Are there still any free mail providers that provide direct SMTP/IMAP?

Otus9051 · June 28

Hello fellow LESbians,
I had been using inleed.xyz for my emails for a long time, until today they randomly decided to IP ban (?) me when I tried to send a message through SMTP via Authentik, and now I'm back to looking for a mail provider that has free IMAP/SMTP access.

Don't need much, will use my own domain, and mostly incoming mails than outgoing, probably won't reach higher than 10 emails a day anyways, need alias support even if they share the same storage.

AnthonySmith · June 28

free and long-term reliable? I am not sure, to be honest, they all started clamping down on this and using custom auth. Technically, you can still use Gmail via an auth token instead of a password if you don't mind Google and jumping through a few hoops.

Otherwise, maybe @MichaelCee can offer you something, it's not free but it's literally as cheap as it can possibly get.

lowendmeow · June 28

I think Disroot should allow this! Plus you can get a custom domain for a one time donation

DataRecovery · June 28

@AnthonySmith said: they all started clamping down on this

AFAIK, Yandex is going to cut off IMAP and SMTP for free accounts tomorrow ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Not_Oles · June 28

Migadu says

We provide standard email protocols, IMAP/POP/SMTP which means any standards-oriented email client will work with us.

The server parameters can be found in the admin interface under the Mailbox level as client instructions. Below are the most commonly used ones for your reference.

Service Server Port Security Authentication
IMAP imap.migadu.com 993 TLS Plain password
POP pop.migadu.com 995 TLS Plain password
SMTP smtp.migadu.com 465 TLS Plain password

Migadu's Micro plan (200 in, 20 out per day, soft limit 5 GB disk) is $19/year, but Migadu's @dejan offered LESbianz 50% off with the condition that we make a ticket or email them requesting the discount before you select and pay for your plan. Also, don't forget to mention Dejan:

"If anyone from LES wants to use Migadu, we'll be happy to attach 50% off for life, just ask before upgrading via support mentioning me, I will let the team know."

For me, Migadu has meant 100% inboxing to everywhere, including difficult places like Gmail and Microsoft, as far as I can tell. That's 100% inbox deliverability, more than just the receiving mail server accepting the mail.

@Otus9051, maybe Migadu might work for you? Good luck! Best wishes!

Fritz · June 29

If you don't mind tracking by default in your email (open/read/etc), Brevo (formerly Sendinblue specialized in marketing campaign and transactional emails), can be a good alternative. 300 email/day.

somik · June 29

Self hosted web server with email works out great for me. As long as you have a clean IP, zero bounces and all emails delivered to recipient inbox.

As for receiving emails, I used to use my residential IP for that. So any fixed IP will work to receive emails.

If you want to send emails but don't have a clean IP, you can still use your server and just use a email relay. I did that for 2+ years.

DrNutella · June 29

Zoho works. They claims it won’t work. But it does.

xaoc · June 29

I think oracle still offers that for free, I remember tinkering with it a few years back. You can probably use oracle to send mails and cloudflare to receive them.

lapua · June 29

@Not_Oles said:
Migadu says

We provide standard email protocols, IMAP/POP/SMTP which means any standards-oriented email client will work with us.

The server parameters can be found in the admin interface under the Mailbox level as client instructions. Below are the most commonly used ones for your reference.

Service Server Port Security Authentication
IMAP imap.migadu.com 993 TLS Plain password
POP pop.migadu.com 995 TLS Plain password
SMTP smtp.migadu.com 465 TLS Plain password

Migadu's Micro plan (200 in, 20 out per day, soft limit 5 GB disk) is $19/year, but Migadu's @dejan offered LESbianz 50% off with the condition that we make a ticket or email them requesting the discount before you select and pay for your plan. Also, don't forget to mention Dejan:

"If anyone from LES wants to use Migadu, we'll be happy to attach 50% off for life, just ask before upgrading via support mentioning me, I will let the team know."

For me, Migadu has meant 100% inboxing to everywhere, including difficult places like Gmail and Microsoft, as far as I can tell. That's 100% inbox deliverability, more than just the receiving mail server accepting the mail.

@Otus9051, maybe Migadu might work for you? Good luck! Best wishes!

migadu is nice but the xx out/day limits are very restrictive.

dosai · June 29

Wait for mxroute black friday deal.

Shot² · June 29

What about moving your domain to any registrar offering a free email account?

Otus9051 · June 29

@Not_Oles said:
@Otus9051, maybe Migadu might work for you? Good luck! Best wishes!

Yep, looked at Migadu and I might talk to them.

@AnthonySmith said: maybe @MichaelCee can offer you something

And I'll talk to him too.

@lowendmeow said:
I think Disroot should allow this! Plus you can get a custom domain for a one time donation

Forgot about Disroot honestly.

@Fritz said:
If you don't mind tracking by default in your email (open/read/etc), Brevo (formerly Sendinblue specialized in marketing campaign and transactional emails), can be a good alternative. 300 email/day.

I saw Brevo, but the problem is that I still need incoming mails, which I'm not sure Brevo will let me see.

@somik said:
Self hosted web server with email works out great for me. As long as you have a clean IP, zero bounces and all emails delivered to recipient inbox.

As for receiving emails, I used to use my residential IP for that. So any fixed IP will work to receive emails.

If you want to send emails but don't have a clean IP, you can still use your server and just use a email relay. I did that for 2+ years.

I am unfortunately under a CGNAT, and I don't think I can get CF Tunnels to forward my email traffic lol

@DrNutella said:
Zoho works. They claims it won’t work. But it does.

Will check.

@xaoc said:
I think oracle still offers that for free, I remember tinkering with it a few years back. You can probably use oracle to send mails and cloudflare to receive them.

Never heard about Oracle doing email, will check.

@lapua said:
migadu is nice but the xx out/day limits are very restrictive.

Don't really care about it tbh, it's just for status updates if shit goes way too south.

@dosai said:
Wait for mxroute black friday deal.

Will do that too.

@Shot² said:
What about moving your domain to any registrar offering a free email account?

Was on Namecheap, now on CloudFlare, don't think anyone is going let my 6 number .xyz domain at that ridiculously low renewal price, have free email hosting lol, atleast not without making the renewal price higher, and even then its mostly free for a year or so.

Shot² · June 29

Try to simulate a transfer to e.g. OVH (one 15GB Zimbra email account, free forever) and let me know the (premium) price, I'm being curious :P

Otus9051 · June 29

@Shot² said:
Try to simulate a transfer to e.g. OVH (one 15GB Zimbra email account, free forever) and let me know the (premium) price, I'm being curious :P

Costs more or less the same as CF (94.29 INR) but I don't see any email account offers for it.
Don't see anything mentioned on the domain page itself either (at least from OVH IN)

Edit: Seems like OVH doesn't do emails in India

david3 · June 29

@Otus9051 said:
Was on Namecheap, now on CloudFlare, don't think anyone is going let my 6 number .xyz domain at that ridiculously low renewal price, have free email hosting lol, atleast not without making the renewal price higher, and even then its mostly free for a year or so.

You might have deliverability issues with an xyz domain wherever you go. Maybe it would be even worse with the cheap numeric xyz's (I have one, too, but not for email).

Otus9051 · June 29

@david3 said:

@Otus9051 said:
Was on Namecheap, now on CloudFlare, don't think anyone is going let my 6 number .xyz domain at that ridiculously low renewal price, have free email hosting lol, atleast not without making the renewal price higher, and even then its mostly free for a year or so.

You might have deliverability issues with an xyz domain wherever you go. Maybe it would be even worse with the cheap numeric xyz's (I have one, too, but not for email).

Not really, I've used this domain for quite some time now (I think 2023-24 was when I registered it, don't remember properly) and not once has it ended up in spam. Mostly used inleed.xyz but had it on outlook as well for a bit.

skorous · June 29

@Otus9051 said:
Hello fellow LESbians,
I had been using inleed.xyz for my emails for a long time, until today they randomly decided to IP ban (?) me when I tried to send a message through SMTP via Authentik, and now I'm back to looking for a mail provider that has free IMAP/SMTP access.

Seems weird to permanent ban a long time customer for a single incident. You obviously tried talking to them about it?

slowservers · June 29

I think this one supports direct SMTP/IMAP. In fact, their web client uses SMTP/IMAP over websockets.

https://cock.li/

flips · June 29

@DrNutella said:
Zoho works. They claims it won’t work. But it does.

Really? Back before I found and migrated to MXroute, I tried Zoho, but they had just turned off IMAP access for the free accounts ... 🤔

DataRecovery · June 29

@Otus9051 said:

@david3 said:
You might have deliverability issues with an xyz domain wherever you go. Maybe it would be even worse with the cheap numeric xyz's (I have one, too, but not for email).

Not really, I've used this domain for quite some time now (I think 2023-24 was when I registered it, don't remember properly) and not once has it ended up in spam. Mostly used inleed.xyz but had it on outlook as well for a bit.

This at least was quite possible with .xyz. Unsure whether it "is quite possible", i.e. whether the situation changed these days.
inleed.xyz might be white-listed as a known provider.

Random links from google search:

TemporiousOne · June 30

Using an .xyz domain for email is problematic. Major website simply blocked the email address during registration, and some don't even tell you why it's blocked. I've an .xyz site with an email server, and speak from experience. Caveat emptor.

somik · June 30

@TemporiousOne said:
Using an .xyz domain for email is problematic. Major website simply blocked the email address during registration, and some don't even tell you why it's blocked. I've an .xyz site with an email server, and speak from experience. Caveat emptor.

That's true for most domain extensions available. I found .com and .org works great and most providers accept the your email and deliver to inbox (if everything else is setup correctly). Other extensions may get delivered to spam or just rejected outright. I faced this issue with my .us domain. So I had to switch to .org and .com and the same server, same setup, same email username works fine with those domain extension...

Otus9051 · June 30

@skorous said:

@Otus9051 said:
Hello fellow LESbians,
I had been using inleed.xyz for my emails for a long time, until today they randomly decided to IP ban (?) me when I tried to send a message through SMTP via Authentik, and now I'm back to looking for a mail provider that has free IMAP/SMTP access.

Seems weird to permanent ban a long time customer for a single incident. You obviously tried talking to them about it?

No, honestly can't even reach their website even, I guess I am gonna use a VPN to get their contact lol

@somik said:

@TemporiousOne said:
Using an .xyz domain for email is problematic. Major website simply blocked the email address during registration, and some don't even tell you why it's blocked. I've an .xyz site with an email server, and speak from experience. Caveat emptor.

That's true for most domain extensions available. I found .com and .org works great and most providers accept the your email and deliver to inbox (if everything else is setup correctly). Other extensions may get delivered to spam or just rejected outright. I faced this issue with my .us domain. So I had to switch to .org and .com and the same server, same setup, same email username works fine with those domain extension...

I have used this same email for Broadcom, LinkedIn, RIPE NCC, and a bunch of other websites that I am probably forgetting about, never had issues. It's mainly about domain age these days I would say.

Otus9051 · June 30

@slowservers said:
I think this one supports direct SMTP/IMAP. In fact, their web client uses SMTP/IMAP over websockets.

https://cock.li/

Cock.li has been quite unreliable for the past few months/years, mainly that the canary isn't being updated properly (last update was at 2nd June while its 30th now, cycle is apparently 72h), and it even recently went down with no reason given, and then came back up again. Not the best place to host my emails.

somik · June 30

@Otus9051 said:

@somik said:

@TemporiousOne said:
Using an .xyz domain for email is problematic. Major website simply blocked the email address during registration, and some don't even tell you why it's blocked. I've an .xyz site with an email server, and speak from experience. Caveat emptor.

That's true for most domain extensions available. I found .com and .org works great and most providers accept the your email and deliver to inbox (if everything else is setup correctly). Other extensions may get delivered to spam or just rejected outright. I faced this issue with my .us domain. So I had to switch to .org and .com and the same server, same setup, same email username works fine with those domain extension...

I have used this same email for Broadcom, LinkedIn, RIPE NCC, and a bunch of other websites that I am probably forgetting about, never had issues. It's mainly about domain age these days I would say.

Could be that as well. The .com and .org I have are well over 5+ years old.

DataRecovery · June 30

@TemporiousOne said:
I've an .xyz site with an email server, and speak from experience. Caveat emptor.

Didn't you happen to try adding that .xyz domain to some trusted email service like MXroute or other well-known ones?

Curious whether the IP reputation would change anything (at least for sending, not the registrations).

Also the next step could be adding it to google workspace or some other big-tech email provider.

Shot² · June 30

@Otus9051 said:
Edit: Seems like OVH doesn't do emails in India

Oh, what a pity. You're right, their India service lacks the email offers.
For the record: OVH Europe (+ US, ... maybe?) now provides a basic-but-does-the-job 15GB Zimbra email account (+ aliases, smtp/imap etc.) free with each domain.

TemporiousOne · June 30

@DataRecovery said:

@TemporiousOne said:
I've an .xyz site with an email server, and speak from experience. Caveat emptor.

Didn't you happen to try adding that .xyz domain to some trusted email service like MXroute or other well-known ones?

Curious whether the IP reputation would change anything (at least for sending, not the registrations).

Also the next step could be adding it to google workspace or some other big-tech email provider.

Yup. I'm currently using Mailgun (free tier) in front for sending, and it works pretty well. Google and Hotmail didn't bounce it.

More irritating is when you attempt to register for an account with some(many) providers. Registering with an email address of .xyz(e.g. [email protected]) will be outright disallowed.

slowservers · June 30

@Otus9051 said:
Cock.li has been quite unreliable for the past few months/years, mainly that the canary isn't being updated properly (last update was at 2nd June while its 30th now, cycle is apparently 72h), and it even recently went down with no reason given, and then came back up again. Not the best place to host my emails.

Oh yeah, it definitely goes down. I think though that if you need a more reliable service, you should pay for it. Lots of good paid email hosts, like Mythic Beasts, Posteo, or FastMail.

WSS · July 1

Zoho had a special a few years ago for a 10GB service for like $20/yr. It's double that now, but I don't care. I've had like 3 instances of downtime, and other than their OpenPGP signing being quirky if not broken in their client, it just works OK.

You go with cheap providers, you're eventually going to get bitten. I guess there's always Outlook.com?

Are there still any free mail providers that provide direct SMTP/IMAP?

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