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@mac.com vs @gmail.com

signatus

signatus

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 8, 2008
73
0
Andalucía, Spain
Being a recent switcher, I'm trying to catch up with the incredible Apple experience.
Why should I pay almost a hundred bucks a year for an @mac.com e-mail account when I can have gmail for free? I'm not asking it as a criticism, but to get feedback about the pros and cons for one or the other.
 
The $100/year fee for .Mac is not only for the email but a slew of other features centered around a 10GB web space allocation. Now, whether or not that is worth the money is a different question - the most attractive aspect of .Mac, in my opinion, is the close-knit integration it has with the OS and the iApps, and that is not something that can realistically be offered by any other service.

If you have no wish to have a website and/or use the disk allocation in some way, it's probably not worth it.
Getting .Mac only for the email address is definitely not a wise idea - it doesn't really offer anything much over Gmail.


irmongoose
 
irmongoose said:
The $100/year fee for .Mac is not only for the email but a slew of other features centered around a 10GB web space allocation. Now, whether or not that is worth the money is a different question - the most attractive aspect of .Mac, in my opinion, is the close-knit integration it has with the OS and the iApps, and that is not something that can realistically be offered by any other service.

If you have no wish to have a website and/or use the disk allocation in some way, it's probably not worth it.
Getting .Mac only for the email address is definitely not a wise idea - it doesn't really offer anything much over Gmail.


irmongoose
Click to expand...

Second the .mac account aspect. Gmail, is excellent as a disposable account for less than trustable sites, leaving the .mac account for legit e-mail. I have loved mine and wouldn't trade it for anything. I too am new to mac. About 2 1/2 months
 
The .mac deal is only worth it if you use the entire package. If you're only going to use the email address I wouldn't pay for it. You could easily use gmail or even register your own domain and get free email via that without any junk mail.

Read through what the .mac deal entails and if there's stuff in there you'd use then buy it, else stick with gmail.
 
1)Some people just like having a @mac.com email address.
2)you can have pretty much any email address you choose. i think gmail requires you to have numbers in it.
3)some people started using it when it was free, and its a pita to change.

but you are right. Some don't consider it to be worth the money, others do.

Personally, i think if you take the .mac package as a whole, its not bad. It is a lot easier to manage 2-3 computers and sync them through this one program.
just my 2c worth.
 
This could be user error but one thing that I like about my gmail over .mac is that I can at least see the junk mail that is filtered out by gmail. With .mac I seem to be protected against spam but I never get to review it to ensure something didn't slip by.

If you want a website you can have a website without .mac. There's just that integration thing that really does benefit the novice user.
 
signatus said:
Being a recent switcher, I'm trying to catch up with the incredible Apple experience.
Why should I pay almost a hundred bucks a year for an @mac.com e-mail account when I can have gmail for free? I'm not asking it as a criticism, but to get feedback about the pros and cons for one or the other.
Click to expand...

Being 2 1/2 months new to the mac world, I decided to go to the apple store and ask if they could give me .mac for the 69usd it would have cost if I got it when I first purchased my computer.

In my opinion, the amount it costs per month is a good deal if you are going to use iweb. I live away from my family and and have tried using myspace, facebook, yahoo, and others to build sites. However, .mac through iweb is hands down the best way to go for me and my family members.

-cfs
 
jessica. said:
This could be user error but one thing that I like about my gmail over .mac is that I can at least see the junk mail that is filtered out by gmail. With .mac I seem to be protected against spam but I never get to review it to ensure something didn't slip by.
Click to expand...

In Apple Mail you can choose whether the junk mail goes directly to the junk box or whether it sits in your inbox marked as junk. Either way, you have the opportunity to review it with .Mac. Through the web, you can also choose this under Preferences.

In terms of whether .Mac is worth it, I like it for the automatic iDisk backups. The fact that I have two Macs - a MBP and an iMac - makes it even more attractive with the Back to my Mac feature.
 
QuarterSwede said:
Um, no.

I've seriously considered using .Mac for reasons other than email (gmail works great for me). I would love to use Sync, iDisk, and Groups and maybe Backup and Back to My Mac. I would also use Web Gallery if I didn't already love SmugMug.
Click to expand...

Smug Mug looks really cool. I think I will look into it this year to see if .mac is worth the extra 40usd per year. I would want the Smug Mug with video.

-cfs

ClassicBean said:
In Apple Mail you can choose whether the junk mail goes directly to the junk box or whether it sits in your inbox marked as junk. Either way, you have the opportunity to review it with .Mac. Through the web, you can also choose this under Preferences.

In terms of whether .Mac is worth it, I like it for the automatic iDisk backups. The fact that I have two Macs - a MBP and an iMac - makes it even more attractive with the Back to my Mac feature.
Click to expand...

What exactly is idisk and where is your data stored with idisk? I can't find lots of info on it.

-cfs
 
For me, it's only recently (since the Leopard release) become more useful than not. I use:
  • dot Mac Mail - not necessarily "better" than others, but just nicely tied in with all the other iApps.
  • Backup - online redundancy to my local backups for "lose this and you're toast" stuff
  • iSync - which places all my addresses, calendar, bookmarks, etc. available via the web without needing my own machine.
  • Back to my Mac - providing me the ability to remotely troubleshoot & manage the desktop at home when I travel (which is all the time)
  • iWeb Personal Domain sync

The complete, seamless integration of all this is what really adds value for me, I don't need several different apps/sites/tools to manage it and keep everything coordinated.

I don't use Groups (though it intrigues me from time to time, I just don't have that kind of social life), Web Gallery, and only send iCards once in a blue moon.
 
I wouldn't ever recommend dotmac to someone for any one of the features it has. It's really a bundle package that tries to help you with every aspect of your online needs (tries because it fails on a few parts, back to my mac is still a little glunky and the gallery is nice but could use a few more features, the mail is fine now that they have spam filters server side).
 
signatus said:
Thanks you all for feedback.
Click to expand...

My fear is that if I continue my trial subscription that I'll start to depend on it. The problem with that is you're then at the mercy of Apple's eventual policies and pricing, since canceling the account means you have to move or you lose everything stored on Apple's servers, and your email address is gone, etc.
 
Wouldn't depending on it be a good thing? I agree that you probably shouldn't use the free trial if you can't afford it. Thats like going out and test driving cars with no intention of buying one ever. I highly doubt Apple is going to increase the price dramatically.
 
hexonxonx said:
The trial is very much limited on what you can use and do. I wasn't impressed with .mac after my 60 day trial after this. I did like that I could upload photos to .mac from my iPhone but that was about it.
Click to expand...

I agree. The only value it has to me is the Back to My Mac, since I'm the computer fixer for most of my friends and relatives, so the ability to "visit" their Macs to do/fix/show things without actually having to GO there is attractive. I have about another 30 days to decide if this privilege is worth $70/year (price at Amazon). It may be...
 
Also .mac is advertisement free. Both at the bottom of your email and on the web mail app. Thats if you don't count the mails from apple!
 
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