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kijinbear · 4 Jun 2012, 04:40 AM

Well, here's the page that Wikipedia links to. Paste it into Google Chrome to translate it into English. I don't know what half of those numbers mean, but at the end it says "operating margin" has been negative from 2008 to 2010. Not sure how reliable the data is, though. The web page also gives no information about 2011, when Runbox was bought out by its employees. Such a large change in the ownership structure can't be ignored when judging a company's finances.

As I wrote in another thread, I've been trying out Runbox lately (as a possible replacement for FM in case it goes under), and their current system leaves a lot to be desired in terms of features and basic security. The heavily modified Courier IMAP server they're using is also quite buggy. But support promises me that a new webmail is coming very soon, as well as a better IMAP server in the future, so I'm going to wait and see.

The fact that Runbox doesn't offer much resources per dollar might have contributed to their (perceived) decline. For $34.95, I get 5GB of storage, 1GB of transfer per week, 10 aliases, and one personal domain. For the same price, I could get 10GB of storage, 2GB of transfer per day, 100 aliases, and 50 personal domains at FM (with the multi-year discount). Not to mention that EuMX and Polarismail offer 25GB of space for much less money, apparently without sacrificing reliability. (You do get a lot of resources at the top of the pricing tiers, but then you're competing with LuxSci et al. who can offer much more features.)

In fact I don't need anywhere near that much space, but I can see why casual shoppers might decide to skip Runbox in favor of cheaper offerings.

Some positive remarks:

- Support is kind, knowledgeable, and relatively fast.
- Runbox is located entirely in Norway, which affords them one of the best privacy protections in the world.
- Runbox is owned by employees and supports free software. They even host their servers with a company named "copyleft".

4 Jun 2012, 04:40 AM	#2
kijinbear Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: ~$ Posts: 652	Well, here's the page that Wikipedia links to. Paste it into Google Chrome to translate it into English. I don't know what half of those numbers mean, but at the end it says "operating margin" has been negative from 2008 to 2010. Not sure how reliable the data is, though. The web page also gives no information about 2011, when Runbox was bought out by its employees. Such a large change in the ownership structure can't be ignored when judging a company's finances. As I wrote in another thread, I've been trying out Runbox lately (as a possible replacement for FM in case it goes under), and their current system leaves a lot to be desired in terms of features and basic security. The heavily modified Courier IMAP server they're using is also quite buggy. But support promises me that a new webmail is coming very soon, as well as a better IMAP server in the future, so I'm going to wait and see. The fact that Runbox doesn't offer much resources per dollar might have contributed to their (perceived) decline. For $34.95, I get 5GB of storage, 1GB of transfer per week, 10 aliases, and one personal domain. For the same price, I could get 10GB of storage, 2GB of transfer per day, 100 aliases, and 50 personal domains at FM (with the multi-year discount). Not to mention that EuMX and Polarismail offer 25GB of space for much less money, apparently without sacrificing reliability. (You do get a lot of resources at the top of the pricing tiers, but then you're competing with LuxSci et al. who can offer much more features.) In fact I don't need anywhere near that much space, but I can see why casual shoppers might decide to skip Runbox in favor of cheaper offerings. Some positive remarks: - Support is kind, knowledgeable, and relatively fast. - Runbox is located entirely in Norway, which affords them one of the best privacy protections in the world. - Runbox is owned by employees and supports free software. They even host their servers with a company named "copyleft". Last edited by kijinbear : 4 Jun 2012 at 07:46 AM.