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Ask HN: Custom domain email for professionals?

8 points by antoineMoPa ↗ HN
I have a non-tech friend who wants a custom domain email address, but I think it will be a bit complex to setup with all the configuration needed to avoid falling in spam these days (DNS settings, DMARC, etc.).

Is there any affordable email service which allows you to buy & use a custom domain with all the email authentication managed easily?

17 comments

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fuckcensorship
I have heard good things about FastMail [1].

[1]: https://www.fastmail.com/

jrib
migrated to fastmail from free g-suite. Has worked great for me.
antoineMoPa
Did you have to manually setup spf/dmarc/dkim?
jrib
In my case, I manually set it up. But their settings page guided me through it. It looks like this: https://images2.imgbox.com/51/04/fJdk86c0_o.png .

I'm not hosting my DNS with fastmail. If I switch to having fastmail manage my DNS then it seems like they can automate setting that up according to: https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000278002 .

> We'll automatically set up your domain so you can send and receive mail, sync contacts and calendars, and use the best security practices (DKIM, SPF, and more).

metaloha
Tucows, and nothing wrong with paying for Gmail either - a .com domain is maybe $15 per year (and other TLDs range from $1 to thousands)
version_five
Depending on your friends situation, they should consider getting office365. It's like $15 a month I think, let's you add a custom address (I think including a simple option to buy a domain inside the office365 environment), and it has all of MS office as well. If your friend really just needs email there are cheaper options, but if they are paying for an office suite, it's not a bad deal imo

(I use it with my domain from Namecheap and it walks you though exactly how to set it up with a domain you already own. It should be possible even for someone nontechnical)

antoineMoPa
My first idea was namecheap + an email provider, but I'd like to recommend a service where you don't even have to think about spf, dkim, dmarc.
ge96
Hate to suggest GoDaddy but yeah for above an account is $6/mo.
lock-the-spock
I'm happily using migadu. 80$ /year for infinite own domains and accounts. Email setup was very easy as they give you all the records to enter or you can even make migadu manage your records.
runjake
Fastmail was fairly easy to set up, along with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

It was just a matter of pasting strings into DNS records.

n3dm
Seconding this. They have been top tier for it's primary use, hosting a professional email on my domain. Secondarily hosting the website itself is good too. Just doesn't have PHP/mysql or whatnot. Which is fine for a static page.
cercatrova
What's wrong with Google Workspace?
mpalfrey
I use Google Workspace. Works well and zero complaints here. My website is also a Google sites site now - very basic placeholder but it worked well and was easy to configure with SSL etc.

I ran Office 365 for a year, this was pretty good but I got fed up of having separate email clients.

I used to use POP3 and IMAP for emails with Gmail picking them up. This caused a few issues with emails being marked incorrectly as spam so I ended up moving to a better solution. For the sake of a few $ / month it's a no brainer to use Google Workspace for me these days.

ezekg
Last year, I switched from GSuite to Protonmail for my business. SPF/DKIM/DMARC were relatively simple to set up (just a few DNS records they provide).
p0d
I think fastmail has a spin off service which does this however I can't remember the product's name.