Cheap Email Hosting?

Lldd-mn on 15/03/2024 - 17:49
Last edited 16/03/2024 - 08:35 by 1 other user

Hi guys,

I've finally got around to purchasing a domain, and am wanting to switch my accounts over to that new domain (to look a bit more professional!).

I'm needing email hosting, but I'm wanting to keep it as cheap as I can (a few dollars a month), either paid monthly or annually. I don't exclusively use Apple products, so whatever is included with iCloud+ isn't an option for me.

Here are my requirements:

  • At least 10GB of storage
  • IMAP/POP3/SMTP access
  • Webmail would be nice, but not essential
  • I prefer for data to be hosted somewhere in the EU (because their privacy laws and how they handle data seems to be better?), but if not possible, ah well
Computing Email Email Hosting

Comments

  • ldd-mn on 15/03/2024 - 17:50

    Forgot to add that I would like the ability to use aliases and/or the catch-all feature too

  • scotty on 15/03/2024 - 18:06
    +2

    I use MXroute for some of my domains. It's well regarded by some hosting communities. US$49/year for 10GB that gets you DirectAdmin access to set up mail boxes and map domains / email addresses to those mail boxes (or to redirect them). Most of their servers are in the US though.

    • ldd-mn on 15/03/2024 - 18:13

      Thanks for that, I was considering them with their Black Friday plans, but the smallest is out of stock :(
      I'll keep them on my list of options though.

      • st1ng on 15/03/2024 - 19:12
        +2

        +1 for MX Route. Picked up a plan for $15/3 years at the 2023 Black Friday sale. It's out of stock until November (cause Black Friday is over). Even at their regular prices, it's great bang for buck. Was with Fastmail before that. Can't fault the service, but it was too pricey for me.

        • tlaing on 15/03/2024 - 22:27

          +2 for MXRoute, i'm another BF sale user very happy with them.

        • ldd-mn on 15/03/2024 - 23:15

          Yeah it's looking like it might be Purelymail or MXroute. MXroute still seem to have their BF 25GB triannual plan for $30 USD in stock, seems pretty good value. https://accounts.mxroute.com/?cmd=cart&action=add&id=251

    • AustriaBargain on 16/03/2024 - 00:51
      -1

      I did the same, but MXRoute is like old school email hosting. I prefer Fastmail's solution. And for clients I would even recommend something simpler, something that will give them a dedicated email app on their phone as well as the web and SMTP email client options. For a single domain for a single user I'd probably go with gsuite. DirectAdmin and Round Cube et al. are kind of pains in the ass aren't they really, redirecting emails and stuff should be achievable in any interface. MXRoute does have an email app but not for reseller accounts or sub accounts, so I've never tried it. Plus the owner is known to suddenly ban users who he deems to be stupid or time wasters, kinda like buying email hosting from the Soup Nazi. And what happens if he dies or gets committed, that's basically it for the future of the service yeah.

      • ldd-mn on 16/03/2024 - 10:02

        The interface doesn't really bother me, neither does not having any dedicated apps. I have used DirectAdmin in the past for web hosting, but I don't think it would work that well for email. I am surprised they don't have their own panel. Gsuite is really overkill for me as I don't need all of their apps that they include, just email. If the service suddenly vanishes, that doesn't bother to me too much as long as I have backups.

    • zfa on 16/03/2024 - 14:00

      It's well regarded by some hosting communities.

      If it is then they're not communities I'd like to be involved with, lol. The owners are horrible people and seem inept both technically and wrt customer service.

      e.g. Last year someone disclosed a security vulnerability (anyone on their service could send email from any other domain on their service and pass spf/dkim/dmarc checks - yikes). Their response was to kick him before he could extract his email and then reply to him on reddit with a load of rubbish on reddit that what their security model was standard across the industry (narrator: it isn't). They demonstrated a lack of knowledge that made me think that their own account with their upstream sender MailChannels was also probably insecure and would have let any user of that service also send as any mxroute customer… The replies in that thread were all wrapped up in personal attacks, whataboutism and had more than an air of the i-am-very-smart, just-enough-knowledge-to-be-dangerous about them. They ultimately deleted all their posts.

      For balance, I'm sure they addressed those particular tech issues but prob the same edgelords running the show.

      If you don't need or expect much then they're probably ok.

      • ldd-mn on 16/03/2024 - 23:06
        +1

        I don't believe they use MailChannel, and haven't for years? They seem to use their own IP address blocks. Regardless, they seem rather… opinionated, and I'm not sure I want my email provider to be like that.

        • zfa on 17/03/2024 - 08:44

          Yeah, not sure if they were actively using them at the time or simply still had them configured (fallback?) but they referred to their relationship with MailChannel in their riposte to the vulnerability disclosure dude. Hopefully whatever their model is now is better but I'm with you that are also other non-tech reasons to avoid them.

  • soan papdi on 15/03/2024 - 18:06

    Fastmail, super reliable https://www.fastmail.com/pricing/

    • ldd-mn on 15/03/2024 - 18:14

      I'm just trying to figure out their pricing, is that USD? I can't see anything that says if it is or not.

      • soan papdi on 15/03/2024 - 18:16

        It is in USD. Alternate option is to have catch all forward to gmail and set up different senders in gmail itself. All your email comes to the same mailbox, life's easier

        • ldd-mn on 15/03/2024 - 18:47

          I don't use Gmail unfortunately.

          • SBOB on 15/03/2024 - 18:48
            +1

            @ldd-mn: But it ticks 3 of your 4 requirements for free :)

          • soan papdi on 15/03/2024 - 18:49
            +1

            @ldd-mn: Sign up for free, not that hard.

            • ldd-mn on 15/03/2024 - 18:54

              @soan papdi: I need SMTP access, I don't think I can send through Gmail, using my custom domain, using a mail client? I'll keep it in mind if that is possible.

  • AusRetro on 15/03/2024 - 19:04

    Definitely Purelymail. Only $10 USD per year which is crazy cheap. Just email hosting, nothing else. Unlimited storage, unlimited domains, unlimited users. I've used it for two years and love it.

    It's only run by one guy, so it's not really for large corporate use but I use it for a small family business, personal and hobbyist use. There's no competition really. Everything you need, except hosted in AWS US-East-1.

    • ldd-mn on 15/03/2024 - 22:49

      Sounds pretty good, thanks for that. Have you ever had any issues sending emails to Outlook or Gmail accounts? Marked as spam etc?

      • AusRetro on 15/03/2024 - 23:58

        I can say I have experienced any issues. The only time something was sent to junk was when someone else's forwarding had DMARC setup incorrectly.

  • st1ng on 15/03/2024 - 19:13

    I've heard good things about Mango, although haven't used them myself

    https://lowendbox.com/blog/mangomail-keeps-getting-easier-to…

  • omguleh on 15/03/2024 - 19:30

    Zoho mail?

    • charlierg on 15/03/2024 - 19:43

      Zoho free offers a shocking amount of value.

      • omguleh on 15/03/2024 - 21:41

        I had their paid version, was good before I made the switch to iCloud.

      • ldd-mn on 15/03/2024 - 23:06

        Missing some features I require, but agreed, it seems pretty good.

      • AustriaBargain on 16/03/2024 - 00:54

        Just a few bucks a month for a single user.

  • brbgrcgukdhreuin on 15/03/2024 - 23:08
    +1

    Migadu. I've been using them for a few years now. All the necessary features, unlimited domains/mailboxes. Competently run. No nonsense. Swiss company, I think hosted in EU.

    19 USD per year for the micro plan, for which the noteworthy limitations are 5GB inbox and a message limit of 200/day incoming and 20/day outgoing.

    If you're a massive email user or want to split it with someone you know, the mini plan is worth considering.
    90 USD per year for the mini plan, comes with 30GB inbox and a message limit of 1000/day incoming and 100/day outgoing.

    The limits aren't hard though: https://www.migadu.com/pricing/#what-after-reaching-limits

    And I think their student/non-profit-org discount is 50%.

    • ldd-mn on 15/03/2024 - 23:12

      My issues with Migadu after having a quick look at them are definitely their email limits. What happens if someone decides they don't like you, and send 200 emails (250 with soft limits) to you? No more emails for the day.

      • brbgrcgukdhreuin on 15/03/2024 - 23:20

        Hmm, I wonder about that situation, though it doesn't worry me personally. Could be worth asking them - I wouldn't be surprised if they'd waive the limit for the day if asked.

      • Look Up on 16/03/2024 - 11:04
        +1

        They're soft limits only, written down to filter out the 1% of d*ckheads who inevitably abuse any type of email hosting

        If you do get email bombed and it triggers an account issue, just open a ticket and your limits will be reset - the dev team are very responsive

        • ldd-mn on 16/03/2024 - 14:48

          They are soft limits, but I've never seen or heard of any other email provider limiting inbound emails.

    • Look Up on 16/03/2024 - 10:56
      +1

      +1 Migadu

      Swiss based, tickets answered by the dev team and very reasonable pricing

  • satellitemx on 16/03/2024 - 09:05

    M365, Google Workspace, Zoho etc are more business-centric, you pay for how many seats you want for your domain. Each seat will have a dedicated account/login. Typically few dollars a month for the cheapest plan. You may want to check if the pricing includes GST. Google has again increased the price to A$10/m (A$8.4/m if committed for a year) and additional GST.

    It seems you will be the sole user of your domain. I'd suggest personal email services that provide custom domain features.

    Proton has a Mail Plus plan with 15GB Storage (US$5/m, or $4/m paid annually). However it doesn't provide direct IMAP/SMTP access since they claim they do zero-knowledge and e2e encryptions. You have to either use their desktop program, web app or install a Bridge that provides IMAP/SMTP so you can use your own Email client.
    https://proton.me/support/proton-plans

    Or you can go even cheaper.
    You can use Cloudflare's email routing (free) to catch all incoming emails and forward to your other email address.
    https://www.cloudflare.com/en-au/developer-platform/email-ro…
    For sending emails, use services like SendGrid (free 100/d), Postmark (free 100/m) etc, as long as you can bear the inconvenience of not be able to directly sending out emails from your email client but to write a script to call the API these services provide, or the using the web console each time you want to send out emails.

    Side note, make sure you follow the SPF/DKIM setup of your provider.

    • zfa on 16/03/2024 - 14:07

      For sending emails, use services like SendGrid (free 100/d), Postmark (free 100/m) etc, as long as you can bear the inconvenience of not be able to directly sending out emails from your email client

      Big players like Gmail/outlook.com allow you to define 'send as' addresses where you can put 3rd party SMTP servers for sending outbound mail from other addreses.

  • Joshuaaus on 16/03/2024 - 10:23
    +1

    You can add a custom domain to your iCloud+ if you have it. Works pretty well.

    • ldd-mn on 16/03/2024 - 14:41

      I do have iCloud+, but as mentioned in the original post I don't own all Apple devices. I couldn't figure out how to use a custom domain with IMAP/SMTP, it just refused to connect.

  • plmko on 16/03/2024 - 14:08

    Great thread, thanks everyone

  • jaqoozi on 16/03/2024 - 14:48

    I'd just sign up for icloud. I know you said you don't care for the icloud+ features, but I don't think you can beat $1.50/mth. Just use the email service and ignore the other stuff…

    • ldd-mn on 16/03/2024 - 14:49
      +1

      I have iCloud+, but it doesn't seem to work on non Apple devices. The settings they give for 3rd party email clients don't seem to work for custom domains.

      • jaqoozi on 16/03/2024 - 14:51

        I use it with gmail app on my Fold 5. I remember I did have to google the settings though…

        • ldd-mn on 16/03/2024 - 15:21
          +1

          Hmm, I couldn't get it to work a few days ago (before I made this post). I'll have another go now.

  • ldd-mn on 16/03/2024 - 23:00
    +2

    Hi guys, I have decided on Purelymail. They seem to offer everything I need for really cheap.

    If anyone has interested, here are my thoughts about the other providers suggested:

    MXroute - Seems pretty barebones like Purelymail, I don't like DirectAdmin much and I would prefer to pay annually, their pricing is too high for that.
    Fastmail - Too expensive for what they offer, integration with 1Password seems cool though.
    Forwarding through Gmail - just seems too messy?
    Mango Mail - They seem okay, didn't really look into them enough
    Zoho Mail - Free tier is great, but not enough storage and no IMAP/POP3/SMTP access. Paid tier seemed fine, but I really didn't need all of the other stuff Zoho includes.
    Migadu - I just don't understand their inbound limits. The price jump from the 5GB plan to the 30GB is huge. Simply too expensive.
    Microsoft 365 - Too expensive
    Google Workspace - Too expensive
    Proton - You guessed it, too expensive and their Bridge won't work for me
    Cloudflare Email Routing w/ SMTP relay - cool idea, but I want a separate inbox
    iCloud+ - Okay, this would have been great if I could have figured out how to set it up with 3rd party clients. I genuinely don't know what I am doing wrong.

    • jaqoozi on 16/03/2024 - 23:18

      Maybe too late but did you change the AppleID login to the custom domain? It defaults to icloud.com address when you set up icloud+ but in the settings you can pick another address to act as your AppleID. The other option that works for me using Gmail app is to set up the custom domain as a send as address. Anyway now that you've chosen probably not spending more time on it…

      • ldd-mn on 17/03/2024 - 12:38

        Yeah I tried changing it

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