As someone who switched away from all Google products, including Gmail, I can definitely say it's worth the cost to me. In fact, I'd pay more than the current rate, now that I've had a chance to really use the service. It is fluid and fast in every browser I've thrown at it, including the work-required IE10.
In my opinion, the only thing they could do better is to provide an API for their file storage module, and I believe that is in the works.
You get what you pay for, and while Gmail is a good web client it is far from the best. Fastmail beats it hands down as far as I'm concerned.
I've already (mostly) moved away from google, at least for email. This isn't Google vs. Fastmail to me, this is Fastmail vs. Zoho. (Which I already have a free account with for my domain)
In my opinion, the only thing they could do better is to provide an API for their file storage module, and I believe that is in the works.
You get what you pay for, and while Gmail is a good web client it is far from the best. Fastmail beats it hands down as far as I'm concerned.