email hosting
ok, so like i talked about in my mobileme review, i’ve decided to finally get away from gmail. i don’t like gmail. i don’t like the ads. i don’t like the weird IMAP implementation. so, i’ve set out on a search for something better. i’ve started to believe much more in paying for quality. that may not at first seem like the frugal thing to do, but really, frugality has much less to do with the amount you pay for something. according to your money or your life, frugality is about having a high enjoyment to stuff ratio. that resonates with me, so paying a few dollars a month to not have my private emails indexed for advertisers and to have IMAP not feeling kludgy on my devices seems worth the money to me. but i digress…
so i’ve been evaluating a couple of email hosts. my basic criteria are:
- allow me to use my own domain
- “normal” IMAP
- server side rules
- decently low priced for the quality of service
so, here are the email hosts i’ve looked at so far:
- eumx.net
they seem to have a bit of a following on emaildiscussions.com, but their web page seems to have out of date info all over the place. they only cost $16 a year for 10GB storage (both email and files) and unlimited bandwidth, which is probably the most bang for my buck that i have seen, but it also makes me a bit leery… can the service be that great at that price? they don’t have a free trial, so it’s hard to evaluate them much further…
- slashmail.org
$18.95 a year for 3GB inbox space. seems like a good solid host, though they appear to do a bit more handholding than others. that may or may not be good. to use my own domain, they just have a form to fill out on their site and it says it will be set up within 2 days. i kind of prefer being able to tweak to my IMAP and domain settings, etc, myself. i send them an email asking for more details [just heard back, sounds like they will set it up to do anything i want, but they require me to let them do it to prevent spamming..eh]. also, they limit you to 20 server side filtering rules… seems a bit arbitrary.
- fastmail.fm
$39.95 a year for 6GB inbox, 4GB file storage. the reason this is so expensive is because they only allow personal domains with their highest level accounts. for awhile i was actually considering using them for both my email AND my web host, but i’ve found a better web host since, making them a much less interesting option. $40 a year is just a bit too steep.
- tuffmail.com
a no frills, no handholding, no nonsense email host. certainly the most geeky of all of them with the amount of sure power it gives me. the cheapest plan is $24 a year, but that only includes 512MB of storage. over five years at gmail, i’ve only built up 700MB, so huge storage isn’t that big of a deal. that plan also only allows for 1GB of transfer bandwidth a month. i have no idea how much i actually use right now, though i bet it’s less than that. i really like how geeky and customizable it is, but for the price, the storage and bandwidth does seem a bit stingy.
so what to choose? right now i feel it’s down to slashmail and tuffmail. less control but more space? ultimate control with skimpy space?