I am looking for web-based email clients beyond GMail and Outllook/Office 365 for handling mail that is sent to my web host. They offer SquirrelMail, AtMail and RoundCube to access their servers from the web, and I am presently using the latter as it is the best of the bunch. But, I guess that I am used to GMail, and find that RoundeCube is a bit lacking in features. Are there other affordable web-based mail clients that I could consider? This is for a dedicated mail account for some volunteer work that I will be doing, and I want to keep it separate from my personal mail. It would also be great if there was a way for me to receive notifications of mail received on my Android phone without the whole message being delivered, but my web host only offers forwarding. I hate to have to spend money for another Google Apps account as I only need the mailbox, but I guess that I have become accustomed to its interface, and to a lesser degree Outlook installed on my W7 PC at work, that RoundCube is just not ideal, although it is workable. Any suggestions? I really want to be able to access this account from my home PC and from my work PC.

Thanks,

--Ken

I have to manage a series of emails to 56,000 people. I break it into maybe 30 groups, and have maybe 3 messages apiece. While I have gmail, I suspect it's not the best choice for that. So I'd love some tips, too, from anyone who can recommend a free solution. Thanks.

@ Ken: if you are used to Gmail, I don't think you'll find anything comparable. But why not simply open another free Gmail.com account (rather than Google Apps)? The free Gmail can still be connected to external mail services at least via POP3. And of course you can access it via Android.

1&1 also do a perfectly acceptable web mail client as part of their (very cheap) website deals. There's a more sophisticated Open Xchange-based version, but that costs extra. The basic webmail client is actually quite good.

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

@ Ken: if you are used to Gmail, I don't think you'll find anything
comparable. But why not simply open another free Gmail.com account
(rather than Google Apps)? The free Gmail can still be connected to
external mail services at least via POP3. And of course you can access
it via Android.

I had not considered a POP3 arrangement with Gmail, and was mostly looking at domain aliases and/or forwarding, but I will give it some consideration. Google recently changed their protocol regarding domain aliases and responding to forwarded messages, so they now almost always say "on behalf of" in the address. This is visible in Outlook, and some other clients, but it looks a bit unprofessional IMHO. I wonder if this is the case with POP3 arrangement?

--Ken

MadaboutDana wrote:

1&1 also do a perfectly acceptable web mail client as part of their
(very cheap) website deals. There's a more sophisticated Open
Xchange-based version, but that costs extra. The basic webmail client is
actually quite good.

I looked at their site, but was not able to tell what web-mail client they are using. From the screenshots, it did not look much different from the skinned version of RoundCube that I am presently using. Most of these clients are passable, but none seem to offer many of the mail features that Gmail does. I am a bit surprised, but then again, maybe that is why Gmail got to be so popular.

--Ken

Yes, you're probably right – it may well be RoundCube. The OpenXchange client is much nicer, but does cost more.

Of course there are some rather attractive free online webmail services (such as mail2web.com), but just how 'safe' they are is not something I could possibly comment on. It might be worth doing some searching for services plus, of course, relevant user reviews...

And of course there's always the chance that some of them are the equivalent of nsa-r-us.com, or indeed gchq-r-us.co.uk... just saying!

Cheers,
Bill

Mind you, 1&1 also offer an ultra-cheap 'Instant Mail' service using what appears to be their OpenXchange client. The relevant European info is at:

http://www.1and1.co.uk/email-address?__lf=Static&linkOrigin=email-address&linkId=hd.subnav.instant-mail

That gives you 5 e-mail accounts plus 2GB of space per account, plus a reasonably good-looking front end. Quite a bargain for ca. GBP 12 a year (and includes calendar and contact management).

MadaboutDana wrote:

Yes, you're probably right – it may well be RoundCube. The
OpenXchange client is much nicer, but does cost more.

Of course there are some rather attractive free online webmail services
(such as mail2web.com), but just how 'safe' they are is not something I
could possibly comment on. It might be worth doing some searching for
services plus, of course, relevant user reviews...

Hi Bill,

The more I search, the more I suspect that RoundCube may be among the better web clients. And I either forgot, or did not know, about mail2web. I will have to do a bit more research on them.

--Ken

Check out Zoho Mail at https://www.zoho.com/mail/

Not very pretty interface. Lots of "modules" you can add (many free for limited use), spam filter is quite good.

Steve

Steve wrote:

Check out Zoho Mail at https://www.zoho.com/mail/

Not very pretty interface. Lots of "modules" you can add (many free for
limited use), spam filter is quite good.

Steve

I had considered Zoho, but kept hearing about issues with their service. do you have any experience with their reliability or tech support?

--Ken

I've not experienced problems of reliability nor with tech support.

Now, more about what I have with Zoho.

I pay for the Zoho Mail. I've got two domain names hosted with them, have done so for about a year. Tech support with a paid account is better and you can call them. Understand though that Zoho is essentially an India company with headquarters in California I think. Sometimes tech support is fast speaking and blunt - I can handle that since I'm used to Romanian tech support .

Steve

Ken wrote:

Steve wrote:
Check out Zoho Mail at https://www.zoho.com/mail/
>
>Not very pretty interface. Lots of "modules" you can add (many free for
>limited use), spam filter is quite good.
>
>Steve

I had considered Zoho, but kept hearing about issues with their service.
do you have any experience with their reliability or tech support?

--Ken

Steve wrote:

I've not experienced problems of reliability nor with tech support.

Now, more about what I have with Zoho.

I pay for the Zoho Mail. I've got two domain names hosted with them,
have done so for about a year. Tech support with a paid account is
better and you can call them. Understand though that Zoho is essentially
an India company with headquarters in California I think. Sometimes
tech support is fast speaking and blunt - I can handle that since I'm
used to Romanian tech support .

Steve

Thanks. I have less of a concern about where tech support is located and more about whether they are actually helpful.

--Ken

Location of support does affect some users due to misunderstanding of what is being said. Usually because of cultural differences such as speech patterns, accent, and the like. I mentioned it as a possible explanation for reported complaints about their tech support.

I've called them only two times and had the issue resolved.

Steve

Ken wrote:

Thanks. I have less of a concern about where tech support is located
and more about whether they are actually helpful.

--Ken