Mastodawn

Tommaso Gagliardoni

I am looking for a reliable mail hosting provider, with 2FA, unlimited aliases (including catch-all * ), POP+SMTP+IMAP, no mobile app required, with configurable domain but not bundled to the provider being the registrar. Possibly based in EU/Switzerland.

Discarded options:
- I am moving away from Gandi.
- Infomaniak seems to require registering domain with them.
- Zoho based in UK.
- MXroute does not seem to offer 2FA.
- Autistici/Inventati only with one of their domains (not configurable).
- Fastmail based in Australia.
- Mailcheap based in USA.

Thankful for any suggestions 😀

#email #hosting #gandi #eu #2fa #zoho #infomaniak #mailcheap #mxroute #fastmail #AutisticiInventati

that_lurker Mar 9, 2025

@tomgag you could selfhost email with stalwart. They support 2FA and also encryption at rest https://stalw.art

Stalwart Labs

Discover the differences between the community and enterprise editions of our mail server solution.

Tommaso Gagliardoni Mar 9, 2025

@that_lurker self-hosting email is on my todo list, but for now I listen to my friend Illidan Stormrage's advice: "YOU ARE NOT PREPARED".

#worldofwarcraft #selfhosting #digitalsovereignty

Digitalwire Mar 9, 2025

@tomgag maybe cyon.ch

Blobster Mar 9, 2025

What I can say is that “Infomaniak seems to require registering domain with them” is incorrect.

2FA without an app though... I wouldn't guarantee this. They claim to support YubiKey auth. Not via FIDO2 for sure, and I found them unclear on the protocol used. I briefly tried once, my key wasn't recognized by their software, I gave up.

Tommaso Gagliardoni Mar 9, 2025

@blobster thanks for clarifying! So you can use a custom domain with them?

Blobster Mar 9, 2025

@tomgag Yes: during my transition from Gandi to Infomaniak, I first did the email hosting (email using my own domain), then the registrar and DNS servers (and I activated DNSSEC on this occasion), finally the web hosting.

Also did the same email then (6-9 months later) registrar + DNS migration for some close relative who also has their own domain.

Tommaso Gagliardoni Mar 9, 2025

@blobster Awesome, thanks! I am now testing mailbox.org but I will also check infomaniak

Blobster Mar 9, 2025

@tomgag You're welcome, glad to help.

FredOnline Mar 9, 2025

@tomgag
You can use Infomaniak with your domain registered elsewhere. Zoho EU is based in The Netherlands. MXroute does not have 2FA or app specific password option for mail, but their admin account DOES have 2FA. Another provider to consider is Migadu, they're Swiss based but I believe their servers are in France.

Tommaso Gagliardoni Mar 9, 2025

@fredonline very informative, thanks!

Tommaso Gagliardoni Mar 9, 2025

@fredonline I cannot find anything on Zoho EU, it looks like the whole corp is India based?

FredOnline Mar 9, 2025

@tomgag
Have a look at:
https://www.zoho.com/know-your-datacenter.html

You would be assigned to the appropriate datacenter based on your IP address. I'm in UK and am assigned to Zoho EU Utrecht and their Amsterdam datacenter.

Know Your Datacenter

We host your data in best-in-class data centers across the globe

Zoho

mailbox Mar 10, 2025

@tomgag We'd be happy to help - using your own domain isn't a problem here 🙂

Jens Bannmann ⁂4d ago

@tomgag
I think https://migadu.com checks all your boxes. I have a rough plan to move there once I finally make the jump off Google.

Migadu Email

Tommaso Gagliardoni 4d ago

@tynstar I did research Migadu back in the time. They seem OK, but a few things to consider: Migadu is based in Switzerland but its servers are in France. No registrar, email hosting only. The plan I saw back in the time was very tight: 20 outgoing email/day limit with $19/year package and 100 outgoing email/day for $9/month is very expensive. No encryption at rest on their servers, which seems a bit weird to me, for two reasons. First, it makes disposal of old hardware a bit riskier. Second, there are many documented cases, even in Europe, of illegal police raids where servers are stolen without a court order. The court subsequently declares the raid illegal and the police is forced to hand back the servers and destroy the acquired data, but this can take years and you have no guarantee that the data is not copied elsewhere. Overall they seem cool folks and the rest of their threat model is sound IMHO (see https://www.migadu.com/procon/ ) but these are things to consider. Overall I had the impression that they are more targeted to SMEs.

Migadu Email

@tomgag
I'm curious. Were you able to write to Gmail accounts without problems?

I'm not sure what you mean with 2FA for IMAP/POP, I guess it's for the webmail, right?

If you can find a cheap vps provider that does not harass you in EU, I'm interested.

Currently using a 20$/y vps which I setup myself with OpenBSD, OpenSMTP and IMAP.
I am able to write to Gmail accounts, but most of the times the message is filtered as "spam" because of the IP range in which my vps is. After "whitelisting", they can receive my emails.

I am considering the following setup so I relay mails to home server and can purge vps at any time.
https://research.exoticsilicon.com/articles/smtp_via_wireguard_tunnels

This would work for me, but it's only you who knows your use case :)

ExoticSilicon.com - SMTP over wireguard

Tommaso Gagliardoni 2d ago

@coding yes, I mean 2FA for webmail. Not for the mailbox itself (that wouldn't make sense since there is no 2FA for the POP/IMAP access) but for the admin panel, which I consider more sensitive.

So far I have tried "in-depth" Infomaniak, Mailbox, and Mailfence. They all have pros and cons, but overall they work well, I didn't have any problem reaching any other email address. Of the three, I have found Mailfence a bit more limited/buggy, although still OK-ish.

I have no experience in mail self-hosting, sorry, that is somewhere in my "When I will be a grown-up" list :)

Anyway, anything is better than Gandi at this point IMHO. How to kill a good business, really...