I appreciate that, but one might argue that if my data is not private then it is also less secure.
I HATE Gmail only because of their stupid automatic filters and folders! And it’s impossible to get rid of it. If I want a folder called Important I want to create it myself, how the eff should Gmail know what I think is important?!?
And to create an IMAP account so normal clients can use it is extremely laborious.
/$0.02
if my data is not private then it is also less secure.
That’s an issue with all the providers in this table; not just Fastmail.
The author’s argument that Fastmail, by virtue of being based in Australia with its privacy laws, is less secure than Proton mail seems to be challenged by this news.
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Saw this. Seems to “stretch” their advertised privacy and no-logging policies. Think some website updates are overdue.
Need to also read their reddit post and statements on the website for a complete picture. It seems when crimes acc. to Swiss law occur they can be forced to do (switch on) logging and pass info to Swiss authorities, who then could decide to pass on to foreign law enforcement. These requests need to be acc to Swiss law to which they are bound to adhere. They mention that the actual content encryption cannot be compromised and access via Tor can also not lead to IP discovery.
Shows that by nature of service email is never secure. You need only copy in one non-Proton address not using PGP and security will be compromised.
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This! You can hide some of those folders (I’m not sure if “Important” can be hidden).
I’ve never had a problem using IMAP, though.
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I might not be understanding exactly what the point is in this article. I have assumed that if I want my email to be end to end encrypted then I need a client that encrypts it, the mail service doesn’t really play a part in this (if they do, then I have already lost the battle). If I have such a client (e.g. using PGP) then it is invisible to my email provider regardless who it is (including Fastmail).
I’ve been preaching the same philosophy for years but it seems to fall on deaf ears. Devonthink is overkill for my needs so I use a simpler file/folder based system.
Before we retired my wife was an Exchange email admin. Too many horror stories of people with multi-gigabyte email stores that get corrupted and the work it takes to restore from backups. Her users were marketing/sales people so not too technical.
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That seems a reasonable assumption. In terms of encryption, it does depend on who has access to encryption keys. I agree that if your email provider “looks after them” then the horse has already bolted.
The big challenge with all this and just about every online and cloud service, is who do you trust? It seems trusting governments is proving to be problematic, but then so is trusting businesses.
I have to say email is becoming a headache. If it’s not encrypted, very little info can be sent that is benign in terms of GDPR.
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I have 85K emails in Devonthink and need the sync for emails that are part of projects so I can work off my iPad. I’m glad I’m not the only one with the assumption that getting out of the email client is far better!
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It’s always been a headache. I’ve used email for 40 years now and have long realized it has the security of a postcard (remember those?). In my part-time teaching job we couldn’t use email for secure communication with students (such as telling them their grades) because it violates FERPA. 20 years ago at work we were sending/receiving data from IBM who required we used PGP to encrypt all files for communications because of the insecurity of email.
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Guess the iCloud upgrades are out of beta - we just got ‘welcome to iCloud+’ emails.
I’ve been paying Fastmail for the main purpose of the 600+ available aliases on my custom domain. Switching this over to iCloud+ would save me an instant $50/year. I’m already paying Apple $36/year for 200GB of storage, which helped get me the free iCloud+ upgrade, I guess. I don’t use any other Apple service subscriptions. (not counting AppleCare).
My main issue would be the transition period. Once I point my domain MX record to iCloud, I would then have to set up all my existing email aliases w/ Apple. All 211 of them.
Reasons I will probably not do this:
- Have to use Apple Mail
- Lose ability to pull in old emails from Gmail and Microsoft? (not sure about this one)
- PITA factor - possibly worth it for savings, though…
FWIW, IF I were interested in moving to iCloud mail I would wait a couple of months and let others find the bugs and potholes.
But $50/year to NOT set up 211 email aliases sounds like a bargain to me. 
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I have five months until subscription renewal, plenty of time to get a consensus on whether or not Apple has implemented this well or not…
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Please note that with iCloud, you can only setup 3 alias per domain and have up to 5 custom domains. Therefore, unless you are willing to cut down your aliases, Fastmail may serve your needs better.
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OK, looks like you can probably do what I’m talking about, but only with your Apple “icloud.com” domain…
“You can create as many Hide My Email addresses as you need.”
As opposed to the custom domain scenario, which is exactly as you described:
So I’m wondering if the hide my email feature would work well enough to let me switch? I could easily work with only five emails on my main domain and use ‘hide my email’ for everything else…
You will only be allowed to have three emails addresses on your main domain. The limit is 3 email addresses per custom domain per apple account.
5 email addresses per domain would be perfect and I may end up moving to iCloud. The other critical question is how good is the iCloud email service. I have heard mixed reviews and my experience is that its not bad but not great. Its just meh… which may work for some but not sure if its for me.
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I meant 3 emails … got confused w/ domains
So as a long time Fastmail user, I decided to take the jump into Apple world with domains. For the same reason no matter what I tell myself I end up trying the latest and greatest phone, iPad, or app etc I felt that pull.
So 24 hours in……… I am beyond impressed. My wife and I each have our own domain (our name dot me) and then we share one domain for some other things. One thing I do find as a big change from Fastmail in a good way is support for calendar attachments in the calendar app (or Fantastical). That drove me nuts!
I was thinking about the money I am giving Apple and it might the one place where I really feel I am getting good value. We share the 29.99 Apple One family plan.
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No matter what we would be paying for music, so if I switched it would be Spotify which is $15.99
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Apple News is one of the more underrated products. I don’t love the app, but love the service. It has the few magazines I actually want to read, starting with the New Yorker but even better is the array of newspapers you have access to. From the Toronto Star to the San Fransisco Chronicle I now can read things that always got me a paywall. I always paid for way too many news subs, now it’s down to the NYT, Washington Post, and Apple News.
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2 TB of storage. I was paying for Dropbox 1TB for years and I am confident enough that I think I might drop that now. I also have 1TB from Microsoft for both a personal office and work office account. $10
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Domains/Email. I was paying $10 a month with Fastmail which is now gone.
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Fitness+ This one was one I did not expect to use, but have a bit. Pre Covid times I travelled a lot for work and personal, and over the last few months I had to do a few quick trips. In the hotel gym I fired up Fitness+ on a bike and treadmill and found it pretty good. It is not a product I would buy on it’s own but it is there?
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Arcade Not a big gaming person but a few games like Threes not having ads is nice
Apple TV+ - Ted Lasso 
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Is the iCloud custom email truly custom - as in it doesn’t do that Gmail thing where it shows me@mydomain.com on behalf of me@icloud.com?
I’m currently happy enough with Fastmail, but it isn’t cheap, and if I can get basically everything it offers through an Apple subscription I’m paying for anyway…
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