All I wanted was a custom domain email
Finding a simple, affordable way to use a personal domain for email turns out to be surprisingly hard, with trade‑offs between features like unlimited aliases, Apple Mail compatibility, storage, and price. Commenters compare hosted providers (Fastmail, Proton, iCloud+, Purelymail, MXRoute, Zoho, FounderMail and others), highlighting issues such as strict spam filtering, hidden limits on incoming mail, and opaque pricing. Self‑hosting is raised as a theoretically ideal but practically complex alternative, with concerns around deliverability to big providers like Google and Microsoft and the ongoing maintenance burden.
Specialized hosted email providers
- Multiple services are recommended as fitting or nearly fitting the article’s requirements: Fastmail, Proton (often with SimpleLogin), Migadu, MXRoute, Purelymail, StartMail, Zoho, Lark, and others.
- Fastmail is repeatedly praised for reliability, features (mail/cal/contacts), Apple Mail push, and flexible aliasing (subdomain and plus-addressing), but some consider it expensive.
- Purelymail is highlighted as extremely cheap and reliable, especially on its usage-based “advanced” pricing.
- MXRoute’s Black Friday lifetime deals are seen as great long-term value.
- Some newer or smaller providers get attention (e.g., Founder-focused services, lifetime deals from niche hosts), but their quirks (manual outbound-approval, low inbound limits) are criticized as too restrictive.
iCloud, Google, Proton, and big ecosystems
- Several argue that iCloud+ custom domains are the simplest solution for Apple Mail integration and work well in practice.
- Others warn that iCloud Mail silently drops some messages based on content, without notifying sender or receiver, which is viewed as unacceptable for critical email.
- Google Workspace has defenders who value Gmail UI, SSO, and spam filtering, but lack of push in Apple Mail and feature changes (e.g., ending support for custom-domain “send as”) push some to look elsewhere.
- Proton’s encrypted model complicates third‑party client use (requires a bridge app), and alias limits conflict with “unlimited addresses” use cases.
Self-hosting vs managed services
- Some insist self‑hosting is now practical with tools like Mailcow or Mail-in-a-Box, combined with a cheap SMTP relay (SES, SMTP2GO) to solve deliverability.
- Others report that spam filters from large providers make self‑hosting deliverability unreliable even with SPF/DKIM/DMARC configured.
- There is disagreement: some call self-hosting “easy and rewarding,” others describe it as a long-term maintenance burden and “massive PITA.”
Deliverability, spam, and forwarding
- Many comments center on spam filtering and reputation: getting into Gmail/Outlook inboxes is considered the hardest part, regardless of host.
- Complaints include: forwarding services that lack SRS breaking spam checks; some providers’ aggressive filtering (iCloud, Resend issues, corporate Gmail false positives).
- Workarounds include using SMTP relays (SES, SMTP2GO), careful SPF consolidation, and accepting that occasional blocks by big providers are unavoidable.
Forwarding-centric and DIY setups
- A popular pattern: domain at Cloudflare or similar, email forwarded into Gmail (or another mailbox), sending via SES/SMTP2GO or other SMTP providers, sometimes with “send as” configured in Gmail.
- Some use simple forwarding services (e.g., improvmx, Namecheap/Zohomail forwarding) and rely on their mail client to send using the custom address.
- Advanced users describe sieve scripts and folder rules to auto-organize catch-all addresses into per-service folders.
UX, AI content, and misc. remarks
- Some criticize certain providers’ marketing sites as too bright, AI-generated, or not accessible on older devices, treating this as a signal about product polish.
- There is mild meta-discussion about focusing on HN ranking versus the technical content of the email journey.