It's worth asking, is there a similar set of services that one could run on their own? Controlling one's own data and all that...

I guess you could try OwnCloud, but I'm unaware of it supports mail in any capacity.

OwnCloud's calendar doesn't support subscribing to changing calendars (like Facebook event feed; you have to setup an automatic import manually).

Kolab is pretty much a drop-in replacement for Google mail, calendar, etc.

I switched about a year ago now (from Google Apps), and very happy with the email service. However this and 'contact sync' (coming soon) will make it a very real possibility for a lot more people. Well done fastmail! At the moment I still have my calendar with iCloud, contacts with Google and email with FastMail.

Why would you switch? The only benefit to me is: my mail/calendar is not on the servers of big companies like Google or Apple.

I somehow (not objectiviley) like the impression Fastmail gives me. The cowboy-ish yet serious way they try to compete with the big ones. That might be a reason to join too.

Because Fastmail's sole reason to be in business is to deliver robust email services. It's unlikely that they're going to pull out the service from underneath you at some point when email isn't fashionable.

They also have stellar support.

I switched around a year ago. Another reason is that the interface is faster than google.

Also the features are different, Google has some FM lacks vice versa. Depending on the features you need that might be an advantage or a disadvantage. Personally I only miss "Send & Archive" from Google.

The primary benefit for me (besides the infinitely nicer Web app) is that FastMail lets me send "From" any of my addresses without leaking my fastmail.net address in a header, which GMail kept doing no matter how many hoops I jumped through (SMTP AUTH to another mail server, &c.)