If you’re looking for an alternative to Gmail, may I introduce Port87.
I’ve been working on this email service for four years, and I just opened it to the public today. The way it works is a might different than other email services.
You still get an address like yourname@port87.com, but you don’t usually use that form. Instead, you add a label like yourname-lemmy@port87.com. This is often called subaddressing or plus addressing. With Port87, these addresses go into labels. Everything between the dash and the at is a label. When you sign up somewhere, you can give them a label, even if it doesn’t exist yet. Then it becomes a pending label that you can approve to move it in with all your other labels. This really helps with organization too.
You can also give labels meant for real people, like yourname-friends@port87.com. On labels meant for real people, you can enable screening that responds to anyone new with a link to prove they’re human. When they click the link, their email is delivered.
Lastly, you can give out your “bare address” (yourname@port87.com) anywhere, because any email to it doesn’t get delivered to you. Instead, they get a response saying to email one of your other addresses, then a list of all of the addresses to your public labels. For example, I have a public label at hperrin-opensource@port87.com that’s meant for email about my open source projects. That gets included in the list in the auto reply when you email hperrin@port87.com.
Oh, also, you can bring your own domain! The main benefit of your own domain is it prevents vendor lock in. If Port87 ever stops meeting your needs, you can pack up your domain and take it to another provider. It also prevents losing your address if Port87 ever shuts down.
If you can’t tell, I’m very passionate about email, and the more competition there is to Gmail and Exchange, the more they’ll be forced to actually stop trying to Embrace Extend Extinguish email.
I like this, and I’m willing to give it a shot.
Edit: I’d be happy to pay for mail as a service if it works for me.
Right now there’s only the progressive web app, but I will be working on a native app shortly, and it’ll be on F-Droid. It definitely will not rely on any Google closed source stuff. I use /e/OS on one of my phones, so I’ll be testing it on that.
It’ll be around at least as long as I am, and my wife and dad both have instructions on how to pass it to my chosen successor if I pass. If you want to make sure not to lose your addresses though, I’d highly recommend using a custom domain. That way if something happens to it, you can move to another provider and keep your addresses.
The servers are in my office in Temecula, CA, USA. I’d love to host it internationally, but that’s not something I can work on right now.
It depends on the filtering rules you mean. Each label has settings for notifications, mark as read, and show in the Aggbox (like an inbox, in the more traditional email model). They can also be blocked, and have screening. Beyond that, there’s no additional filtering, but that is planned. I don’t know if I can technically support full sieve scripting, but that’s my goal.
Right now, there is no IMAP/SMTP support. The code for SMTP support is done, but not IMAP yet, and I’d like to launch them together. I’ll be working on IMAP very soon (right after mailing lists and aliases). You can install the web app as a PWA on your phone, though, so it’s a great experience on mobile.
Feel free to try it out and let me know what you want me to prioritize. It’s my full time job, so I’ll be actively working on improvements.
Firstly—this project sounds cool! I host my own mail server already so have no need for your project, but it’s good that there are options out there for people.
In the long run I would really suggest you get servers in another jurisdiction—USA will be a no-no for a lot of potential customers.
Good luck though :)
Believe me, I know. I don’t want to be here even. If I get enough income going that I can pay for hosting costs, I’ll split the server into US and somewhere else (maybe Europe), so you can choose where your data stays.
You can rent offshore VPSes for pocket change. There are some hosts that don’t block mail ports.
There’s a bit more to it when it’s email, but it’s just not something I can prioritize right now. My costs are pretty low because I host everything on my own hardware, and adding rented hardware will have to come later when it makes more sense.
Wow, what a great response!
OK, you’ve sold me, I’ll sign up and try it.
Your personal willingness to explain your philosophy of the service is what swayed me, and I think that will go a long way in other forums and sites to pick up new subscribers.
Thank you. :) Let me know what you think and how I could improve it.