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When I migrated from Gmail to Fastmail years ago, I thought Fastmail felt... less featureful.
When I rarely visit my abandoned Gmail, I can't believe I put up with the clunkiness.
Lean software stands the test of time.
Fastmail hasn't had a noteworthy UI change ever.
Minor annoyances:
- Clicking an iPhone notification opens the app, but never brings me to the actual email
- It is difficult to unfold the full extended header section on iPhone
- ...I can't think of more...
I might switch away for a solution that is more affordable when hosting emails for many family members and organisations. But for a handful, I really can't recommend it enough.
Replies
Why are people accessing emails from the webUI. Email is SMTP and IMAP, use any number of clients to access your email.
> - Clicking an iPhone notification opens the app, but never brings me to the actual email
I've been using fastmail on iOS for years and have never experienced this issue. Clicking from a notification opens up the email. Maybe there's a setting you can adjust?
I use it with Spark on macOS and iOS (Spark Classic) and it just works. Archiving works fine, marking as spam actually moves and 'activates' Fastmail's training. There's email masks, aliases, the UI is always fast and responsive in the web view when I go there.
The only thing I miss from Gmail is a "send and archive" button to save me a click when replying to emails.
Fastmail had a UI change a year ago, where they went all "rounded corner" and created unique rows for every message that weren't so easily sorted with Stylus CSS. I emailed them about the changes, and a few weeks later the messages were listed in a way that I could easily apply my own stylesheet again. They also acknowledged on their subreddit the UI change was not incredibly popular (even the CEO was "not enjoying" it) and they took some feedback and provided a few better UX customizations in the options.
At one point, Fastmail had an error parsing Unicode in misconfigured iCal files (Google Calendar showed events correctly) but after a short back-and-forth, they fixed it within a week.
Now, Google Calendar has had a problem with my organization's iCal files for the past four weeks. Submitting a bug report via the help community is very opaque and unhelpful (a la "Have you tried turning if off and on again?"). Fastmail loads the iCal correctly. I have no clue if Google is aware or when they'll ever fix it.
One huge productivity advantage to FM over Gmail? Sort by sender name. (This makes it so easy to bulk apply changes)
Setting up own domain has been straightforward. (It's a bit of work ensuring DNS records have DMARC/DKIM/SPF, but it's all in the FM checklist/documentation.) Setting up Python scripts to auto email me using app passwords has been straightforward. Creating aliases and throwaways is straightforward.
I have not regretted paying for email; specifically, Fastmail.