Paul O'Brien

Two critical flaws in PHP, the language behind WordPress and most of the web, were fixed on 21 October. Here’s what they are, how to check your site, and what to ask your host.

KT8 Mail puts your email on your own Cloudflare account. Fastmail looks after everything for you. I help develop one and I earn commission from the other, so here's an honest look at what owning your email really gives you, what it costs you in responsibility, and who should pick which.

Links quietly break over time, so I’ve helped build Link Inspector, a tool that checks your whole website and shows you exactly where each broken link is.

A personal catch-up on what’s changed in KT8 Mail since launch, and a couple of side projects I’ve been helping with alongside it.

KT8 Mail is a new email service that you own outright: your own domain and your own Cloudflare account, with no mail company in the middle. It starts from Cloudflare’s Agentic Inbox, improves on it and makes it simple to install. Members can request an invite code today.

HEY wants to reinvent how you handle email, while Fastmail wants to fit however you already work. After six months inside HEY and years of writing about Fastmail, here's an honest, fact-checked comparison of pricing, features, privacy and the trade-offs that matter day to day.

Proton is built so your mail is unreadable to the host, and Fastmail so email is fast and dependable. Here is how they compare on encryption, custom domains, price, support and jurisdiction, and who should pick which.

Masked email does the same job as a disposable address but forwards to your real inbox, so you keep password resets and can switch it off. This guide compares the two, explains why sites block disposable addresses and weighs the main services.

QuickInbox.app promises anonymous, tracking-free disposable email. When I checked in October 2026, it loaded PostHog session replay, published no privacy policy or contact details, and tied paid plans to a bank card.

Amazon SES strips away SaaS markups to offer low-cost email infrastructure. This review covers the sandbox, DKIM and MAIL FROM setup, pricing and the bounce handling you have to build yourself.

Nostr Mail (Nmail) is an open-source webmail client that carries email over the Nostr protocol, so your identity is a key pair rather than an account. It’s fast and genuinely encrypted between Nostr users, but it leaks some metadata and the bridge to ordinary email weakens the story.

Proton Mail is excellent at keeping message contents private, but it doesn’t make you anonymous. This guide covers what it protects, what it can’t hide, what Swiss law means in practice and the safer setup for high-risk use.

Agentic Inbox is Cloudflare’s open-source, self-hosted webmail with a built-in AI agent. It’s clean, fast and easy to deploy, but it has gaps and a shared-access security model you should understand first.

saasmail is an open-source, self-hosted customer inbox that runs on Cloudflare Workers for about $5 a month, with one timeline per customer. This review covers the setup gotchas, passkey login, costs and who it suits.

Neither Switzerland nor Germany is a clear winner for email privacy. Germany has the stricter rulebook against profiling, Switzerland sits outside the EU and Fourteen Eyes, and both can order IP logging for a specific account while debating new retention powers.

Mailflare runs a custom-domain inbox inside your own Cloudflare account. Here is how it works, what sending really costs, and who should use it.

Zoho Mail’s free plan gives you an ad-free mailbox on your own domain for up to five users, but through webmail and apps only. This review covers the limits, privacy, inactivity rules, encryption and who it suits.

I set out to review Mail.co.uk’s free email and found a webmail wrapped in display ads. Here is what the terms, privacy statement and PlusMail plan actually say.

Apple’s hardware is world-class, but iCloud Mail on the web feels abandoned. Here is what iCloud Mail offers today, why it needs a rebuild, and a concept UI I mocked up.

Swissmail.org sells exceptional Swiss privacy, but its privacy policy lists around 30 third-party services, including Meta and TikTok pixels, and its trial link still 404s. Here is what I found.”

A technical look at paid Outlook and Exchange Online: which security features need which plan, how it compares to Google Workspace and Fastmail, and who should pick each.

AI is creeping into every email client. Here is how to switch off Gemini, Copilot and Apple Intelligence in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail, what you lose, and why I think email works fine without it.

Email tracking pixels tell senders when you opened a message, where you were and what device you used. Here is what they collect, what UK guidance says, and how to block them.”

Paid Google Workspace is the most complete business email package around, but its best security tools sit on pricier plans and your mail stays inside a vast ad-funded ecosystem. Here is what each plan includes, what Google says about AI and your data, and when Fastmail is better.

A look at Fastmail the company rather than the app: who owns it, where your email is stored, how it handles legal requests, its new EU data region, what it does and doesn't encrypt, and why it keeps AI out of the inbox.

When ransomware or an identity outage takes down your email and chat, how do you run the response? This guide covers out-of-band communications, real incident lessons and where Proton for Business fits.

Why do enterprises default to Microsoft 365 while startups pick Google Workspace? This guide covers inertia, compliance, the SME scaling point and what market share numbers really show.

What happens when your email provider goes down? Usually less than you fear, as long as you’ve dealt with the quieter single points of failure: your domain, your account recovery and your data. Here’s the continuity plan I’d use.

Filters are better than ever, yet invoices, password resets and client replies still land in spam. Here’s why real email gets caught, how to rescue it, and what senders need to fix.

HEY's Screener is the best answer to cold outreach I've used, but it means HEY-only apps, no IMAP and $99 a year or more. Here is what you get, what it costs, and how it compares with Fastmail.

Starlink Standby Mode keeps your dish live at 0.5Mbps for £9 a month, double last year’s price. Here’s what that actually gets you, how it compares with a 4G backup, and why power is the catch nobody mentions.

Zero-access email suits lawyers, journalists and privacy-minded teams, but costs you easy recovery and search. Here is who it fits, who should skip it, and the trade-offs.

I avoided Google for years over privacy fears. Now my business runs on Workspace. Here’s what Google, Gemini and your own admin can really see, and where the genuine risks sit.

Cloudflare Email Routing gives your domain free, properly authenticated forwarding, and in 2026 Cloudflare finally added sending. Here’s what’s free, what now costs money, and when a real mailbox is the better call.

Should you run your own email server? The pull is control and privacy. The cost is deliverability, patching and recovery. A continuity view of who it suits, what it really costs and the middle ground.

Mailfence is a Belgian email provider built around OpenPGP and a paid-first model. Here is what each plan really includes (IMAP needs Entry, not Base), how its encryption works in practice, and who it suits compared with Proton Mail and Fastmail.

Proton Mail is one of the strongest mainstream choices for limiting what your provider can see, but the design has real costs in search, desktop clients and support. Here is who it suits, what it really protects, what each plan costs in 2026, and when I would pick Fastmail instead.

Google Workspace's strongest security tools sit on the higher tiers. Here is what Business and Enterprise plans include, how the 99.9% SLA works, and which edition suits your risk.

Gmail is faster and better connected. Proton Mail cannot read the mail it stores. Here is how they compare, what I gave up, and who should stay.

Mailbox.org is a paid German email provider with own data centres, custom domains from €3 a month, standard IMAP and usable PGP and S/MIME. Here is what changed in its 2026 plans, why the free trial can't test real email, and who it suits.

Posteo costs €1 a month and is far more serious than that sounds: no personal details at signup, an optional zero-access mailbox and green power. It has no custom domains, which is why it isn't my main inbox. Here is who it suits and how it compares with Proton Mail and StartMail.

For most UK online businesses, the answer is yes: the 2002 E-Commerce Regulations require an email address that is easily and permanently accessible. Even where the law doesn’t reach, hiding your support email behind a chatbot moves the cost onto your customers.

Yahoo Mail didn’t disappear overnight. It faded from relevance as trust eroded, decisions stalled, and breaches exposed deeper problems. This is the story of how the internet’s most trusted brand lost its place at the centre of email.

From Nigerian prince emails to modern phishing, 419 scams evolved with the internet, and they expose how email’s openness can be exploited.

A look at how support actually works at email providers, why it often breaks down at scale, and what good support should look like in practice.

Email used to be the product. Now it is bundled into productivity suites and buried under notifications. But for many of us it remains a deliberate craft, slower, clearer and more intentional than the tools that replaced it.

Amazon WorkMail looked basic but sat on serious AWS infrastructure built for resilience and governance. AWS is now retiring it, with support ending on 31 March 2027. Here is how it worked, what the sunset means, and where to go instead.

Most people think nothing of paying for everyday comforts, yet hesitate to spend a few pounds on the email account that underpins their whole online identity. Here is why, and what paying actually buys.

I still care about privacy, but I moved my main inbox from Proton Mail to Fastmail. Here’s why, what I kept at Proton, and the exact steps to switch without losing mail or changing your address.

Forward Email decides where your domain's mail goes before it reaches any inbox. Here is how its routing, encrypted DNS, SMTP sending, optional storage and webhooks work, the trade-offs, and who it suits.

The address you see in an email is only one of six sender identities. Here is what each does, which ones SPF, DKIM and DMARC check, and how to read the real headers.

There is no single meaning of secure email. Here are six, what each protects, who can still read your mail, and how to choose the right level for your needs.

Most people reuse passwords without realising the risk, so one breach can unlock dozens of accounts. Here is how a password manager, email aliases and printed backup codes close that gap.

Email pwned? What it means in Have I Been Pwned, whether HIBP is safe, and the steps to take after a breach: passwords, 2FA and aliases.

Gmail launched in 2004 as an invitation-only beta with 1 GB of storage and became the default inbox through reliability, search and integration, not privacy. Here is how it happened and what it costs.

Fastmail is the best pure email service I've used: fast, private and built on open standards. So why does my mail now run through Google Workspace? An honest long read on what I loved, what I miss, and why I still left.

Tuta Mail, formerly Tutanota, encrypts subjects, contacts and search but drops IMAP. Here is what it protects, what it costs, and how it compares with Proton and StartMail.

Spam didn’t disappear, it was pushed out of sight. Reputation systems like Spamhaus reshaped email abuse at internet scale, trading noisy volume for quieter, more dangerous attacks. This is the infrastructure that keeps email usable, and the compromises it relies on.

DMARC passes only when SPF or DKIM passes and aligns with your From domain. Here is what a DMARC fail means and how to fix it.

SPF lists which servers may send email for your domain, but it checks the delivery path, not the sender people see. This guide covers record syntax, ~all vs -all, the 10-lookup limit and why legitimate mail fails.

Email was built on trust, so the From line can be faked. This guide explains how SPF, DKIM and DMARC work together, adds MX, MTA-STS and BIMI, and points to the detailed guide for each.

Email mistakes at work are common, but when do they lead to discipline? Here’s how UK employers weigh intent, risk and impact, what a fair process looks like, and what to do in the first hour after you hit send.

Privacy rarely fails through dramatic hacks. It erodes quietly as the same email address is reused across accounts, services and years of digital life, turning a simple inbox into an identity anchor. Here is why, and how separation fixes it.

Spam hasn’t disappeared, it has adapted. Mass junk gave way to quiet impersonation that blends into routine digital life. Here is how it changed, why fewer messages now do more damage, and what actually limits the harm.

Zero-access encryption stops your provider reading stored mail, but not metadata or inbound mail before it arrives. Here is what it covers, how it differs from end-to-end, and the trade-offs.

An address on your own domain stays yours when you change provider. This guide covers what it costs, which providers support custom domains, how to move without losing mail and how to protect the domain.

DKIM signs your email so receivers can check it wasn't altered, but it proves integrity, not identity. This guide covers signatures, selectors, key length, provider setup and why genuine mail fails.

Free email feels effortless, but the real cost often shows up later. This piece looks at the hidden trade-offs between free and paid email, from incentives and lock-in to control, support, privacy and long-term trust.

Email breaches are inevitable. What matters isn’t whether your provider or account is ever compromised, but how much damage is done when it happens and how quickly you can recover.

Why so many marketing emails force a binary choice between staying and leaving, and how unsubscribe-only design misses what subscribers actually want.

DuckDuckGo Email Protection forwards mail through free @duck.com addresses and strips the trackers it recognises. Here is what it does, what it cannot do and when to choose something else.

StartMail puts unlimited aliases, open IMAP/SMTP and IP header stripping at the heart of a paid-only, Dutch-based inbox. We look at pricing, PGP, the Business plan and where it falls short of Proton Mail and Tuta in 2026.

Yes, Proton Pass works with YubiKeys and other FIDO2 security keys. Here is how to add one, what Proton says about browsers and limits, and how to avoid locking yourself out.

Messaging apps didn’t replace email. Here’s why email still matters for identity, recovery and trust online, and why no chat app is likely to take that job.

Email began as a quick hack between two computers in the same room, and it still runs on rules written in 1982. Here's how it grew from ARPANET into the backbone of online identity, and what that history means for choosing a provider today.