Migadu review 2023

Back in 2020 I came across a blogpost by Drew Devault about email service providers. He outlined some good criterias for a good email service provider. His #1 recommendation was Migadu. Back then I had been a ProtonMail-user for two years, mostly because I was fed up with how free alternatives like Gmail was using my email as a marketing machine to advertise stuff I don't need. But I also liked that it was end-to-end encrypted, albeit I learned after a while that isn't the case unless both sender and reciever use PM or PGP.

Anyway, in 2021 I decided to give Migadu a try, and migrate all my stuff over. I wrote a review about Migadu in 2021. And this post/review is supposed to follow up that and fill out the blanks.

Why I choose Migadu

There are a few reasons why I choose Migadu, but to summaries it:

Support open standards: IMAP and SMTP (and POP)
Unlimited domains
Catch-all
Alias email addresses
API for mailboxes, identities and aliases.

The part I cared most for when I signed up was unlimited domains, since I kept/keep buying new cool domains and I had a bad habit of using multiple domains for emails. But the main reason I've kept using their services for this long has been because of open standards, which means I can open my email in any email app.

Another key thing that sold me on Migadu is their pros/cons page. It basically explains their service as a no bullshit service that doesn't spy on you. More services needs to have page like this.

What kind of features are there?

First, lets look at their pricing tiers:

Micro: For sole proprietorships, individuals, freelancers, families.
Mini: For startups, groups, associations, power users (the one I use).
Standard: For SMEs, power users, associations, NGOs.
Maxi: For agencies, retailers, large employers, schools.

I bet for most people Micro would be sufficient, but if you plan to send more than 20 emails per day and you want all of Migadu's features you probably want to choose Mini.

And for the features:

Standards Email Hosting
Direct Postmasters' Support
Have Unlimited Addresses
No Advertising, No Tracking
Setup Concierge
IPv4 + IPv6 Support
Auto-Responder
Use any Email Client
Forwarding
Built-in DNS
Continuously Monitored
Aliasing & More
SIEVE Filtering (in beta)
Monitor Activity
Functional Admin
Catchalls
Multi-Admin Access
Automatic Footers
API for managing mailboxes, identities and aliases
Webmail client

There are also more, but they are more specific to support and Migadu as long lasting company. To see all of their features check out Migadu's website.

Migadu also offers a student discount with a valid ID. For more details you need to contact them.

What is different with Migadu?

The single thing I would say that makes Migadu different is that focus on offering unlimited domains instead of a limitation of how many you can have per pricing tier. And that the only thing they put a limit on is the amount of traffic you are allowed per day.

They also market themselves as "built and operated 100% on top of open source technologies" and I know they have an open source project on SourceHut for their webmail client.

How is the support?

The few times I've had to contact support, they've been excellent! They respond quickly, and are super helpful. One time I asked them if they could change my main domain to be one of my domain aliases and they did it within two hours.

But... when there's downtime, I'm not notified during or afterwards. There's no status-page to tell when their services has been experiencing downtime. And this happend just a week or two ago. I don't think it lasted longer than one-two hours. But either way, it's always nice to know that they've handled it properly and that they are looking into it not happening again.

So do keep that in mind!

Is it easy to use?

Screenshot of Migadu's DNS setup. — Migadu's DNS setup.

In my experience it's straight forward to set up and get started. Their guide for adding a domain has all the details you need to add the different DNS records and the UI explains what the different things are.

Screenshot of Migadu's Mailbox overview. — Migadu's Mailbox overview.

Conclusion

You should consider Migadu if you have multiple domains and/or need multiple addresses (aliases) for a single mailbox. And if you want to get the most out of your money. Other solutions are often more expensive and have other limitations.

If you have a basic email need there may be cheaper alterantives availble.