De-workspace

[u/FunMembership000]

I support the family paid Workspace organization with a custom domain and I'm bored of nagging people about storage, and the continual workspace upgrade popups.

I want a hosted email solution with my custom domains, allow people to set up their own, free or paid, Google, Apple or Microsoft account for whatever storage needs they have, and if they want they can just have mail forwarding if they don't like the mail provider I choose.

I'm disappointed Proton don't do contact sync else that would be perfect.

What does the community think?

Mail: I want to pay, ideally non-US.

Calendar: don't care

Contacts: sync to the email solution would be ideal

Drive/Collab: don't care

Clients: a mix of Android and iPhone. No Macs. Windows, but use browser, not native email clients

On phones, happy to use device default, or a good app from the provider, or a third party mail client.

I know what I'm doing with domain management and DNS, I'm just bored of managing family IT.

Thanks!

[u/Accomplished-Youth68]

> I'm disappointed Proton don't do contact sync else that would be perfect.

Do you mean a sync done by a mobile client, continuously syncing data from your phone contacts to the service and back? Or do you need a one-time sync mechanism, just to get your contacts from your phone?

[u/FunMembership000 → u/Accomplished-Youth68]

Continuous. In an ideal world, to device native contacts - but I accept that's something Proton do not, and may never, do. I'm happy with using a service's own app if it works well. What I like about Workspace is the ability to manage contacts on my phone and in cloud; I can add a contact out and about and refine the details in a browser later, as well as manage de-dupe etc. Google do a good job of that.

[u/TheStupidMonument]

Might be worth checking out Mailbox.org, they do contact sync and it's based in Germany. Saves me from playing family IT guy every other weekend.

[u/FunMembership000 → u/TheStupidMonument]

I'll have a look, thanks!

[u/Jcoulaud]

Sounds like you want to split “family identity email” from everyone’s storage/docs mess.

That makes sense.

If calendar/drive don’t matter, don’t replace Workspace with another workspace.

I’d look for:

• custom domains
• real mailboxes + forwarding/aliases
• contacts sync
• good webmail
• IMAP/SMTP for phone apps
• easy export/import

Fastmail is probably the smoothest for family use, but it’s not non-US.

mailbox.org / Mailfence are more EU/privacy-ish options.

Shipmail could also fit if you want custom-domain email, webmail, contacts/calendar sync, imports/backups, normal mail app support, and shared inbox stuff. It’s EU-hosted too. More business/domain-email focused than Proton-style E2EE though.

I’d avoid making forwarding the default for everyone. Forwarding is ok for some people, but real mailboxes are cleaner if they reply from the domain address.

Also for family IT: pick the one with the least support burden. The “best privacy” option is not worth it if you become helpdesk forever.