Is there an ISP with email services, maybe not webmail, in the US you would recommend for use on an iMac and iPhone?

[Fishrrman]

aperfect wrote:
"Proton is a good choice if you’d prefer to avoid iCloud or Gmail"

Be aware that the web-based proton email is free (I have an account there).
BUT
If you want it to work with Apple Mail, you have to pay a monthly subscription.

Others have offered good advice re "decoupling" email services from the basic ISP "internet access".

Used to be, when you signed up for internet service, you got web access, email, and usenet access.
Usenet went first.
In recent years, seems like various web access providers, even big ones like Comcast, have "handed off" email functions to other providers (Yahoo seems to get a lot of it).

About 33 years ago, I signed up for DSL "Uverse" with the local (state) phone company. Thus I got the the primary email address I still use today.
What happened was...
- the original company was bought by sbc global, but the old email was retained, then
- sbc global either bought (or was bought out by) ATT -- still kept old email.
- eventually I dropped ATT dsl for Comcast cable (MUCH faster), but I found the old email address was still active (via ATT's servers)
- later on, ATT handed off their email handling to Yahoo. But my 33-year-old email address still works there, too.

That's why I suggested "att.net" (you'll note that this is NOT the same as "att.com") in a reply above. As managed by Yahoo, it still works. You can sign up for free access at currently.com. Works fine with Apple Mail, using the Internet accounts settings pane.

As someone replied, you can also get free access at yahoo.com.

I don't trust google, so can't recommend gmail unless there's some reason you must have it.

I've never used iCloud's email. May have to give it a try someday.

Once more -- you DON'T WANT to "import" your OLD emails into a "new" account.
Let the old mail "live on your Mac" AS "old mail".
The only important thing is that you can access it if you need to.

But I'm going to close with a sensitive question:
How often do you really go back and read those old emails?

 

[Imperial926]

Why not search for a domain, find some hosting and go in that direction. In the UK my wife and I use two companies for this and one of them is in fact our chosen ISP for the past 25 years. We do have gmail, icloud and outlook accounts but use those for shopping mainly.
Here's one of the best in the UK

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[MarineBand5524]

Don't know where you live, but where I live in the US, I don't have many choices in ISP (Internet Service Provider). Decouple your email from your ISP. Google Gmail works great in both macOS/iOS email clients and on the web.

I'd not use Google, as they are and have read everything you've ever typed. You have absolutely zero privacy with them at all.

It's very easy to start a new email, re-route old email to your new one, tell everyone this is your new email address etc and start fresh and clean.

I'd honestly use Proton Email over Google every day of the week.

 

[Dervla]

I'd not use Google, as they are and have read everything you've ever typed. You have absolutely zero privacy with them at all.

It's very easy to start a new email, re-route old email to your new one, tell everyone this is your new email address etc and start fresh and clean.

I'd honestly use Proton Email over Google every day of the week.

Thank you, I have been feeling overwhelmed since receiving the notice from my current/soon to be former email provider.

 

[eyoungren]

Just curious, how is spam on Yahoo these days?
I used Yahoo in the 90s and got overwhelmed with spam.

Like many things, I assume it’s improved over the years.

I feel that the spam filter is very good. It's much better (IMO) than Google's spam filer for my Gmail accounts. Aside from longevity, that's the primary reason I stay with my Yahoo account.

 

[Rychiar]

why would you want email tied to an ISP? those were always the worst and then ya lost em when ya switched.

 

[KaliYoni]

I made a move from ISP email to iCloud email a few years ago. Some things I suggest based on my experience:

• Plan on at least a month or two, if possible, of overlap before cancelling your ISP account to ensure the transition was set up correctly.
• As soon as your iCloud address is active, set up automatic forwarding to it from your ISP account(s).
• Maintain a list of the changes you need to make and have made with affected companies and people.
• Ensure you have a backup or copies of important and treasured emails.
• Check all of your 2-factor authentication setups to make sure none are using your (soon to be) cancelled email address.
• I now prefer having my email hosted by a non-ISP company because I no longer am held captive by the time and effort required to implement changes to my email address.

Next, I view all email services provided by companies whose main business is advertising to be equivalent for privacy. This includes Google and Yahoo-AOL. All rely on analyzing your email to sell targeted advertising and personal data. I think Apple (iCloud) and Microsoft (Outlook) are marginally better for privacy because both are big companies with diverse sources of revenue. This could change at any time, though.

A funny thing is that Gmail may be somewhat more secure than others because of Google's lack of human customer service. It is impossible to social engineer call center employees that don't exist.

----------

What does all this mean for the "overwhelmed" OP's situation, then? I'd say their main decision is to think about if a free email service is worth the privacy tradeoffs. If free is OK, I believe Apple, Microsoft, and Google are the best choices for company stability and the lowest likelihood of the email business getting sold to another company or, worst case, taken over by private equity investors (private equity firms specialize in gutting companies by selling off anything that has value to other companies).

If, however, the OP decides a paid email service is best, there is plenty of discussion about that on MR and elsewhere. Key attributes to consider to my mind include reputation, company ownership and history, support for Apple users, and customer service.

 

[MarineBand5524]

I made a move from ISP email to iCloud email a few years ago. Some things I suggest based on my experience:

• Plan on at least a month or two, if possible, of overlap before cancelling your ISP account to ensure the transition was set up correctly.
• As soon as your iCloud address is active, set up automatic forwarding to it from your ISP account(s).
• Maintain a list of the changes you need to make and have made with affected companies and people.
• Ensure you have a backup or copies of important and treasured emails.
• Check all of your 2-factor authentication setups to make sure none are using your (soon to be) cancelled email address.
• I now prefer having my email hosted by a non-ISP company because I no longer am held captive by the time and effort required to implement changes to my email address.

Next, I view all email services provided by companies whose main business is advertising to be equivalent for privacy. This includes Google and Yahoo-AOL. All rely on analyzing your email to sell targeted advertising and personal data. I think Apple (iCloud) and Microsoft (Outlook) are marginally better for privacy because both are big companies with diverse sources of revenue. This could change at any time, though.

A funny thing is that Gmail may be somewhat more secure than others because of Google's lack of human customer service. It is impossible to social engineer call center employees that don't exist.

----------

What does all this mean for the "overwhelmed" OP's situation, then? I'd say their main decision is to think about if a free email service is worth the privacy tradeoffs. If free is OK, I believe Apple, Microsoft, or Google are the best choices for company stability and the lowest likelihood of the email business getting sold to another company or, worst case, taken over by private equity investors (private equity firms specialize in gutting companies by selling anything that has value to other companies).

If, however, the OP decides a paid email service is best, there is plenty of discussion about that on MR and elsewhere.

I've used iCloud and is predecessors since 2007ish love it and use it. Not sure if OP even thought of trying or using it.

 

[Dervla]

I made a move from ISP email to iCloud email a few years ago. Some things I suggest based on my experience:

• Plan on at least a month or two, if possible, of overlap before cancelling your ISP account to ensure the transition was set up correctly.
• As soon as your iCloud address is active, set up automatic forwarding to it from your ISP account(s).
• Maintain a list of the changes you need to make and have made with affected companies and people.
• Ensure you have a backup or copies of important and treasured emails.
• Check all of your 2-factor authentication setups to make sure none are using your (soon to be) cancelled email address.
• I now prefer having my email hosted by a non-ISP company because I no longer am held captive by the time and effort required to implement changes to my email address.

Next, I view all email services provided by companies whose main business is advertising to be equivalent for privacy. This includes Google and Yahoo-AOL. All rely on analyzing your email to sell targeted advertising and personal data. I think Apple (iCloud) and Microsoft (Outlook) are marginally better for privacy because both are big companies with diverse sources of revenue. This could change at any time, though.

A funny thing is that Gmail may be somewhat more secure than others because of Google's lack of human customer service. It is impossible to social engineer call center employees that don't exist.

----------

What does all this mean for the "overwhelmed" OP's situation, then? I'd say their main decision is to think about if a free email service is worth the privacy tradeoffs. If free is OK, I believe Apple, Microsoft, or Google are the best choices for company stability and the lowest likelihood of the email business getting sold to another company or, worst case, taken over by private equity investors (private equity firms specialize in gutting companies by selling anything that has value to other companies).

If, however, the OP decides a paid email service is best, there is plenty of discussion about that on MR and elsewhere. Key attributes to consider to my mind include reputation, company ownership and history, support for Apple users, and customer service.

Thank you very much.

 

[Dervla]

I've used iCloud and is predecessors since 2007ish love it and use it. Not sure if OP even thought of trying or using it.

I have it, although have only sent a few emails to myself and that has been very recently.

 

[Dervla]

I have it, although have only sent a few emails to myself and that has been very recently.

Would I have to sign into my Apple account every time I want to check for new email?

With what I have now (for the next month anyway) in Apple Mail, I just click on “Get new messages in all accounts”. That’s why I thought I should get a replacement.

 

[monokakata]

Why not search for a domain, find some hosting and go in that direction. In the UK my wife and I use two companies for this and one of them is in fact our chosen ISP for the past 25 years. We do have gmail, icloud and outlook accounts but use those for shopping mainly.
Here's one of the best in the UK

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Yes, I was about to suggest this. A company like IONOS (and there are many others like it, but that's the one I use) will host a domain that belongs to you. You, then, create as many email addresses as you wish and access the emails via whatever client you like -- MacMail, for example.

Example: let's say you're able to get dervla.com (or .org or .net....) and host it somewhere. Then it will be trivially easy to create me@dervla.com, myfirstname@dervla.com and so on and so on and so on.

Yes, you have to pay for that domain, and you have to find a domain name that's available. But once you do, you're done. And should you ever want to use that domain for other purposes (like a website) you can just do it and it won't interfere with your email at all.

 

[MacInTO]

Would I have to sign into my Apple account every time I want to check for new email?

With what I have now (for the next month anyway) in Apple Mail, I just click on “Get new messages in all accounts”. That’s why I thought I should get a replacement.

You are already signed in your Apple account on your iPhone and your iMac so you do not need to sign on each time you use the Mail app. This may be the simplest short term solution for you because it is already there and it is free. You may have to pay if your storage exceeds the 5GB free storage that iCloud provides.

i think unless your ISP provides web hosting services they won't have email. It's a service that folks no longer use anymore because of the prevalence of Apple, Google, Yahoo, etc. My ISP had email but I never used it. I think it is best to keep these things separate. I have email from all three and I also have email from one of my domains. That's another layer of complexity but can be done. It's nice to have a personalized email.

 

[Powerbooky]

It really depends on where one lives, but as suggested by others... you could try to get your own domain? Most of those companies that register a domain for you also offer website hosting and email services for just a few bucks. But I have to say, most of them are not that good in blocking spam.

Some ISP's offer all the usual services like email, without the DSL or Fibre as separate option. Often used by people that move a lot and only have temporary DSL / Fibre, or only have a mobile phone.

Of course, there's also Apple's email (iCloud). But you'd only get one email box per AppleID with just a few aliases.
I use it mainly for temporary email addresses (Hide-my-email). I hardly get any spam on it.

I would not recommend "free" email services, like Gmail of Microsoft's. Your data will be actively mined and sold. Always read the EULA! Proton mail too. If it's free, there's a catch... always.

aperfect wrote:

Once more -- you DON'T WANT to "import" your OLD emails into a "new" account.
Let the old mail "live on your Mac" AS "old mail".
The only important thing is that you can access it if you need to.

But I'm going to close with a sensitive question:
How often do you really go back and read those old emails?

A note on this: yes, most people won't look back in old emails often. It is always good to clean it up and only keep important ones. But... the thing with keeping a local archive, when the SDD or the entire Mac breaks down... the archive is lost. Even if you keep another copy on a different system, there's the possibility that old email archive files suddenly are inaccessible a couple years from now thanks to updates. That happened to me, mostly in my Windows years before 2000. Outlook files that became somehow incompatible or even corrupted. So I kept an archive at my ISP since then. The other reason was that I accessed my email on different machines, keeping a local archive was not practical and took a lot of time to keep it up to date.
That's why I often say, if the ISP offers large e-mail boxes (+20GB) keep the email archive there. Private stuff can always be encrypted for security.

At this moment I primarily use Apple's email client. Avoid Outlook at all times...!

 

[eyoungren]

I've used iCloud and is predecessors since 2007ish love it and use it. Not sure if OP even thought of trying or using it.

AFAIK, I have three iCloud addresses, gathered at various times over the years. And at the time I got them I had my pick of what I wanted. But each time I misunderstood, thinking that in order to have an Apple ID, I had to have an iCloud email address.

Once I figured out that it could be any email address, I used my own primary and since these three were never really used they have remained that way.

I maintain a non-ISP email address for the simple reason that if my ISP ever goes under I want access to my Apple ID. And I don't use the three Apple email addresses for the simple reason that scammers know which domains those are and I don't want to deal with that. If I'm getting email at one of my Apple addresses it's either spam or Apple. And if it's Apple, it's for a specific reason and moment in time.

Can't remember the last time I got an email at any of them.

 

[Siliconguy]

But I'm going to close with a sensitive question:
How often do you really go back and read those old emails?

The ones that have important information get archived on my disk and filed, really important ones may get get printed out and filed.

Everything else gets deleted after 90 days.

 

[Imperial926]

An iCloud email can be useful in the climate of scams that exist presently. With the password being the one linked to your Apple ID there will be a small layer of protection as that password won't work in something like Outlook. Apple offer a virtual password facility which is required to allow an iCloud address to function in Outlook and possibly elsewhere. This can be very useful in the era of sim-swap scams although full vulnerability in this respect really needs non-SMS related 2fA to be really solid.

 

[Donnerjay]

In my experience, the free Proton email service is superb. The company’s privacy and security measures are excellent, and I’ve had zero spam since I began using them three years ago.

I’ve used Mac mail, yahoo, google and EarthLink (formerly Mindspring), and have had spam problems with all of them.

Not so with Proton. I’m considering an upgrade this week during Black Friday, as they have multiple other internet tools.

My equipment includes MacBook Pro, iPad mini, and a google pixel 9a cellphone (which I despise).

 

[Dervla]

In my experience, the free Proton email service is superb. The company’s privacy and security measures are excellent, and I’ve had zero spam since I began using them three years ago.

I’ve used Mac mail, yahoo, google and EarthLink (formerly Mindspring), and have had spam problems with all of them.

Not so with Proton. I’m considering an upgrade this week during Black Friday, as they have multiple other internet tools.

My equipment includes MacBook Pro, iPad mini, and a google pixel 9a cellphone (which I despise).

That is good news. Thank you.

 

[usmaak]

I see a lot of good stuff and a few bad things about Proton in this thread. In particular one post seemed to allude to there being a "catch" with the free Proton email.

I have a paid account that I have rarely used and was thinking about dropping. I got it so that I could get free from the clutches of Gmail but I have had my Gmail account since the days when you needed an invitation and it is very well used every single day.

Is there anything that I need to be aware of with Proton?

 

[z7live1]

Honestly, this thread has been really helpful to read. A lot of solid points about avoiding ISP-based email, and I agree — the landscape has changed so much that relying on them long-term isn’t practical anymore. Proton, Fastmail, iCloud — each has its strengths depending on what you value most.


For me, I’m leaning toward providers that keep things simple across macOS and iOS without too much setup. I’ve been jotting down my full thoughts as I test different options, so feel free to check my bio if you’re curious.

 

[Chris60549]

For me, I’m leaning toward providers that keep things simple across macOS and iOS without too much setup.

Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to get push email with the stock iOS Mail app, basically forcing you to install the Gmail app or other third party app if you want push email. Also, iCloud Mail does not auto-sync notification badges between macOS and iOS. I would say email is in a very dire state on Apple platforms.

If you cannot wait 15 minutes for your emails, use iMessage instead, I guess.

 

[cjsuk]

Is there anything that I need to be aware of with Proton?

Yeah their security guarantees are a load of rubbish.

1. There's no guarantee that the email you have received or are sending isn't plain text somewhere outside of their network anyway. That's how email works. There is no guarantee of confidentiality anywhere.

2. When receiving an email they need your key to encrypt it which has to be stored so they have access to your key anyway.

3. They are party to legislation that requires them to decrypt your email and not tell you.

4. They don't use any standard protocols for their client which makes getting data out of their platform painful (have to use Bridge and all sorts)

5. They close people's accounts all the time, including a particularly large scandal at the moment where they shut down journalists accounts.

6. The offline support on their clients is buggy as hell.

Basically you introduce a crap load of complexity for some dubious gains. Complexity is a big negative for security hygiene. On top of that it doesn't stop you making procedural mistakes like forwarding, cc or straight up sending things to someone wrong.

The best thing Proton do is marketing.

Just don't bother. Get an IMAP/SMTP box somewhere. If you have anything confidential do not send it via email at all. Use Signal or a USB stick. Migrate any mail you need to keep to local mail folders on a machine you control. Default Mac mail app is fine for that stuff.

If you must use email, it needs to be client to client encrypted across all providers not just Proton which means you need to use something like PGP.

I use iCloud myself and recommend Mythic Beasts (UK based) if someone wants something provider independent.

Make sure you buy a domain and use that. And back up your IMAP/mail server (difficult with proton again). That's the most important thing.

 

[cjsuk]

Why not search for a domain, find some hosting and go in that direction. In the UK my wife and I use two companies for this and one of them is in fact our chosen ISP for the past 25 years. We do have gmail, icloud and outlook accounts but use those for shopping mainly.
Here's one of the best in the UK

UK Web Hosting that’s fair to you & the planet | Krystal Hosting

UK based cloud web hosting with NVMe SSD storage, cPanel control panel & unlimited bandwidth, running on 100% renewable energy. Join today.

krystalhosting.com

Krystal are ****. Please stay the hell away from them. Had a couple of run ins over the years. Their managed services are a complete mess (basically compromised wordpress farming) and their kit is massively overloaded. Think I logged into a shell and there were 10,000 odd processes on one node running with loadavg over 30 on 8 cores at one point. They're also really expensive.

Mythic Beasts replaced them for us https://www.mythic-beasts.com/

 

[roughboy99]

How about buying your own domain name with a hosting company like hostgator or any other one . there you should get access to an email server. i have mine and i have POP3, and IMAP . plus the ability to create as many email accounts that i want. and i create disposable accounts that i access wia webmail for things that ask for my email for one time use. so no spam on my main account