Fastmail vs Kolab Now (2026): which should you pick?

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 Kolab Now if

• Fits if you want hosted email and calendars for a group, kept in Switzerland
• Works for people who'd rather not run a server for a small team

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want a single-user plan, as only Group Account appeared in the signup data
• Pricey if you count in dollars, since it's billed in Swiss francs and depends on user count
• Skip it if you want apps of its own, as none are listed
• Watch out: the pricing page would not render, so the price comes from the signup page data

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.

Kolab Now

• The pricing page did not render readable text; the price comes from the plan data the signup page loads.
• Pricing is in Swiss francs, and the page says it depends on user count; other price steps were not found.
• It is a hosted service only, with no apps of its own listed beyond sync to phones and desktop clients.
• Only the Group Account plan appeared in the signup data, so no cheaper individual plan was found.

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.

Kolab Now

Email with security features

Aliases and identities, full-text search and tagging, spam and virus filtering, and PGP for end-to-end encryption.

Calendar and tasks

Schedule meetings with internal and external users, create recurring series, assign tasks and track their progress.

Standard-protocol sync

Uses IMAP, SMTP, Sieve, CalDAV, CardDAV and ActiveSync, so Thunderbird, Outlook, eM Client and Apple apps can connect.

Sharing within an account

Share mail folders, calendars and task lists with other users in your account, with granular access control.

Documents and video room

Attach files from online storage, edit office documents together and use a personal video conferencing room.

Swiss hosting

Data is hosted in Switzerland on dedicated hardware, and the company says it is not used for machine learning.

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.

Kolab Now

• Group AccountCHF 9.90

  per month; the page says pricing is flexible by user count

  Recommended for 1 to 100 users, with your own domains and an admin area to add users. Billed in Swiss francs.

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.

Kolab Now

No public discounts listed.