iCloud Mail
Ranked 9 of 17 email services by recommenders
Free with an Apple account, and it supports custom domains and IMAP with good spam filtering for many users. Critics say it silently filters legitimate mail.
Free with an Apple account, and it supports custom domains and IMAP with good spam filtering for many users. Critics say it silently filters legitimate mail.
38 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 24
- criticize it
- 14
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 24 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Supports custom domains
“the best alternative is to use a simple email host like iCloud with your own domain”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “Proton CEO Andy Yen: "This will be the last year that we hire engineers."” “iCloud works fine with imap (ie mutt, thunderbird) and does custom domains too.”
Comment from 6 Aug 2026 in “Why does Mail app contact iCloud when sending a non-iCloud email?” “My custom domain emails work wonderfully through Apple iCloud account.”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “All I wanted was a custom domain email” - Comment from 26 May 2026 in “Don't Subscribe So Casually”
- Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Addressing Antigravity Bans and Reinstating Access”
- Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Proton Spam and the AI Consent Problem”
Works with Apple devices
“I was able to use a full Apple stack except for Exchange Online Plan 1 (email)”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft: We see all the backlash and we know we have a lot to fix in Windows” “Apple's iCloud email hosting is basically tailor fit to your expectations”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “All I wanted was a custom domain email” “Is the simplest option if you want apple mail compatibility”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “All I wanted was a custom domain email” - Comment from 24 Jan 2026 in “Bye Bye Gmail”
Reliable, stable service
“Great price. Great service. And Apple has better privacy safeguards and internal processes”
Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: Alternative to Proton Mail?” “I switched from Fastmail to iCloud Mail and I’m happy.”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Leaving Google has actively improved my life” “Apple's been a rock-solid email host for me.”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “Gmail to end support for "Send as" for third-party addresses, such as @yahoo.com” - Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Gmail thinks I'm stupid, so I left”
Good spam filtering
“since moving my email hosting to Apple (from my own server), spam has not been a problem”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Email obfuscation: What works in 2026?” “it’s been splendid. No issues sending to other servers, decent spam filtering”
Comment from 11 May 2026 in “Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message” “super conveninent, stable and spam-free”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Gmail thinks I'm stupid, so I left”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Silently filters emails by content
“iCloud Mail will silently filter emails with certain words (including in attachments).”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “All I wanted was a custom domain email” “supposedly they have been dropping emails with certain words in them”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “All I wanted was a custom domain email” “overly aggressive silent spam filtering”
Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address” - Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “All I wanted was a custom domain email”
Legitimate mail sent to spam
“it reports virtually all iCloud as Spam”
Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com” “legitimate messages (including apple billing notifications) in the spam folder”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Email obfuscation: What works in 2026?” Does not send DMARC reports
“they do not send dmarc reports and they make it very difficult to tell why they accept some email and not others”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Email is tough: Major European Payment Processor's Emails aren't RFC-Compliant” “They don't even send DMARC reports.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “The Future of Email” Poor fit outside Apple ecosystem
“as expected are not accommodating to anyone operating outside of the Apple garden”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “We have a 99% email reputation. Gmail disagrees” “They keep enshittifying the experience for those not using iCloud Mail.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Android: Balancing Openness and Choice with Safety”
Other email services people recommend
The four most recommended other email services, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fastmail | 388 | 95 | 80% | 13 | 5 yrs90 owners | Approved |
| Gmail | 295 | 797 | 27% | 12 | 20 yrs58 owners | — |
| Proton Mail | 196 | 222 | 47% | 13 | 3 yrs29 owners | — |
| Tuta Mail | 49 | 17 | 74% | 13 | — | Approved |
| iCloud MailThis page | 24 | 14 | 63% | 10 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 46 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the best alternative is to use a simple email host like iCloud with your own domain”
“which afaik is anticompetitive but until all countries get around to sending desist notices”
“since Apple (unlike Google) offers that as a free service”
“Apple also pushed an icloud address onto them that they didn't want”
“I use iCloud Mail and didn't have problems with search on iOS or MacOS”
“I use icloud and this does not match my experience”
“If you use their iCloud mail service, search works fine”
“That is inexcusably low; it should begin with a 2 digit number.”
“I’ve never had a problem with”
“supposedly they have been dropping emails with certain words in them”
“iCloud+ mail was definitely a better choice”
“iCloud Mail silently filters emails”
“iCloud Mail will silently filter emails with certain words (including in attachments).”
“Apple's iCloud email hosting is basically tailor fit to your expectations”
“My custom domain emails work wonderfully through Apple iCloud account.”
“Is the simplest option if you want apple mail compatibility”
“Apple's been a rock-solid email host for me.”
“Great price. Great service. And Apple has better privacy safeguards and internal processes”
“it reports virtually all iCloud as Spam”
“promptly switched to iCloud”
“iCloud works fine with imap (ie mutt, thunderbird) and does custom domains too.”
“iCloud email isn't very popular. I always have to spell it out verbally if someone asks”
“They don't even send DMARC reports.”
“super conveninent, stable and spam-free”
“Get Proton, or Apple, or any other custom-domain email service.”
“it’s been splendid. No issues sending to other servers, decent spam filtering”
“as expected are not accommodating to anyone operating outside of the Apple garden”
“legitimate messages (including apple billing notifications) in the spam folder”
“since moving my email hosting to Apple (from my own server), spam has not been a problem”
“Lots and lots of missing messages. That was the big one.”
“They keep enshittifying the experience for those not using iCloud Mail.”
“use their custom domain email setup (free btw)”
“I switched from Fastmail to iCloud Mail and I’m happy.”
“I wish I could simply turn off the forwarder”
“they do not send dmarc reports and they make it very difficult to tell why they accept some email and not others”
“icloud mail support custom domains.”
“No regrets (since I am a mac & iphone user).”
“overly aggressive silent spam filtering”
“pretty often I will force my mail to refresh and it will say the imap server is unreachable”
“I was able to use a full Apple stack except for Exchange Online Plan 1 (email)”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.