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Ask HN: Alternatives to Google-Apps Custom Domain Email Hosting

55 points by evo_9 ↗ HN
I'm trying to find a good alternative to google-apps free custom domain email hosting for a client that doesn't want use there services. Doesn't necessarily have to be free but it does need to support custom domains.

52 comments

[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 107 ms ] thread
toomuchtodo
Fastmail business account: https://www.fastmail.fm/help/receive/domains.html
napoleond
Another vote for fastmail--it's a fantastic service. I prefer it to Google's in many ways.
IgorPartola
Do they still do that awesome thing where if your invoice isn't paid they delete all your mail and give you no way to recover it? This has actually happened to someone I know, where he didn't respond to the invoice fast enough.

Edit: I should say that of course they need to have a recourse to stop providing services to people who don't pay. However, giving maybe 30 to 90 days to at least download your mail after your payment is late would be nicer than going "remember years of email you have saved here? Say goodbye to it all".

toomuchtodo
Thinking about this, backup directly to an S3 bucket would be a great feature for Fastmail.
kgrin
As the "someone" in question, I should clarify that the core screw-up was that the invoice emails were going to the account's "master" mailbox, which was unmonitored because the domain it was managing was being forwarded (IIRC I couldn't figure out how to forward the master mailbox or something).

This was a while ago, so my memory may be failing me, but I'm fairly certain we had an alternate "recovery" address set up - just no one thought to send an invoice there, or call the phone number on file, or whatever... it was a "hey, you show no signs of having received the invoice, so we assume you're a PITA deadbeat and we're going to perma-delete the account for you!"

Moral of the story (from my perspective) - if a customer isn't responding to your invoice, it might just be that they don't have it... try to reach on them a side channel before cutting off service!

tombrossman
For clients that are after 'free' email I set them up with an account at Gandi (transferring the domain if necessary) and for those willing to pay a little bit more, the Fastmail business account is definitely the way to go.

Both options are very inexpensive and if the client still wants cheaper I would probably refer them to someone else for advice.

shanecleveland
Can't recommend it enough. Great reliability and ease of use. Excellent spam protection. If email is important to you, pay for it.
jordsmi
For fastmail aliases that all forward to the same box, if you reply to them do they show your actual email, or the alias that it was sent to?
cdvonstinkpot
The powerful FastMail Web Interface to the rescue.

You can set up a 'Personailty' address to match the alias, & select that when sending the reply. There may be a way to always use a specific personality with certain addresses, but I haven't used the feature in so long I don't remember.

dejv
I am using Zoho Mail, web client is not on the Gmail level, but it works well and it is free.
philip1209
I wish there was a simple domain email service targeted at individuals rather than businesses. Allow wildcard forwarding of email at the domain to specified email address (e.g. for parked domains or retired ones). Allow arbitrary smtp access at the domain for any email using the same password (plus DKIM & SPF support). I'd pay Google Apps prices for something simple that accomplished this.
ecesena
With Google Domains you get 100 email forwards and one of them could be * (I'm using this config). The cost is just the domain registration, e.g. $12/y for a .com.
philip1209
Yes, but I don't like using Google authoritative DNS. Also, I'm not sure if they make DKIM accessible.
ecesena
As far as I can see from the console, you can both change the DNS servers (if you don't like Google's ones) and edit the zone file. So, I guess, you could support DKIM via another SMTP, e.g. Amazon SES. (please note that I have no affiliation with G domains, I'm just trying to reply to the original question to the best of my knowledge)
xtrumanx
I thought Google Apps email wasn't free anymore? Didn't they stop offering it around late 2012?
grecy
Correct. It's no longer free.

I have it on an older domain, and it's still free, grandfathered in.

I recently signed up with a new domain, and I'm paying for it on that domain.

K-Wall
If you sign into the admin panel of the grandfathered domain you can add the new domain to that Google Apps Account.

Granted any settings will effect all the domains associated with that account.

grecy
ohhhh. Now that's good to know! Thnaks. I'll be doing that right now.
patrickdavey
I realise HN doesn't like people saying 'thanks, me too'... however... in this particular case I just wanted to say "Thanks!!!" ... I'd not realised you could do this and I'm now 5 minutes into migrating a few domains across. Brilliant.
pfooti
Check out Pobox: https://www.pobox.com

I don't use it, but a friend of mine does and has lots of good things to say about it. Wildcard forwarding, hosted email, good privacy policy, etc etc.

wopsky
I use Zoho Mail. It allows for custom domain email for up to 10 users for free.
ummjackson
https://mailinabox.email/ on a 1gb DigitalOcean droplet. Will cost $10/mo and you get full control / unlimited accounts and aliases.
apaprocki
Curious if anyone here (possibly besides parent) who is running this in production? I thought it looked like the best option for a custom configurable stack (and keeping it up-to-date with security fixes), but there are so many moving parts in a full e-mail stack. Any experiences good or bad?
mattmanser
It is absolute insanity to run your own email unless you have a sysadmin team.
vital101
I've been using https://www.zoho.com/ and its been working out quite well. Although I only need one account at the moment.
godDLL
Another vote for Zoho, should really be your first option as it's free.
fredsted
Virtualmin: http://virtualmin.com

Setup a supported Linux distribution on any cloud provider (eg. Linode, DigitalOcean) and run the Virtualmin 1-liner on it. 10 minutes later you'll have a control panel where you can create domains. Each domain can have Web sites, email accounts, git repositories, databases, DNS management, and more. Don't want to use half of those things? Turn them off. You can add as many as you want and it's open source. It works great.

colinbartlett
While I like the suggestion of something so easy and quick to setup, I dislike the idea that it will be my responsibility to maintain any sort of hosted VM.

How long before I'm scrambling to patch updates or recover some kind of hack?

fredsted
You can always enable automatic security updates. I've been running this for 3 or 4 years, haven't had to do anything special besides paying bills.
wnevets
google domains
xxdesmus
not at all a Google Apps alternative.
wnevets
care to explain? Google domains has nothing to do with Google Apps other than sharing the google name.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
jonnw
I recommend Zoho. Been using it for a while now, no regrets.
vinayp10
You can use outlook from microsoft for free...

http://www.process.st/2014/04/small-business-in-the-cloud-go...

bruno_rocca
Use zoho for several clients for under 10 for free, but looking for the next level up to 25 as well. Must be something other than fast mail and Google
falava
I use Gandi.net email[1], included with a 12€ domain you get 5 email accounts (POP and IMAP), 1GB shared, 1000 redirects and upgrades are also cheap.

[1]http://wiki.gandi.net/en/mail

eldavido
Is anyone else's spam protection on par with Google Mail's? That's the GApps killer feature. The rest of their groupware suite, especially Writely/Document editing, is pretty mediocre, IMO.
hackuser
> Is anyone else's spam protection on par with Google Mail's?

In my experience, good spam protection is a commodity.

[dead] ycombinatoracc
Using mailgun now for incoming email, have it set to POST emails to my http endpoint which saves them to database and send a copy to another address.
hackuser
Rackspace's hosted mail services are very good. I've used the hosted Exchange ($10/mailbox/month) and they have a lower-end service for $2/mailbox/month.

Support and reliability have been exceptional.

youpi
Hello,

First time I comment on Hacker News, but several years of silent reading :)

I wanted to find a mailbox where I feel at home in it, and keep my gmail as a secondary box.

I discovered mailbox.org this summer on Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7864392

and decided to move with a custom domain :

1 euro per month, 12 euro per year, whereas fastmail asks for 40$ per year

I'm very happy, because :

- Mailbox Imap sync - Address book sync - Calendar sync

work great on my iPhone, and that was my functional priorities

I don't use the drive (100 Go) nor the GPG. I prefered gmail interface, because of habitude, but that's fine.

But I really appreciate to feel at home and alone, when I'm in my inbox :-)

Thank you, mailbox.org team :)