Using a Paid Email Service

[Jason76]

I have recently decided to get a paid email service for $3 a month, even though free services exist out there. Well, one reason is because my other emails are swamped with junk I don't care about, but that's not saying I wasn't to blame.

Anyway, I figure paid is better because it usually is. You get what you pay for, right? Do you feel it's better? Have you used a paid service or thought about it?

 

[TPerry]

I use Google Workspace, mainly because I have a domain we have used for around 2 decades for our emails.
I like the ease that the shared calendars work between devices.
I also have an account with ZoHo, but it is not as clean as the Google Workspace one.
I am still contemplating setting up a VPS and using mailcow or Mail-in-a-box to play with.

 

[Jason76]

I get paid email also with my hosting but I'm still trying out this service anyway.

 

[TPerry]

I get paid email also with my hosting but I'm still trying out this service anyway.

One problem with that... if you are on shared hosting, all it takes are a few shitty sites to trash the sending IP of the MTA your hosting provider uses. Then your mail has a major delivery issue.
Been there, got the t-shirt, hat and coffee mugs and it's why I process my mail the way I do now.

 

[Jason76]

One problem with that... if you are on shared hosting, all it takes are a few shitty sites to trash the sending IP of the MTA your hosting provider uses. Then your mail has a major delivery issue.
Been there, got the t-shirt, hat and coffee mugs and it's why I process my mail the way I do now.

What do you use for email? What shitty sites? The ones sending emails to you or the cPanel owner's websites?

 

[TPerry]

What shitty sites?

I classify spammers that use shared hosting to send out out spam as a "shitty site". Frequently there is not even a "real" site running on that domain. Their spamming email sending brings down the reputation of the hosting provider MTA service.
Spammers can spin up an instance on the provider and pay $10 or less for a month and they will usually get well more than that in returns, but damaging the provider. But that is not a concern for spammers. Some provider do have filtering on their outbound email that can catch this now.
It is one of the reasons providers like Linode, OVH and others have broad swathes of their IP's listed in blacklists. Spammers spin up a site on cheap shared hosting/VPS and start shipping out their crap. That then ruins the IP until it can be cleaned up. And frequently it cannot be easily done so providers just deal with their IPs being in block lists.

For my transactional email I use SES on my astro site and ZoHo on my NodeBB installs.

 

[Pousinha]

My free email services fit my needs very well. So I don't have in mind to purchase a paid service.

 

[Juliof]

No, I don't use a paid email service. I'm good with using Gmail. It's very okay.

 

[Slash]

I'm happy Gmail is more a paid email service because I wouldn't have been using it.

 

[AWS]

I recently started using startmail. I like the unlimited throwaway emails you can create and you can consolidate all other email address into one.

 

[Min George]

I don't use any paid email service. There is no particular use of emails that I have beyond the basics that I would have to pay for it. If I ever need for a paid email service, it would be Zohomail.

 

[Allenafaith]

I originally started using Gmail because it was free but now I have to pay like a dollar every month because apparently I have too many emails and I just don’t feel like clearing it out so I have to pay so I can continue to receive emails 🤣🤣

 

[Demon_skeith]

I use paid Zoho email for my forum needs, otherwise I don't see a point for it.

 

[TPerry]

I've been running my own Mailcow_dockerized instance for slightly less than a year now.
And as long as you get a good VPS provider that has clean IP ranges, it's easy enough to set up your own MTA and get decent delivery out of it.

 

[You]

I haven't felt the need for paid email service yet. I'm still using free options like Gmail and Outlook that's all I need.

 

[Baw$e]

I would never pay for a email service. I do get junk emails, but I barely check my email. I rather communicate through social media or my site.

 

[Uncrowned Guard]

I’ve stuck with Outlook for decades now and honestly haven’t felt a need to pay for a personal email service. Between the built‑in filtering and Microsoft’s spam controls, junk mail has never really been a problem for me, even after all these years. Feature‑wise, I can’t say I’m missing anything.

I do use a paid service for my business and websites, but that’s almost entirely because I need custom domains, groups, and proper management tools, things free providers understandably don’t offer. For everyday personal use, though, I just don’t see the point in paying someone when Outlook already covers everything I need.

Everyone’s situation is different, but for me, free has worked perfectly fine.