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Ask HN: Free mail service for custom domains - G Suite alternative

14 points by andreinwald ↗ HN
Free alternative to paid G Suite.

Your custom domain. Unlimited amount of users. No storage limit, but attachments stored only for 1 month. Option for saving attachments before deleting. Some safe ads in web client.

Would you register?

45 comments

[ 1073 ms ] story [ 3215 ms ] thread
em-bee
put the question into the title and start with "ask HN:". otherwise this post will be ignored. i almost flagged it as bogus.
em-bee
free or not, i'd rather have a storage limit but no time limit. either way i'd have to forward all emails to my local machine, so the storage won't do me much good other than as a temporary buffer.

with a storage limit the worst that can happen is that mails get rejected, but the senders do get notified. and, if set up well, forwarding should work even if the storage is full, so even rejections would not happen.

with a time limit i am relying on the forwarding always working, and, in case of failure i'd be loosing mail possibly without noticing. because it's attachments from old mail that i am not looking at now that would get deleted. that's not something i'd want to ever happen.

andreinwald
Old emails will be saved. But without attachments.

Is it okay for you?

em-bee
any system that deletes stuff automatically without oversight is dangerous and can lead to critical loss of data.

the only time it is ok is when it is backups that are superseded by new backups, or a trash storage where i put things manually, and even there i prefer to empty the trash manually too.

but this is just how i am used to working. i realize that i accept messages in irc disappearing if i don't log them too (but then i set up logs for quite a number of channels that matter to me), and i could accept this service for certain use cases like for mailing lists which are usually archived elsewhere anyways.

but i could not use it for emails from family, friends or customers who might send me things that i want to keep.

furthermore, if you consider encrypted email you can't even tell what is an attachment and what is the body. removing the attachment would also affect unencrypted, but signed emails.

andreinwald
Thank you for your detailed opinion!

I understand the importance of attachments. But it's the only way to make email hosting cheap or free, bc attachments occupy 99,9% of disk space.

marcos100
No, a lot of times, the attachment is more important than the text of the e-mail.
andreinwald
I understand the importance of attachments. But it's the only way to make email hosting cheap or free, bc attachments occupy 99,9% of disk space.
thunderrabbit
Yes, email attachments take up a lot of space.

But anyone who tries to auto-delete my attachments will never get my patronage.

Why do you want to cripple email to create a free service? This seems like a race to the bottom, with very little upside for you.

andreinwald
Not everyone is willing to pay for mail service for custom domains. Paid email services already costs near or below disc storage prise.

Limiting attachments - the only possible way for free ADs-based alternative.

rosndo
Since when is disk space the bottleneck for email hosting? Do you not intend to offer features like search?
andreinwald
Disk space - is most popular limitation on email hosting plans now. Gmail 15 GB + ADs model, Zoho: 5 GB.

Mail search - will be offered. But old emails w/o attachments.

rosndo
Disk space being the most popular limitation does not imply that it is a real bottleneck.
doctoboggan
I would register if there was a storage limit and you were prompted to manually delete attachments when you are nearing it. I’d rather do it myself and save what’s needed that risk losing important documents.
cplli
No. I would much rather have a paid plan, with limits. Nothing is free, and an ads model service isn't one I'd move email to.
andreinwald
Are you ok with G Suite/Zoho/etc prices?
cplli
For my personal email I use the new iCloud+ service, as I already had a plan and they have the "Hide my email" feature which is a plus.

For company email: Fastmail. They're professional, I trust them, the price value ratio is good. Can't complain

voisin
What did you use before? How did you find the transition? I am on gSuite and would move over but all the ways of getting past emails up to iCloud seemed messy.
cassianoleal
Can't you just use regular IMAP to migrate the mails? IMAP download the whole mailbox, then upload to the new service.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
cplli
I was using Protonmail. The transition was as simple backing up all my emails, changing my DNS records and re-creating my filters. But I didn’t import my Proton email archive into iCloud as I don’t (hopefully) need any emails from it.
drcongo
I'd love to switch to the one on iCloud+, which I already pay for anyway, but Apple's restrictions on what constitutes a "family" are bizarre - as soon as I add anyone to the family, I'm also paying for any apps they buy. This is fine with my kids, but what right do I have to know what apps my wife is installing on her own phone? Feels like such a creepy restriction.
rssoconnor
From what I've read about iCloud family sharing is that purchase sharing is optional and can be turned off.

I haven't tried out the family sharing yet though.

drcongo
Ahh, interesting. I could swear this wasn't possible last I checked, but this page [0] suggests it may be, however it's not very clear at all what is being turned off. Does this mean if I buy an app, my wife doesn't automatically get to use it too, or does this mean if she buys an app it doesn't get billed to me? It's the shared billing that was always the creepy bit.
maccard
Not OP but yes. Perfectly happy with the prices, and would be willing to pay more if the featureset provided. The only thing that keeps me on gmail is the inertia of my existing email address.
rosndo
Yandex already offers this for free, but without disappearing attachments. You can sign up right now :)
dym_sh
whats the point of unlimited storage if stuff that needs it – gets deleted anyways?

mega-silos have 3 major points: reliability, convenience, and network effect.

get 2 of them, add privacy – and its a viable alternative.

----

but no, not personally – i run my own vps with poste.io install – you asking the wrong crowd.

andreinwald
IMHO people don't need most of old attachments, and it creates possibility for ADs-based service.
newscracker
I disagree completely on this. People get bank statements, investment transaction statements and other important information as attachments, and they may need to get those years later from emails (it may not be easy to get from the original source and they may have lost their local copies).

Like it or not, e-mail is a document storage medium for most people.

beardyw
I just use redirection to a standard Gmail account. It works.
sh4un
You can't have your cake and eat it to. If you want free, build it yourself. Lots of guides out there.
ryandvm
And it's only free if your time is worthless...
Nasreddin_Hodja
Only for first time. If you are already experienced, it's not so hard to setup a server. Or you can hire a freelancer to do the job for you.
sh4un
Can literally go from any Linux to a mail server in about 15 minutes if you can read.

Maybe an hour of pausing and rewinding a YouTube video on the subject if you are a millennial.

newscracker
No. But if it were with a paid option and no ads or marketing/data sharing partnerships of any kind and if it has limited storage and lets the user manage it (or move to a higher pricing tier), then I might consider it.

I really dislike the per user or per mailbox pricing model followed by some platforms. It gets very expensive to use for a few people in the family.

Copying my other comment on attachments [1]:

> People get bank statements, investment transaction statements and other important information as attachments, and they may need to get those years later from emails (it may not be easy to get from the original source and they may have lost their local copies).

> Like it or not, e-mail is a document storage medium for most people.

Note the following services that provide what I’ve listed above, except that they don’t meet some other criteria I have:

- Mxroute

- Migadu

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30008723

jasonpeacock
No, because when a product is free then you are the product.

I'd much rather pay for the services I use (e.g. Fastmail) knowing that there's company who's purpose is to build and support a product for me, not advertisers or some other interest.

StellarTabi
> Free alternative to paid G Suite. > > Your custom domain.

I love it! I need more than one domain.

> Unlimited amount of users.

For the free tier specifically, maybe organizations otherwise giving you $0 should have a limit like 20 or 100. Or "unlimited users" could be a $10/month addon for the free plan.

> No storage limit

too unfair for you, I'd rather pay B2 style prices for each GB past 10GB or something.

> but attachments stored only for 1 month.

Surprise deletions are an instant No. Most inboxes just show you your % usage in the corner and allow me to handle deletions on my schedule.