Custom domain for personal use - yes or no? Why? reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rare-Possibility8368 · 2023-10-07 10:39 Trying to decide if I should use custom domain for personal email or not. What do you think about it. My main problem is the feeling that if I start using it, then I have to keep the domain forever...and pay for it. Is it worth? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- d4nm3d · 2023-10-07 10:47 I use a domain simply because you can't trust any email service to exist forever.. I'm happy paying £4 a year for a domain i can use for multiple things and have unlimited email addresses on.. I currently use it with simplelogin so i can have unlimited aliases and ban any that get leaked etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Waste_Delivery1475 · 2023-10-07 10:47 Could do what I do, I have proton mail. I have a custom domain and set that up with proton mail. Now I get (my name)@(mydomain).uk and also (my name)@protonmail.com go to the same mailbox. I can send and receive from either as well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MrShared · 2023-10-07 10:48 I own a personal domain since 2015 (.cool) was new then. I pay around 50 euros a year for it and use it for everything important. Yes it's cool but it's a huge commitment. I think it's totally worth it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thegreatincognitum · 2023-10-07 10:48 Yeah, but if you don't have your own domain, then you're stuck with whatever mail service you picked forever. The domain let's you point mx wherever you want ---------------------------------------------------------------------- elingeniero · 2023-10-07 10:48 Nah, having to spell out the first part of your name is annoying enough. Explaining why the last part isn't just "@gmail.com" would get very tedious. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Atlasatlastatleast · 2023-10-07 10:49 How do you host your email? A lot of people, myself included, use iCloud + but I’m open to alternatives ---------------------------------------------------------------------- trexxeon · 2023-10-07 10:53 If it’s a good domain yes, it’s worth it ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rare-Possibility8368 · 2023-10-07 10:54 Yes, but aren't you afraid loosing your Gmail account ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rare-Possibility8368 · 2023-10-07 10:54 The commitment part is what makes me think twice...if it is worth the money... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- revoltnb · 2023-10-07 10:57 I've used a personal domain with third party mail hosting (currently PrivateMail) for \~20 years. Never regretted the decision. To me it's a no-brainer. However, it is a decision you need to make based on your own personal situation. Primarily, are you happy to learn and spend some time on it, and potentially deal with an occasional hiccough. **Pros**: I can create custom email addresses and aliases at will, and know that I will always have the address. Good for a personal and also private but professional account. Because it's permanent, no issue with using the email for long term authentication. **Cons**: If you don't select a good hoster, you will have to change annually, or lose connectivity intermittently, and possibly lose some emails. It does cost between $A40 - \~$A100 per year for the domain and email (more expensive for less hassle). Some minor technical knowledge required if you want to go to the cheap end (learn CPanel or similar). I have hosted my own private email server (fixed IP address from my current ISP), and enjoyed setting up DKIM, DMARC, and SPF but would only recommend it for a hobby email unless you are very committed. I use it only for my secondary domain, and never for my main personal email domain. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- iObjectUrHonor · 2023-10-07 10:59 Simplelogin. Basically configure your simplelogin accounts mx records and it does the rest. Create emails on the fly and have them redirected to your main account ---------------------------------------------------------------------- d4nm3d · 2023-10-07 11:00 i dont host my email.. i am currently using gmail. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- moanos · 2023-10-07 11:11 Where do you live? Assuming that everyone uses gmail sounds incredible to me as a German 😅 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- iamdadmin · 2023-10-07 11:11 I've had my domain for 22 years. I have had a dedicated server, cpanel, cpanel VPS, but currently have it hosted on Office 365 Business Basic as only need two mailboxes and want all the bumpf that comes with it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jusepal · 2023-10-07 11:23 For me personally its well worth it. With it I'm cutting out a middleman so instead of icann > registry > registrar > domain owner (proton/tuta/gmail/yahoo/whatever) > me its now icann > registry> registrar > me. 1 less middleman. Also for portability, if anything happen to my current mail provider then changing to other providers is just modifying some dns records and be done in 10 minutes, keeping all existing address@ without needing to change every single account owner. But theres also the cons you've already mentioned; anothetlr cost to pay yearly. Also I'm not hiding amongs thousands of users using the same domain anymore, tge single domain is unique to me. Less privacy i guess? But at least for me, the pro outweight the cons. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rare-Possibility8368 · 2023-10-07 11:24 Are you using custom domain and if so, which service provider? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- elingeniero · 2023-10-07 11:27 I suppose, but less than losing any ISP account, and if Gmail goes belly up the internet is going to explode so at least I'd get to join in the fun. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- traveler9210 · 2023-10-07 11:32 Personal domain + Mailbox, yes I pay for both because there are humans on the other side maintaining the services I consume. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yowzadfish80 · 2023-10-07 11:33 I got a first name and last name as initial .com domain a few years back and also signed up for MX Route email hosting. One of my best decisions. Not had a single issue with MX Route and I can create as many addresses as I want and whenever. The domain is less than $10 a year (I paid for 10 years at one go) and email is an additional $15 a year (Black Friday deal). $25 a year is a no brainer considering what I get in return. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nitsky416 · 2023-10-07 11:34 Yeah Google workspace and backing everything up is how I'm doing it ---------------------------------------------------------------------- vikarti_anatra · 2023-10-07 11:36 Yes, it worth. Price is very small. You could try to "prepay"(by transferring between registrators) or just extend for up to 10 years(example - [https://www .namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/770/35/is-it- possible-to-registerrenew-a-domain-name-for-more-than-10- years/](https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/7 70/35/is-it-possible-to-registerrenew-a-domain-name-for-more- than-10-years/) ) If you use $big\_free\_email\_service with their domain - you will get what you pay for ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yakadoodle123 · 2023-10-07 11:39 >MX Route email hosting That's who I use too, been using them a couple years and been very happy with the service especially for the price (I also signed up during a promotion)! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- moanos · 2023-10-07 11:39 I use INWX for the domain (.de for 6€ per year) and point it to an https://uberspace.de/en/ (5-10 € per month). The uberspace can do a lot more than email but I am happy to pay this for reliable service (and a very ethical company) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- vikarti_anatra · 2023-10-07 11:39 What if Gmail says their scanners found something bad and you are now banned? What if their definition of bad changes 10 years in future? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rare-Possibility8368 · 2023-10-07 11:55 Has anyone here used Protonmail? What do you think about that? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Human_no_4815162342 · 2023-10-07 11:56 In Italy it's probably about 90% of people ---------------------------------------------------------------------- privatetudor · 2023-10-07 12:01 I had the same concern but found a cheap domain and I feel like the commitment isn't that big. I do like the feeling of not being tied to one email provider and being able to use new email addresses for each service is great. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Overdraft4706 · 2023-10-07 12:02 Def get a custom domain. Had mine since 2005. Its been hosted all over the place. Why put your entire life on someone else's platform that can be taken away for what ever reasons they deem fair? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- andyclap · 2023-10-07 12:04 I've had the same domain since the 1990s and I don't think it's much of a commitment - £7 every 2 years. That's one pint in London. Ok I pay for email hosting behind it on top, but the convenience of being able to switch provider without any fuss, or set up additional addresses for specific tasks makes it good value. I used to use email addresses per-service to try and track leaks, but eventually I gave up as it wasn't worth the bother - a catch-all account is a target in its own right. Only a couple of leaks and they weren't interesting. Spam filter catches most junk anyway. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- szjanihu · 2023-10-07 12:09 You can use iCloud+ with custom domain. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- apcyberax · 2023-10-07 12:26 >Yeah Google workspace and backing everything up is how I'm doing it ​ yah you use gmail and forward your Domain to that email. If gmail ever bans you, or you have to leave. forward your domain email to a new provider and you lose nothing. for the cost there is no reason got to have your own domain for the rest of your life. $10/year for 100-year life is only $1000. How much money do you spend on toilet rolls each in your life. Way more then any domain name. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kkazakov · 2023-10-07 12:28 Own domain and zoho. It just works without any issues ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sevlonbhoi1 · 2023-10-07 12:28 who even gives email address to others by saying it anymore? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sevlonbhoi1 · 2023-10-07 12:31 I use email@**firstnamelastn.ame** as my personal email address. hosted it with zoho for free. It was a good decision, I have also moved all the important things to personal email address. Gmail is just to getting emails from some legacy service or for spam ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lilolalu · 2023-10-07 12:31 Why not? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-10-07 12:32 On-prem exchange server with MTA for SMTP. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lilolalu · 2023-10-07 12:33 You can also just forward your domain to something like Gmail so you don't have take care about a mail setup ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sevlonbhoi1 · 2023-10-07 12:35 Then whats the point? the whole reason to get personal domain was to get out of Gmail. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rare-Possibility8368 · 2023-10-07 12:41 I have two doubts: \- Commitment for forever \- Gmail, [Outlook.com](https://Outlook.com) have best web interfaces. Where can I find something similar for my own domain? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HerefortheLAN · 2023-10-07 12:44 Protonmail w/ custom domains for the win (not free) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UNITY_NP · 2023-10-07 12:45 I use Microsoft business premium with my own custom domain, it’s been great ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Antonaros · 2023-10-07 12:48 I got a number only .xyz domain, costs me 0.80€ a year ---------------------------------------------------------------------- terribium · 2023-10-07 12:55 My first use for the first domain (4+2 letters) is just emails. The second domain (also 4+2 chr) is so I don't have to mess with the 1st domain's DNS settings. There is always a chance that I mess for example a MX records or something... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- diymatt · 2023-10-07 13:02 You can use a custom domain name for both Google and Microsoft. I have [firstname@firstlastname.com](mailto:firstname@firstlastname.com) and my email is Office365. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- diymatt · 2023-10-07 13:07 Everytime somebody asks me for my email it get's more complicated than it needs to be. Me: [bob@bobsmith.com](mailto:bob@bobsmith.com) Other human: ok, so bob@bobsmith@gmail.com? Me: no. [bob@bobsmith.com](mailto:bob@bobsmith.com) Other human: Wait, so it's your first name @ your fullname dot com?!?! How do you do that?!? It needs to have a gmail or yahoo after it?!?! Me: A paper receipt will be fine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jschwalbe · 2023-10-07 13:15 100% have this same conversation time and again. I will often give my gmail address because, people. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jschwalbe · 2023-10-07 13:21 March it out. Let’s say you’re committed for 80 years. What will it actually cost you? Depends on the domain suffix, but you could calculate it. I don’t think it’s as much as you think it is. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GolemancerVekk · 2023-10-07 13:22 I recently found out about SimpleLogin and I have a question: why do people use it instead of the aliases provided by their regular email provider? They don't even offer that many aliases for free, just 10. Any email service will offer that many. But there are email providers that will give unlimited aliases, or wildcard aliases which are even better. How is SimpleLogin different? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- phein4242 · 2023-10-07 13:27 Only you can decide if its worth it… ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FnnKnn · 2023-10-07 13:28 iCloud+ with a custom domain is fine ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Majestic_Error_5424 · 2023-10-07 13:30 I'd argue you could have more privacy. With a custom domain it's less likely for your email address to be spammed to crap because of bots scouring the web for names, appending the most common email providers at the back of it and sending unsolicited email. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- d4nm3d · 2023-10-07 13:30 the reason i use it are (and i pay for it) are mainly * i can block specific aliases if they start getting spammed. * i can reply to emails using the alias * i can see all the aliases that are created so i can see if someone it testing my domain looking for valid accounts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GolemancerVekk · 2023-10-07 13:30 The (bad) catch about Gmail is that they count on you never getting around to sorting and cleaning your email. So it adds up to many GB of email over the years until you give up completely on the idea of ever moving away, and even if you did you'd have to pay extra with another email provider for all the storage space. It's a very bad habit because it teaches people to never back up their email so they become dependent of Gmail forever. Gmail also has very bad antispam practices. Instead of giving you aliases that hide your email address they teach you to just put it out there and rely on their antispam filter. But that also means you'll never be able to move somewhere else without getting a ton of spam. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- pandaeye0 · 2023-10-07 13:30 Personally I think if you happen to find a neat domain name, which was already very rare some 20 years ago, then you just go and buy it. Otherwise there is no real need. In 2006, I snatched one of the last 3 characters .org domain names. I haven't followed the domain market since then, but I doubt if you could find any domain worth spending. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- culturepunk · 2023-10-07 13:32 Mailcow is pretty decent and was easy to setup, I've had no issues with it even for business email with 1000s going out a week. I do have it installed on a VPS though, I've read home IP addresses can get blocked by spam filters if self hosting from home, so results may vary. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fredrik_skne_se · 2023-10-07 13:32 Yes to a personal domain. Even tho I’m mostly self hosted. The email alone is worth it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- slowmail · 2023-10-07 13:34 100% yes. Registering your own domain name, means it's yours. As long as you keep the registration current, you will always be able to receive (and send) emails from it. I learnt this the hard way some 20+ years ago... I was using a free email service; and one day they unexpectedly shut down; I came to realize that could happen to \*any\* email service, and the only way to have your own permanent email address for life, is to register and own the domain name. A .com domain [costs $9.15/year on Cloudflare](https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/). That's a little less than $0.77 per month. It's not going to break the bank. As much as possible, I would recommend sticking with a .com. I originally registered a .net, and ever so now and then, people would say they tried to email me but I never replied... and quickly realized they were sending to the wrong address ([example.com](https://example.com), instead of [example.net](https://example.net)) Several years later, I was able to snag the .com... and even until today, I still get 1 or 2 emails sent to that domain by mistake. I keep my important domain registrations paid 10 years up front, and have very clear instructions in my will how to transfer them upon my passing (my family members all use it too...) I'm to understand it's impossible to get any single word .com domains (at a reasonable price), but it's still possible to find reasonable two word .com domains. I would avoid any numbers or hyphens as well in the name. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GolemancerVekk · 2023-10-07 13:38 > Commitment for forever Committment to what, the domain name? As long as you pick something sensible you should be fine. It might be worth giving some thought to the TLD you pick (like .com) in terms of price and privacy but it's not that hard. Separating the domain registrar from the DNS and from the mail provider can be done very cheaply and it means you can change any of them if something happens very easily. That "something" can be anything, over the last 25 years I've left providers for getting greedy, or being bought by bad owners, or becoming unreliable and so on. Email is your online identity basically, you should never put all your eggs in one basket, and especially if the basket belongs to a big provider like Gmail that's specifically designed to keep you hostage forever. I've been trying to get away from providers like Google and Microsoft myself lately and it's true that it's hard but it can be done. In fact email/contacts/calendar is actually the simplest part, things like files and photos are harder. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PolicyArtistic8545 · 2023-10-07 13:45 It’s $10 a year. I waste more than that in spoiled food. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GolemancerVekk · 2023-10-07 13:45 Proton is a gimmick (encryption at rest) that only works if you only send or receive to other Proton users. Once messages are out of Proton they're not encrypted anymore. And for that gimmick you'll have to give up your favorite email app because you have to use theirs, and to use aliases you have to use yet another service. It's just overly complicated for no good reason. There are plenty of regular email providers hosted in EU countries with good privacy laws that let you use whatever email app you want and have aliases included in their normal service. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GolemancerVekk · 2023-10-07 13:49 > i can block specific aliases if they start getting spammed. > i can reply to emails using the alias But that's how aliases should work at any provider. > i can see all the aliases that are created so i can see if someone it testing my domain looking for valid accounts. What do you mean, do they actually create aliases if a spammer emails them randomly? Do those aliases count against your limit? I get wanting to see if someone's probing your domain but that should just be a log. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lilolalu · 2023-10-07 13:50 The question is what is important for you and why in terms of mail. A lot of people just want their own domain name / custom addresses and don't care about better privacy. For those: forwarding your email addresses is a good solution since Google has a very comfortable and well working service. Then there are others like me and apparently you, who dislike the privacy implications having their mail stored on googles servers. I do have a dozen email addresses on Yahoo, Gmail etc.pp. and some of those were my main addresses for a period of time. I am using my own domain names for a couple of years now but you can still reach me on all the "legacy" accounts. I am running a local mail server at home with a getmail based script that fetches all my accounts every couple of minutes and delivers them to a local unified inbox (passing them through spamassassin). My mail server does not receive mail deliveries from remote hosts. For outgoing SMTP, Exim is configured to send mail through a "smart host" which is the mail server of the hosting provider of my domains. I am serving the mails from my local server via dovecot as IMAP and have a webmail running on my homeserver (rainloop). The only thing that I am not yet happy with is the search integration. I am running notmuchmail from CLI as a full text search which works VERY well, but in the long run I want to be able to search directly over IMAP... there are Elasticsearch FTS plugins for dovecot but I am just waiting for the next release, which will integrate a xapian based full text search over IMAP. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lilolalu · 2023-10-07 13:52 Oh, it's pretty easy to filter out spam yourself and also to move out the mails from Gmail is not rocket science. Check out getmail and fetchmail. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amdaxiom · 2023-10-07 13:52 When you reply it'll then show the main account, right? Not your custom domain? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Lubricate5827 · 2023-10-07 13:59 > Gmail, Outlook.com have best web interfaces. Have you seen Fastmail? Definitely a personal preference thing but a lot of people seem to like their web client. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sandmik · 2023-10-07 14:01 If you want yeah it's a good idea and you can switch providers if you have to. Don't host your own email server, that's my experience after over 10 years doing that. Too much headache and possibility of spam, blocking and hacking. I use Google now, 6$ a month. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- flatulentpiglet · 2023-10-07 14:09 I have a catch all email fowardiing to me, so I can see anyone who sells my address. Confuses the hell out of stores when I give them theirownname@flatulentpiglet.com as my contact. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jcheroske · 2023-10-07 14:11 I bought a good domain back in 1998 and it has been one of the best decisions I've made. Super useful for many things over the years. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BasD007 · 2023-10-07 14:15 Check out FastMail ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ashooner · 2023-10-07 14:18 > - Gmail, Outlook.com have best web interfaces. Where can I find something similar for my own domain? FWIW, I switched from gmail to a personal domain at fastmail, and I don't miss the gmail interface at all. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sentient__Cloud · 2023-10-07 14:19 I've got firstname@lastname.com, and giving it out to people is always more of a conversation than I anticipated. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fab_space · 2023-10-07 14:25 more tamagotchis more it worth ---------------------------------------------------------------------- d4nm3d · 2023-10-07 14:26 > What do you mean, do they actually create aliases if a spammer emails them randomly? Do those aliases count against your limit? i don't know how the free tier works.. but if anyone sends an email to my domain it'll create a n alias which i can block or reply from. > But that's how aliases should work at any provider. not sure what you're getting at here really.. if i use cloudflare for example and just wildcard it, i can't block individual aliases as far as i know.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sophware · 2023-10-07 14:35 Not much use if you can't tailor your reply address. Many services I've used allow this. Does Simplelogin? Probably not hard to find out in somewhere between 10 and 300 seconds. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sophware · 2023-10-07 14:53 >Commitment for forever Commitment to paying, yes. Commitment to anything else? Depends. You can get the work you put into it down to virtually zero, depending on what you want. Different TLD's have different costs. If you take .com at porkbun registrar, it's $10.37 per year. Ten bucks a year is worth it for everyone. If you have the tech knowledge to even ask and attempt getting a custom domain, you can earn back the $10 in less than an hour a year. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JunglistFPV · 2023-10-07 14:54 I just started doing this since moving to protonmail with custom domain a few months ago. Love it, only changed the email for essential services so all my crap still goes to gmail, but all stuff that matters to proton. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Street_Coach_7412 · 2023-10-07 14:59 I have an xyz domain, lot of people can't understand it ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jschwalbe · 2023-10-07 15:06 Ditto that too. I am firstname-companyname@domain.tld and they always pause for a second with eyebrows raised when I say their company name. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Amdaxiom · 2023-10-07 15:10 I was actually intrigued when you said you could reply to an email using the alias. Looking further into this I would suppose the only way to get this to work reliably is this: 1. Email is sent to an alias on your custom domain and forwarded to your personal email. Reply to email is re-written to somethingxyz@simplelogin.net. Simplelogin keeps trying of the relationship between somethingxyz@simplelogin.net and the persons email. 2. You read the email on your personal email, and reply. The reply doesn't go directly to the person who sent you the email but somethingxyz@simplelogin.net. 3. Simplelogin receives the email and understands who that somethingxyz actually is and rewrites to: with the actual person that sent you an email and re-writes the from with your custom domain. If that is what is going on I can imagine it actually working with the only downside is that for you to get the real email address of the person who sent you an email you'd have to login to Simplelogin and find it, I suppose. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- hedonihilistic · 2023-10-07 15:16 That's why I do mail@myname.com. But I usually give out businessname_mail@myname.com and that surprises people but I've never had problems. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IdiocracyToday · 2023-10-07 15:17 What do Germans use? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nurseynurseygander · 2023-10-07 15:17 I've had my own domain (of my name) for over twenty years. There is a strong argument in favour in terms of permanence and portability of email address. However, there are unexpected problems. People randomly insert .au on the end (I'm in Australia), and some disregard my contact forms because they think it must be a fake email. I don't regret it, but it isn't 100% foolproof, and a certain proportion of people you need to email with will be fools. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CeeMX · 2023-10-07 15:20 I migrated to iCloud+ as it is neatly integrated in everything with iOS and MacOS and is sufficient for me. Only the spamfilter seems to be not that good. If you are fine with paying a few bucks, I strongly recommend Fastmail. Was there before and it is so feature-rich, I was missing literally nothing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Judman13 · 2023-10-07 15:20 I have firstname@lastname.org and not a soul I have given it to cared a bit. Always makes me a little sad that most people don't realize how nerdy it is. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mundane-Garbage1003 · 2023-10-07 15:29 Speaking from experience,that very first sentence gets right to the single biggest advantage, and that alone is reason enough IMO. If you’d had an email address for a long time, changing it is an absolute nightmare. The single biggest advantage of owning your own domain for email is it decouples youe addesss from your provider. I recently (well reecently is generous) moved from gmail to proton, and as my address was @gmail.com, there was no way to take it with me since I don’t own the domain. So first I had to get all of my personal contacts to move to my new address, which means telling some of them over and over. The there are literally hundreds of accounts I have linked to the old email. I moved the big ones, then have spent the next 6 months+ auto forwarding mail to my new address and continuously checking to see if something else comes in that I still need to move. And while the trickle is slower, I still am scared to actually close my old account because what if there’s some random thing that I only use once in a blue moon and then I can’t access my account anymore. Alternatively, if I had the foresight to just buy a domain and use firstname@fullname.com like I do now, I would have opened an account with proton, changed my MX records, and been done in five minutes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CactusBoyScout · 2023-10-07 15:33 yeah, Gmail is basically synonymous with email for a lot of people ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CactusBoyScout · 2023-10-07 15:33 yeah, Gmail is basically synonymous with email for a lot of people ---------------------------------------------------------------------- blindao_blindado · 2023-10-07 15:35 Let me give you the best tip on this thread: you can get .XYZ domains for as low as 1 dollar per year, in other words, you can buy straight away 10 years domain for 10 bucks... The only thing is that the domain must have only numbers, like 2747284.xyz... otherwise you pay the normal price which is not too bad either. Maybe start with a .XYZ and see how it goes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- buckyoh · 2023-10-07 15:38 Nope. Simplelogin will mask the headers and your real address from the email, and the receiver will only see your alias/masked email/custom address. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LeBB2KK · 2023-10-07 15:44 I’m using a domain for my email as well (givenname@surname.hk), it allows me to change providers when needed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dsandhu90 · 2023-10-07 15:46 Is it free to forward ? But then can i respond from my custom email ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fishypants · 2023-10-07 15:47 Don’t use protonmail, but I do use tutanota and very happy. They just added unlimited aliases as well, so I might be able to get rid of anonaddy now. I’m using a custom domain with these as well ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Other-Technician-718 · 2023-10-07 15:49 If you use gmail or outlook it's basically the same commitment as with your own domain. What do you do if google does something you really can't stand with and want to switch? What if they ban you because you did something they don't like? What do you do to move from outlook to somewhere else? Yep, you have to tell everyone and their friends your new email address. If you want to change your custom domain? The same, tell everyone and their friends... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TheCaptain53 · 2023-10-07 15:49 I've got a domain that is lastname.uk and I've used it a ton. The main reason to consider it is the cost - for me, its only £12 a year. Even if I own it and forget to ever use it, that's only £1 a month. If you have the domain and end up not using it, you could always just not renew. Your domain gets released and you don't pay for it anyway. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IndexTwentySeven · 2023-10-07 15:50 100% personal domain. My last name is fairly unique so I have first@last.com and I will keep it forever, because it's literally my family name. I can also migrate it to other services if needed over the years. It's like $10 a year. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MOONGOONER · 2023-10-07 15:54 I bought one with both our names for our wedding and just kept on using it ---------------------------------------------------------------------- buckyoh · 2023-10-07 15:56 This is pretty much right. Simplelogin uses a reverse alias for the recipient, (you can tell SL to use part of the real email address to make detecting the real recipient easier). So the alias that you reply to is x1y2z3-james_at_yahoo_com@simplelogin.net When SL receives your email, it knows your sending address, and the email James receive has your alias, which protects your real email address. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- maximus459 · 2023-10-07 15:59 Has anyone used iRedmail or Poste.io? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IndexTwentySeven · 2023-10-07 16:00 I kind of became a collector of domains hahaha. I have my @lastname.com which I use for forwarders / personal email correspondence and @differentdomain.com which I use for store123@differentdomain.com and wildcard it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lesigh · 2023-10-07 16:00 Domains are super cheap. I just catch all forward the domain to Gmail and use it as an alias ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IndexTwentySeven · 2023-10-07 16:01 Lifetime account! It's only 10 gb of storage for the entire account, but most mail forwards to my gmail or gets picked up via pop3. I do have a couple created so it stores a copy on MX's servers in case Google ever throws me under the bus, so I do have to clean them from time to time, but other than that no big deal. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ZauzoftheCobble · 2023-10-07 16:05 Me too! I had a guy say "oh you work for uhaul too?" Lol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lilolalu · 2023-10-07 16:08 With most hosting providers that offer email services, it is free to forward the mail to another server. But you can still use their SMTP / your custom domain for outgoing mail. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- buckyoh · 2023-10-07 16:09 >i don't know how the free tier works.. but if anyone sends an email to my domain it'll create a n alias which i can block or reply from It's worth bearing in mind that you can disable this to only allow pre-approved aliases. You can also set up rules to allow certain variations. For example I only allow bucky23*@customdomain.com and change the number periodically. That way bucky23staples@customdomain.com will get assigned as an alias, but stapes@customdomain.com won't. Once an alias is used/saved then it's on the list and kept until I choose kill it. I can also change the prefix rule if I think someone has worked out my 'formula' for the rule(s). As I'm on the paid plan, I can set up unlimited rules to a lot of different email addresses. So I've set it up for the whole family. So bucky23* will send to me, ellie47* will send to the wife's, james48* will send to my brother's etc etc. I rarely have to log in to SL now, it just works. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DanJOC · 2023-10-07 16:15 Mine is of the form firstn@melastname.com which looks great on documents but is actually really inconvenient to explain to people in words. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AdrianTeri · 2023-10-07 16:22 Yes it's just like mobile phone line/plan ... Some Password Managers have solutions with domain providers(1Password + FastMail) with solutions for random emails. Heck even Apple has one tied to iCloud+ - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210425 But there are tied to these specific services. If you have your own domain you can point the MX records to any service you like and create as many accounts as you like, filter & forward them to an inbox etc ...e.g every year you could have an account name-year@yourdomain.com Do you lose some convenience + have to track some things + configure them? Yes. After all I'd suppose this sub is majorly populated by tinkerers or as they were known "hackers"... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dclxvi616 · 2023-10-07 16:30 I use Migadu, love the service. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- primalbluewolf · 2023-10-07 16:35 Why would you want a Web interface? I really don't understand the appeal over an email client. Why not use something like Thunderbird, or Merkuro? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bromeister · 2023-10-07 16:42 Yup, I've pretty much learned the nato phonetic just from having to relay my email over the phone. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Le_Vagabond · 2023-10-07 16:44 personally I looked at it in the same way as you, and so I have https://addy.io/ deployed on my domain. it's pretty good, and for inbound emails you don't need to set up any SPF / DKIM / DMARC. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bromeister · 2023-10-07 16:45 Well worth it. I will happily pay $1/mo for the rest of my life to have ownership and control that comes with having your own domain. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Le_Vagabond · 2023-10-07 16:46 there there, we realize it. I'm a member too. I had the conversation a few times and my mom loves her address, worth the cost by itself :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- onedr0p · 2023-10-07 16:50 I learned about this months ago and switched all my emails over to it. I love their service and the price is dirt cheap. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cubehouse · 2023-10-07 16:52 I have mail@firstname.lastname Nobody believes it's an email, they just wait for the rest and then look irritated by it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ProbablePenguin · 2023-10-07 16:52 Yes because my email addresses are always going to be the same. I can move hosting around as I want to. Changing a ton of different logins and services to a new email is something I never want to do again, it's such a huge pain. I don't think any email provider on their own domain will be around for the rest of my life. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Judman13 · 2023-10-07 16:53 That's a new one! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cubehouse · 2023-10-07 16:53 Gotta luck into having a name that is also a random TLD lol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ProbablePenguin · 2023-10-07 16:54 The main reason is you own your email domain, so if Gmail goes away your email addresses don't change. Gmail privacy and all that is another issue. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ProbablePenguin · 2023-10-07 16:54 You can use Gmail or Outlook with your own domain. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kollimalai_kumar · 2023-10-07 17:00 That’s the cost for first year. After that it will roughly $10. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Antonaros · 2023-10-07 17:07 Nope, 7-9 digit number only xyz domains are the same every year. For example 027462957.xyz ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DubDubz · 2023-10-07 17:09 Yeah, that’s one of those things you feel super clever about in the moment of creating it thinking you’re doing something awesome. And you from a few years from then is cursing your name to eternal damnation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jschwalbe · 2023-10-07 17:12 “Nah. I just really like uhaul” ---------------------------------------------------------------------- michaelpaoli · 2023-10-07 17:15 >keep the domain forever...and pay for it What, you that worried about the ten or twenty bucks or so a year? Really not that expensive. Can also get domains for much cheaper ... but probably don't want to use gTLD or ccTLD that almost everybody rejects 'cause they're mostly nothin' but lots of spam sources. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ppablo · 2023-10-07 17:31 same here ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lvlint67 · 2023-10-07 17:35 I've had about 2 conversations with non tech people about it over 10 years. A few of my coworkers will occasionally ask me how they can get a thiername@mylastname.net email ---------------------------------------------------------------------- motorcycle_frenzy889 · 2023-10-07 17:42 I have firstname@lastname.family and it’s annoying how many sites have form validation that prevents some of the newer TLDs. I end up having to put in my old gmail that forwards to my custom domain ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AnApexBread · 2023-10-07 17:42 Most domains are cheap. They're like $12 a year for the registration. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 17:52 I have my custom e-mail for about ten years now and made the decision to let my old Outlook e-mail account removed this year and it was a good decision. Fully control over the domain, looks more professional and if you have problem with provider just switch over. I think the price is nothing compared what you get back in long term. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Aquinary · 2023-10-07 17:56 I have been using the domain for mail for more than five years. I use zohomail as an email service. This is very convenient, since it is possible to differentiate your mail into categories: finance@, mail@, develop@, trash@, etc. I also recently started configuring the server, in order to then transfer it to your domain as well. You can make it so that you will have a set of your own services that belong to only for you: git, outline wiki (like as notion), owncloud, bitwardern, etc. For example, I can access my git via git.mydomain.com When at the same time, I use nixos + docker to be able to easily transfer all my data and settings from server to server with a couple of commands. At the same time, backups will be made only of the really necessary data: volumes of directories in which everything will be stored. This allows you to create an isolated personal space where you are at minimum dependent on other service providers. It's definitely worth it. However, this requires some administrative skills, as you will have to take care of the security of your servers ~~sorry for my poor english~~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ToddSpengo · 2023-10-07 18:00 I stopped hosting my own mail server about 6 years ago and haven't looked back. I was able to migrate to Zoho for free and have domain pointing to them. It was fun self hosting for a while, but my server had an issue when I was in the hospital for double knee replacement surgery, so there was no mail for me and my family during that time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- linuxelf · 2023-10-07 18:02 I registered mine in 1994, and have never regretted having a personal domain. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ewixy750 · 2023-10-07 18:08 You can buy a cheap domain on cloudflare or square space godaddy or whatever. And you can use google worspkace or outlook (exchange online or any other solution from Microsoft you may have) with your email With the new policies from email providers, the commitment is the same as having your own domain, you need to connect and ensure its working properly. And if you want to stop you can still migrate back to Gmail.com or outlook.com if you make sure you migrate correctly the same way you migrate from Gmail.com to you own domain ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MacGyver4711 · 2023-10-07 18:14 Been there did that, done that for 15 years... Ditched the idea of self-hosting email as it takes a lot to maintain this service in terms of security and what not. Back to Gmail, but I use my domains for self-hosted services with Nginx PM or Cloudflare for everything else. I feel email adress is like your phone number and you do NOT wanna change that. For self hosted services in general it's kind of irrelevant as I'm the primary user and know how to update my URLs on my "portal" if needed. You can try self-hosted email for fun, but I don't really recommend it for long term. Even I, being old and somewhat stubborn have realized that Google might have more knowledge than me when it comes to services and reliablity. Others may surely disagree, but email is too easy to have hosted by someone else and let them struggle with whaterver issues that may occur. Learnt that years ago, and I'm surely not going that route again :-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- skat_in_the_hat · 2023-10-07 18:20 Yea, why not. Buy it for like 10 years, and then worry about it in a decade. The self hosting part is harder than the domain part. I used to use exim, and had custom written my config over the years with some awesome blacklists, and virtual email addresses. But every now and then, there would be a fucking remote root exploit. It takes a few days for the patch to make its way down to the repos, so do you stay exposed? Do you build the package yourself? Do your turn off your email? Yes. Over probably 14 years, ive had to build the rpm myself because redhat hadn't gotten the patch out yet. I've had to turn off my email because a patch didnt exist yet. After the last one, I decided fuck it. And i moved to proton mail. Still with my custom domain. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Christoxz · 2023-10-07 18:22 Set a catch all and tell them to mail to [theirname@bobsmith.com](mailto:theirname@bobsmith.com), say you got a special mailbox just for them ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dsandhu90 · 2023-10-07 18:32 Thanks. Yes i got the option to forward to gmail but i was not sure if i can respond using my domain email for free. For now i am using zoho mail. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GlassedSilver · 2023-10-07 18:33 If you ever feel like it I invite you to ruin your daydreams by setting up a domain name and checking webmaster@yourdomain.tld after a few weeks. Even more so if you even host a site on that domain, but the domain existing should be plenty enough already. Of course no need to use webmaster@, everyone knows that's just a spam trap. On second thought that could be a nice way to fill a blacklist that catches emails sent to webmaster@ and other addresses... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sevynz13 · 2023-10-07 18:36 I assume you are saying for each store you give a different email and it's configured to all go to your main email. But how do you wildcard it like that? My domain is with cloudflare, I tried putting in *@mydomain.com but that doesn't work. Any insight? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HoustonBOFH · 2023-10-07 18:37 Do you give the attractive ones the obvious answer? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 18:43 I use Office 365 but thats mainly because i work in IT otherwise i think i also would use iCloud+ it's cheap, easy and reliable. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 18:44 Same here Synology automaticlly makes a realtime back-up a good alternative is Mailstore Home which i also use for some other e-mails. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IndexTwentySeven · 2023-10-07 18:44 Depends on who handles your email, all my email flows through MXRoute so I setup a wildcard there. I don't think cloudflare does that. Porkbun does. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 18:45 Heard a lot about them but looks to good to be true. How is the uptime and support? Correct me if i am wrong but they also say that they try to keep everytime as up as possible but there can be downtimes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 18:46 Which VPS hosting do you use? Some don't like it if you host mailserver on it. Hetzner for example is agressive on that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dclxvi616 · 2023-10-07 18:46 I’ve been using them for several years and I have never actually noticed any downtime nor have I ever had occasion to use their support, at the cheapest level of service for personal use. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 18:50 I had a girlfriend her dad made her a cusotm e-mail when she was little now she is also using it on their own. How was registering a domain like in 1994 must be a difficult proces back then right? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 18:53 Nobody asked me that and also it's much easier because it's just my name ---------------------------------------------------------------------- moanos · 2023-10-07 18:54 A broader mix. web.de, posteo, gmx, protonmail, a lot of company- specific domains etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GOVStooge · 2023-10-07 18:56 More pain than it's worth in my book. I own my own domain and use it for services, but I just use gmail for ease of use/communication. If google doesn't suit you, try proton.me mail. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- culturepunk · 2023-10-07 18:56 I have a server with FastHosts with a few e-commerce sites on. Although I'm not massively hammering out spam or anything. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 18:56 I feel the part about transfering every account over to the new e-mail. It was such a pain in the ass and sometimes not even possible or license keys that i had to move over to a new e-mail. But all worth it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 19:02 i had [namelastname.com](https://namelastname.com) but i let it expire such a bummer but i also collect now and always on the watch for new domains for little fun projects. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- xiongmao1337 · 2023-10-07 19:02 Yeah I was first@firstlast.com but now I’m first@last.xyz. I thought that would help, but now everyone’s like “wtf is xyz”. Can’t win. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 19:03 Thats what i also do :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 19:04 i have [firstname@last.name](mailto:firstname@last.name) lol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 19:07 >FastHosts Ahh alright nice that they are ok wtih it ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anturk · 2023-10-07 19:08 Sick to hear that for the price it's a solid deal maybe i will give them a shot one time ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dclxvi616 · 2023-10-07 19:12 Price for cheapest service used to be a lot cheaper when I signed up, when they raised the price I wasn’t even close to complaining, more like… that feels a little closer to what should be appropriate. I can’t even remember if it’s now $19 for six months or for a full year and I can’t even care enough to look. I like they really seem to stress privacy. Okay, that’s enough shilling for me today, it’s not very often I’m promoting products or services. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- joemckie · 2023-10-07 19:21 I not only have a custom domain, but a non-standard TLD... it's definitely annoying to tell people so I resort to spelling it out for them lol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sevynz13 · 2023-10-07 19:31 I found it. It's called a catch all in the cloudflare email settings. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Geminii27 · 2023-10-07 19:33 I do this. My own reasons may not be the same as yours, but I registered my own domains because I like experimenting with domain-based things on my own systems, things I can access from the internet side without having to know IP addresses. With email in particular, I like having separate addresses for every single person, corporation, or service I interact with. It helps to find out, when I get spammed, where they skimmed their address from, and I can block or blackhole email to that specific address in future. It gives me a lot more control. It's also fun to fiddle with when setting up other services and systems, as it's experience for IT jobs - mostly various types of systems administration and troubleshooting, but it also leads me to reading a lot of RFCs and setup documents which increase my understanding of technical systems in general. Plus it's always fun to have a personal domain or three which can be used in setups that interact with more technical services, where you can sometimes get a better level of service or relaxed restrictions if you have a domain which has been around for 10+ or 20+ years. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- r3tryfail · 2023-10-07 19:36 i mean, why not? it's not like they're expensive. i've had multiple domains for a decade-plus... not for email though.. that's wild. me@me.com or me@meiscool.com just have never flowed like yoigotmeearly@gmail.com and firstnamelastname@gmail.com and thisismyspamemail@gmail.com and thiswasmyoncebusinessidea@gmail.com.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- r3tryfail · 2023-10-07 19:38 that's wild... i bet even my juno account still exists from the 90s but i know my pre-gmail multiple yahoo and hotmail accounts are still out there from 20 years ago... and since gmail launched all fifteen of those are still in use. sure maybe not "forever" but also where's my old 00s btc mining hdd :-/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Huge-Coyote-6586 · 2023-10-07 19:42 Yes... no question. Own your own domain. https://grumpycondor.substack.com/p/own-your-own-domain ---------------------------------------------------------------------- hunt_the_gunt · 2023-10-07 19:47 Don't use Google Workspace (Gmail) to host it, you will lose a lot of ability to do things in the Google ecosystem and run into a shitload of barriers because of default security bollocks of Workspace accounts. But otherwise, do recommend,. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dash------ · 2023-10-07 19:51 Any suggestions? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- d4nm3d · 2023-10-07 20:15 its obvious who sent the email because the email simplelogin sends it from is made up of the real email address.. john_at_example_dot_com@simplelogin.com for exmaple. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LawfulMuffin · 2023-10-07 20:25 My family Con artists but it got misspelled on Ellis Island and the rest is history. Now you know how .com came to be! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nadmaximus · 2023-10-07 20:28 I have some older domains that I still keep, and forward to a current gmail address. I don't ever have to *send* email from these domains, but there are addresses there which I still want to be able to receive emails for. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LawfulMuffin · 2023-10-07 20:32 I’ve m used proton mail since around 2015. Love it. You have to use their app on your phone or on a desktop, a bridge application which unencrypts the email and adds a local imap and smtp server. I also like that I’m not constantly being monitored for advertising. And that I’m principle I couldn’t be ever. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LawfulMuffin · 2023-10-07 20:33 I’ve been a proton user for almost 10 years at this point and I have aliases and use my favorite email app. I don’t think there’s ever been a time that you were forced to use their webmail ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ModiThorson · 2023-10-07 20:33 I switched to Hetzner with my Mailcow setup because their IP range was cleaner then the one from DigitalOcean (and you get a bit more for less). You might have to file a support ticket after a month to open up some ports, according to their faq. I did that but it wasn’t necessary somehow. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- temotodochi · 2023-10-07 20:44 Of course. Makes a lot of things a lot simpler. Even better to have several, one for business use, one for hobbies. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IndexTwentySeven · 2023-10-07 20:45 It's crazy that it is so fun haha. But yeah I have a 9 year domain registration on my lastname.com and won't let it ever expire. I renew it each year so I would need to not be able to deviate ~$10 a year for nearly a decade to lose it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PnLE · 2023-10-07 20:48 +1 ✅ for doing it properly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- reddit3k · 2023-10-07 21:01 It can become funny if you do it by their type of company. E.g. "realestate@bobsmith.com" or "hairdresser@bobsmith.com" Then you get the: "Wait? Are you also a real estate agent? Are you a hairdresser?" discussions. ;) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GrumpyCat79 · 2023-10-07 21:03 I use me@fullname.com and never got any akward questions like that ever xD I don't give my email address to shops and reataurants, maybe that's why ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LogicalPeyote · 2023-10-07 21:13 Could use a no-ip and just click a link every month :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AnonymusChief · 2023-10-07 21:21 Where do you register .xyz for less than a dollar? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wdrussell1 · 2023-10-07 21:26 Domains are cheap. $5-$10 a year.100% worth it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TheBritishOracle · 2023-10-07 21:27 I have a .com that I use for my personal email and a few other things like that, mostly google services. For everything else such as homelab stuff or testing or services I want to access with a separate domain I generally use .ovh domains which I pay for 10 years in advance and don't have to think about for a long time. It's £1.70 for the first year and £2.99 after that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GolemancerVekk · 2023-10-07 21:32 If you want an all-in-one service that also offers other stuff besides email (calendar, contacts, tasks, drive storage, office stuff, chat, video etc.) then mailbox.org, they're a German company. You can use your own domain or @mailbox.org. Soverin.net is also good (it's Dutch), they don't offer the office stuff but they offer more email space than mailbox and a small webpage. Migadu.com (Swiss with servers in France) is great if you have multiple domains and mailboxes for multiple people because they don't tax you per mailbox, you can have as many as you want as long as you still fit into the tier you buy. This one's good if you know exactly how much storage you need and how many emails you send/receive per day. These were the top contenders for me personally back when I was looking for an email provider but there's many others: https://european-alternatives.eu/category/email-providers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ZorbaTHut · 2023-10-07 21:34 Yeah, over the years I've gone from [I actually can't remember the name of this provider anymore] to Mailsnare (which no longer exists) to Fastmail to Gmail. And I might be moving back to Fastmail. It's *really* nice to be able to decouple your email provider from your actual email address. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ZorbaTHut · 2023-10-07 21:36 I had one person say "Oh, what a coincidence!" It's a coincidence that I have your specific three-word company name *with a proper noun* in my email? C'mon, think a little bit, yo. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Scoth42 · 2023-10-07 21:39 I have [firstname@iamfirstname.com](mailto:firstname@iamfirstname.com) and I get a laugh out of it almost every time I give it. It's fun. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GolemancerVekk · 2023-10-07 21:40 Not webmail, mobile app. On mobile you have to use their app and on PC/laptop you have to use their bridge app if you want to not use their webmail. Also, sometimes their own mobile app [doesn't work](https://proton.me/support/troubleshooting-sending-messages- android) and you have to use their webmail anyway. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PabloDavico · 2023-10-07 22:06 This was exactly what happened to me some time ago what made me decide to use my own domain. My main email provider ended all support for their domain where i had an account on. It was my main email adress for 15 years so i used it on many websites and my contacts. It was quite a hassle updating it in all locations. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- linuxelf · 2023-10-07 22:19 It was definitely more complicated. I registered with Network Solutions. At the time, you needed to encrypt the request with pgp. A friend of mine ran an isp back then, and he helped me through the process. When I first got it, I used UUCP to pull email and newsgroups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok-Lobster-919 · 2023-10-07 22:58 I have been using mailinabox for years. Works for me. Comes with nextcloud too. [https://mailinabox.email/](https://mailinabox.email/) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kibou-chan · 2023-10-07 23:01 Postfix + Courier-IMAP + some custom sorcery to have users, aliases and mailing lists mappings in MySQL. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kibou-chan · 2023-10-07 23:03 >you lose nothing Except for e-mail history, which may be the most important of them all. Unless, of course, you regularly backup to an offsite .pst. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SolitaryGoat · 2023-10-07 23:03 Yes, so every time you need to connect from a client you don't need to remember a strange set of numbers which are lucky to change anyway ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tai9ch · 2023-10-07 23:03 Keep in mind that no external provider is a 100% safe bet on a long time scale. Google / Microsoft may ban your account over bullshit. They may end the service in a decade for reasons we can't easily anticipate. Paying for a domain is like $200 for 20 years. If you want to do it, there's no serious reason not to. And it means you're *independent* of any specific mail provider for as long as you're willing to maintain it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tai9ch · 2023-10-07 23:04 I currently run my email on OVH because they're super cheap. It's been pretty good so far. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kibou-chan · 2023-10-07 23:15 Exactly. No webmail equals virtually no chance of phishing, since if something asks you to log in to an e-mail on browser, it's always obvious scam. Also, it adds proper usage of protocols and ports - something that nowadays is totally neglected, much to the dismay of the IETF and other standardization organizations. 993/TCP for secure IMAP, 465/TCP for secure SMTP. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- esturniolo · 2023-10-07 23:41 The story of my life. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wailord_Fan_99 · 2023-10-07 23:57 I have like 6. Keep collecting them like pokemon. Lol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ph33rlus · 2023-10-07 23:57 Domains are still cheaper than most subscription services. I secured 2 types of my last name as domains in my country. I use one for email direct to google apps (what was called google apps) for family and I use the other for my lab. Because the domain is short and sweet I use different subdomains for different purposes. Short answer customer domain is totally worth it ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zarlo5899 · 2023-10-08 00:09 i selfhost with mail cow ---------------------------------------------------------------------- eightcupsofcoffee · 2023-10-08 00:38 I have been off Gmail for a long time but I still use it for critically important things like applying to jobs because I have had corporate firewalls and other places reject perfectly valid emails. I normally use ProtonMail’s “@pm.me” for my day to day stuff but even that gets rejected sometimes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- eightcupsofcoffee · 2023-10-08 00:43 Yeah some places will straight up not let you change the email, especially if it’s tied to a unique id. I believe iCloud/Apple was notorious for this for a long time, you could change the email associated with the account but you would still have to log in with the old email address ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Todd1561 · 2023-10-08 00:59 Odd I’ve had a custom email domain for 15 years and have never once had this conversation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fresent · 2023-10-08 01:08 Did you know [Mutant Mail](https://mutantmail.com) provides 10 email addresses **free** on your first Custom Domain? In case that interests you. ;) It's a two way email routing service, that means your emails are forwarded to wherever you want, and when you respond back, they still maintain the appearance of your custom domain. The recipient never know, that you are using routing service. ​ There are enough live streams and videos on youtube to cover the features. Disclaimer : We run Mutant Mail service, and are averaging half a million email every other day, as of today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- priddyma · 2023-10-08 01:08 You can have a custom domain and use Gmail to setup free email addresses through it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fresent · 2023-10-08 01:12 **Shameless plug alert,** but value add Did you know Mutant Mail can do almost everything SimpleLogin does and more. And it comes with **1 custom domain** on **Free plan**. That means you can literally have free email ids on your 1 domain. ;) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- aztracker1 · 2023-10-08 01:23 MailU setup on a VM with a dedicated IP. I have a server with OVH running ProxMox and a /28 IP block. Was pretty straight forward. But do have some delivery problems with some MS hosted domains. I had been relaying through SendGrid before. I also used the free mail forwarding with Google domaims but moving domains to porkbun. Trying to get away from cloud services all around. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- aztracker1 · 2023-10-08 01:26 With all the exchange exploits the past few years, I'd probably migrate. Though integration with Outlook is really nice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- aztracker1 · 2023-10-08 01:28 MailU is a similar experience and IMO more polished. https://mailu.io/2.0/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AnticitizenPrime · 2023-10-08 01:31 Portability's a good reason, so you can log in from anywhere/any device and access important email. It doesn't have to be your first or only choice, but let's say you're traveling and your phone/laptop is stolen or whatever... a webmail access to your email can be a godsend in that case. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- itachi_konoha · 2023-10-08 01:33 You call $9/month for e mail hosting (lowest package) dirt cheap? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Varnish6588 · 2023-10-08 02:06 i bought a cheap domain that i use with Proton Mail. It's cheap enough to keep it forever. it's worth it. I use it for more than just email. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HyphenSam · 2023-10-08 02:09 Your free plan is okay, but your cheapest paid plan is way more expensive than SimpleLogin. $119.99/year non-promotional price vs SimpleLogin's $30/year. I don't see what value you add to charge significantly more. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- primalbluewolf · 2023-10-08 03:04 Its just as portable, though. Thats the point - you can log in on any device to access email - using the email client on the device. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- primalbluewolf · 2023-10-08 03:08 >proper usage of protocols and ports I've seen a few folks argue that use of well-known ports represents a security risk, although with the various internet port scanners that exist, Im not so convinced its a valid one. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AnticitizenPrime · 2023-10-08 03:25 Not every device gives you an email client. Think things like logging in from a work computer or at a library or whatever. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ystebad · 2023-10-08 03:27 I’ve used one for 20 years. Nice having the same email for that long. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fresent · 2023-10-08 04:02 There are so many. * Batch/Buffer mode : Every wanted to ensure, you get one consolidated email every hour, day or week, instead of getting one by one? Well, Mutant Mail does that. And you can choose, which alias/email id, you want it on or off. * DMARC Report : Yup, Mutant Mail gives you DMARC report on which email servers are sending emails on behalf of your domains. Makes it easy to identify all phishing attempts on behalf of your domains. * Auto-Reply/Vacation Mode : Individual Auto reply for every alias, with customized email. * Automatic Signature : Individual Signature for every alias with whatever you need in Signature. Just few things that came to mind immediately. It's really one of a Kind. In fact, we use [Mutant Mail](https://mutantmail.com) ourselves, to manage all our support emails across our product line (each of them serve a different use case). [Mystrika](https://mystrika.com), [Incises](https://incises.com), [DoYouMail](https://doyoumail.com), [SocialTestimony](https://socialtestimony.com), [SnapItFast](https://snapitfast.com) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- syxbit · 2023-10-08 04:03 It used to be a lot cheaper. They more than doubled the price during the pandemic :(. But it's too much of a hassle to switch out, and they know it. It is good and reliable though, so not terrible. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- syxbit · 2023-10-08 04:06 But it's forwarded to you right? Isn't that a problem? I use Migadu (which is overkill for my needs), and I just imap/smtp to it, and don't bother with migadu storage. can simplelogin replace this providing you host somewhere with storage (like gmail) ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- itachi_konoha · 2023-10-08 04:09 That's a very BAD provider if they have done it. I use zoho for I think more than 6 years and it's free with custom domain. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- syxbit · 2023-10-08 04:10 yea, I can't defend it. I was annoyed. But the product is good, and I honestly can't be bothered to do migration. The time it would take to migrate would be worth more than saving $20-40/year ---------------------------------------------------------------------- primalbluewolf · 2023-10-08 04:12 Im starting to think we just have different use cases / incompatible assumptions. My work computer has an email client on it. Its only needed for my personal email though, because work emails are all through a large cloud "Saas" provider. I wouldnt be logging onto work email accounts on a library computer, because those computers are not secure. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GuySensei88 · 2023-10-08 04:14 Make sure you do yourself a favor and pick a reliable domain provider. I was using Godaddy in the past and moved to CloudFlare. Kicking myself for not doing it for the longest time, they are so resourceful and have lots of features! Very security conscious! ​ $9 a year is not a huge issue and I love it! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jeremyrem · 2023-10-08 04:18 Go for it, a domain is cheap. ​ $10-$12 a year for a .com, and namecheap always has deals so you can renew at a cheaper rate if you play your cards right. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HyphenSam · 2023-10-08 04:20 I don't think what you listed is worth the extra $90/year. I also pay half the cost of SimpleLogin because of the student discount, which you don't have AFAIK. Not to mention SimpleLogin has unlimited custom domains and aliases, whereas all of your plans have a limit of some kind. I may sound harsh, but you are self-promoting heavily on reddit (your entire reddit history is only promoting your services), and you are only listing the positives and not any of the cons. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jeremyrem · 2023-10-08 04:22 If you do want to look into hosting your own, there are plenty of options out there. Personally, I recommend iRedMail, they make it easy to offer a secure updated solution. They even have docker options now as well, using their iredmail easy platform. If you don't want to risk hosting it on your own, there are plenty of managed solutions from your domain registrar, other specialty email shops, to Office365 and GSuite. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- pixel_of_moral_decay · 2023-10-08 04:28 I’ve had the same. I’ve even been lectured over the phone that I should learn my email because that’s not how they look. Yea, I can setup postfix on my own, but don’t know my own email address…. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fresent · 2023-10-08 04:54 Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder, my friend and your needs. Have you wondered why same VPS, with exact same specs costs you ranging from $10/month to up to $500/month from one vendor to another? Just something to think about. :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-10-08 05:16 Don't worry. I know what I'm doing. My exchange servers are not connected to the internet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- aztracker1 · 2023-10-08 05:47 I wasn't questioning your skill, only the software itself... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HyphenSam · 2023-10-08 05:57 > And if you believe anything unlimited, any where is possible on a fixed price, then you are naïve. Considering it's just domains with aliases, it's not hard to believe it's unlimited. I mention self-promotion because reddit has guidelines on it, and is mentioned in the subreddit rules. I hope you've read it. Anyway, if you're trying to convert people to switch over from SimpleLogin (the reason you initally replied in this comment chain), then take what I said seriously and consider offering a competitive pricing option. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- onedr0p · 2023-10-08 06:13 The lowest package (micro) is $19/year which is more than enough for my needs. The limits they mention in that package are soft limits, I've yet to get restricted on anything. They will simply ask you to upgrade if you abuse those limits frequently. https://www.migadu.com/pricing/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-10-08 06:57 You shouldn't trust any software. Zero trust policy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- just-bair · 2023-10-08 06:59 My lastname.be just dropped so I bought it and yeah that’s the one problem I’m thinking about. Like people just not understanding that it’s a real email but should be fine ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- iRomain · 2023-10-08 07:35 Definitely worth it. It’s your personal brand. Those who don’t care won’t care anyway and those who care will see what you did. I use two domains, a primary one I use for human emails and one i use for accounts forwarded through https://forwardemail.net which can also be self hosted if I ever wish to. More info on my repo: https://github.com/politician/barissat-infra So me@mylastname.com for humans and for web accounts: linkedin@forwardeddomain.com, amazon@forwardeddomain.com, etc. Fun fact about this setup, when I receive a spam on someshop@forwardeddomain.com, I know there was a data leak, often before the site communicates about it (if they ever do). And then I block that alias of course. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- iRomain · 2023-10-08 07:35 Definitely worth it. It’s your personal brand. Those who don’t care won’t care anyway and those who care will see what you did. I use two domains, a primary one I use for human emails and one i use for accounts forwarded through https://forwardemail.net which can also be self hosted if I ever wish to. More info on my repo: https://github.com/politician/barissat-infra So me@mylastname.com for humans and for web accounts: linkedin@forwardeddomain.com, amazon@forwardeddomain.com, etc. Fun fact about this setup, when I receive a spam on someshop@forwardeddomain.com, I know there was a data leak, often before the site communicates about it (if they ever do). And then I block that alias of course. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- parkineos · 2023-10-08 08:30 Is your last name George? https://icannwiki.org/.george ---------------------------------------------------------------------- parkineos · 2023-10-08 08:30 Hi George! [https://icannwiki.org/.george](https://icannwiki.org/.george) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- parkineos · 2023-10-08 08:32 Catch all is amazing to prevent spam, if you use it like that you will always know who leaked your email and can create a rule to delete/block everything sent to that address. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- blindao_blindado · 2023-10-08 08:39 Go to gen.xyz and search for the domain, it must contain at least 6 numbers e.g 5477644.xyz, price is 0.99$ per year ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rare-Possibility8368 · 2023-10-08 10:36 Thanks for replying everyone! Decided to go with custom domain, because it feels right path to take. However - now I have another decision to make. Which privder to choose. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kelarima · 2023-10-08 11:37 I just buy a billion domains and then forget about them until renewal comes, then only renew the 2 i use ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kelarima · 2023-10-08 11:45 > iRedMail I just saw this thing's docker container after setting up postfix/dovecot/postfixadmin manually recently and I swore I would use it the next time I had to do this. Hopefully never. But it's probably my recommendation even though I haven't used it, as goofy as that sounds ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kibou-chan · 2023-10-08 12:33 >few folks argue that use of well-known ports represents a security risk And they represent the most harmful misconception ever existed in the network security playground - called "security through obscurity". It's simply invalid, because it creates false assumptions about the real level of security in the system. And exists until someone eventually breaks that illusion, possibly leaking all data in the process. Where I work, all our systems are well-documented and built upon agreed standards; we even make all public APIs our programs use documented and the "official" web app frontends also use them exclusively. It's the backend security model that matters. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- randomadhdman · 2023-10-08 15:07 A lot of it employeers like seeing a personal domain on a resume. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zer04ll · 2023-10-08 15:31 you can buy .family now ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mx20100 · 2023-10-08 16:14 A custom domain is a good idea even if you don’t currently use it. It could even be a good “investment” if you chose a good name. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- atheken · 2023-10-08 16:32 At this point, **your email address is part of your identity.** The longer you go, and the more stuff you use it with, the bigger of an issue it would be if you ever lost access to it. [This post a little older, but should give you a sense of why this is important](https://blog.codinghorror.com/please-give-us-your-email- password/). If you're using `@gmail.com`, and google decided that your account was violating their ToS and locked you out, what would the magnitude of that lockout be? Could you reset passwords on sites? For me, it would be a **big problem**. Domains cost about $10/yr. If you live for 80 years, that's $800 over your lifetime (of course it'll cost more later and inflation, etc, but you get the idea). Is it worth $800 for you to have control over this aspect of your identity? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Whatwhenwherehi · 2023-10-08 17:57 Why not? You can also use an appliance like meraki, sophos, unifi and many others that will give you a dynamic domain name for free. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mikeee404 · 2023-10-08 18:08 For the price of lost domains it's just nice to have. I have a .house, .work, and a .com domain. Used to use Namecheap for the dynamic DNS but now everything is with Cloudflare for easier proxy setup, well easier for me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jeremyrem · 2023-10-08 20:01 It's pretty nice and secure, too bad they have been pushing paid services more and more and removed a lot of the features from the free one. Well, not removed, just removed the settings from the iredadmin page, you can still manually do it via SQL or use the leaked pro app from github. Either way, self hosting isn't for everyone, but have been doing it for over 7 years now. It's a very good platform for selling business email if you have the pro dashboard. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kelarima · 2023-10-08 20:36 Oh maybe the dashboard was why I didn't use it. A lot of web UIs are bloat. I haven't heard of Hermes either and it seems neat. I wouldn't pay for any of this stuff as a matter of principle. I almost bought whmcs once but that's it. It always seems like the open source options vanish when you need to resell something. (edit: thanks by the way) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kingb0b · 2023-10-08 23:28 Gmail is only 15gb so it's not much better! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IndexTwentySeven · 2023-10-08 23:40 Meh, $20 a year gets you a 100 GB storage. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LawfulMuffin · 2023-10-09 00:04 Hm, I haven't had the issue in almost 10 years. The bridge does allow you to use your client of choice (it actually doesn't have a GUI outside of configuration), it's just a local SMTP/IMAP server so your email client can connect to it. I use thunderbird on it. It isn't for everyone for sure, but it suits my needs perfectly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- colterlovette · 2023-10-09 00:57 I do. 10 years or so ago, I bought ‘Lovette.family’ and my whole family has an address. Tried to get Lovette.com, but… yeah… ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jeremyrem · 2023-10-09 02:33 Wouldnt blame you, I mean its always been pretty minimal but they used to have the basic stuff in the free version like: 1. Setting a catch-all 2. Setting alias's 3. group memberships 4. Virus/Spam/Etc settings 5. Mail logs, Sent/Received/Flagged/etc Now its all only in the paid version. ​ At least they still have Sogo preinstalled so you can use connect using exchange/activesync instead of just imap or pop. ​ If you ever want to play with it, here is a repo of scripts to do everything via sql, even if you have the free version - [https://github.com/jeekkd/iRedMail- scripts/tree/master/Scripts](https://github.com/jeekkd/iRedMail- scripts/tree/master/Scripts) ​ If you wanted to try the pro version, this guy posted the latest pro dashboard nulled [https://github.com/finch-harold/iRedAdmin-Pro- SQL](https://github.com/finch-harold/iRedAdmin-Pro-SQL) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Brilliant-Oven9769 · 2023-10-09 13:39 I am using Zoho for a long time fo custom email hosting. Domain is pretty cheap. And Zoho mail hosting is free up to 5 mail addresses. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AnonymusChief · 2023-10-09 18:57 Niiiiiice. Thanks. I see that it is the same at Namecheap.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- therealzcyph · 2023-10-10 03:10 Yes cause why not? Why would you have to keep it forever? You can always switch to something else if you feel like it. It's nice to have your own domains to do whatever you feel like with. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- moose51789 · 2023-10-10 14:34 I used Zoho but found it bro be pretty clunky, I switched to proton for it instead and been much happier, especially being able to log into one account and have them all appear there versus separate logins for each ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Brilliant-Oven9769 · 2023-10-10 15:05 Yes, ig Zoho is more inclined towards business use. I have seen this same design in Godaddy Professional Mail also. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kurucu83 · 2023-10-12 12:43 I just wish it allowed more aliases and domains. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kurucu83 · 2023-10-12 12:43 A person who likes adrenaline sports. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kurucu83 · 2023-10-12 12:45 I used mailinabox for ages, and went to Fastmail for a) polish and b) the fear. I'll give this a shot when I next want to feel something. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kurucu83 · 2023-10-12 12:46 Nice ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CeeMX · 2023-10-12 13:05 Fastmail? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kurucu83 · 2023-10-12 13:08 No, iCloud+ :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-10-12 13:22 Not really. They are behind proxies and have no WAN access. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- valentineus · 2023-10-20 00:02 Getting into this is a good idea if you know the ins and outs of domain administration. You've got to understand how to configure DKIM, SPF, DMARC, etc. A misconfigured domain can screw up both sending and receiving emails. For checking your settings, I'd recommend mail- tester.com. Speaking for myself, it's a definite yes—it's worth it. I'm from Russia, and let's just say having a Russian passport isn't getting much love globally right now. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft could easily and abruptly lock me out just because I'm a Russian citizen. If my main email was Gmail, I'd risk losing not just my files and emails, but also touch with many people. Most don’t know any other way to reach me besides email. And there's the pain when a service doesn't let you change your email (looking at you, OpenAI's ChatGPT) or asks for verification sent to the old email. Having my own domain is like a safety net for my main line of communication. However, I wouldn’t advise setting up your own email hosting. It's not for the faint-hearted. The learning curve is steep. You need a ton of knowledge and even more patience to efficiently manage your email server and ensure you maintain a good reputation with major email providers like Google and Yahoo. Otherwise, your server can quickly land on a blacklist. A personal domain means freedom. I was with Zoho Mail for a long time, then got tired of their cluttered UI and switched to Proton Mail. I've tried other services too, and no matter the switch, my email address remained the same. No one even noticed. Another perk? You can hook up a third-party mail-sending service like Mailtrap. This lets me keep app-related and personal emails separate. For instance, my servers and services like Zabbix and Gitea send emails through another service. I can migrate my personal email anywhere (Zoho Mail -> Proton Mail -> Fastmail -> Runbox), without redoing the whole setup. And, of course, it just looks sleek. I've got that firstname@lastname.tld thing going on, which always stands out amidst the sea of random @gmail.com addresses. But there are downsides. Sure, we've talked about being safe from email service shutdowns, but the new weak link is the domain registrar. Your domain can be de-registered, taken away, or even lost if you forget to renew. I once had a run-in with NameCheap, who weren’t thrilled about my Russian citizenship, leading to a rushed domain transfer. So, picking a trustworthy domain registrar is a must.