
Ask HN: How many email addresses do you actively use? - chdaniel
I&#x27;m addressing this question especially to those who have multiple businesses online.<p>Also, how do you access them?
======
lcall
Hundreds. Having my own domains with all email coming to me lets me give
arbitrary (i.e., numbered) addresses when requested, so I can track them when
I want, and for example see which ones later to auto-delete, etc. Or for
whatever need arises.

Edit: my recollection from some time ago is that pobox.com was useful for the
same thing, if one doesn't have one's own domain. I used them before I got
mine. There are probably similar services. I liked their attitude and
approach, at the time. (no other affiliation.)

Edit again: the above plus some rules in mutt (or thunderbird maybe...), have
been really helpful for me. The rules & macros could get rather complex if one
wanted I suppose.

(Edit: I've liked pair.com for domain/hosting for a long time: have had good
prices/service, helpfulness, no silliness for many years; also no other
affiliation but customer.)

(Edit: that email system at my hosting provider also works well for, say,
groups like various extended family subsets, so it works something like a
mailing list to everyone.)

Edit (sorry, I didn't answer the OPs 2nd question): For most, I use mutt (or
thunderbird) to POP (download) them from my hosting provider to my own pc (so,
not a business...sorry if not helping), and then do good backups. For some, as
mentioned in my previous paragraph, they are auto-forwarded by the hosting
provider to whomever, per rules I put in their web UI for my account. It is
also possible to create many extra mailboxes (which I used to do ) so other
individuals can POP (or view with IMAP) their own email to their own pc. For a
business...would have to think whether we need a centralized Exchange-
equivalent or if storage on multiple PCs, or IMAP (leave it on the hosting
provider's server, but manage from a PC, etc) is OK in a limited situation,
given the backups, storage, and specific business needs. I would probably not
prefer gmail since Google already has enough centralized power (as discussed
in other HN postings about Chrome vs. firefox etc).

~~~
chdaniel
Wow, that's interesting. If you change your device
(phone/tablet/desktop/laptop), do you have to set them all up again? Set them
all up = log in, sync signatures, display name etc.

How do you access these email addresses anyways? I think it's safe to assume
you're not paying a G Suite subscription for each of them...

~~~
jen20
You can have a catch all in gmail that goes to your main mailbox. I do the
same thing - every company and site gets a unique email so I know who has
violated GDPR easily ;-)

~~~
lcall
Maybe what we are doing is similar in concept. I haven't been using gmail
primarily, since they have so much power already and history suggests (to me
at least) not to centralize too much, anywhere, as a matter of trust. (A
breach there could be big indeed.)

~~~
jen20
Indeed - I have considered switching away from Google for these reasons but
cannot find a provider I like more, and do not want to run infrastructure like
this personally.

Two killer features are:

1: catch all (office 365 did not have this when I switched away from them in
2014) 2: automatic categorisation which no one else seems to have.

If anyone knows a provider that has these I’d be most interested in hearing
about them!

------
john_moscow
I use an open-source helpdesk system to manage business emails. Works like a
charm - lets you assign deadlines, priorities, categories, have canned
replies, sorting rules, leave internal comments, search previous replies, etc.
It's also super-convenient to have 1 interface to multiple emails & signatures
(support/sales/per-product addresses) and I would recommend setting one up
once you hit 5-10 incoming emails per week.

Aside from that, I have 1 personal address on my main business domain, the
name@surname.com (redirects to the 1st one) and a @gmail.com one for people
with overzealous spam filters.

~~~
svd4anything
Wow that is such an interesting idea to me. one of those “that was obvious why
didn’t I think of that” type reactions.

What help-desk system is your favorite?

------
Wowfunhappy
Three:

1\. My work email

2\. My "personal" email, with a silly-sounding address (see my username).

3\. A professional-sounding, but non-work-affiliated email
(firstname.lastname@gmail.com)

I would love to combine 2 and 3. Unfortunately, I came up with my
email/username when I was 12 and didn't know any better, and I don't want it
seen in professional correspondence.

I add all three to Apple Mail on my various devices, and access them from a
unified inbox. The exception is my work computer (an iMac), where I _could_
add my personal accounts but have chosen not to.

~~~
chdaniel
You're the perfect person I can asked an "advanced" question since you're
using a unified inbox.

Would you see an improvement in having a web-based mail client where, with one
login, you can access and quickly switch between all these addresses' inboxes?

~~~
Wowfunhappy
Yes it would be an improvement, but I use web-based email so rarely I don't
know if I'd bother setting up such a thing.

The only time I use web-based email is when I'm on a public computer and need
a very specific message. When that happens, I know intuitively which account
it's in.

~~~
chdaniel
Oh? I assumed web-based email is superior to a client installed on your
machine since it's... in the cloud as opposed to local.

I can see you're not thinking of it that way. What's your underlying thought
on web-based email vs local client?

~~~
__d
I (nearly) always use a local app for my email too -- the UX is just so much
better.

So far as being in the Cloud goes, all the email is kept in IMAP folders "in
the Cloud", I just have a local cache in the Mail app.

~~~
chdaniel
I agree that all web-based mail clients are pretty low. Gmail/Outlook/other
clearly-developed alternatives are good, but they also have native
counterparts

Given a high-quality (good UX, etc.) web-based client would be available,
would you consider switching?

~~~
__d
I'll always consider other solutions, but ...

A native application has advantages over a web site, a web app, or a "native"
app built using Electron, etc:

* in resource usage,

* in UX consistency,

* in integration with the rest of the system, eg. for scripting (Apple Script), accessibility, etc

* in working with locally-cached emails while offline or with degraded connectivity,

* in having no ongoing cost,

* in being vendor independent,

* in supporting the use of standard protocols (SMTP / IMAP), rather than a proprietary web backend API

and there's probably more I could come up with if I thought about it some
more.

A web application (not an Electron app) has one primary advantage: it can
easily access significantly more computational and storage resources than my
laptop can. That could be an advantage for searching. There's probably other
advantages I could think of with more time here too.

So, while I'd be happy to consider a web-based solution, I think it's fair to
say that I think the deck is stacked against such a product, for my purposes.

------
mattlondon
Work, personal Gmail, and more recently a personal burner _domain_ that has
hundreds.

The burner domain is great for random website signups. Anything serious is
done via Gmail (with two factor), but for the burner domain I use a unique
address for every site that needs a sign-up (so if whatever.com needs a sign
up then I use whatever@burner, other.org becomes other@burner etc etc - all
addresses are directed to one inbox via a catchall) but typically the same
password.

So I remember one password instead of one email address, and the address I can
work out from the domain. Not exactly secure, but at least slightly resistant
to leaked email lists if a site gets hacked (since every site has a unique
address and common password, rather than common address and password). I am
working on the assumption that people are just automatically trying leaked
user-passwd pairs and won't "crack" my system... but if they do no harm done
since anything important is on Gmail (I generally trust Google to not get
hacked, for better or worse) and I can start again with another burner domain.
For important passwords I of course use decent passwords and a password
manager, but life is too short for that with websites you might only use once
or twice a year and you don't really care about.

I use Zoho for the burner domain. Cheap and reliable. I tried fastmail, proton
mail, and tutonova but I preferred zoho's web interface, app, and price (for
the features I needed)

~~~
chdaniel
Would you use a web-based email client where, with one login, you can access
all three addresses?

Not in a unified inbox, but have them as separates. Say the "cmd+1" keyboard
shortcut is instantly switching to address #1, cmd +2 is switching to address
#2 and so on...

~~~
mattlondon
No that sounds like something I'd really want to avoid.

Partly for security, but mostly just for segmentation of my brain/attention
span. The different emails are all for different purposes and are never really
used at the same time or same context.

Plus also I don't have a Mac so no CMD key. If you are building a product,
please don't do a mac-only release. Lots of developers don't use Macs despite
what people seem to think

~~~
chdaniel
"If you are building a product, please don't do a mac-only release"

See, that's why it would be web-based, to not tie it down to any OS. I'm held
tight in the Apple ecosystem and I'm actively looking for web-based solutions
as opposed to local ones just on the off-chance I might want to make the jump
one day to something else

------
darrmit
I have one personal domain at Fastmail that I use nearly always, but it’s a
.me domain and I’ve ran into weird issues with certain services thinking it’s
a fake email address or just general unexplained delivery issues over the
years, so I fall back to a fastmail.com address in those cases. I also have
iCloud and GMail addresses I rarely ever use.

I forward everything into Fastmail and use their web interface and mobile
apps.

I have a work address I keep entirely separate.

~~~
chdaniel
If you switch devices, do you just login with Fastmail once and everything is
synced? Or do you have to sync details such as display name+signatures again?

------
morpheuskafka
Don't have any business use, so not sure if this is of any interest to you.

1\. Personal domain, currently hosted with Office 365 but I will probably move
after the year is up.

2\. Student email (.edu, G Suite). Used for all school business, school-
related apps, and some things I haven't bothered to move to #1 yet.

3\. Gmail account for spammy/annoying websites and signups.

4\. Gmail account used for public records/FOIA requests, nothing else.

5\. iCloud account (basically used for nothing except iTunes receipts).

6\. ProtonMail account--used for my VPN accounts only.

On my Mac mini and iPhone, I use Apple Mail with 1, 2, and 5 added. On my
Windows laptop, I access 1 and 2 through webmail (I have Outlook installed for
1 but rarely use it). Anything else, I just sign in to webmail as needed. I
also have access to a few team/shared Gmail/G Suite accounts, I don't have
these added to Mail b/c I don't want their unread statuses messing up my
unread badges.

Only 1/2 are generally used for IRL stuff or accounts that I care about. I
follow inbox zero and turn off email notifications for all but the most
important stuff (ex security alerts, receipts, eBay auction results) and email
analogs (ex. Canvas messages).

~~~
chdaniel
You've given me a lot of info (thanks for that) so I can ask you a question
that would usually come "down the line".

Especially since you're cross-platform (mac mini, windows, iphone), would you
use a web-based email client where, with one login, you can access all these
6? Not in an unified inbox, but have them as separate.

Essentially Apple Mail Client but in the browser.

------
jamestomasino
I use between 4 & 6 primary email "blocks" with each using several hundred
aliases. I keep access to most, but not all of these blocks in Thunderbird on
my two laptops. One of the email accounts I only access from a dedicated
device while VPN'd. I fetch mail over POP3, wiping the server data, and then
move the files to an airgapped machine to read. I have a Protonmail & Tutonota
account which I connect to via their apps or websites. I also maintain several
small public access servers which handle mail. I use Alpine for that, or Mutt
in a pinch.

Friends get one email address from one domain. Work gets aliases from a second
domain. Businesses get an alias from a third domain. These are either
whitelisted domains where any address will get to me, or I can create the
alias on the fly in the moment. I like to know not only if a mailbox is
getting spam so I can block the alias, but also so I can stop doing business
with companies that sell my data (looking at you, Bank of America).

Is it overkill? Oh yeah, big-time.

------
Bnshsysjab
Many, I split topics logically over multiple gmail addresses which allowed me
to isolate spam. I’ve also used throwaway sims for things like gumtree.com.au
- there was a bunch of phone spam that hit the burner number so I’m glad I did
that one.

Now I use two dedicated domains with catchalls which seem to work everywhere
but gmail which should allow me to attribute and blackhole spam much more
effectively. I really wish large providers (o365, aws) would provide low
volume accounts for cheaper - having my company sales or procurements
associated with my personal company email is silly, but the alternative is
$4/month/account which really adds up but running your own mail server has
it’s own time costs.

~~~
chdaniel
So how many do email addresses would you need to access if, say, you're on a
vacation and you're using the hotel iMacs (or whatever desktops they have
there).

When you get a new phone/laptop/work computer/etc, do you set up all these
2/3/4 email addresses you actually use, making sure the display names and
signatures are synced?

~~~
Bnshsysjab
> hotel iMacs I would never authenticate to an account I care about from a
> host I don’t trust.

> new laptop

Copy my .thunderbird and offlineimap user profiles to my new host

~~~
chdaniel
> Copy my .thunderbird and offlineimap user profiles to my new host

Would you be paying for a web-based email client for all your email accounts,
in order to avoid this transfer?

------
akho
No online businesses.

1) work email (access from the office or through blackberry work, ugh)

2) personal (that’s actually two addresses on similar domains, but I only
actually send from one) — google hosted, read through iOS mail or mail.app or
win10 mail or web interface

3) a more professionally-sounding personal, which I don’t use much, forwarded
to 2)

4) spam hole for random website registrations, read through web interface when
I need to confirm an email for some business’ enjoyment

5) one for newsletters, which I convert to a feed to read in miniflux

I guess I also have a Microsoft account from my office 365 subscription, but I
never actually opened it.

~~~
chdaniel
Thanks for clarifying everything — because of the info you've given me, I can
ask you a question that would usually come after some back-and-forth:

Would you use a web-based email client where, with one login, you can access
the relevant ones? Not in an unified inbox, but have them as separates.

Say you add all of them but disable notifications on address #4 and set
notification rules for #5.

As a consequence, you wouldn't need to forward #3 to #2.

~~~
akho
Gmail already allows to easily switch between accounts.

~~~
chdaniel
Are you using Gmail?

I did try that personally but the fact that it was POP3 and not IMAP put me
off... I believe they do that because they sell G Suite and you'd have to get
that if you'd want IMAP _and_ easy-switch

~~~
akho
I have the old free g suite.

You mention keyboard shortcuts. That’s trivial to replicate with Firefox’ MAC
with any web interface.

Web clients are not important.

------
thibaultamartin
I tried to limit as much as possible switching between email addresses.

Because of there is no central authority to bind an email to a person, you
cannot really ever delete an address.

I used to have a gmail address, and then I switched to a custom domain + email
provider when I started to want some emancipation from Google. My gmail
address still exists but redirects emails to my new address. I refrained from
creating aliases to that address for the very reason that I wouldn’t be able
to delete them.

~~~
chdaniel
When you say email provider, is that an Exchange account? Or just
roundcube/free thing from your custom domain?

What do you use to read/send emails? And did I get it right that you only have
two now i.e. custom domain and the gmail one?

~~~
thibaultamartin
Yes I have two addresses, the custom (actively used) and the gmail (legacy,
forwards everything to my custom).

I registered my domain at Gandi.net, which offers access to their smtp and
imap servers when you do so. They are my provider atm, but since I own the
domain I could switch to self hosting anytime.

~~~
chdaniel
What do you do if you get a new device? Is it painful to set these things up
across your devices? They'd need to have the same signature, display name etc.

------
__d
1 professional (Fastmail, own domain) 1 personal (POBox alias, forwarding to
iCloud) 1 employer-provided (Google Business) 1 GMail (er ... GMail) 1 iCloud
(not publicly used, but collects from POBox) 1 Yahoo (still!)

I use all accounts from Mail on my iPhone; all except my employer's account
via Mail.app on my MBP; and my employer's GMail via the GMail web on my work
laptop.

I use +-suffixes extensively for signups, etc, so I can blackhole spam when my
address gets leaked ...

~~~
chdaniel
When you're on a computer, do you access all these individually from the
browser?

If you'd switch your phone, does the need to sync the display names and
signatures bother you? That, and the need to log in manually to all these 6
addresses?

~~~
__d
On my laptop, I use Apple's Mail.app, rather than a browser.

When I switch to my phone, also using the iOS Mail application, it's all
synced up.

I seldom need to log in: the Mail apps use my keychain to sign me in to all
the accounts transparently.

I have at least one signature for each account, and several for some. When
sending a new email, I select the correct source address (two taps/clicks),
and signature (another two clicks) if the default isn't correct.

Replies set the account automatically, so I just need to choose the signature
there.

------
Rerarom
Roughly four.

The 'personal' email address (although I have some work-related emails on it)
which is on Gmail, so I have push notifications on my phone. I also use
webmail.

The work address from the institution I'm currently at and the address from
the one where I'm currently on leave. These I check daily (or four times a day
if I'm bored) on their webmail interfaces.

The old personal address (also on Gmail) which I've discontinued in 2014. This
I check once a week.

------
TheMog
I've got several - one gmail (aka the "refuse collection" that I use mostly
for email registrations for website I suspect will send me more email I care
for), one protonmail I use as a backup business email where I'm the customer,
plus my main personal email address a handful for side projects that I all run
via an email server I host myself on a VPS.

Oh, and a work email address.

~~~
chdaniel
Would you use a web-based email client where, with one login, you can access
all three addresses? Not in a unified inbox, but have them as separates. Say
the "cmd+1" keyboard shortcut is instantly switching to address #1, cmd +2 is
switching to address #2 and so on...

------
tendencydriven
I use three emails.

I have my personal email, which is in gmail

I have my website email, which is in gmail for business

And I have my work email, which is also in gmail for business.

I add all three to my laptop and only the first two to my phone.

I use the + feature a lot, for example tendencydriven+github@workdomain.com -
they still get arrive in my regular inbox but I can easily see who is sharing
my email, and block certain ones if I start getting spam on them.

------
nottorp
2 to 7.

One personal/work email on my own domain, one catchall on gmail, mostly for
signing up to public services that will spam me (sadly their spam filter is
much better than what I can run on my server).

5+ legacy email addys on various non-gmail free services, that i don't sign up
with any more but have some of my old accounts.

~~~
chdaniel
So you're _mainly_ using... 2 to 4 if I counted that right?

What do you do when you get a new device? Do you have to sync the signatures
and display names again manually?

~~~
nottorp
I regularly use only 2, so the others aren't configured in any email client, i
just open the web interface when i (rarely) use them.

------
zzo38computer
Fourteen, all on my own server. Each one is used with a different service or
person that I communicate with. I access it with Heirloom-mailx; all of the
messages go into the same mailbox file, and the /etc/aliases file is used to
add or remove email addresses. This helps to avoid spam.

~~~
chdaniel
If you change devices or get a new device, do you need to set everything
you've set up in Heirloom again? Or it's all synced?

~~~
zzo38computer
If I get a new computer, I can simply copy the files, I think. (These are not
only the mailbox file for Heirloom-mailx, but also the configuration files for
Exim, and the /etc/aliases file, which would be copied.) (I don't use my email
from multiple devices at the same time.)

------
truro
Five. I use them all. Three are not tied to my identity and I use them for
secure communications. The other two are for family and friends. Only one is a
paid-for service and I've used that service for fourteen years, which permits
unlimited ad-hoc addresses.

~~~
chdaniel
Would you use a web-based email client where, with one login, you can access
all 5 addresses?

Not in a unified inbox, but have them as separates. Say the "cmd+1" keyboard
shortcut is instantly switching to address #1, cmd +2 is switching to address
#2 and so on...

------
Eavolution
About 7. I require 3 for personal use (one main, 2 junk for accounts for
websites that I don't care about but need an account), one school one, one for
my scanners smtp scan to email function and the other 2 are just old ones.

~~~
chdaniel
Would you use a web-based email client where, with one login, you can access
all email addresses you care about? Not in an unified inbox, but have them as
separates.

Say cmd+1 is quickly switching to address #1, cmd +2 is switching to address
#2 and so on...

------
stzup7
As a customer I use one email address per service, using a catch-all on my
domain name. As a business, I have about 3 or 4 email addresses for each
business and all of them are managed through a single fastmail.com account

~~~
chdaniel
If you get a new device, do you just login with your fastmail.com and
everything is synced (display names, signatures etc) or do you need to set up
these things again?

------
away_throw
Three Emails:

\- accounts@domain.tld - Catch All for emails for services
(account/<service>@domain.tld)

\- handle@domain.tld - Personal Email

\- first@domain.tld - Work/Professional Email

~~~
chdaniel
Would you use a web-based email client where, with one login, you can access
all three addresses?

Not in a unified inbox, but have them as separates. Say the "cmd+1" keyboard
shortcut is instantly switching to address #1, cmd +2 is switching to address
#2 and so on...

------
davchana
@gmail.com, moving all those to personal domain; few catchalls@domains

~~~
chdaniel
When you switch devices, do you set these addresses all over again? How do you
deal with syncing display names, signatures etc, if so?

------
ahuth
1 work, 1 personal, 1 professional (for recruiters and domain stuff)

~~~
chdaniel
Would you use a web-based email client where, with one login, you can access
all 3 addresses?

Not in an unified inbox, but have them as separates. Say the "cmd+1" keyboard
shortcut is instantly switching to address #1, cmd +2 is switching to address
#2 and so on...

------
blaser-waffle
Four (4)

\- Work, run through the company's IT team

\- Personal (via gmail)

\- Private personal (custom domain)

\- Volunteer group email

------
menzoic
3: Work, personal, independent business

~~~
chdaniel
I see. How do you manage access them? Mail client or browser?

------
lucasverra
5 :

\- 3 personal (of them 2 personal domains)

\- 2 pro/project based

~~~
chdaniel
When you switch devices, do you set these addresses up all over again? How do
you deal with syncing display names, signatures etc, if so?

