A guide to using iCloud email with your own domain name

[oneMadRssn]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but wouldn't it be easier to just host your own mail server using OS X Server?

"And Mail Server in macOS Server works with email clients on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and PC. It supports push notifications for immediately notifying users when new mail messages arrive. With built-in virus detection and junk mail filtering, unwanted mail doesn’t come close."
http://www.apple.com/macos/server/features/#communications

 

[BrianBaughn]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but wouldn't it be easier to just host your own mail server using OS X Server?

"And Mail Server in macOS Server works with email clients on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and PC. It supports push notifications for immediately notifying users when new mail messages arrive. With built-in virus detection and junk mail filtering, unwanted mail doesn’t come close."
http://www.apple.com/macos/server/features/#communications

Not too hard, but first you'd have to pay for an internet connection that is capable and, per the usage agreement, allows you to host an email server. Then you'd have to configure and maintain the server and its security (there was something in the news this year about someone's email server and security). Then you'd have to have a computer running 24/7 with no power outages to approach 99.9% uptime.

I'd never advise a client to run their own email server.

 

[0970373]

$20 first year, $20 + $10 for following years for premium plus personal domain.

https://premium.outlook.com/#/Offer

Have they fixed the alias problem where you can only send from your primary when using non-web based email? I'd switch everything over in a minute if that was the case.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Not too hard, but first you'd have to pay for an internet connection that is capable and, per the usage agreement, allows you to host an email server. Then you'd have to configure and maintain the server and its security (there was something in the news this year about someone's email server and security). Then you'd have to have a computer running 24/7 with no power outages to approach 99.9% uptime.

I'd never advise a client to run their own email server.

Fair enough.

I was with you until the "no power outages" detail.

I figure the demands of a few accounts of private email are not terribly demanding. Don't care what my ISP agreement says, it's private email for a few folks, not like I'm hosting a streaming website. And anyway, I am fortune enough to have one of the few good ISPs in this country (RCN). I use duckDNS for my dynamic DNS needs right now (for remote access), and it works well. OSX Server is pretty easy to configure and has decent security out of the box.

But in no way can I have no power outages. Even if I put my Mac Mini, firewall, and modem on a UPS, that does not help in the event my local node loses power or if the power outage is a result of damage (from a tree or otherwise) to the actual poles from which both my power and cable connection come. As rare as that is, that sure would be a shame if an important email happened to be sent during that time.

 

[Rigby]

But in no way can I have no power outages. Even if I put my Mac Mini, firewall, and modem on a UPS, that does not help in the event my local node loses power or if the power outage is a result of damage (from a tree or otherwise) to the actual poles from which both my power and cable connection come. As rare as that is, that sure would be a shame if an important email happened to be sent during that time.

That would actually not be a big deal, since the protocols that mail servers use to deliver mail among each other are designed to be persistent. Typically they will try repeatedly to deliver your mail for 24 hours before reporting back an error.

But running your own mail server is generally not as easy as it may seem. First, security is a serious concern. Mail servers are prime targets for hackers and spammers. If you put a mail server on the Internet these days, you'll see numerous port probes starting within minutes. If there is a zero-day exploit or you forget to update in time, your server will likely be hacked and abused as a spam relay. There is also the issue that mail providers are becoming more and more cautious due to the fight against spam. Small mail servers are often blacklisted by big mail providers, so that mail addressed to their users will no longer be delivered.

Unless you know exactly what you're doing, I'd advise against operating your own mail server.

 

[intermls]

Or pay an additional $18 and get hosting for you domain at Office 365, set up accounts on all devices, and done.

[doublepost=1488150153][/doublepost]Office 365 can set up all acounts but your domain still needs to be hosted. Only 365 business will allow that feature at $130 per user/machine. If your domain/email host does not allow imap you have an additional problem.

 

[Mighty Boo]

I have been after reliable push email, using my own domain name, across iOS and Mac, using the default Mac Mail app... and I've finally got it working well using iCloud and Fastmail. I thought this information might be useful for others.

The main reason I wanted to do this was that I'd be sat infront of my Mac, with the iPad and iPhone all nearby - an email would come in and ping on each device at a different time, and often a minute or two later on the Mac. I wanted push across all devices and also keep the Mac Mail app which I prefer over other apps I have tried.

I'd previously tried accounts from Gmail, Office 365 and iCloud (without Fastmail) with problems for various reasons...

Google Apps

• Supports IMAP IDLE so you get push on Mac Mail, but not on iOS which doesn't support it (unless you use the Gmail app which isn't great).
• If you use paid-for Google Apps you get Exchange support, which gives you push - but this doesn't support starring/flagging on iOS at all, which is a deal breaker for me.

Office 365 - I used Exchange Online Plan 1

• Supports Exchange ActiveSync so you get true push on iOS using the Mail app.
• Mac Mail doesn't support Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), but uses Exchange Web Services (EWS) which isn't the optimum way of accessing an Exchange account. Found this to be totally unreliable - the syncing of read/flag status would often get stuck; there was often a 5 minute delay in pushing etc. There are many reports of Mac Mail being rubbish with Exchange accounts.
• You can't turn to Office 365s IMAP support for Mac Mail support, since it doesn't support IMAP IDLE, so you get no pushing and would be on a manual fetch schedule.
• Tried using the new Outlook Mac app (part of Office 365). This uses EWS too rather than EAS, but I found it to be much more reliable with pushing/syncing than Mac Mail - but I didn't like the app at all or want to pay a monthly fee for it.

iCloud

• Supports IMAP IDLE so you get push on Mac Mail, and Apple's own pushing service for iOS devices.
• For me I get reliable pushing/syncing on iOS Mail and Mac Mail - BUT bear in mind the restrictions listed at http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT203545 (i.e. it only pushes new emails, folders/flagging etc need a manual fetch).
• BUT... doesn't support own domain names...

Solution

I found a solution which meant I could use my own domain name...

• Create an account at Fastmail - I used the Business Basic service at $30/year.
• On Fastmail, set up your own domain (here), set up forwarding (here) to forward all emails to your iCloud email address, and disable Fastmail's built in junk protection (as this will be handled by iCloud).
• On the default personality, tick the "SMTP force from" field. This means that for any email sent via Fastmail's SMTP server, the "From" header will be changed to your domain email address regardless of the "From" address it was sent from. This is important because an iCloud account set up on iOS will always sent email from your @me.com address.
• On iOS, you just have the iCloud email account set up, but disable the iCloud SMTP server and add the Fastmail server instead (details). This means that all outgoing email from iOS, which goes out as being from your @me.com address, will then be "rewritten" to go from your actual own domain email address by Fastmail's SMTP server. Instructions for iOS are here (but use Fastmail's details rather than Gmail).
• On Mac Mail, also set the email to go out via Fastmail's SMTP server, and you set a custom alias here to your own domain name.
• Important: make sure you follow the DKIM instructions at the bottom of here - otherwise in Outlook and Gmail (and possibly others), any email you send will show up as "Your Name <you@domain.com> via messagingexchange.com" as your email is being sent by an external SMTP server. The DKIM amend will mean you are authorising that server to send email on your behalf.
• Important: add an SPF record to your domains DNS as described here. Not sure if this is required to stop the "via" issue above, but I'd recommend adding it anyway.
• After updating your MX records to Fastmail, all your email is now automatically and instantly forwarded to your iCloud account, which is then pushed to all your iOS/Mac devices! You set up junk filtering and rules etc using iCloud's webmail.
• The only thing that isn't covered - if you send outgoing emails using iCloud's webmail, it will still show up as being "From" your iCloud email address, rather than your own domain. Not an issue for me as I've always got an iOS device in easy reach!

Hope that helps somebody!

Nick

Nuevasync for gmail push to iOS device works fine at $30 annually.

 

[jimthing]

I have been after reliable push email, using my own domain name, across iOS and Mac, using the default Mac Mail app... and I've finally got it working well using iCloud and Fastmail. I thought this information might be useful for others.

The main reason I wanted to do this was that I'd be sat infront of my Mac, with the iPad and iPhone all nearby - an email would come in and ping on each device at a different time, and often a minute or two later on the Mac. I wanted push across all devices and also keep the Mac Mail app which I prefer over other apps I have tried.

I'd previously tried accounts from Gmail, Office 365 and iCloud (without Fastmail) with problems for various reasons...

Google Apps

• Supports IMAP IDLE so you get push on Mac Mail, but not on iOS which doesn't support it (unless you use the Gmail app which isn't great).
• If you use paid-for Google Apps you get Exchange support, which gives you push - but this doesn't support starring/flagging on iOS at all, which is a deal breaker for me.

Office 365 - I used Exchange Online Plan 1

• Supports Exchange ActiveSync so you get true push on iOS using the Mail app.
• Mac Mail doesn't support Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), but uses Exchange Web Services (EWS) which isn't the optimum way of accessing an Exchange account. Found this to be totally unreliable - the syncing of read/flag status would often get stuck; there was often a 5 minute delay in pushing etc. There are many reports of Mac Mail being rubbish with Exchange accounts.
• You can't turn to Office 365s IMAP support for Mac Mail support, since it doesn't support IMAP IDLE, so you get no pushing and would be on a manual fetch schedule.
• Tried using the new Outlook Mac app (part of Office 365). This uses EWS too rather than EAS, but I found it to be much more reliable with pushing/syncing than Mac Mail - but I didn't like the app at all or want to pay a monthly fee for it.

iCloud

• Supports IMAP IDLE so you get push on Mac Mail, and Apple's own pushing service for iOS devices.
• For me I get reliable pushing/syncing on iOS Mail and Mac Mail - BUT bear in mind the restrictions listed at http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT203545 (i.e. it only pushes new emails, folders/flagging etc need a manual fetch).
• BUT... doesn't support own domain names...

Solution

I found a solution which meant I could use my own domain name...

• Create an account at Fastmail - I used the Business Basic service at $30/year.
• On Fastmail, set up your own domain (here), set up forwarding (here) to forward all emails to your iCloud email address, and disable Fastmail's built in junk protection (as this will be handled by iCloud).
• On the default personality, tick the "SMTP force from" field. This means that for any email sent via Fastmail's SMTP server, the "From" header will be changed to your domain email address regardless of the "From" address it was sent from. This is important because an iCloud account set up on iOS will always sent email from your @me.com address.
• On iOS, you just have the iCloud email account set up, but disable the iCloud SMTP server and add the Fastmail server instead (details). This means that all outgoing email from iOS, which goes out as being from your @me.com address, will then be "rewritten" to go from your actual own domain email address by Fastmail's SMTP server. Instructions for iOS are here (but use Fastmail's details rather than Gmail).
• On Mac Mail, also set the email to go out via Fastmail's SMTP server, and you set a custom alias here to your own domain name.
• Important: make sure you follow the DKIM instructions at the bottom of here - otherwise in Outlook and Gmail (and possibly others), any email you send will show up as "Your Name <you@domain.com> via messagingexchange.com" as your email is being sent by an external SMTP server. The DKIM amend will mean you are authorising that server to send email on your behalf.
• Important: add an SPF record to your domains DNS as described here. Not sure if this is required to stop the "via" issue above, but I'd recommend adding it anyway.
• After updating your MX records to Fastmail, all your email is now automatically and instantly forwarded to your iCloud account, which is then pushed to all your iOS/Mac devices! You set up junk filtering and rules etc using iCloud's webmail.
• The only thing that isn't covered - if you send outgoing emails using iCloud's webmail, it will still show up as being "From" your iCloud email address, rather than your own domain. Not an issue for me as I've always got an iOS device in easy reach!

Hope that helps somebody!

Nick

Great info, is this still working for you on Sierra & iOS 10?
(some of the links are dead or out of date, so you may want to fix them.)

I may be missing something, but why not use just Fast Mail with your own domain?

 

[profets]

Great info, is this still working for you on Sierra & iOS 10?
(some of the links are dead or out of date, so you may want to fix them.)

I may be missing something, but why not use just Fast Mail with your own domain?

Fastmail is definitely the best solution for those specific features. At the time of the article, Fastmail did not have native push through IMAP to the iOS built in mail client.

I had posted a few times earlier in this thread. It's been ~18 months since I switched completely to fast mail for multiple domains. Absolutely solid the whole time, more so than gmail or outlook was with a custom domain. So happy I came across this thread and found Fastmail as a result.

 

[mike.a]

Fastmail is definitely the best solution for those specific features. At the time of the article, Fastmail did not have native push through IMAP to the iOS built in mail client.

I had posted a few times earlier in this thread. It's been ~18 months since I switched completely to fast mail for multiple domains. Absolutely solid the whole time, more so than gmail or outlook was with a custom domain. So happy I came across this thread and found Fastmail as a result.

And I just set up my own domain with FastMail today, ending a 30-day trial period. I've experienced a mostly buttery smooth journey with FastMail for over a decade now, but the own-domain thing is a first. Overall, my experience is 9.5/10, a great service managed (by all impressions) by a very savvy technical team.

 

[jimthing]

Fastmail is definitely the best solution for those specific features. At the time of the article, Fastmail did not have native push through IMAP to the iOS built in mail client.

I had posted a few times earlier in this thread. It's been ~18 months since I switched completely to fast mail for multiple domains. Absolutely solid the whole time, more so than gmail or outlook was with a custom domain. So happy I came across this thread and found Fastmail as a result.

And I just set up my own domain with FastMail today, ending a 30-day trial period. I've experienced a mostly buttery smooth journey with FastMail for over a decade now, but the own-domain thing is a first. Overall, my experience is 9.5/10, a great service managed (by all impressions) by a very savvy technical team.

So no need for iCloud at all for your own domain, then.

From reading their specs, one thing that I wonder about though, is the alias and folders naming schemes allowable with IMAP use. They seem to have some weird technical limitation with dots (.) for both.

https://www.fastmail.com/help/files/website.html
https://www.fastmail.com/help/account/changeusername.html
https://www.fastmail.com/help/clients/foldershares.html
https://blog.fastmail.com/2016/03/16/cross-domain-sharing
https://www.fastmail.com/help/search/?q=dot

AFAIU it looks like you can't use, for example firstname.lastname@mydomain.com email addresses with clients. And folders in clients cannot use dots in them either, otherwise they'll nest, so for example a folder named 2017.01 - BlahBlah Project would then end up as:

folder: 2017
subfolder: 01 - BlahBlah Project

Is this right?

 

[profets]

So no need for iCloud at all for your own domain, then.

From reading their specs, one thing that I wonder about though, is the alias and folders naming schemes allowable with IMAP use. They seem to have some weird technical limitation with dots (.) for both.

https://www.fastmail.com/help/files/website.html
https://www.fastmail.com/help/account/changeusername.html
https://www.fastmail.com/help/clients/foldershares.html
https://blog.fastmail.com/2016/03/16/cross-domain-sharing
https://www.fastmail.com/help/search/?q=dot

AFAIU it looks like you can't use, for example firstname.lastname@mydomain.com email addresses with clients. And folders in clients cannot use dots in them either, otherwise they'll nest, so for example a folder named 2017.01 - BlahBlah Project would then end up as:

folder: 2017
subfolder: 01 - BlahBlah Project

Is this right?

I haven't run into this issue as I've never tried aliases or folders with dots in the name.

Just did some searching. Since I've been using fastmail, the server address I use for IMAP has been mail.messagingengine.com (for both IMAP and SMTP). It looks though that last year at one point they added a new option - imap.fastmail.com and smtp.fastmail.com. To use these you have to generate an app password unique for each client.

I just tested it on my Mac:

With the old setup, mail.messagingengine.com I created a folder under Inbox in Mail.app "test.sub2"

With the new setup, imap.fastmail.com I created a folder under Inbox in Mail.app "test.sub3"

This is the result (on Mail.app and in the browser at Fastmail.com):

So with the new IMAP server settings, it looks like the client side can create folders with dots in the name.

Regarding the dots in usernames & aliases, it looks like they do support it for custom domains:

Due to an internal technical limitation, we cannot allow dots (.) in usernames at FastMail domains. However, we do support dots in usernames at your own domain. We also allow them in aliases, even at FastMail domains.

Just tried making an alias 'test.user@mydomain.com' and it works when I send mail to it.

Hope that helps.

 

[jimthing]

I haven't run into this issue as I've never tried aliases or folders with dots in the name.

Just did some searching. Since I've been using fastmail, the server address I use for IMAP has been mail.messagingengine.com (for both IMAP and SMTP). It looks though that last year at one point they added a new option - imap.fastmail.com and smtp.fastmail.com. To use these you have to generate an app password unique for each client.

I just tested it on my Mac:

With the old setup, mail.messagingengine.com I created a folder under Inbox in Mail.app "test.sub2"

With the new setup, imap.fastmail.com I created a folder under Inbox in Mail.app "test.sub3"

This is the result (on Mail.app and in the browser at Fastmail.com):

So with the new IMAP server settings, it looks like the client side can create folders with dots in the name.

Regarding the dots in usernames & aliases, it looks like they do support it for custom domains:



Just tried making an alias 'test.user@mydomain.com' and it works when I send mail to it.

Hope that helps.

Wow, great. Thanks for testing!
I just may one of these days create a custom email, rather than rely on firstname.lastname@me.com (aka @icloud.com) and firstname.lastname@outlook.com ones I currently do.

My method of dealing with mail is quite old school though. But I find it keeps helping me with archiving at the end of each year.
For example, when I order something I create a subfolder using a certain naming scheme (e.g. Apple order: (2017.01.01.Wed) MacBook Pro 2016 – a little long, but it's great for clarity weeks/months/years later if I have to find it again) and nest it under primary folder (e.g. orders 2017 ) on IMAP email.
At the end of each year, I then archive all the primary folders (with all these subfolders under them) outside of my IMAP email, in a separate email archive folder in my main docs archive (where all my non-email docs reside) which is backed-up of course.

This keeps my IMAP email from getting massive and overridden with all the stuff from years before, and helps protect me from corruption of old stuff, should any IMAP server go mad in the year I'm in, which I'd have to sort through and fix manually. If I ever need to find old stuff, I can either go to My Docs 2017 archive folder and manually hunt for it, or simply spotlight search for it.

It's not a fail safe idea (no system is, I suspect, lol!), and I do create a quite a lot of subfolders each year. But I find it personally helps me to clear-out my email headspace!

The only problem is that Gmail users who use their "tagging" concept, are limited in the length and chars allowed for tags on the service. Hence why I don't use Gmail's email service, as it also doesn't work well with clients I found (apart from having a Gmail email account to use to log-in to basic Google services, e.g. YouTube, et al.).

I know others have the so-called, 'never-ending inbox' idea, but this just confuses the heck out of me, endlessly searching for related emails (often from several differing email contacts for a project). Though these users often deal with 100s/1000s of emails a day, so have no chance to sort as per my method.

 

[MIKEYO76]

I have been after reliable push email, using my own domain name, across iOS and Mac, using the default Mac Mail app... and I've finally got it working well using iCloud and Fastmail. I thought this information might be useful for others.

The main reason I wanted to do this was that I'd be sat infront of my Mac, with the iPad and iPhone all nearby - an email would come in and ping on each device at a different time, and often a minute or two later on the Mac. I wanted push across all devices and also keep the Mac Mail app which I prefer over other apps I have tried.

I'd previously tried accounts from Gmail, Office 365 and iCloud (without Fastmail) with problems for various reasons...

Google Apps

• Supports IMAP IDLE so you get push on Mac Mail, but not on iOS which doesn't support it (unless you use the Gmail app which isn't great).
• If you use paid-for Google Apps you get Exchange support, which gives you push - but this doesn't support starring/flagging on iOS at all, which is a deal breaker for me.

Office 365 - I used Exchange Online Plan 1

• Supports Exchange ActiveSync so you get true push on iOS using the Mail app.
• Mac Mail doesn't support Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), but uses Exchange Web Services (EWS) which isn't the optimum way of accessing an Exchange account. Found this to be totally unreliable - the syncing of read/flag status would often get stuck; there was often a 5 minute delay in pushing etc. There are many reports of Mac Mail being rubbish with Exchange accounts.
• You can't turn to Office 365s IMAP support for Mac Mail support, since it doesn't support IMAP IDLE, so you get no pushing and would be on a manual fetch schedule.
• Tried using the new Outlook Mac app (part of Office 365). This uses EWS too rather than EAS, but I found it to be much more reliable with pushing/syncing than Mac Mail - but I didn't like the app at all or want to pay a monthly fee for it.

iCloud

• Supports IMAP IDLE so you get push on Mac Mail, and Apple's own pushing service for iOS devices.
• For me I get reliable pushing/syncing on iOS Mail and Mac Mail - BUT bear in mind the restrictions listed at http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT203545 (i.e. it only pushes new emails, folders/flagging etc need a manual fetch).
• BUT... doesn't support own domain names...

Solution

I found a solution which meant I could use my own domain name...

• Create an account at Fastmail - I used the Business Basic service at $30/year.
• On Fastmail, set up your own domain (here), set up forwarding (here) to forward all emails to your iCloud email address, and disable Fastmail's built in junk protection (as this will be handled by iCloud).
• On the default personality, tick the "SMTP force from" field. This means that for any email sent via Fastmail's SMTP server, the "From" header will be changed to your domain email address regardless of the "From" address it was sent from. This is important because an iCloud account set up on iOS will always sent email from your @me.com address.
• On iOS, you just have the iCloud email account set up, but disable the iCloud SMTP server and add the Fastmail server instead (details). This means that all outgoing email from iOS, which goes out as being from your @me.com address, will then be "rewritten" to go from your actual own domain email address by Fastmail's SMTP server. Instructions for iOS are here (but use Fastmail's details rather than Gmail).
• On Mac Mail, also set the email to go out via Fastmail's SMTP server, and you set a custom alias here to your own domain name.
• Important: make sure you follow the DKIM instructions at the bottom of here - otherwise in Outlook and Gmail (and possibly others), any email you send will show up as "Your Name <you@domain.com> via messagingexchange.com" as your email is being sent by an external SMTP server. The DKIM amend will mean you are authorising that server to send email on your behalf.
• Important: add an SPF record to your domains DNS as described here. Not sure if this is required to stop the "via" issue above, but I'd recommend adding it anyway.
• After updating your MX records to Fastmail, all your email is now automatically and instantly forwarded to your iCloud account, which is then pushed to all your iOS/Mac devices! You set up junk filtering and rules etc using iCloud's webmail.
• The only thing that isn't covered - if you send outgoing emails using iCloud's webmail, it will still show up as being "From" your iCloud email address, rather than your own domain. Not an issue for me as I've always got an iOS device in easy reach!

Hope that helps somebody!

Nick

Hi Nick, thanks so much for this. I am trying to follow your advice to get this working (Fastmail to iOS / OSX mail synch working with your own domain)... I'm struggling where your instructions say "On the default personality, tick the SMTP Force From field"... I wonder if the options have changed. Where specifically do you find this in Fastmail settings? Thanks so much. Mike.

 

[Galley]

Thanks to everyone who suggested Fastmail. It's exactly what I was looking for. I was using Google Apps, but they suspended my account for it not using it. I am trying to avoid Google whenever possible.

 

[btownguy]

Another happy Fastmail user here. Works absolutely flawlessly across iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro. Can't say the same of for Google Apps and Outlook.com as email backends.

 

[jagooch]

TLDR
G Suite user here. I use

• Google mail for my domain. Works great with Airmail app. Great filtering and tagging features.
• Google contacts works ok with Apple Contacts. I mostly use the Web app to manage contacts. Full Contact is also a good iOS contacts app. At least now I can manage contact groups from phone unlike native contacts.
• Google calendar . Nothing special here, though I have the impression it's easier to make a public calendar to coordinate appointments with clients.

No problem with email syncing, send/recv or getting notifications. Airmail has come a long way in the year I've been doing it. I tried switching back to Apple email 2 weeks ago but I missed Airmails features too much and switched back.


# long part
I wanted to stay within the Apple ecosystem, but I run a blog and needed a custom email domain. That started me down the path to away from Apple iCloud services. Next came calendars, next I moved contacts to Google contacts, and I'm even looking at moving to a Pixel phone and Google play services to replace my iPhone and Apple Music services.

If Apple would have offered support for custom domain email option to it's list of services, I would have subscribed to it years ago and not set up a Google account at all.

As outdated as email is, it's used prolifically for communications so when a customer has to go to another email provider, other things are sure to follow.

 

[mike.a]

TLDR
G Suite user here. I use

• Google mail for my domain. Works great with Airmail app. Great filtering and tagging features.
• Google contacts works ok with Apple Contacts. I mostly use the Web app to manage contacts. Full Contact is also a good iOS contacts app. At least now I can manage contact groups from phone unlike native contacts.
• Google calendar . Nothing special here, though I have the impression it's easier to make a public calendar to coordinate appointments with clients.

No problem with email syncing, send/recv or getting notifications. Airmail has come a long way in the year I've been doing it. I tried switching back to Apple email 2 weeks ago but I missed Airmails features too much and switched back.


# long part
I wanted to stay within the Apple ecosystem, but I run a blog and needed a custom email domain. That started me down the path to away from Apple iCloud services. Next came calendars, next I moved contacts to Google contacts, and I'm even looking at moving to a Pixel phone and Google play services to replace my iPhone and Apple Music services.

If Apple would have offered support for custom domain email option to it's list of services, I would have subscribed to it years ago and not set up a Google account at all.

As outdated as email is, it's used prolifically for communications so when a customer has to go to another email provider, other things are sure to follow.

Did you consider FastMail as an option? It's not free, but few great services are (and those that are free, mostly means you end up being the product — which may be okay for some).

 

[fillz]

For those interested in doing this with iCloud, you can set this up using Apple IMAP and Yahoo Mail SMTP servers. Remember that when adding this account on a Mac or iOS device, you need to configure it as an IMAP account. Simply enabling iCloud mail will not work since you can’t customize the outgoing mail server that way.

Set up a “catch-all” or plain email forwarder in your domain’s DNS to your iCloud email account.

In Yahoo Mail, you can enable a custom send from account. This involves sending a verification message to your user@domain.com account and clicking on the verification link.

After this is done, select your verified user@domain.com as the default sending account in Yahoo settings.

From here, your email app settings would look like this:

Email address: user@domain.com
Password: iCloud app specific password (you’ll need a separate password for each device and email app you configure)

IMAP

Server name: imap.mail.me.com
SSL Required: Yes
Port: 993
Username: user@icloud.com or just user
Password: get app specific password from https://appleid.apple.com

SMTP

Server - smtp.mail.yahoo.com
Port - 465 or 587
Requires SSL - Yes
Requires authentication - Yes
Username: your yahoo email address
Password: your yahoo password. You might need to enable “less secure” log in method in Yahoo security settings. This doesn’t disable SSL, but Yahoo considers SMTP less secure than their website or custom apps.

 

[slyronit]

Like most of you, I have also spent more time than I am proud of, on the perfect email solution. My current setup is Outlook.com which syncs great with iPhones and iPads. It uses Pop/IMAP to fetch emails from my other accounts. For my domain email, I have forwarding setup from Namecheap to my outlook email address. For outgoing emails, I use mailjet’s SMTP servers (configured in outlook.com). This works great, except that outlook.com is a bit over zealous marking my domain emails as Junk and I have to mark sender domains as safe manually.
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I tried Gsuite, but the sync is horrible and I didn’t want to use Gmail’s app. I tried Office 365 business, but it doesn’t support syncing other accounts or aliases.
Outlook.com is working out mostly fine for me, with some small caveats which I willingly accept.