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Comment by jen729w | Hacker News Reader

Just gonna throw Migadu in here as a mail host. Everyone loves Fastmail, which is cool - I'm an ex-happy-user - but Migadu's point of difference is their pricing.

Whereas Fastmail charges by the user/month (or did when I was there), which can add up quickly if you've got a bunch of domains, Migadu does not. They charge by volume. You can add as many domains and mailboxes as you like. For some use cases - mine, and likely many of you - that ends up with a way smaller bill.

They're run by real people in Switzerland. I've been a customer for a couple of years now and it's worked flawlessly.

Usual disclaimers, just a happy customer, not affiliated.

https://www.migadu.com/pricing/

https://www.fastmail.com/pricing/

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I did enjoy Migadu and want to support them, but I had more than one important business email get filtered on the receiving end as spam because of the host. I found myself having to check in with people on sensitive matters to ensure they got my email, which is not a great look.

This was back in the free tier days (though I had a paid account), so maybe its improved now.

It's a terrible look — one that you can't avoid with 100% certainty even with a Google or Microsoft email!

Yes, but it's much less likely to happen when using Google.

Gmail is much more likely to mark emails from smaller providers as spam, thats my experience.

Kind of sad that “it looks bad” if your email lands in spam. It happens, this is the technology.

I recommend Purely Mail: https://purelymail.com/

Very cheap, pay-as-you-go, unlimited accounts and domains with routing. It's a 1-man company with rough UI but works well for keeping control of your own data.

Note that if you're just using the domains for one user, you can set them up as aliases rather than seperate mailboxes to avoid stacking fees that way.

I do this, but it does make me wary of lock-in. It’d be a pain to have to change all of these in order to leave fastmail.

This is one of my problems for migrating from Google Workspace. I use aliases and groups to have significant numbers of separate email addresses for specific services.

Mapping all these accounts will be a big pain in the butt.

I had a very poor experience with migrating off Migadu when they dropped their free tier. It completely soured me off them forever.

On a related note, I’ve commented earlier about this. I didn’t like the way Migadu dropped the free tier when the pandemic was raging, with a short notice. From that experience, I can’t bring myself to trust it. I really appreciate the pricing that’s not per user/mailbox, but there’s more to a business than just pricing.

Mxroute provides a similar service that’s not based on users/mailboxes and is cheap enough for multiple domains and multiple mailboxes.

For those concerned with privacy and data stored in certain countries, Mxroute stores data in the U.S. (like Fastmail) and Migadu stores data in France (a 14 eyes country) even though the company is incorporated in Switzerland. Migadu also does/did not encrypt data at rest (as of a couple of years ago). So any seizure of its servers in France means your data could be exposed.

Can you elaborate? Were you using something like IMAP sync and having trouble or are you moreso talking about timelines and their comms?

Moreso timeline and comms. First e-mail communication I got regarding sunsetting of the plan was a section at the bottom of a length e-mail announcing pricing changes sent on August 28, 2020.

The e-mail announced that on October 1st 2020, free tier would be sunset, and immediately locked until upgrade to a paid account.

I completely agree on the pricing front. Migadu’s pricing (like Mxroute’s) is good for those who need multiple mailboxes.

> They're run by real people in Switzerland.

Please note that the data centers used by Migadu are in France. This may be a concern for some people who are looking to avoid 14 eyes countries.

Their explanation why: "We find EU privacy laws much more elaborate and restrictive than the Swiss ones. Switzerland used to be famous for banking secrecy, but that has nothing to do with digital data." https://www.migadu.com/procon/

I had super bad experience with Migadu. They had changed important settings and sent email about it few days later (pop server name), then they doubled the price despite their old home page claims (again no email notification). During the pandemia there were several downtimes. Emails to yahoo were not really delivered (I have an old domain, and I send only private emails.)

I switched to mxroute and it just works. Migadu's price is ok but the support and communication was really weak back then.

+1, Migadu is simple, reliable, easy, and just works. Cost is low enough it might as well be free. I've only ever had one issue (from incorrectly interpreting documentation) and had an actual human respond and walk me through it.

The only downside to be aware of is the lack of calendar support (technically yes via CalDAV, but that doesn't work for most users--e.g. Calendly won't work).

Edit: the way they handle domains and email aliases has simplified my email life.

Just wanted to send you my thanks. For the last hour or so drinking my morning coffee I read their page.

I will give them a try but you might have provided me with the service to switch to from Google.

I already have replacements for storage (my second main use) and Documents. And I do not have a problem in general with proprietary solutions. But Google sadly more and more is not in line with what I see as values good for the internet nor humanity.

Sounds like a similar pricing model to MxRoute, who I've been quite happy with.

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