Recommend a cheap, reliable email hosting service

February 25, 2009 3:14 PM

I'm looking to find a new email provider. My web host - NFS.net - don't offer this service yet, so I'm casting my net over a wider area.

I don't want to use free webmail accounts like Yahoo/Gmail/Hotmail. I also don't need ridiculously large amounts of storage space.

What I do need are the following:

1. A maximum of 2 gig of space.


2. POP3 access (I'm not overly bothered about IMAP).


3. A cheap reliable service. I love the NFS.net style of service, which costs cents per day.


4. The ability to choose a sensible email address - not [e-mail] or something else ridiculous like that.

If NFS.net offered an email service, I'd snatch their arms off for it. My ISP has very very bad email services, that I refuse to pay extra for.

What are some service providers that I should consider?

posted by Solomon to computers & internet (16 comments total)

Forgot to add, the ability to have multiple email addresses would be great too.
posted by Solomon at 3:15 PM on February 25

I know you said no to gmail, but for about $12/year (cost of domain registration), you can register your own domain and use it with gmail, thus having [e-mail]. That satisfies your other requirements as well (except for the 2gb max..did you mean minimum?)
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 3:16 PM on February 25

did you mean minimum?

Nope, maximum. :) I'm using less than 1gig on my main Gmail account.
posted by Solomon at 3:18 PM on February 25

What is it about Gmail that bothers you? It seems to fit all your requirements except the one where you don't want to use it. It'd also be easier to point you to something if we knew what you didn't like.
posted by David Fleming at 3:21 PM on February 25

pobox.com?
posted by trotter at 3:25 PM on February 25

I'm using gmail with my own domain name ("google apps for your domain"), so I can have as many aliases ("nicknames") as I want. For that matter, I can have multiple e-mail accounts.

If you really want to pay for it, you can get a premier account for $50/yr/account, although that saddles you with an even higher maximum storage limit.
posted by adamrice at 3:29 PM on February 25

Pobox.com looks like a good contender. Any others in a similar vein?
posted by Solomon at 3:37 PM on February 25

I've had good experiences with Tuffmail
posted by Proginoskes at 3:40 PM on February 25

Fastmail works for me.
posted by Olli at 3:41 PM on February 25

fastmail.fm
posted by webhund at 3:42 PM on February 25

fastmail.fm and pobox.com .

pobox.com buys you indipendence from ISP and email providers. I had the same address for the past ten years.

Fastmail because they are indipendent, they focus only on email hosting and they do a good job at it. They also have a great web interface.
posted by pdxpatzer at 3:55 PM on February 25

I'd second Google Apps for your Domain, it supports pop, you don't have to move your entire domain over (as you already have a web host...) you can just set the MX records, you can get lots of accounts and unlimited aliases, and it's free.

I actually use this for one of my own domains, except that I actually log into the email accounts about once a year (might be time again).
posted by polexa at 4:09 PM on February 25

All my domains are hosted with NFS.net and email run through google apps. I register the domain names elsewhere and point the name servers to nfsn, let nfsn handle the dns then set the MX records there for google (google apps gives NSF.net specific instructions). It was easy to set up for a non-tech person like me. No one on the other end of the emails can tell I've switched to google, it works just the same in thunderbird at my end, and it's free. So I'm also wondering why you don't want to go that way?

If you do want to pay then the service I used to get from my domain registrar was excellent (freeparking. NZ$50 per year for pop email, no mess, no fuss. Their spam and virus filtering worked very well too, saved me from getting a virus that went round my whole family while never blocking anything that was real. But in the end I can get the same service and ease of use for free from google.
posted by shelleycat at 5:01 PM on February 25

There were three recommendations in a row for FastMail. I'm the fourth. It's an excellent service.

Like GMail, it lets you set up aliases for outgoing mail, and you can have your domain registrar forward incoming mail to your FastMail account. This lets you set up your own domain (domain.com) and any desired e-mail address under that domain ([e-mail]), and use it via FastMail transparently.
posted by yclipse at 7:00 PM on February 25

Google for domains.
posted by SirStan at 9:50 PM on February 25

Looks like Fastmail is the winner. Thanks guys.
posted by Solomon at 11:22 PM on February 25