Hi Galen, I myself have been on this journey to migrate my internet accounts registered using my Gmail address to my own domain, and use multiple aliases in the form of serv...@mydomain.tld.
Over the last year and a half, I have moved about 90 accounts from Gmail. Some sites allow self-service email address change. Others require you submit a ticket to their support staff. Others, such as Shopify, require you submit a ticket to them to export your account history (if you want to keep it), delete your account, create a new account, and re-import the history from your old account if you don't want to start from scratch. This means I'm keeping Gmail around until the process is complete. I also export my email archive to mbox or maildir, likely using Google take-out. I started out at Protonmail. Then I discovered they don't support IMAP unless I installed their SMTP-to-IMAP bridge app on my local machine. It supports Linux, but not OpenBSD, which I use more regularly these days. So I switched to Fastmail. (But read further. I'm looking to switch away from them too.) If your friend is not sure it's worth it to register and maintain his own domain name for email and setup the MX, DMARC, SPF and other DNS records at the email provider (and doesn't care about his personal brand), consider that using his own domain name makes moving from one paid email provider to the next much easier. Both Protonmail and Fastmail have very good instructions to point your DNS records at their mail servers. Because I used my own domain name, I was able to migrate form Protonmail to Fastmail, update all my DNS records, and import all my previous Protonmail messages to Fastmail in less than an hour. More importantly, I didn't have to update my emali address at any of the sites I had already switched from Gmail. And now for my recommendations. Domain Registrars: - https://dnsimple.com - Well-established registrar with a good interface and only $6/mo domain hosting fee - https://porkbun.com - Up-and-coming registrar recommended by Jim Salter of the 2.5 Admins podcast. I don't know their pricing. Fastmail is good. But they only allow up to 600 email aliases, and charge $5/mo for my first domain, and at least $3/mo for each additional domain (one domain per sub-account). So I asked on the OpenBSD misc mailing list a few months ago for suggested email hosting providers. - https://migadu.com - Starting at $20/yr for unlimited aliases and unlimited domains. You cannot register or host a domain with them (that makes moving away from them easier). Plans are limited by storage space and messages in and out per day. Bigger plans increase those limits. They have been in business since 2014. The amounts are realistic for my use case. I plan to switch my k9w.org domain from Fastmail to Migadu. - https://purelymail.com - Flat $10/yr for unlimited aliases and unlimited domains, again not registered or hosted domains with them. They are in public Beta but have been going for at least the last few years. I already have another domain with them and have been very happy with their tools, documentation, and support staff. - https://runbox.com - Norwegian-based offering plans starting at $20/mo for unlimited aliases and one custom domain, registered/hosted with them or from another provider. I might try them out with a test domain for the fun of it. But I could easily us as many domains at either of the two providers above. "But Kevin, why are you using two of them at $30/yr rather than just one service at $10 or $20 per year?" Because I want to experience both services over the long term. If I have any less-technical friends and convince them to try email at their own domain name, I could offer to save them the email hosting cost and add their domain to one of the first two options above. Realistically, I still have probably another 50 or so accounts to move away from Gmail. New accounts are at my paid provider straight out of the gate. It's a lot of work. But it's worth it to own my email, to pay for it with my dollars, not pay for it with my personal data. Galen, I hope this is helpful to your friend and anyone who searches the PLUG archives for this question in the future. Thanks, Kevin Williams On Fri, Nov 17, 2023, at 16:14, Galen Seitz wrote: > Hi, > > A smart, but non-sysadmin, non-linux-using friend asks: > > "Hey I’ve been interested in getting off Gmail and switching to a mail > service I pay for. And then using it with IMAP on my various devices. Do > you have any knowledge about other services besides Gmail, yahoo, etc?" > > I'm pretty sure this person uses a Mac laptop, but I'm not sure about > their phone. I'd guess iOS, but it could be Android. > > Suggestions? > > thanks, > galen > -- > Galen Seitz > gal...@seitzassoc.com >
