I am thinking of migrating from 1&1 mail to fastmail, but I have one question:
What does the “Your choice of email apps (Outlook, iPhone Mail) Your choice of email apps (Outlook, iPhone Mail)” inhttps://www.fastmail.com/pricing/ mean? From all I read, I can even with the Basic plan access the fastmail imap and smtp server to use Apple Mail? Am I missing sometyhing here?
Thanks
Rainer
You aren’t missing anything. It just means that you can use any email client you like to access your Fastmail account, or you can use your browser…or Fastmail’s app on your phone (they don’t have their own desktop client).
They have pretty clear instructions for setting up Mail, Calendar and Contacts if you want to manage those through Fastmail.
As vsp said, pretty much any email client works. Also, while Fastmail doesn’t have its own desktop client, there’s one that is a dead ringer: FMail (https://fmail-app.fr/). Its main advantage over web-based Fastmail is that it can be set up as the default email app; previously when I clicked an email link it opened a “compose” window in Apple Mail. And if silicon is a concern, the FMail site says this: “FMail is a native Mac application, taking little resources on your system and runs natively on Apple Silicon.”
Further to this topic, I cycled through a number of email apps before I landed on Fastmail and decided it’s as close to what I need as I’ll ever get. Been on it for well over ten years, and use my own domain names for about a half dozen of my URLs. On yesterday’s (04/28/22) Accidental Tech Podcast, Casey detailed his recent switch from GMail to Fastmail, so you might find that interesting.
I don’t think the Basic plan allows IMAP/SMTP access based on this page.
Users on a Basic plan will not be able to use Fastmail on third-party mail clients, or create app passwords. IMAP, SMTP, CalDAV, and CardDAV are available to Standard and Professional users only. If you have a Basic plan, you can use Fastmail on a desktop web browser or the Fastmail app on mobile devices, such as a phone or tablet.
I wanted to add a Basic account for another domain where I don’t need as much space, but that has stopped me from doing so because it doesn’t seem like it would allow IMAP/SMTP access at all without going up to the Standard account.
Oh…I could have sworn I had a basic plan at first, then switched to standard. I’ve never used the web app.
Maybe I started with standard.
Either way, that kinda sucks. Admittedly it’s the first negative thing I’ve got to say about Fastmail. It’s been a great service since I moved to them a few years back.
You cannot use Apple Mail on the Mac nor iPhone/iPad with the basic plan.
When Fastmail introduced the Basic plan that and the lower amount of storage space were the big changes. Honestly, Fastmail is so good it’s worth the extra $20 ($50 vs $30) a year for the Standard plan.
for Mac, I use Fmail, specifically designed for Fastmail. Very happy with it
on iPhone, I use the native fastmail app
On macOS I use a similar tool: Fastmate.
I like this one because it’s open source, so I can modify/build it myself.
(Only changed the icons)
Thanks guys - that is what I feared.
The thing is, I am not talking about a single account, but 4 on a custom domain. Of these, three would need initially IMAP. This makes already a considerable difference - considering that at the moment I am paying about 6 Euro per month for all (old package at ionos, previously 1&1).
So I think that for the moment, I will stay with them, although fastmal sounds great.
If it’s for import, I believe they would import for free as part of the import tools.
If you wanted all the emails in one inbox, then you would only need the one account and could change the DNS records to point to one inbox.
I have it collect my iCloud and Gmail messages, though that’s done by forwarding in fairness. I then have Fastmail set to send as if from iCloud and Gmail, so I have one central location and regardless of who emails from where, I can email back to them without them knowing it’s come from a Fastmail account.