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First impressions with CraneMail are awesome
I just switched to CraneMail for my mail, calendars, and contacts, and first impressions are super awesome. I haven't used MXRoute in the past year (I was using Mailcow in the meantime), so I don't know if it has improved, but CraneMail feels really polished in comparison. MXRoute just seemed kind of rough to me, even though it was great for deliverability.
Setting up CraneMail was quick and easy, thanks to a simple but very functional control panel. It's way better than the one I had with MXRoute last year. The only thing that threw me off a bit was the delay in accessing a mailbox via IMAP right after creating it. I reached out to support, and they got back to me pretty quickly, considering it was Saturday. They explained that this is normal because of the server synchronization. Other than that, everything seems really great.
The cherry on top is the online meeting feature, which works a lot better than Nextcloud Talk, which I was using before.
I only paid $20 for three years with a 100 GB package. It's an amazing deal.
I'll post an updated review in 3 months.
Comments
What is it using, jisti meet? Or something custom?
It comes as a feature of the SmarterMail suite together with webmail, calendars and contacts. I love it
Did you know an EU version is coming?
Yeah they are good, had the same plan with you.
Yes, I know. This is for personal use so I don't care much but it would be nice if it were possible to migrate once the EU location si available.
Cool, I knew you preferred the EU services. I agree, they did a nice job getting that Mail platform going.
As per Fran in the Cranemail thread, the hardware has cleared customs with delivery pending on Monday. Just depends on how quickly it all gets racked and ect.
Do you know if a migration will be possible?
It's fine until their single server in the US falls over. We saw what happened with Lucy at MXroute.
Why do you assume it's a single server? When I configured the domain I had to configure 4 MX records and because of what support told me, I would suppose they have redundancy.
Pretty sure no, I believe this was in response to a lifetime move question. It might be different for reoccurring billing. But I'd still assume no.
https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/4349628/#Comment_4349628
The 4 MX servers are for SpamExpert (probably for load balancing purpose). If you turn SpamExpert off, there would be only single server (which is OK to me).
I don't need to assume anything. That's what was mentioned on the Frantech Discord server last year. A single 400TB server.
nice review
We expect to turn up another MTA sooner rather than later just to spread things out. I see no reason to rush for more nodes when the current is effectively idle the majority of the time though
By all means, we will add more as we see the need. This is our very first node so there’s lots of teething and learning.
Thanks for the feedback everyone
Francisco
How do you manage to change email providers so often?
That's a real question, it's a bit critical so personally it's definitely something I don't change very often.
Do you have a gmail box on the side?
Happy with @Francisco service, experience has been great.
Gotcha, thanks. If I can't get a prorated refund so to set up a new account in EU then I'll just keep the US one. It doesn't make much difference for personal use really.
What about backups and disaster recovery? I guess that's covered?
Thank you
Always open to feedback! I'll most likely post a new thread here shortly on how we should expose user downloadable backups for Cranemail.
We do hourly backups to a DR datacenter thats sole purpose is backups, and a future offload SQL node. We keep 48, 1 hour, snapshots, as well as weekly & a couple monthlies.
It's not possible for users to pull/restore these backups yet, and i'm not sure if we'll ever integrate that.
Francisco
Awesome, thanks!
Weird thing to say but have at it.
That's not what I mean. Failures happen of course, and I'm not blaming you for anything. I was just using the Lucy server as an example of what can happen, but it's not the same thing because you didn't have everyone on the same server. I didn't word that how I wanted, I was trying to use you as an example of how it can be done correctly.
I have 3 domains with Google and over the years they have been just raising prices. I am seriously considering giving this a go. All my combined mailboxes over 3 domains are not more than 25 gigs combined.
The meeting / collab features are great too - because our actual usage of the Gsuite apps is very low.
I have been eyeing a Google One Premium sub, and it just might make sense to get that while getting rid of all other Google services.
But I have had Gmail for as long as Gmail has existed.
And Cranemail only came to existence a few months ago. Great support and positive first impressions but what if Fran gets hit by a bus, is there a clone of Fran? Don’t want to put all my eggs on the shoulders of one great guy.
It's not just one person, Fran has his team. NameCrane/Cranemail isn't going anywhere.
https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/4368976#Comment_4368976
I will bite, what’s the worse that can happen - not much! Thanks guys.
@Francisco can you post the link for LET special? All I am seeing is $25/year package (the cheapest).
Mike's around
Francisco
We have a cranemail thread.
You can also check https://namecrane.com/store/email-hosting-deals
Thanks!
Francisco
not possible. therefore a lot of europeans wait for native cranemail-EU
1st of may would be a nice start.