Forward Email vs MailPace (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Forward Email if

• Fits if you want email on your own domain and don't want to pay per mailbox
• Works for developers who want open-source software they can also self-host

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you need to send mail on the free plan, because it only forwards
• Watch out: outbound limits on the $3 plan depend on your sending reputation, not a stated number
• Watch out: forget your mailbox password and the mailbox is gone unless you kept offline backups
• Tight if you need over 10 GB of storage, as extra is $3 a month per 10 GB
• Pricey if you want team controls and priority support, which start at $9 a month

Pick MailPace if

• Fits if you want your mail handled in the EU with no open tracking
• Works for Rails, Laravel or Node apps that want one flat plan

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you need a dedicated IP, as there is no such tier
• Watch out: received emails count toward the monthly volume along with sent ones
• Tight if you want a free plan, because 100 emails a month is given only on request
• Watch out: email content is kept for 30 days unless you ask for longer
• Not for you if you want open and click tracking, which it leaves out

Forward Email

• The free plan cannot send mail, so it does not work as a sending service.
• Sending limits on Enhanced Protection are reputation-based rather than a fixed monthly count.
• The site says that if you forget your mailbox password you lose the mailbox unless you have offline backups.
• Prices are listed per month for unlimited domains; no yearly billing is shown on the page.

MailPace

• There is one paid plan, so there is no tier with a dedicated IP address.
• Received emails count toward the monthly volume, as well as sent ones.
• The free plan of up to 100 emails a month is not advertised; the pricing page says to email the company.
• Email content is kept for 30 days, and a longer period has to be requested.

Forward Email

Forwarding on custom domains

Receive mail at your own domain and forward it to an existing address, with catch-all aliases, multiple recipients per alias and regex filtering.

Outbound SMTP

Enhanced Protection and above send through SMTP, with unlimited outbound on a reputation basis and 900 a day at the start of Team.

Mailboxes with IMAP storage

Paid plans include 10 GB of pooled storage; extra storage is $3 a month per 10 GB. The site says mailboxes are encrypted with your password.

Developer API and webhooks

A developer API comes with paid plans, and mail on any plan can be sent to webhooks.

Open source and self-hosting

The software is open source and a self-hosted Docker version is listed among the features.

MailPace

HTTP API and SMTP server

Mail can be sent through a JSON HTTPS API or an SMTP server, with client libraries listed for Rails, Laravel, Node.js, Python, Go and more.

Inbound email

Incoming mail is received over SMTP and converted into HTTP webhooks that an application can process.

Idempotent requests

A request can carry an idempotency ID, so a retry does not send the same message twice.

No open or click tracking

MailPace says it never tracks email opens or clicks. It reports delivery acceptance rates instead.

Bounce and blocklist handling

Bounces are tracked automatically and bounced addresses are kept on a blocklist, with anti-spam checks on outgoing mail.

Forward Email

• Free$0

  Email forwarding only: unlimited inbound mail, spam protection, 50 MB attachments, catch-all addresses and regex filtering. No sending.

• Enhanced Protection$3

  per month for unlimited domains

  Adds unlimited aliases, 10 GB pooled storage, outbound SMTP with reputation-based limits, DMARC reporting and API access.

• Team$9

  per month for unlimited domains

  Everything in Enhanced, plus unlimited team members, permission management and priority support. Outbound starts at 900 a day.

• Enterprise$250

  per month for unlimited domains

  Adds unlimited API requests, a dedicated support chatroom, a contract by DocuSign and onboarding help.

MailPace

• Pay as you grow$10

  per month for the first 10,000 emails sent and received

  One plan with every feature included. The price follows monthly volume, set on a slider from 100 to 1,000,000 emails; extra emails are added to the bill.