Who else to trial for single user custom domain email/calendar/contacts hosting?

Forums › IT Pro and developers › Who else to trial for single user custom domain email/calendar/contacts hosting?

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timmmay

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#2676291 17-Mar-2021 21:37

Fastmail works for me, I've been a customer for many years. I don't know about your requirements, and I don't use their calendar, but definitely worth a look (as you've said).

Baboon

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#2676292 17-Mar-2021 21:42

I'm fairly certain the only thing that saved my parent Google account, was that it was a Workspace account. Witness what Google does to regular Google accounts that are the parent of a banned YouTube account: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/terraria-developer-cancels-google-stadia-port-after-youtube-account-ban/

So, I suppose I was lucky. At least I only lost my YouTube history. I could've also lost my email, calendar, contacts, Drive files, Photos, Google Play purchases, and everything else under that account. And not being a famous person, I'd never have gotten anything back https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/stadia-version-of-terraria-back-on-after-developers-google-account-is-unbanned/

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

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Baboon

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#2676293 17-Mar-2021 21:46

timmmay:
Fastmail works for me, I've been a customer for many years. I don't know about your requirements, and I don't use their calendar, but definitely worth a look (as you've said).

Basically, I need good mobile sync, at least two (preferably more!) event alerts that can be either notification or email, and the ability to share a calendar to another person. And a web version that doesn't suck.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

KiwiSurfer

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#2676331 18-Mar-2021 08:28

Baboon:
timmmay:

Fastmail works for me, I've been a customer for many years. I don't know about your requirements, and I don't use their calendar, but definitely worth a look (as you've said).

Basically, I need good mobile sync, at least two (preferably more!) event alerts that can be either notification or email, and the ability to share a calendar to another person. And a web version that doesn't suck.

Fastmail is very easy to set up on iOS--basically all you need to do is download a file that configures your iOS device automatically. It's a little file that describes all the settings iOS needs. This is how I set it up on my mother's phone and it's worked fine ever since using only the built-in apps. Fastmail does offer their own app (same appearance, functionality etc as their webmail) but I find iOS works better using the built-in apps (e.g. Mail, Contacts, Calendar). Also the built-in apps integrate better with other apps e.g. Maps will suggest destinations based on what you put in your calender. Top marks to Apple for making sure their apps works with a wide range of providers (and not trying to lock people into iCloud). Push notifications etc work perfectly and is more or less on par with the native Apple iCloud experience.

It's a mess on Google's Android platform though--though no fault of Fastmail I must say. Be aware that on Android you may end up paying $5 for their recommended app to provide sync for contacts--Google does not include standards-based contact sync functionality into Android for reasons outside the scope of this post. I only really use the stock Android/Google app for contacts as that is needed so I can use my Fastmail contact list for text messaging and phone calls. For Mail and Calendar I don't use the Google provided apps (they are woeful with any non-Google provider anyway) and I just use the Fastmail app instead.

Their web version is fantastic. Much more performant than the Gmail/Outlook webmail I use at my employer. IMHO Fastmail is the gold standard for webmail these days--I have yet to see any alternatives come close (not even Gmail nor Outlook).

Yoban

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#2676338 18-Mar-2021 08:43

on a similar journey myself as I venture in to my own domain based email. Here are a couple of others I have checked out:

https://mxroute.com/

https://25mail.st/ (NZ company)

Baboon

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#2677234 19-Mar-2021 14:42

Well, I'm not liking the look of 25 Mail St.'s pricing. To have 5GB I'd be paying USD 11 per month. Ouch. That's more than https://www.microsoft.com/en-nz/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-business-basic?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab or https://www.microsoft.com/en-nz/microsoft-365/p/microsoft-365-personal/cfq7ttc0k5bf?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab ! Ooof!

But I do find MXRoute's offerings to be interesting. I'm still a bit confused as to whether they have sync-able contacts and calendar as an add-on for reasonable value.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

kingjj

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#2677474 20-Mar-2021 00:29

Baboon:

Well, I'm not liking the look of 25 Mail St.'s pricing. To have 5GB I'd be paying USD 11 per month. Ouch. That's more than https://www.microsoft.com/en-nz/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-business-basic?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab or https://www.microsoft.com/en-nz/microsoft-365/p/microsoft-365-personal/cfq7ttc0k5bf?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab ! Ooof!

But I do find MXRoute's offerings to be interesting. I'm still a bit confused as to whether they have sync-able contacts and calendar as an add-on for reasonable value.

I've been using MXRoute for a few years, only seriously for the last 12 months though (Email only mind you).

File Storage/Contacts/Calendar is all offered via a built in NextCloud install which is free. I've got my own NextCloud install elsewhere but I use MXRoute for IMAP/SMTP and haven't had any issues with it yet. WebDAV/CalDAV/CardDAV are all supported (DavX makes it simple to sync everything with Android as does NextCloud's own free app). They offer 5 different webmail clients with their primary one being CrossBox which seems to be pretty good from a quick play.

From memory all email accounts come with 5gb of File storage via NextCloud - Jar the owner will be able to confirm as such. MXRoute is a one man outfit but the owner is extremely knowledgeable and runs this as his fulltime job. I've previously chatted to him via Email and on another Forum and he's always been quick to reply.

All accounts come with unlimited domains/email addresses (each of which gets 300 outbound emails per hour). Account management is done via DirectAdmin. Accounts are billed yearly (barring reseller). If you hunt around or ask Jar nicely you can usually find a discount code to lower the price.

MXRoute is a bit of a hodge podge solution if I'm honest but it works well once you get your head around it.

Hatch

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Hatch (affiliate link).

Yoban

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#2679819 24-Mar-2021 13:19

timmmay:

Fastmail works for me, I've been a customer for many years. I don't know about your requirements, and I don't use their calendar, but definitely worth a look (as you've said).

@timmmay - are you running the standard plan?

I see this is the minimum if you want to run your own domain based email (me@mydomain.com) of which for the four of us would be $20USD/month ($240USD/year). Some great features otherwise.

timmmay

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#2679824 24-Mar-2021 13:35

I'm on a grandfathered plan that is fairly cheap.

KiwiSurfer

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#2679959 24-Mar-2021 19:56

Yoban:

timmmay:

Fastmail works for me, I've been a customer for many years. I don't know about your requirements, and I don't use their calendar, but definitely worth a look (as you've said).

@timmmay - are you running the standard plan?

I see this is the minimum if you want to run your own domain based email (me@mydomain.com) of which for the four of us would be $20USD/month ($240USD/year). Some great features otherwise.

Sounds about right to me. I only have two email accounts on my domain so it is US$120/year for me. Aliases are free if that makes a difference. I previously operated my own mail server and the cost of the of time I spent keeping up the maintenance on that would be well in excess of how much I currently pay Fastmail so it is easily worth it for me. The other person I pay for is my mother (as we share the same last name so we have accounts being our-forename@our-lastname) and the peace of mind of not having to sort out mail delivery issues for her (which was a regular occurrence when I operated it myself) has been invaluable. Your value judgement may vary especially if you're comparing it to the likes of Gmail et al.

timmmay

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#2679999 24-Mar-2021 20:33

The 2GB plan is plenty for me, that's only US$3 per month or $36 per year. I pay quite a bit less on the grandfathered plan, but even at the current price I'd still stick with Fastmail.

Baboon

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#2680044 24-Mar-2021 22:02

I got my own mum onto a (now grandfathered) free Google Apps/G Suite/now named Workplace account, back in 2010. So, all she pays is her cheap .nz domain registration.

At the time, I was keen to see her get an email that wasn't tied to one provider, especially not to an ISP. Nowadays I probably wouldn't bother, and I'd just set her up with Gmail. But at the time. I didn't entirely trust Google to keep Gmail going forever, and I'm still surprised Yahoo Mail continues on, after the poor ride Yahoo was having and has had.

Oh well, I think she likes her domain name :-)

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

Yoban

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#2681877 28-Mar-2021 10:01

Foound email hosting from Voyager https://voyager.nz/business/hosting/email

5 mail boxes, 5GB data, unlimited forwarders all for $5/mth - as a newbie in this space looks a great place to start for 4 of us and our family domain name for me.

JUst need to figure out how I would increase the 5GB if needed.

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