I’m setting up my Nextcloud server and am at the point of needing to connect an email server. I’m not interested in selfhosting an email server (not yet anyway), and I don’t particularly like Proton as my current email provider (which was what I migrated to when de-Googling my life).
What email providers do y’all like that aren’t run by shady tech bros and are easy to integrate with your other selfhosted services?
Runbox (Norway) is a good option, good privacy protection and outside of EU chat control zone
Thexyz https://www.thexyz.com/email/ Based in Toronto
I’ve been happy with Fastmail and its web & android clients so far but I havent tried to integrate it anywhere yet.
I want to thank everyone who replied. I did some research on most of these and think PurelyMail is the winner for me. Feel free to correct me if I got some details wrong. I want to give a shoutout to @mbirth for mentioning Disroot, which looks like a really interesting experiment in federated services.
Also, I know this post is really bending the rules for c/selfhosted, but connecting your selfhosted services to an email provider is essential, and having a reliable and affordable email provider just makes this weird hobby of ours a little easier.
My Rating (1-5) Service Website Annual Cost Only Email? 5 PurelyMail https://purelymail.com/ $10, pay for added storage Yes 4 MXRoute https://mxroute.com/ $50/year small plan Yes 4 Disroot https://disroot.org/ Free, pay to add storage and domains Yes, separated from other Disroot services 3 Fastmail https://www.fastmail.com/ $60 individual plan Yes-ish 3 Mailo https://www.mailo.com/ ~$14 premium plan No 3 Proton https://mail.proton.me/ $48/year plus plan $120/year unlimited plan No 2 Mailbox.org https://mailbox.org/ ~$14 light plan ~$42 standard Light plan 2 Migadu https://migadu.com/ $90 mini plan Yes 1 GMX https://www.gmx.com/mail/ Free, ad supported No Gmx for automatic emails to myself since the Calibre days. Maybe there is something better now.
Careful, I had a post like this locked almost a month ago.
FWIW, I went with purelymail, and it’s been pretty good. Basic, but solid.
I use inleed.xyz. It’s free, has IMAP/SMTP access and you can have as many accounts as you want. It’s limited to 1GB of storage shared between all accounts though.
Purelymail is nice. Stupid cheap and really easy.
Have a look at posteo. Gives you IMAP so you can use any client. Its only €1 a month and is supposed to be good with privacy. Have had no complaints so far. https://posteo.de/en
Seconded. Works really well for me.
Nobody mentioning fastmail, sad times.
I love fastmail! Great price for what you get!!
I’ve using purelymail.com for a few years with my own domain, never had one problem, and they’re cheap.
Purelynail has been awesome.
That’s the most lucrative desk I’ve seen I think.
I can highly recommend MXroute. Just works. Great for integrations.
Sorry what integrations?
Came here to say this. They even have decently priced “lifetime” accounts. Though that price raises by a reasonable amount every year or so.
I have plenty of server storage. Can mx route be used almost like a mail proxy? Mail stored locally and mx route used for just receiving and sending? Needs to be spouse friendly as well. Or if anyone else can recommend something else that fits that bill more.
I only use it for automations (both send and receive); I’m on Proton for regular mail. They’ve got a few different web interfaces, so I think you can get spouse approval. Not sure on local storage (outside of POP/IMAP).
Mailo.com. French company. They have quite a quirky UI. like one can tell it’s made by a backend guy and the junior version is made by his younger nephew but technical wise it’s perfect. All standards are there plus price is OK.
disroot is quite decent. I like their (privacy) vibe and the set of semi-independent services they provide.
