[nmjenkins]

(Chief Product Officer at Fastmail here.)

Once your next step is not necessarily a password, having just the single username input up front becomes necessary to avoid confusion. To support non-resident passkeys (passkeys on devices that can't store the username with the cryptographic key), we need to be able to prompt for the username, then offer them their passkeys to log in.

This does have the effect of making it slightly less ergonomic for just username/password input, but we did everything we could to mitigate this:

> First, I can’t do username <tab> password <enter>.

True, but we made it so you can do username <enter> password <enter>.

> Secondly, with auto fill, it requires two clicks to sign in.

True, but the way we've set it up should ensure the autofill did both immediately, so you don't have to activate your password manager twice.

The flip side is if you do use passkeys, it can be much quicker than any username/password input. For example, 1Password will show you your list of accounts as soon as the login page loads, and it's just one click to sign in.

[0cf8612b2e1e]

Sorry to corner you here on unrelated topic, but I will take a chance on asking…

Why can I not pre pay my FastMail account? I have a three year subscription which ends in another 14 months. The UI indicates I will be auto renewed two days before my subscription ends. That is not a comforting margin for error in the event there is a billing issue for something as vital as email.

I can understand you do not want to let people pre-purchase infinite time, but you already offer the three year plan. Let me top it off well in advance of the expiration date, so I have ample time to resolve issues if they occur. Let me subscribe to an annual renewal, always maintaining a two year balance.

Coincidentally, checking my account now, I see my credit card on file is expired.

[nmjenkins]

The short answer is our new billing platform (Paddle), which all new users are on and we're moving everyone to, doesn't support it. (We're moving from a home-grown billing solution to simplify our global tax compliance and give us support for more important things like billing in local currency.)

You can hack around it by converting to monthly billing (which will give you a credit), then immediately convert back to 3-year subscription (your credit will be used, so you'll only pay the difference). The end result is essentially identical to an early renewal.

I'd also like to reassure you that we don't immediately delete your account if renewal fails! We have a slow degradation process that gradually disables sending, then receiving, then finally access to anything other than billing if the account continues to go unpaid over several weeks. But our support team can (and do) delay this process if for whatever reason you are having difficulty making a payment and reach out to us.

[0cf8612b2e1e]

I will definitely explore the monthly-conversion to re-subscribe. Thanks for the tip.

While not everyone would agree, it would be nice to see if the renewal attempt was made say a month in advance of the expiration date. My paranoid self thinks I am one long vacation + expired credit card away from losing my email.

As a rule, I try not to lean on the good graces of for profit companies. Having expectations for how long my account would be functional were I to miss a payment is a game I care not to play for vital services.

[justsomehnguy]

> doesn't support it.

This is ridiculous.

One of the benefits of Fastmail for me was the ability to prepay and be not bothered if the payment would be processed in time, works at all or whatever.

FM had a couple of stumbles for me in the last years (including shadow banning the account without any feedback at all), guess this would be the last nail for it.

Sad.

[Yeri]

Fastmail user here: you get a reminder a week or so ahead of time, and even if the payment doesn't go through, they don't shut down your account instantly. You get a few reminders. I even emailed support to ask for some time to settle my credit card and were okay with extending it.

[slau]

IIRC, when my payment lapsed due to an expired card, I got plenty of time to fix the issue. In my case, the payment is taken from the card a whole month and a half before the invoice is generated (typically a different fiscal year, smh).

[YPPH]

Thanks for the detailed response, I wasn’t expecting an official reply. I can understand the reasoning.

The mitigation is good, though I did like pressing tab and having @fastmail.com autocomplete, which doesn’t happen now unless the input box loses focus (so enter alone doesn’t work). However I’ll just get used to pressing <tab> <enter>. I am nitpicking. The implementation is excellent (particularly onboarding).

[xyse53]

GitHub offers a this OR that option which seems to work. Granted their userbase might be a bit more technical on average.

Why not remember how a user logs in with localstorage?