Trying to find an reliable email provider

Privacy Questions
1

Hi, I am currently trying to find an email provider.
I am currently with protonmail,
but I really do not like how imap, and
pop3 support is only available through their bridge.

I mainly need:

  • Imap and pop3 support
  • Company has existed for more then 5 years
  • Company is publicy documented, and owners are known
  • Support which can reply quickly (within 48 hours) to any serious issues
  • Only gives out information with court order
  • Custom domain support
  • Full DMARC, DKIM SPF etc
  • Has not had any data breaches (preferably)

Featured that are nice to have but not required:

  • Tor for accessing imap and pop3
  • How abuse reports are handled is listed somewhere on the website
  • Website not heavy on javascript as my computer is slow.

I do not need:

  • PGP support in webmail is not required, as I plan to just use my mail clients pgp
  • pgp encryption on arrival is nice but not required as I use simplelogin and addy that already can do that
  • incredible amounts of storage as I plan to just use POP3

Here are some I am considering

Runbox:

  • Based in norway
  • Seems to have existed since 2000
  • only $20 for the lowest tier

I do like runbox.
Since I mainly want to use pop3, massive amounts of email storage is useless for me.
There is, however, very little info I can find online about people using them
This may not be a bad thing, they do seem to be a small company, but I have very little to go off of in terms of reviews.
The ones I have found however seem generally quite positive.
If anyone is using, or has used runbox, please give your experience of them

Mailbox.org:

  • Based in germany
  • Started around 2013
  • 36 euros a year

They also seem quite good.
They provide imap and pop3 over tor which is a nice to have
There are, however, some issues I have heard about.
Mainly support quality going downhill
For example:
The grapheneos mail server’s
were apparrently blocked by their spam filters
It seemingly took them 2 to 3 whole weeks to fix that. which is absurd.
There also seems to be a general decline in support quality when looking at their forum.
Now this may just be the issue of reviews being usually done by those who have bad experiences,
as those with good one’s usually dont say it publicly, but it does leave a bad taste.
I have also heard something about them only having One dkim key for all domains including custom one
Apparently this means anyone can send as anyone else, including custom domains, and it passes spf dkim checks
I have no idea if this is true or not. Please tell if it is as that would be a very large red flag.
If anyone has had experience with their support recently, please tell if it was good or bad.

Fastmail:

  • Based in australia
  • Started around (i think) 2000
  • $60 a year

Very expensive, but I have heard good things about them.
Now 50gb of storage is nice, but I dont need it as I plan to use pop3
From what I have read about their support, it seems mixed,
Some have had good experiences, some have had bad.
Now some people have raised alarms over them being located in australia due to australian laws
But as long as a legal court order is required to release any info, I am fine with that.
Anyone with experience with them, especially support please tell.

Migadu:

  • Swiss
  • Founded in 2014
  • $20 a year for their lowest tier

Migadu seems very nice on first glance
They however only allow custom domains, which is fine, but the dealbreaker is the send and receive limits
If I wanted to upgrade, I would have to pay $90 a year! which is more expensive then even fast mail
Also their acceptable use policy is confusing.
For example, ‘any attempt to fool email recipients about senders identities or activities’ is considered fraud
Now that is fine, a person attempt to fool someone into giving them money is obviously bad
But this seems to also encompass using pseudonyms online, as this could fall under fooling email recpeients about senders identies.
It does not state anything about a real or pseuodonyms
Also they check domains for things like fraud, which is fine. but it is not very clear to me if it is the custom domains that are linked
which are checked or the domains that you email which are checked. as that would be very bad.
Again, anyone with experience with their service please chime in.
Seem to be the very higly praised

I considered icloud mail, but there is no pop3 support for some bizzare reason. so they are not considered

I think my plan will be to use two email providers, one for my normal mail and one for my custom domain
And to use addy for any important correspondance with entities like my bank,
And to use simplelogin for things like shopping

I am leaning torwards using runbox.
but since there are very few reviews online I am slightly hesitant
Fastmail seems fine, but it is quite expensive for what it is.
Migadu seems good for my custom domain, but I have concerns over their acceptable use policy and abuse report handling, and the low send a recieve limits seems to be a dealbreaker.

Anyone with any info on these providers chime in. As I am having a hard time deciding.

2 Likes
2

Probably mailbox.org is what you want as it fits all those items and also has the ability to encrypt all incoming email and that placed in the sent folder. Mailfence is another option, but I don’t believe it has any kind of zero knowledge encryption either.

4 Likes
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Mailboxorg does seem to be the best option

My main concerns however are the support quality

the reports of their overzealous spam filter, and response leaves quite a bad taste in my mouth as it does not show professionalism or good support for a serious issue (being unable to receive grapheneos emails [01] ), that should’ve been resolved very quickly. Esspecially if I am paying for email.

Have you used mailboxorg, and if so, how is the support, and how is email deliver ability. ( any issues recieving email, emails slow to arrive etc).

Mailfence I have heard of but don’t really like. The website itself looks so barren and it’s too much privacy marketing for me.

I should mention zero knowledge encryption does not matter much
Since I will use pop3 , and since simplelogin and addy will pgp encrypt any emails anyway. That’s why I am considering providers like fastmail and runbox.

I am strongly considering runbox or mailboxorg.

but runbox has the issue of very few reviews and a website that looks like it was made in the early 2010s and not really updated (However the runbox 7, from the login, looks quite nice and is updated), and the other seems to have all im looking for but support seems to be lacking (quite a bit if going off of reviews [02] )

before I bite the bullet and pick,
I just need to know mailbox’s support and it’s quality. As that is quite important (also if anyone has any info on the apparent issue that they allow you to send as anyone would be helpful [according to an article on hacker news] )

I may just have to make a compromise, as looking at other email providers, they are either too expensive, too niche (migadu), don’t allow pop3 or are owned by big tech companies.

If anyone has any info on runbox and it’s support and quality, please tell.

Thanks!

sources:
[01] GrapheneOS: "The blacklist will improve usability since users …" - GrapheneOS Mastodon
[02] Review of Reputable, Functional, and Secure Email Service | The Changelog

4 Likes
4

PSA about mailfence: If you don’t login for 6 months, your data is deleted and your address is recycled (meaning someone could use this email to gain access to any accounts that are linked).

Other providers delete your data, but recycling usernames is a bad policy.

1 Like
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I use mailbox.org with no issues so far. However, the support service is lacking in terms of response time. They also do not take user feedback very seriously.

I am considering backup alternatives at the moment such as self hosting.

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i haven’t had an issue with the spam filter. There is the greylisting feature which may cause some false positives from badly configured mail servers but other than that it’s okay.