I use ddvault's recommended service, migadu.com. Not for everyone, and they had a little fiasco with their free service in the past (they no longer offer free service), but I have had zero issue with it and it supports essentially infinite domains for no additional charge, which I really like.

Others recommended fastmail which I also like. Some people have concerns with it because it is based in Australia, which a couple years ago passed some pretty far-reaching data subpoena laws, but they don't seem too concerned about it: https://fastmail.blog/privacy-security/advocating-for-privac...

Been a happy Fastmail customer for years now and it's been smooth sailing the whole time (using custom domains and everything). No issues whatssoever.

But yeah, Australia is not... Optimal, privacy wise. Poor data laws and member of the Five Eyes network will probably force me, finally, to switch to a new service (probably Proton mail) at the end of the next yearly renewal :(

Edit: just remembered there's been a couple of incidents with poor security practices, in the past, with fastmail (easy to google) that doesn't look flattering.

And I think (?) there's been some issues with spoofed email going around/originated within fastmail's internal network:

"Fastmail domains have a DMARC policy of none, which means recipient mail servers should report whether the message passes or not, but not change deliverability. This allows users to send mail using our domains from anywhere, for legacy reasons."

From the final section on https://www.fastmail.com/help/technical/senderauthentication.... I think this was abused?

Funny enough, I switched from protonmail to migadu. As I've learned more about cryptography and modern email, the promises they make about email don't hold up well.

If you really need to talk to someone over email securely, PGP over email is the way to go.

That's too bad :( Haven't done any research on proton yet, so I know nothing about them besides their own claims. You got any references to share?

I've never had the need to protect my mail (using PGP for example) as I don't send mails that's sensitive enough for it or are forced to message with tech illiterate people (sorry) that can't use it.

I just want a privacy friendly service that won't give up my data to uninvolved 3rd parties :(

Well migadu, like Proton technologies, is based in Switzerland.

A lot of it comes down to reading over a company's privacy policy (if you can't understand it / its really long, that's a red flag), where they are located, and -- important -- if its free or paid.

Here's the write-up that convinced me to switch: https://drewdevault.com/2020/06/19/Mail-service-provider-rec...

Protonmail is mentioned in the footnotes.

Looks perfect, thanks for the recommendation! It reminds me a lot of NearlyFreeSpeech, only for email instead of web hosting.

My comment on this isn't very helpful since I just started paying a few days ago, but smooth sailing so far!

I've been using Mailbox.org for nearly 2 years now and are happy with them, never had a problem. Hosted in Germany, you are able to use your own domain + catchall if needed.

For another paid SMTP solution, Amazon's SES has been bulletproof for me. They also really grill you on what purpose you intend to use it before letting you in. My mail volume is so low I still haven't seen a bill.

I was tempted but had an AWS runaway 5-figure bill at work once - I think someone forgot to shut down an EC2 instance - which has scared me from using them for personal projects. I heard they're usually understanding in those situations and have features to limit your bill, but that feels like overkill for personal email.

I've been using mxroute.com for my business and personal emails for 6 months.

Anecdotal, but my biggest client has said my emails no longer tend to hit his spam folder since I've made the switch.

Postfix on BSD is bulletproof.

Irrelevant. The GP asked for a paid SMTP service. GP, FastMail is very good.

edoceo, the reason your flippant comment is irrelevant and unhelpful is that running an SMTP service means dealing with often intractable deliverability problems that are only surmountable by having your mail sent by a server that sends a large volume of legitimate email to build reputation as a sender.

It doesn't matter if you use postfix, exim, sendmail, BSD, Linux, or TempleOS, or manually wiggle magnets towards an open socket to send email, the reason the GP wants paid SMTP is so that he can rent access to a server with adequate deliverability to actually use his email.

Hmm, I've been running my own SMTP server on a VPS for over a decade with very few issues.

Yea, same - and since it costs me $5/mo I view it as a paid solution.

Do you have good deliverabikity to Google and MS hosted mailboxen?

Once I implemented DKIK and SPF, I had very few issues with Gmail. The biggest issues I’ve had were with corporate self-hosted exchange servers (my job inquiries at a particular company went unanswered and, when I contacted via an alternate channel, I heard that my mail had ended up in a “clutter” box

Huh that's all that's required to stay out of gmail's junk folders? DKIM and SPF?

Could had sworn there were a lot more work/tech required, a couple of years ago.

I did the DMARC stuff too. It's working great. I'm low volume tho, and there is never UCE sent from my setup.

Yeah if you got the first two, I automatically assume DMARC is used too. But am not familiar with "UCE"?

Also did you have to research your IP/domain that your VPS sits behind? Domain blacklists, and avoiding them, seems pretty straightforward. But I've heard mixed things about VPS ips, some mail services could block whole networks from VPS providers while others don't care as long as you don't spam?

UCE is the name for Spam in Postfix docs. Unsolicited Commercial Email.

I keep a Gmail for that exact reason.

"Nobody ever told me they didn't get my messages they didn't know about!"