The Bottom Line
It's a pity FastMail does not offer truly effective spam filtering for free accounts, and more storage space for all users.
Pros
- FastMail offers elegant, powerful and flexible web-based access to email
- Free IMAP access is included, too
- You can retrieve other email account's mail and send emails from any address
Cons
- FastMail does not offer labels or smart folders to organize mail
- Free accounts include ads in sent mail and expire after 45 days without logging in
- FastMail lacks a calendar and task manager or integration with third-party services
Description
- FastMail offers a free email account with 10 MB mailbox size and IMAP access (paid FastMail accounts include up to ~6 GB).
- The fast and highly customizable web interface can compete with many an email program. Keyboard shortcuts make it fast.
- FastMail makes it easy to write both plain-text and rich HTML emails properly.
- You can create flexible custom filters and vacation auto-replies in FastMail.
- FastMail also includes basic protection from spam and viruses. Paid accounts use personal Bayesian filtering.
- Counteracting phishing attempts, FastMail disables links that can be identified as misleading.
- You can collect mail from other POP accounts and send messages using their addresses right from FastMail.
- FastMail includes a fully featured address book as well as file hosting and a notebook (but no calendar).
Guide Review - FastMail Free Guest Account - Free Email Service
Not so with FastMail. FastMail shows ads sparingly, and you get IMAP access from any email program that makes up for the limited online mailbox size of free FastMail accounts.
Do try FastMail's web-based interface, though, and you'll fall in love with its flexibility and power. Keyboard shortcuts take you everywhere in seconds: to the search box, for example, which turns up just the right emails fast; to the folder list, from which you can select with auto-completion; or to the message editor, which can juggle plain text and HTML expertly.
If you like FastMail enough to make it your main email service, you can have it retrieve mail from other mailboxes using POP (unfortunately it does not function as an IMAP client) — and send with the right address in the From: line, too, of course.
FastMail's filtering interface may look confusing at first, but it is quite sensible and versatile. Unfortunately, free FastMail accounts do not enjoy the best level of spam and virus filtering. Basic junk dumping is in place, though.
While operating FastMail's folders is a pleasure, the freedom of multiple labels per message is lacking. While finding messages with FastMail's search offers swift satisfaction (and search terms can be saved for one-click repetition), the courteousness of smart folders that update in real time and go bold upon new mail would be nice.
