Fastmail vs HEY

Fastmail

• People leaving free, ad-funded email for a paid private service
• Using your own domain for personal or family addresses
• Small businesses that want email without a full office suite

HEY

• People ready to move to a new email address and a different inbox routine
• Anyone who wants to approve senders before they can reach the inbox
• Small teams that want email on their own domain with thread sharing

Fastmail

• There is no free plan. After the 30-day trial every account is paid, and Fastmail does not refund unused subscription time.
• The Basic business plan has 6 GB per user and leaves out custom domains, Scheduled Send, Snooze and third-party mail apps.
• Storage beyond the plan allowance is a paid add-on, up to 300 GB per user.
• Listed prices are tax-exclusive.

HEY

• HEY is its own email provider, not a client for Gmail or Outlook; existing mail history is not imported, only forwarded going forward.
• IMAP and POP are not supported, so HEY works only in its own apps.
• HEY for You is billed annually only, and HEY for Domains is billed monthly with no free trial.
• There is no free plan.

Fastmail

Custom domains and extra addresses

Use domains you own for your addresses, buy one through Fastmail, or pick one of its free domains. Fastmail says each account can create hundreds of additional addresses.

Masked Email

Creates stand-in addresses so that sign-up forms and logins never see your real one. A Masked Email API lets password managers create them too.

Offline apps on every platform

Apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, plus a browser app. Offline, you can read, draft and search mail and manage calendars and contacts.

Snooze, Scheduled Send and pinning

Snooze messages until they are needed, schedule sends for later, pin important messages to the top of the inbox and mute threads you do not want to follow.

Calendar and contacts

A built-in calendar with shared calendars and event invitations that can also display Google and iCloud calendars, and a contact list with VIP-only notifications.

Open protocols and import

Mail is reachable over JMAP, IMAP and POP, contacts over CardDAV and calendars over CalDAV. An import tool moves mail, calendars and contacts from another provider.

HEY

The Screener

First-time senders land in the Screener, where you approve or block them before any of their email can reach your Imbox.

Imbox, The Feed and Paper Trail

Mail from approved senders goes to the Imbox, newsletters are shown in a feed-style reader, and receipts and confirmations are filed in the Paper Trail.

Reply Later and Set Aside

Move emails that need an answer into a Reply Later pile and work through them in Focus & Reply. Set Aside keeps messages on hand for reference.

HEY Calendar

A calendar is included with HEY for You and HEY for Domains and lives in the same apps as email.

Spy pixel blocker

Blocks tracking pixels in incoming email and identifies the companies trying to track whether you opened a message.

Workflows and Collections

Workflows track an email through stages you define, and Collections bring several related threads together on one page.

Fastmail

• Basic$3

  per user / month, billed yearly ($36); $4 billed monthly

  Business plan with 6 GB of storage per user, shared addresses and shared calendars. Custom domains, Snooze and third-party mail apps need Standard.

• Individual$5

  per month, billed yearly ($60); $6 billed monthly

  One private inbox with 60 GB of total storage, custom domains, Masked Email, offline support and access from third-party mail apps.

• Standard$5

  per user / month, billed yearly ($60); $6 billed monthly

  Business plan with 60 GB per user, addresses at a custom domain, shared addresses and calendars, Scheduled Send and third-party app access.

• Duo$8

  per month for 2 people, billed yearly ($96); $10 monthly

  Two private inboxes with 60 GB each, plus addresses, calendars and an address book the two can share.

• Professional$9

  per user / month, billed yearly ($108); $10 billed monthly

  Everything in Standard with 150 GB of storage per user and an email retention archive for legal compliance.

• Family$11

  per month for up to 6 people, billed yearly ($132); $14 monthly

  Up to six private inboxes with 60 GB each at a flat rate, with controls for managing users' storage, privacy and security.

HEY

• HEY for You$99

  per year

  A personal @hey.com address with HEY Calendar, 100GB of storage, apps on every platform and a HEY World blog.

• HEY for Domains$12

  per user / month, billed monthly ($10 for the first user)

  Email on your own domain for multiple users, with thread sharing, private team comments and email aliases.

• HEY for Families$179

  per year, in total

  Adds up to 4 additional people, each with their own @hey.com address, calendar and account.

Fastmail

• Annual discount

  Save $12 a year on Individual with yearly billing

  Individual costs $60 for 12 months, the equivalent of $5 a month, against $6 when billed monthly. Paying yearly saves $24 on Duo, $36 on Family and $12 per user on the business plans.

• Other savings

  Lower rates on 2- and 3-year terms

  Paying for 24 or 36 months up front brings Individual to $114 or $168, the equivalent of $4.75 or $4.67 a month. The other plans have the same two- and three-year options.

HEY

No public discounts listed.