Fastmail vs ImprovMX (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Fastmail grades higher than ImprovMX: 2.8 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Fastmail grades higher on features and platforms. ImprovMX grades higher on the free plan. They get the same grade on value for money and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Fastmail
Paid, ad-free email with calendar, contacts and custom domains
ImprovMX
Email forwarding and sending for custom domains
Which one is for you
Pick Fastmail if
- Fits if you're leaving free, ad-funded email and want your own domain
- Works for households of up to 6 people sharing one plan at $11 a month on yearly billing
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you won't pay for email, as there's no free plan after the 30-day trial
- Not for you if the phone app matters most, given its 3.8 App Store rating
- Tight if you pick Basic, which has 6 GB a user and leaves out custom domains, Snooze, Scheduled Send and outside apps
- Watch out: Fastmail doesn't refund unused subscription time, and listed prices exclude tax
- Pricey if you need more than 60 GB, as extra storage is a paid add-on up to 300 GB a user
Pick ImprovMX if
- Fits if you have a domain and want its mail to land in an inbox you already use
- Works for people who send from their own domain and want plans from $50 a year
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a mailbox or email client, as it only forwards
- Tight if you stay free: no SMTP sending and no rules
- Watch out: forwarding stops if a daily or monthly limit is hit until it resets or you upgrade
- Watch out: Enterprise is sold through contact only
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAFastmailGood | 2.4GPAImprovMXFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BIndividual is $5 a month billed yearly ($60), or $6 monthly, for ad-free email with 60 GB, custom domains and Masked Email, and Family covers 6 people for $11. The $3 Basic plan drops to 6 GB with no custom domains, Snooze or outside mail apps. Prices exclude tax. | BFree for 1 domain, 25 aliases and 500 forwarded emails a day, and Light is $50 a year, about $4.17 a month. Sending isn't in the free plan. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan. There's a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. After that every account is paid, and Fastmail doesn't refund unused subscription time. | B1 domain, 25 aliases, 500 forwards a day, 7-day logs and API access for nothing. One person could live on it, as long as they don't need to send. |
| Features | BCustom domains with hundreds of extra addresses, Masked Email for sign-up forms, snooze, Scheduled Send, calendar and contacts, and JMAP, IMAP, POP, CalDAV and CardDAV so other apps can read it all. The mail job is covered, with an import tool for your old mail. | CAlias forwarding, sending from your domain, routing rules, logs and webhooks, and an API. It does forwarding fully, but that's a smaller job than a mailbox, and sending needs Light. |
| Ease of use | C3.8 from about 580 App Store ratings, below most mail apps. That's the iPhone and iPad app, not the whole service. An import tool moves mail, calendars and contacts over from another provider. | CNo store rating on record. You change your domain's DNS records to point mail at it. |
| Platforms and integrations | AWeb, Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android, all working offline. It opens in Apple Mail, Outlook and Thunderbird, connects to 1Password and Dropbox, and has a documented API. | CWeb only, with an API and webhooks. No integrations list, phone app or desktop app. |
| Best for | paid private email on your own domain | email forwarding for your own domain |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Fastmail and ImprovMX. How we grade
Price against what you get
Fastmail starts at $3 a month for each person and scores 3.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. ImprovMX starts at $4.17 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.0.
Fastmail scores higher and starts $1.17 a month lower. Of the other email apps on the chart, 2 score higher than Fastmail for less, and 27 score higher than ImprovMX for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Fastmail also covers calendar and email client.
- ImprovMX also covers inbox filtering and transactional email.
At a glance
| Fastmail | ImprovMX | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $3 per user / month, billed yearly (Basic); Individual is $5, billed yearly | $50 per year (Light, up to 5 domains) |
| Free plan | None | 1 domain, 25 aliases, 500 forwarded emails a day, 7-day email logs and API access. No SMTP sending. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial, no credit card required | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Fastmail Pty Ltd | ImprovMX |
| Price read from | fastmail.com | improvmx.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
ImprovMX
- ImprovMX forwards mail; it does not host mailboxes or provide a mail client.
- The Free plan has no SMTP sending and no rules; sending needs Light or higher.
- Forwarding stops if a daily or monthly limit is hit until it resets or you upgrade.
- Enterprise is sold through contact only.
Key features
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.
ImprovMX
- Alias forwarding
- Forwards mail from addresses on your domain to one or several destinations, with catch-all and regex aliases, or to a webhook.
- Sending from your domain
- Paid plans send over SMTP or a JSON send API using the custom domain, within monthly send limits.
- Routing rules
- Customizable rules control how incoming email is routed; the number of rules rises by plan.
- Logs and webhooks
- Email logs help trace missing messages, with retention from 7 days to 180 days on paid plans; webhooks are paid-only.
- Public API
- An API key lets you create domains and aliases and view logs programmatically, on every plan including Free.
Plans
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.
ImprovMX
Free$0
1 domain, 25 aliases, 500 forwarded emails a day, 7-day logs, API access and standard support.
Light$50
per year, up to 5 domains
25 aliases per domain, 150,000 forwarded and 750 SMTP-sent emails a month, 5 rules per domain.
Premium$9
per month, up to 30 domains
100 aliases per domain, 150,000 forwarded and 12,000 SMTP-sent emails a month, webhooks.
Pro$24
per month, up to 100 domains
200 aliases per domain, 450,000 forwarded and 60,000 SMTP-sent emails a month, 50 rules per domain.
EnterpriseCustom
Unlimited domains, aliases and sending, a dedicated account manager and support SLAs.
Ways to pay less
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.
ImprovMX
- Annual discount
15% off yearly billing
Yearly billing costs $90 for Premium and $240 for Pro, which the pricing page labels as 15% off.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Fastmail or ImprovMX?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Fastmail starts at $3 per user / month, billed yearly (Basic); Individual is $5, billed yearly, and ImprovMX starts at $50 per year (Light, up to 5 domains). One is priced for each person and the other is not, so which costs less depends on how many of you use it.
Which has a free plan, Fastmail or ImprovMX?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only ImprovMX has a free plan. Fastmail does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do Fastmail and ImprovMX run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Fastmail lists macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.