosted in the US and they have no plan about changing this (I asked). Post-Snowden this means you can be quite sure that all mails will end up being analysed by the US authorities

[bad_user]

I'm an European, but I don't mind.

First of all when making such a choice, you have to identify who the enemy is.

If you're talking about global enemies, like the NSA, then IMO without end-to-end encryption you're screwed. And if you're targeted directly, you're screwed regardless, given they have the capability to use whatever vulnerabilities they can find in your router, your phone, your OS, your browser, etc. If it's connected to the Internet, especially if you're being targeted, you're screwed.

Also many European countries have signed on joint cooperation agreements with US intelligence agencies. If for example you're using servers in the UK, it's in no way safer, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes

So back to who is the enemy?

For me it's not the NSA or our local intelligence agencies. If I'm being wronged, I've got legal ways to fight back and I don't really care about the NSA.

What I care about is being _profiled_ by unscrupulous companies that may end up selling that data to other actors that may harm my well being. For example insurance companies could deny insurance if they discovered you smoked cigarettes 10 years ago. Or banks changing your credit score based on who your friends are. Or supermarket chains discovering that your daughter is pregnant before everybody else does. This shit is already happening!

I think the general discourse doesn't go in the direction that it should go. Organizations like EFF have been historically anti-government, but very pro corporate and private companies. Which is why I don't trust them fully.

Identify that enemy. If you're an European for example, that enemy is probably not the NSA.

I do prefer non-US alternatives btw, whenever I get that choice. I do so out of a desire to encourage competition and to reward EU companies that do well, as a "voting with your wallet" thing.

But choosing to reject non-US companies for the reason that some of their servers are located in the US, that's frankly childish. Servers located in the US are cost effective. Either provide better alternatives, or otherwise these services will not be able to compete on the global market from a price or latency perspective.

[ahje]

While you're absolutely right, details that are sensitive in nature should be encrypted using end-to-end encryption. Otherwise you won't be safe regardless of email provider, as the other correspondents will often be using a US email provider anyway.

If your threat model includes an actual threat from organizations like the NSA, then I'd say you have bigger problems than the choice of email provider.

EDIT: I self host.

[catwell]

> all their servers are hosted in the US

Not true, they have a lot of servers in Europe (Amsterdam).

That doesn't make the issue less valid though, since I think they have a full copy of all the data on both sides of the ocean.

[jsmeaton]

I dont think this is true. I don’t believe there is any evidence that the US government is analysing all emails hosted by all US companies.

Rather, if the US government asks for a particular individuals emails the provider must grant the request provided there is a valid (possibly secret) warrant.

[raffael-vogler]

> mails will end up being analysed by the US authorities

I read somewhere that servers located in the US are actually safer from drag net eavesdropping b/c a judicial order is required.

[JoeyTawadrous]

I build a privacy-first minimalist Google Inbox, located at https://inboxzeroemail.com

Sign in with your Gmail account & get the same functionality as Google Inbox.

It's hosted on Linode and our servers are load balanced across the world.

Please let me know if you have any questions :)

[eslaught]

How is their security? Maybe people like to forget, but security breaches are a thing, and when they occur you get the privilege of opening up your data to the entire world, not just to the NSA.

Google, for whatever else you want to say about them, have first-class security.

[SSLy]

Yeah, but on the other hand it's also a feature of Gmail. So it's not strictly worse.

[vivan]

My problem with FastMail is that if you stop paying for your email address, they recycle it. This means that someone else could potentially buy your old email address (if you migrate away) and use it for nefarious purposes.

[_jcwu]

You should be using your own domain anyways.

[simfoo]

Huh I haven't even thought about that. That's really bad, especially since I have a popular fastmail.com address where every other month I get an email asking for the account

[nvmr]

Switched to Fastmail many years ago when self hosting became too time consuming for me. Never looked back. I had to use their support only very occasionally and even then their reaction time and competence were outstanding.

They do just one thing - email - and do that very, very well.

[darekkay]

They do another thing: calendar. And I find it at least as good as Sunrise Calendar was before Microsoft shut it down.

[mcjiggerlog]

Does Fastmail provide any kind of "bundling" or "priority inbox" features?

Since using Inbox on Android, I can't imagine going back to being notified about every single email. Automatic bundling of messages and the custom rules that you can then set on those bundles is a killer feature. If nobody comes along with a decent alternative before Inbox is shutdown then I don't know what I'll do!

[nift]

I don't know if fast mail provides it out of the box but I have started to test out spark: https://sparkmailapp.com/ as a replacement for Inbox. While it is a bit from as good as Inbox it can get the job done, and has bundling.

I simply set it up to archive when swiping (which is what Inbox seems to be doing). However, it's notifications are far from as good and you can't archive straight from the notification, which, to me, is a let down.

Furthermore, on iPhone 8 there is an actual loading screen when opening the app. Like, why? Everything is already stored in the phone and it should just look for new mail in the background?

So far from perfect, but what can one do when Google is killing stuff off.

One issue though: you have to be in the apple ecosystem as they do not support, anything but iOS/Mac OS.

Note: I'm not associated with spark in any way.

[rovek]

This would be my complaint having had a quick look at Fastmail. Their mail client provides only the most basic of email functionality - folders, filters, contacts etc. It seems like you're paying a monthly subscription for privacy when you may as well host your own if you don't need any features beyond what IMAP offers as standard.

[dantiberian]

I've been using https://www.sanebox.com which does a pretty good job of the bundling, leaving you with just the important stuff in your inbox. It's not as well integrated as Inbox could be, but I find it very usable, and even better in some ways as the 'bundles' don't end up back in your inbox, they are always in other folders by default.

[j45]

I use Aquamail and it's smart folder features merges inboxes pretty decently.

[adiabatty]

I manually set up a bunch of rules that move inessential mail to a folder called "Bacn".

My rules list is about three screens tall now.

[fovc]

Just to provide some balance to the feedback: I've been using FastMail for 2 years and am mostly "meh" on it. My issues are with the web interface (which is largely why I use them instead of running my own server):

- No delay send/undo send. Allegedly in the works for ages

- Very buggy editor. Randomly slows to a crawl while composing, scrolls up and down erratically

- Cannot handle very long threads very well. (since unfortunately the business world uses top replies with Html email) E.g., undo can pin a core and crash the page.

- Notifications randomly show up twice and then freeze on screen

[brongondwana]

Thanks for the feedback - I've passed that to the product team. We're busy working on the JMAP replacement web interface, which has a fair bit rewritten.

[bogomipz]

Good to know, thanks. Can you say how is the search functionality and indexing on the inbox on Fastmail?

[kaivi]

I second this. Their service was exceptional for 3+ years I've been with FastMail. Got many small businesses I've worked with to migrate.

Only thing which annoys me is that their push-enabled iOS app does not support multiple accounts. It has been like that for years, I've heard that a new app was in the making, but nothing came out yet.

[paxswill]

You don't need to use their app for push on iOS. They worked with Apple to enable push in the built-in client.

[rcruzeiro]

I use Airmail as my client (both on iOS and Mac OS) specifically for the push.

[bad_user]

+1 for FastMail — I've been using it for the last 2 years and I've got nothing but praise for them.

ProtonMail seems to be another popular alternative, but their E2E encryption claims sound like snake oil to me, but snake oily as it is, it's still a better choice than Gmail.

[brantam]

I'm a Protonmail user. E2E isn't snake oil but it does assume you have an alternative secure channel for password exchange.

I like the fact that my mail archive is encrypted even though I don't send encrypted mail to others.

[FuckOffNeemo]

FastMail IMO are one of the best email providers, by far. Their web GUI is fantastic and support teams are responsive and well versed.

[spondyl]

It's surprisingly responsive for large email accounts too. I had ~100K emails imported and marking all as read would take about 10 seconds. I can't complain with that all things considered.

[contingencies]

We switched our company to fastmail recently, largely on the strength of recommendations here. No regrets.

[nadont8]

FastMail is good, but it's very expensive. I'm waiting for more competition in this space. I think, as people turn away from Google (and thus Gmail), more competition will arise and we'll finally see fair prices.

[danpalmer]

I don't feel like FastMail is that expensive for most people.

Obviously, compared to free, it's expensive. But in real terms, I pay $70 every 2 years for it - works out about £25 a year for me, which is about the price of a meal out. I think that's worth it for secure and powerful email. I've never found it to be expensive.

[pmorici]

Fastmail is on par or cheaper than Google's equivalent G Suite email service to business.

[EdJiang]

I’ve been using Fastmail for my personal email for the past four years, and love it. Really reliable, fast, and allows me to keep a personal email without all of the Google Apps stuff.

[sumek83]

Protonmail?

Based in Switzerland, client-side encryption

https://protonmail.com/blog/switzerland/

[Axiol]

Same here. FastMail with a custom domain name. First I was planning to self host. But I thing mails are quite touchy and doing it myself may be a risk.

[vbezhenar]

Fastmail is paid and very costly while Gmail is free, not very good alternative for me.

[SuperNinKenDo]

Gmail is not free, you just pay in non-monetary terms. It's up to you to decide how you want to weight your priorities.

[TwelveNights]

For the privacy, quality, and features it offers at the reasonable price of $50/year, I would say that it's a fantastic alternative. It'd be hard-pressed to find anything free that is on par.

[geowwy]

$3 per month is very costly?