this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2024
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I need to change ISPs and need to find a new email provider. This time I want to move to my own domain which I purchased through Namecheap and I do not want to use another ISP's email system nor do I want to use Google, or Microsoft since I am Linux (and Android too) based. I would like this to be US based or at least have a strong US presence so obvious choices like Proton Mail, Mailfence, and Mailbox.org are out. I would prefer it interoperate well with FOSS software too, I use Thunderbird and K-9 Mail for example. Also so want them to be trustworthy, have good security, and have good OpSec with respect to their their servers and service.

After looking I find three I am considering and they are quite different:

  • Fastmail. Long history. No PGP support but they do have their own domains one can use also.
  • Namecheap Private Email. Uses Ox App Suite, may support PGP, and quite new. I think you have to have your own domain (not sure).
  • Forward Email (forwardemail.net). A forwarder with IMAP support. You supply the webmail if you want webmail, but otherwise it should work fine with IMAP and normal clients.

So questions:

  • Any thoughts and experience, pros and cons with the above 3.
  • Other better ideas.

So thoughts? Thanks.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

No PGP support

Why would the mail provider need to support it? I mean, if they provide some sort of webmail client, maybe it doesn't do PGP, but I sure wouldn't be giving them my PGP keys anyway.

I haven't used any of them, but I don't think that you can go too far wrong here, since you have your own domain. Pick one, try it for non-critical stuff for a month or two, and if you don't like it, switch. As long as you own the domain, you're not locked in. If you do like it, then just start migrating.

The main differentiating factors I can think of are (a) service reliability, (b) risk that someone breaks in and dumps client mail, but it's hard for me to evaluate the risk of that at a given place. And (c) how likely it is that other parties spam-block mail from them.

I'd look for TLS support for SMTP and IMAP; that may be the norm these days. The TLS situation for mail is a little unusual compared to most protocols, where on a new connection, some servers initially use the non-encrypted version and then upgrade via STARTTLS.

If you intend to leave your mail on their server rather than just using it as a temporary holding point until you fetch it, you might look into what their storage provided is.

I'd also see what the maximum size of any individual email that they permit is.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Edit: just realized you said US based. Tuta is not US based so that might not work for you. Sorry about that.

Tutanota (now just Tuta) allows you to use your domain. I use it, it doesn't support external clients (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) but they do have Android, Linux, Windows (maybe Mac too) clients.

It's also cheap.

I've been using it for a few years now, it works for me.

You can get a free account to check it out first and if you like it just upgrade to get the personal domain usage and increased storage limit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (3 children)

@furrowsofar

Run your own goddamn email server. Don't trust these big fat companies.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Email in itself is an outdated protocol. Even if you're selfhosting it, and have the best opsec practices; if the other person uses gmail then you're fucked anyway.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

@Estebiu

Then again, it's useful to filter out the gmail zombies.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I would advise against this.

I am all about running things yourself, run most stuff myself, but email is just a nightmare these days with all the anti-spam stuff out there.

Go ask at [email protected]. They'll tell you the same thing. Lots of hassle, lots of potential pitfalls.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Thanks. Like the sentiment. Yes I can do this but my wife cannot. So this option is out. It needs to be a solution that she can maintain alone if something happens to me. This concern gets a lot more real as one gets older.

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