I’m now using Fastmail (referral link) for my email. My email address remains the same, but all email sent to it will go to Fastmail’s servers.
Fastmail isn’t a new company; as per Wikipedia, it’s been around since 1999. That makes it older than Gmail, which was founded in April 2004.
Moving away from Gmail
I’ve had a Gmail account since June 2004, back when it was invite-only, and, for the past ten years, I’ve been re-routing all my email through Gmail. Having all my email in one place makes things easier, and Gmail’s spam and management tools are better than the standard ones that you get from a generic IMAP server.
So what’s changed? Well, some time in the very near future, Gmail will no longer pull email from other accounts. Until now, email sent to any email address on this domain would be periodically picked up by Gmail using POP3, and would then appear alongside any messages sent directly to my Gmail address. There was a short lag time, which was annoying, but it made things easier overall. That POP3 email pickup is what is going away.
The Gmail apps for mobile devices will still support connections third-party email accounts using IMAP, instead of POP3, but the emails would remain on the original email server. This isn’t really what I want, as I’d then have to use my email server’s storage space and spam tools. Plus, those emails wouldn’t show in Gmail’s web interface.
Switching to Fastmail
A couple of weeks ago, Anil Dash kindly shared a referral link for Fastmail as an alternative. The key factors that I like about Fastmail are:
- You can use your own domain relatively easily
- You can easily import all your old emails from other major platforms
So, once I’d signed up, I amended the DNS records for this domain to point to Fastmail’s servers, and then imported 22 years of emails from Gmail. It also brings across your contacts, and has a Calendar which can maintain bi-directional synchronisation with Google Calendar. The import took just a few minutes overall, and although it did mean I had over 12,000 unread messages, it was easy to bulk-mark these as read.
Using Fastmail
Fastmail’s web app works well – it’s fast, clean, and offers a three-pane mode as pictured in the screenshot. Since I use Outlook for work, this feels the most comfortable for me. There are official apps for mobile devices, and there are setup guides for most common desktop and mobile email apps, if you want to use IMAP. There’s a lot of configuration options, including customisable gestures on the mobile apps.
You can also continue to have email from other accounts, like Gmail and Outlook.com, forwarded to Fastmail, and be able to send messages using these other addresses.
Something that is important to note is that Fastmail does not offer a free tier. If you sign up, you can get 30 days for free – and Fastmail won’t demand any card details upfront if you do. After that, an individual plan is normally £4.50 per month, or £54 if you pay for a year upfront. If you use my referral link, then you can get 10% off in your first year.
Moving away from American Big Tech
Fastmail isn’t an American company – it’s headquartered in Australia. That being said, many of its servers are still US-based. Recent events in the USA have meant that I have been reconsidering how much I rely on American companies – especially those that provide services to the US government. Moving my email away from Gmail is one way that I can take back control of my personal data.
Another option to consider is ProtonMail, which is based in Switzerland. ProtonMail offers a free tier, and you can also bring your existing domain over. Its cheapest paid plan is cheaper than Fastmail, at £3.19 per month, but only offers 15 GB of storage instead of Fastmail’s 50 GB. ProtonMail has a greater focus on privacy and encryption, but I’ve seen others comment that it’s not as easy to use.
Yet another feature killed by Google
13 years ago, Google killed off Google Reader, and over the years around 300 products and services have been killed off by Google. I shouldn’t be surprised that yet another feature has gone. There’s a summary post from jwz.org about other options, but this is what I’ve gone with.
Whilst I doubt Google would ever kill off Gmail as a whole, having my own domain means I can port my email to a new provider without changing my email address. Especially as I’ve had my primary email address for 23 years now. In the UK at least, we can port our mobile phone numbers between operators; having your own domain means you get the same flexibility for email too.