Comments on: Fastmail vs. Gmail

By: Jamie

Jamie — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:56:51 +0000

Does anybody know if there is a Growl notifier that works directly with FastMail (without a mail client)?

By: Diaa Sami

Diaa Sami — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 10:59:56 +0000

I’m one of the big fastmail fans, I use Gmail as my secondary email only because of the large storage and the associated services.
I agree that Gmail provides a better user experience, but I find its GUI limited in several ways(in comparison to FM’s GUI), I wrote about it here http://www.thunderbird-software.com/blogs/2007/05/28/gmail-criticism/
As for FM features, As you said the engine is very strong, I find the GUI very good too but not as user-friendly as Gmail.
I don’t care a lot about Ajax itself, I can live without threaded conversations but it’d be nice to have them.
well, I added this comment primarily to ask you to gather and submit a request to FM, probably via EmailDiscussions forum asking them to increase the priority of threaded conversations and to improve the GUI in general

By: Jordan

Jordan — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 14:21:09 +0000

Adam, I am with you 100%. I wish Fastmail would focus their efforts more on improving the speed and functionality of the web interface instead of adding new non-email features (calendars, web space, wiki, etc.)

By: Tim Gaden

Tim Gaden — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 11:21:00 +0000

I’m a Safari man myself, but I hear that there is a Greasmonkey extension that brings Gmail keyboard shortcuts to the Fastmail interface.

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:21:55 +0000

I’ve been a paying Fastmail customer (Enhanced) with my own domains for years…and have loved the service. Well worth it. However, I’ve come to really enjoy the Gmail interface and user experience. I’ve had all my mail forwarded to Gmail for backup purposes for some time, however, for the last several weeks I’ve been using Gmail as my main ‘client’.

If FM put in more AJAX-ish stuff on the front-end (realtime refreshes for new messages etc), some version of a threaded view and better search…. I wouldn’t really have a need/desire for Gmail.

By: Simone

Simone — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:31:40 +0000

I’ve been using Fastmail for a couple of years now (Enhanced level), with four of my own domains and a new alias for every website, discussion group, etc.

It really is excellent for that - and I agree, IMAP is one of the best things about it.

However, I have gone through a number of clients that support IMAP - Thunderbird, Eudora, Outlook and O. Express, Opera mail, and none seem to do it right. Add to that the fact that I can’t port my address book along with the messages: I have resigned myself to rely solely on the webmail client.

In spite of the tagging feature and seamless ‘instant’ changes of Gmail (all those user-friendly features other commenters have mentioned), I won’t go back to other clients.

Oh, and did I mention I’m Australian? Gotta support businesses from the Emerald Isle…

By: Jordan

Jordan — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 02:28:59 +0000

I am late to this party, but I’ve been using Fastmail for a couple of years (”Full” level) and am considering switching to GMail. I agree that IMAP access is amazingly convenient, but the fact that GMail has threaded “conversation” viewing in their web interface is a major plus… it means I can follow mailing list threads without being tied to Thunderbird. If Fastmail had this feature I would love them forever, but it’s been on their low-priority list for a while, so I don’t hold out much hope.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 05:48:42 +0000

@ Rourke — Why wait for Thunderbird and Roundcube to get their acts together?

Enjoy tagging on IMAP now with the MailTags 2.0 Public Beta for Apple Mail.

By: Rourke McNamara

Rourke McNamara — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 05:38:01 +0000

I recently posted an acticle comparing GMail to an IMAP provider like fastmail or tuffmail. I also found strongly in favor of providers like fastmail and tuffmail.

You can use the GMail organizational paradigm with IMAP based mail, especially when those services allow for server side scripting. I’ve been automatically making a copy of all incoming email for years. This way I delete the copy in my inbox when I’m done with it and I have an archived version I can search through.

IMAP also supports tagging. Soon (in 2.0) Thunderbird will also support tagging. I’m hoping Roundcube will also add tagging support.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 16 May 2006 13:38:57 +0000

Thanks for the long and thoughtful reply.

I don’t use Gmail enough to get a proper sense of the user experience, I suppose, nor am I ever likely too, so it’s good to hear from someone who does.