Regarding the #Proton fiasco:
I don't know much one way or another about Fastmail's internal culture, but I can say with certainty that their product has been *rock solid* for so many years I can't even recall when I first started using them.
They seem to be the move-slow-and-fix-things company, which I greatly appreciate. Their UX has evolved *very slowly* over time…some might say too slowly, but I'm fine with it.
And they have EU data sovereignty as an option now!
https://www.fastmail.com/blog/fastmail-offers-eu-data-region/
@jaredwhite fwiw, fastmail certainly appears to be reacting to pressure to integrate AI. while they haven't forced AI features on anyone just yet, it may be a good idea, especially for existing users, to nicely reinforce what they want and expect.
april 2026, they release optional AI integration as a celebration(?) of national email day(???): https://www.fastmail.com/blog/an-mcp-server-for-fastmail/
june 2026, they imply that AI is the "future of email": https://www.fastmail.com/blog/the-future-of-email/
the way they write about it suggests to me that it's pretty likely they either currently use, or will use, AI for their coding and infrastructure.
of course the direct involvement of AI with your email is still optional, and we haven't heard scary stories about the company's internals at this stage, but it's good to be wary of things like this. a fence-sitting stance is a stance.
The future of email
An MCP server for Fastmail — National Email Day