Fastmail Email Service Review

Updated on 2022-11-08

When I initially began using personal email years ago, I used the email service offered by my Internet service provider. As the years passed though, the spam I received was ridiculous. They supposedly had spam filtering, but it didn’t seem to work.

I then discovered the Spamex email service and I used that for 2-3 years. Eventually, my Spamex email addresses began getting spammed and my questions about the spam directed to Spamex went unanswered. So, I began searching for another email service provider and I discovered Fastmail.

This review will cover the email service offered by Fastmail. Fastmail also offers calendaring, limited online storage, and notes, but I don’t use those features.

I use the Basic plan offered by Fastmail. Prior to my last subscription renewal, I used a higher tier plan because that was the only way I could get the 600+ alias email addresses feature. Fortunately, Fastmail restructured their plans and I can now use the cheapest plan and I still get the 600+ alias email addresses feature.

Why do I love Fastmail? First, the price is very reasonable. Sure, there are free email services available, but what are you giving up to get such services? Fastmail is very privacy oriented and I always subscribe for the maximum number of years they offer, which I believe is currently three. Fastmail gives you a little bit of a discount when you subscribe for multiple years, or at least they did up through the last time I renewed my subscription.

Second, the ability to use 600+ alias email addresses is a great weapon in fighting spam. Whenever I encounter one of my email addresses receiving spam, I just change the email address; problem solved.

How are alias email addresses created? Well, Fastmail currently offers 115 domain names from which you can choose to create an alias email address. Then you add the local-part to a chosen domain name to create a unique alias email address. The Fastmail email system checks existing alias email addresses when you attempt to create an alias email address and you will receive notification on whether the alias email address is already in use or not. Obviously, if the alias email address is already in use, you can’t create the same address.

All alias email addresses are tied to the actual email address you create when you setup an account. If you view the message header of any email sent to one of your alias email addresses, you’ll see a reference to your actual email address. However, your actual email address is not referenced in any outgoing mail sent from an alias email address.

The third reason I love using the Fastmail email service, is that I can disable alias email addresses and still use them. You might wonder how that works. Well, I can send email using a disabled alias email address, but email can’t be sent to that address; much the same as a no reply email address.

The fourth reason I love using the Fastmail email service is the email rules functionality offered. When setting up a rule, you have a number of options to choose from on what to do with a particular email that matches the rule; reference the following screenshot.

The final reason I love using the Fastmail email service is that I’ve rarely encountered system downtime. In fact, I think I’ve only encountered one instance in my 10+ years of using the service when I wasn’t able to access my account.

There was a time when I contemplated leaving Fastmail and that’s when Opera Software, the company behind the Opera browser, acquired Fastmail in 2010. The tech support seemed to go downhill after the acquisition. However, I couldn’t find another email service provider that offered the same features that Fastmail offered, so I continued using the service. Fortunately, the tech support improved after Fastmail staff acquired the Fastmail service from Opera Software in 2013, so I’m glad I stuck around.

Leave your questions and comments in the Comment box at the bottom of the page.

Post header image courtesy of Muhammad Ribkhan on Pixabay.

2022-008