Runbox
Hacker ApprovedRanked 12 of 17 email services by recommenders
Recommended for responsive support, reasonable prices and Norwegian servers, though critics cite reliability problems and poor communication during outages.
Recommended for responsive support, reasonable prices and Norwegian servers, though critics cite reliability problems and poor communication during outages.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not 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 carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 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
Responsive, warm support
“have only ever been met with warmth and kindness in my interactions in the tickets”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “Lies We Tell Ourselves About Email Addresses” “Runbox is very small but very responsive, they’ve been great to me.”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Namecheap just seized and disabled all my domains” “Support is great, prices are reasonable.”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Now Google says it might use your Gmail and Google Photos data to target ads” Reasonable pricing
“Decent features, pricing, and servers in Norway.”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Proton Spam and the AI Consent Problem” “Runbox is great, and not that expensive.”
Comment from 11 May 2026 in “Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message” “Support is great, prices are reasonable.”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Now Google says it might use your Gmail and Google Photos data to target ads” Norwegian company and servers
“decades of ops history, proper Norwegian company”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Rootshell: A new E2EE email service hosted in Iceland” “Decent features, pricing, and servers in Norway.”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Proton Spam and the AI Consent Problem” “company and servers in Norway”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Migrating to the EU” Satisfied long-term customers
“as a happy Runbox customer of several years”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Migrating to the EU” “I have been quite pleased with RunBox”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Migrating to the EU” “Among these runbox is quite good”
Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “Fastmail offers EU data region”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Outages and reliability problems
“I was disappointed more by their lack of communication than by the outages.”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Migrating to the EU” “I had enough of reliability issues, and a few emails got lost”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Migrating to the EU”
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 |
| RunboxThis page | 14 | 2 | 88% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
14 of the 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Support is great, prices are reasonable.”
“Runbox is very small but very responsive, they’ve been great to me.”
“a more open and transparent email platform such as Runbox”
“Among these runbox is quite good”
“have only ever been met with warmth and kindness in my interactions in the tickets”
“decades of ops history, proper Norwegian company”
“Runbox is great, and not that expensive.”
“I had enough of reliability issues, and a few emails got lost”
“I was disappointed more by their lack of communication than by the outages.”
“nothing but recommended in every other regard”
“as a happy Runbox customer of several years”
“I have been quite pleased with RunBox”
“company and servers in Norway”
“Decent features, pricing, and servers in Norway.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.