The Fastmail subscription is getting too expensive so I’ve just subcribed to MXroute during the past Black Friday. I wasn’t aware that an easy-to-use web interface like Fastmail’s isn’t a given. Besides configuring domain and DNS, the rest of the experience is almost as good as Gmail; they can even register a domain for you if you haven’t bought one yet, or you can use their @fastmail.com domain! The anti-spam is a bit silly for Chinese users but the configuration is quite straightforward. Security features like Passkey, (actually useful) app passwords, and two-step verification are all available, and all the features you can think of like creating unlimited aliases are there. It Just Works™️.

MXroute is a completely different story, having the initiator once operated LowEndTalk, the well-known cheap VPS forum. It’s really cheap, but the usability is very limited. For example, financial support account management is one panel, email management is another panel, and Webmail is another… It seems that each of the panels is a ready-made solution, so it’s difficult to integrate them together; the open-source Webmail is basically a mess, always making people feel inconvenient, and you would miss Thunderbird after using any of them. As for the calendar, I simply have no desire to use their solution, forcing me to find a third-party one. Fortunately, the support team is very fast, after all, it’s across the Pacific ocean from China, and you can get a reply after a nap.

It really makes a difference between $50 a year and $15 for three years. But after all, saving $45 a year is really a bargain. I’m gonna use MXroute first, and see if an enterprise email can satisfy me after three years.