GadgetFreak

Are there any commercial email servers (not Google or Yahoo) that people find worth paying for in terms of advantages over the free ones. Curious if people have any favorites. Thanks.

gfunkdave

I think the main advantages in paying are for better privacy guarantees, fewer ads in emails, and live tech support. I use ......., so I don't see any ads. I don't want to say that I don't care about privacy, but I'm willing to make the seemingly small sacrifice in using Gmail for free. It's really a nice product.

That said, if I were going to pay, I'd look at a hosted Exchange solution, or the kind of knockoff that, say, NameCheap offers.

Pinned

I pay for Google Apps for Business because it allows for more storage, easy user management, and exchange support.

z28lt1

My "paid" one has been free for a while by billing mistake. Seems like they caught on and are going to start charging me in January. I'll probably drop it. Advantages were on spam/virus and some other features. They would also give me "throw away" email addresses. 5 randomly generated ones I could create and delete anytime for things I didn't want to give my email address out to. Otherwise, no real benefits.

If you are going to pay, I recommend just getting your own domain and finding an email provider to work with, as many times that is the best deal.

I have a hosted domain from one of the (un)popular hosting services. With the package I got, I get 10 included unlimited imap accounts, 2 limited storage email accounts, and 150 "forwarding" email addresses -- ones that don't have storage, but I can set up to forward to one of the other 10 or gmail or anything else and use and dispose as needed, so I can delete and reuse any of the 10 or 150 as needed. All with my own domain. This is convenient, particularly to create a few specific email addresses for limited use or to track where the spam is coming from.

This allows me total control over addresses, accounts, unlimited storage options, etc. If you are going to pay, I would look into something like this.

Paint Horse

My email address is provided as part of the web hosting package I use. It is nice that they match.

javabytes

I pay for hosted Exchange through Office 365. I love it. Keeps my calendar and contacts synced across devices. My wife has her own account too so we share calendar information. I use my own domain. And best of all I don't have to run my own Exchange server (which I did for a while). Worth every bit of the $5-6/month.

lalala

My TH has an account with earthling.net she pays 10 bucks a year to maintain. She uses it for personal stuff she doesn't want going through her work account. She seems quite happy with it.

SQ421

I pay for my domain name that I run on the grandfathered "free" version of Google Apps. Use Android so syncing contacts/mail/calendar with my phone isn't a hassle at all. I did consider moving to the paid version (or O365) to get Exchange ActiveSync support, but haven't gone that way yet.

JClishe

And now you each get unlimited cloud storage with that, too.

weekilter

I got an email account (alone) because I had email through my cable provider and they absolutely bungled things. Email constantly did not arrive and they re-set their servers and lost my personal web page. I still have the email address but have not used it in twelve years. I don't know if I even have the password for it any longer.

antichef

I think you need to know about Spamgourmet then!
www.spamgourmet.com/

You can easily create unlimited disposable addresses. Plus, it's free!! I have been using it for years and very happy with it. I use it to sign up for things with a specific name for the item (usually the item name ) then you can work out who leaks/spams your address. It is easy to invent addresses on the fly.

HTH

gfunkdave

This also works with Gmail - just add a plus sign to your signin. So if I were [email protected], I could do [email protected], for example, for my Facebook account.

MAN Pax

I have a few domains that I own which are great for professionalism and better disposable addresses, as many spammers are aware of the gmail+ trick.

I still use Gmail as my client and pull all my email into it for anywhere access and personal calendar. ....... + Gemelius are your friends in Chrome.

slowmail

I too pay for my own domain name (~USD10/year) for emails. My older domains are hosted on the previously free Google Apps, and newer domains are currently hosted with Zoho Mail

Zoho is ad-free, and you get 10 mailboxes on the free tier, which is more than enough for most. You can also refer accounts for an additional 5 mailboxes (max 3 referrals) if you're so inclined to.

With your own domain name, you can setup a 'catch all' email. With that, I use a unique email address on every service (eg: [email protected]), and it helps me figure out which companies are selling my email addresses, which I then block.

By owning your own domain name, you can be sure the email address is always yours (as long as you keep renewing it). In the event the hosted email service closes, you can always move the name elsewhere.

Middle_Seat

In reading this thread, I haven't seen many features listed that are not free with GMail (and probably Yahoo mail).