iCloud iCloud email on own domain vs Gmail

[pullman]

Hello everyone

I just saw that in iCloud Plus it will be possible to use one's own domain. Since I have that I'm wondering if this would be a real alternative to Google Workspace.

Relevant to my situation is that I don't download email. I haven't done that since the dawn of the century. I only access my emails via the Gmail web interface (or on my iPhone). This goes both for my Workspace/own domain emails and my iCloud/me.com emails. Like many others I have lots of messages, something like 22 GB going back some 20+ years.

I've been looking at the iCloud online interface and it seems more limited than Gmail's interface. For instance, I don't find a unified search function, but instead one can only search per folder.

But iCloud is comparably cheap at 2,99 USD per month, whereas I have to pay 75 Euros annually (via Squarespace) for Workspace.

Has anyone else gone through the same thought process perhaps? I'm eager to hear your thoughts on this conundrum.

Philip

 

[BrianBaughn]

You'll have to wait and see the details and probably wait until others have experienced the move.

Questions I have:

• Can I direct MX records for an existing domain name to iCloud?
• What is the pricing for multiple email accounts under a single domain?
• Are they going to improve the webmail and calendar experience at iCloud (more features)?

I have two domains with associated email. One's at Google and the other is at Office 365. I wouldn't be moving the Office 365 email as one key user is on Windows/Outlook and used to that setup. It's $4 per user per month. I have a free, grandfathered Google Workspace for that domain if I ever decide to switch back.

The Google one is is a grandfathered plan for which I pay nothing per account (limit is 10). I do pay $20/year for extra space (photos).

Feature-wise, Gmail and Google Calendar currently seem miles ahead of iCloud even though they haven't made many changes in many years. iCloud would have to add a LOT of features for me to consider a switch.

 

[GuillaumeB]

Being stuck with a legacy Google Apps account since 2007, this is the best piece of news this year.
I'm not sure how they will proceed.
1- They could simply implement a validation process by sending a code to an already existing domain-based email address ike Gmail does in order to set up a new from-line in the composer (then you'd have to forward your email to iCloud
2- They could let us custom MX data in the registrar.
3- Worst case scenario, they become a domain registrar and they ask that we transfer our domain to their own plateform before doing any settings... and that would be very apple-ish... ?

I hope for the 1st one