I’ve been using the custom email domain feature that comes with iCloud+ for some time now, and have had zero issues with it. I imagine many of us here already pay the measly 99¢ fee for additional storage, but I was unaware of that addition until recently.
I only found out about this benefit of iCloud+ a few days ago, thankfully a few days before my prior solution was due to renew for another 2 years at a vastly more expensive rate.
Certainly easy to set up. DNS with CloudFlare and it was able to do it all with just a login confirmation from my side of things.
TL;DR is: If you're interested in inexpensive email hosting for custom domains, consider OpenSRS.
Recently Google stopped support for custom domains for free*, so I moved my domains recently for a similar reason.
I have a couple domains and they all point back to a few mailboxes. Many of the services I looked at were going to charge me per domain per mailbox not just per mailbox so the prices were artificially high.
I signed up as a domain reseller at OpenSRS and pointed my domain's MX entries over to them and... that was it. Super easy.
This gets me a mailbox for $0.50 per 5gb per month. I have two real mailboxes, dozens of aliases spanning multiple domains, and an email forwarder (sending to certain addresses emails to both my wife and myself) for $1.10/mo.
The negatives:
* I've been spoiled by gmail's search capabilities.
* I'm not a domain expert and not a mail admin, so I worried I was going to mess it up. I didn't, it wasn't terribly painful, you can do it.
* I was told they didn't support plus addresses ([email protected]) so I purged my plus-address logins, only to find they really do support plus logins later.
On desktop I use a normal imap client (their web email is decidedly spartan) and on my phone I still use the GMail App.
The price beat the socks off of anyone else I had looked at and finally encouraged me to get off of GMail.
* I'd been a "legacy" customer, and yes, they backtracked but by the time they *officially* agreed to keep supporting me I'd already needed to make a decision
I set up a gmail adress, and routed all my domains through CloudFlares new Email product. It's free, and lets you route email to as many addresses as you want (? I think...) to other adresses, in this case my Gmail account. I then set up my GMail account with one profile per incoming address, and to automatically use the corresponding address when replying.
I was really hoping Microsoft would expand this feature. I currently use a Microsoft 365 Business account for my personal email, and it feels like using a chainsaw to open a letter. One of the biggest gripes I have is the fact that a "Microsoft Account" and a Microsoft 365 account are two separate things, and you can't use a Microsoft 365 Account email for a Microsoft Account. Several Microsoft services only work with Microsoft Accounts, so I keep a @outlook.com email around just for those rare instances.
For example, I believe Xbox only allows Microsoft Accounts, so I wouldn't be able to login to an Xbox using my primary email address.
We use Microsoft 365 business at work and I hate that exact experience. Every time you sign into a Microsoft service you play the coinflip game of: "Does This Accept Work/School Accounts?" And some of them even change over time! Windows Insider (as individual, not Group Policy-/WSUS-deployed) would not see my M365 Business account until recently.
At this point, I just made a "personal" @outlook.com account for the few things that don't.
Oh yes this sums it up perfectly. I'm a MSP and most of my clients use either google or ms365 and I gotta say the microsoft solution feels so damn clunky and setting scattered around different domains and services. It feels like it's built around (sub(sub))licenses and googles solution feels like it's built for actual users
As someone who used a custom-domain-Gmail as a primary account, it caused issues in various places. I think some of the issue is wanting to separate corporate accounts (which shouldn't be leaking and entangling information outside the company) from the rest of their ecosystem.
I have a Microsoft Account with my Gmail address. Can you no longer create a Microsoft Account with an outside email address? Or do they specifically prevent Microsoft 365 addresses from creating Microsoft Accounts?
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.
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.
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.
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.
There’s actually a trick where you don’t have to use Godaddy. I don’t know why they don’t open this up to users who want it. All you have to do is find the DNS challenge in the query param that’s passed to Godaddy. After that there’s no real persistent connection. Have been using a custom domain on the family plan for over a year this way, with my domain on Namecheap.
Looks like they are giving 1 year before actually introducing that change. It's either the quote or the article wrong saying users will have only 4 weeks remaining.
That's a bit of shrinkflation. I always wanted to use it, but for some reason they only supported GoDaddy domains which I definitely do not want. I guess it is Apple for me now.
I decided I wanted to use M365 and the domain to use it with simultaneously, so GoDaddy was the path of least resistance. I'd have avoided them if I realized it could be avoided.
Later I found out that the URL they used to forward you to GoDaddy's website happened to include the content of the records needed in DNS. Others were successful with other DNS providers. You just clicked the link, added the DNS records from the link manually, and eventually it'd validate.
I use the Zoho free plan for up to five email addresses (not counting group aliases) on several domains for maybe four years now. works great for basic email!
If they got rid of outlook, then I'd have to find a new email address to give away to every signin place that wants my email and I suspect will email me promotional garbage (or sell my email).
I guess this means that I'm reducing the signal they get for what "good" email is, as approximately 100 percent of the emails I get there are promotional or spam.
The SWEEP feature of outlook is the ultimate email spam feature. If you've never used it, try it and your spam problem will be poof in a few clicks.
It's a pity sweep is desktop web only.
Their email alias feature is cool, allows you to change your login ID retroactively.
I wish they'd take it a step further by allowing me to set a login-only ID e.g. the login ID cannot be used to send nor receive emails (security by obscurity).
My wife's SMB+personalized email is on the Exchange Online (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/exchange/compa...) Plan 1 for JUST THE EMAIL for $5.51/mo. Funny, the plan right this moment is $4.00/mo, I wonder why we're paying extra? Probably not worth troubleshooting though, the service is worth it.
Anyhow, I helped her transfer the email from Network Solutions to Microsoft, it was reasonably well documented with guard rails on both sides. It's been rock solid for over a year now. She has a hotmail account for junk and Microsoft account stuff.
Services like ImprovMX will love this. They can make any domain you own and link it to your email account without setup on the mailbox. gandi.net gives you 2 free inboxes for every domain you own, but the free tier has limited services and size.
This is a serious limitation. You used to be able to point up to 99 email addresses, from any domain you wanted, to your outlook.com account. It removes the value from this service.
It was done poorly, you had to have Godaddy as your registrar and nameserver. If they'd just include this in a cheap O365 package with the same O365 setup it would be better.
I've mostly stopped using free services wherever feasible. You get what you pay for.
The only free thing I really don't wanna give up is Google Photos. It's really convenient to just search "health insurance card" and the picture of my card pops up. Likewise for "apple pie", "sunset", "statue", etc.
Surely there is better way to store important documents than Google Photos. That Google is able to identify the type of document that is uploaded to Google Photos is even more terrifying.
Yeah, this. I found Fastmail on HN and moved over all my domains and just use catch alls for them with a single mailbox. Works smoother than I could’ve ever imagined, including being able to reply from all my custom domains from my same inbox. Highly recommend.
But separately, MS is definitely killing on-prem Exchange as well. Maybe not today, but they have been very clear that they want everyone in their cloud.
I have a 365 family subscription thing (got it on discount from MS friends) and looked into the custom domain but it was missing important features like catch-all. Glad I didn't adopt it now.
[+] [-] boston_clone|3 years ago|reply
Awfully easy to do, even if you’re wary of DNS.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212514
[+] [-] InTheArena|3 years ago|reply
Big mistake. Spam filtering on Apple is absolutely horrific. The volume of crap she started to receive was amazing.
Flipped back.
[+] [-] bluesign|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LinearEntropy|3 years ago|reply
Certainly easy to set up. DNS with CloudFlare and it was able to do it all with just a login confirmation from my side of things.
[+] [-] can16358p|3 years ago|reply
Happily switched and never went back.
Perhaps I get an extra one more junk every other three day or week, but I can definitely live with that without giving a single penny to Google.
[+] [-] inanutshellus|3 years ago|reply
Recently Google stopped support for custom domains for free*, so I moved my domains recently for a similar reason.
I have a couple domains and they all point back to a few mailboxes. Many of the services I looked at were going to charge me per domain per mailbox not just per mailbox so the prices were artificially high.
I signed up as a domain reseller at OpenSRS and pointed my domain's MX entries over to them and... that was it. Super easy.
This gets me a mailbox for $0.50 per 5gb per month. I have two real mailboxes, dozens of aliases spanning multiple domains, and an email forwarder (sending to certain addresses emails to both my wife and myself) for $1.10/mo.
The negatives:
On desktop I use a normal imap client (their web email is decidedly spartan) and on my phone I still use the GMail App.The price beat the socks off of anyone else I had looked at and finally encouraged me to get off of GMail.
[+] [-] nso|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drwl|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dstaley|3 years ago|reply
For example, I believe Xbox only allows Microsoft Accounts, so I wouldn't be able to login to an Xbox using my primary email address.
[+] [-] smileybarry|3 years ago|reply
At this point, I just made a "personal" @outlook.com account for the few things that don't.
[+] [-] geek_at|3 years ago|reply
Oh yes this sums it up perfectly. I'm a MSP and most of my clients use either google or ms365 and I gotta say the microsoft solution feels so damn clunky and setting scattered around different domains and services. It feels like it's built around (sub(sub))licenses and googles solution feels like it's built for actual users
[+] [-] mdasen|3 years ago|reply
I have a Microsoft Account with my Gmail address. Can you no longer create a Microsoft Account with an outside email address? Or do they specifically prevent Microsoft 365 addresses from creating Microsoft Accounts?
[+] [-] smileybarry|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bpye|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] borissk|3 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] rainsford|3 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] Neil44|3 years ago|reply
It was a PITA feature anyway for the family plans, requiring the domain be hosted on GoDaddy. I can't imagine it was a super popular feature.
[+] [-] tcbyrd|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smileybarry|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] esskay|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kosik|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smileybarry|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] UberFly|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sebazzz|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] doubled112|3 years ago|reply
Later I found out that the URL they used to forward you to GoDaddy's website happened to include the content of the records needed in DNS. Others were successful with other DNS providers. You just clicked the link, added the DNS records from the link manually, and eventually it'd validate.
Glad to see this won't affect current users.
[+] [-] floydnoel|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blinkingled|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] D13Fd|3 years ago|reply
Yeah, I'm sure they'll get right on that.
[+] [-] abswest|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mixedmath|3 years ago|reply
I guess this means that I'm reducing the signal they get for what "good" email is, as approximately 100 percent of the emails I get there are promotional or spam.
[+] [-] vezycash|3 years ago|reply
It's a pity sweep is desktop web only.
Their email alias feature is cool, allows you to change your login ID retroactively.
I wish they'd take it a step further by allowing me to set a login-only ID e.g. the login ID cannot be used to send nor receive emails (security by obscurity).
[+] [-] barbazoo|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sydney6|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danielodievich|3 years ago|reply
Anyhow, I helped her transfer the email from Network Solutions to Microsoft, it was reasonably well documented with guard rails on both sides. It's been rock solid for over a year now. She has a hotmail account for junk and Microsoft account stuff.
[+] [-] kornhole|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fortran77|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] partiallypro|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tyingq|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cloudsec9|3 years ago|reply
"appears current subscribers have around 4 weeks" MS: "as of Nov 2023"
I'm thinking someone mathed wrong, but by my calculation this is over a year from now, not around a month.
[+] [-] can16358p|3 years ago|reply
Switch to iCloud's custom domain mail (free if you already have iCloud storage plan), never look back.
[+] [-] throwawaaarrgh|3 years ago|reply
The only free thing I really don't wanna give up is Google Photos. It's really convenient to just search "health insurance card" and the picture of my card pops up. Likewise for "apple pie", "sunset", "statue", etc.
[+] [-] zaik|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WirelessGigabit|3 years ago|reply
Are there applications that allow this?
In other words, I have a catch-all on my domain, and I get an email on [email protected].
But my login is [email protected]. On Office365 I cannot reply from [email protected] unless I add it as an alias.
[+] [-] tekeous|3 years ago|reply
Plus it’s from the ProtonMail gang so it’s reasonably secure and private.
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] denkmoon|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tehwhale810|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] system2|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] orev|3 years ago|reply
But separately, MS is definitely killing on-prem Exchange as well. Maybe not today, but they have been very clear that they want everyone in their cloud.
[+] [-] gigel82|3 years ago|reply