Forward Email vs SMTP2GO (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Forward Email grades higher than SMTP2GO: 2.8 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Forward Email grades higher on value for money and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan, features and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Forward Email
Open-source email forwarding and hosting for custom domains
SMTP2GO
SMTP relay and email API priced by emails a month, with a free plan
Which one is for you
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 SMTP2GO if
- Fits if your office printers, scanners or old systems need somewhere to send mail from
- Works for people who look after email for several clients and want subaccounts on a paid plan
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if your app needs to receive and read incoming email
- Tight if you're staying free, at 1,000 emails a month and 200 a day, with no way to buy more
- Skip it if you only have a Gmail or Yahoo address to sign up with
- Pricey if you need a dedicated IP or email testing, which start with Professional at $75 a month
- Watch out: the free plan keeps 5 days of reports, and chat and phone help stop after 14 days
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAForward EmailGood | 2.2GPASMTP2GOFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | A$3 a month for unlimited domains and aliases, under the $6 that is 60% of the $10 where the cheaper quarter of sending services starts. It is mostly a mailbox and forwarding service, so the comparison is rough. | CGraded on 50,000 emails a month: Starter is $30 a month at that volume, with two months free if you pay yearly. That sits in the middle of what this category charges for that much sending. A dedicated IP and email testing need Professional at $75. |
| Free plan and trial | CThe free plan forwards unlimited inbound mail with catch-all addresses, but it cannot send or store mail, so for the sending job nothing free works. | CFree for good with no card: 1,000 emails a month, but only 200 a day, with 5 days of reports, and extra emails can't be bought. Chat and phone help last 14 days. Enough for a test, tight for a live app. |
| Features | CForwarding, IMAP mailboxes, outbound SMTP and an API on paid plans, but sending is an add-on to a mailbox service and the listing names no tracking, templates or dedicated IPs. | CAPI and SMTP sending, automatic SPF and DKIM, delivery reports with bounce alerts, blacklist monitoring, three data regions and subaccounts. It does the sending job fully, but that's a smaller job: nothing on record covers receiving email or templates. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You point your domain's DNS at the service and create aliases, and the site warns that a forgotten mailbox password loses the mailbox. | CJudged on how fast a developer sends a first email: copy the SMTP details or use the API, with code examples in five languages, once your domain is added. No rating on record. Sign-up refuses Gmail and Yahoo addresses, so you need a work domain. |
| Platforms and integrations | AApps for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android plus the web, and a developer API with webhooks. | BWeb, with an SMTP relay and REST API that work from apps, servers and devices, plus WordPress, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, WHMCS, Laravel and Django. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | email on your own domain without per-mailbox fees | relaying email from apps, sites and office printers |
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: Forward Email and SMTP2GO. How we grade
Price against what you get
Forward Email starts at $3 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. SMTP2GO starts at $15 a month and scores 2.3.
Forward Email scores higher and starts $12 a month lower. Of the other email sending services on the chart, none scores higher than Forward Email for less, and 6 score higher than SMTP2GO 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
- Forward Email is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- SMTP2GO also covers transactional email.
At a glance
| Forward Email | SMTP2GO | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $3 per month for unlimited domains | $15 per month for 10,000 emails, billed monthly |
| Free plan | Unlimited inbound forwarding, catch-all addresses and webhooks for unlimited domains. It cannot send mail or store mail. | 1,000 emails a month, limited to 200 a day, with 5 days of email reporting and ticket support. Extra emails are not allowed. No credit card needed. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Forward Email LLC | SMTP2GO |
| Price read from | forwardemail.net | smtp2go.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
SMTP2GO
- The free plan stops at 1,000 emails a month and 200 a day, and extra emails cannot be bought on it.
- A dedicated IP address and email testing tools start with Professional at $75 a month.
- Email reports are kept for 30 days on paid plans and 5 days on the free plan.
- Sign-up asks for an email address at a private domain; Gmail and Yahoo addresses are refused.
Key features
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.
SMTP2GO
- SMTP relay and HTTP API
- Send through SMTP from an app, a mail client, a server or a device, or through a REST API with code examples in JavaScript, Node.js, PHP, Ruby and Python.
- Delivery tracking and reports
- Real-time reports follow each email to delivery and show bounces, spam complaints and unsubscribes, with weekly summaries and alerts on sudden bounce rises.
- Automatic SPF and DKIM
- Domain authentication is handled for you, along with feedback loops, blacklist monitoring and spam trap detection on every plan.
- Data centers in three regions
- Choose to send from and store data in the US, Europe or Australia, with best-path routing to the nearest location.
- Email testing
- Professional adds previews in more than 40 email clients and checks against major spam filters before you send.
- Subaccounts
- Paid plans can split sending into subaccounts, which suits agencies and managed service providers looking after several clients.
Plans
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.
SMTP2GO
Free Plan$0
1,000 emails a month and 200 a day, 5 days of reports, ticket support; chat and phone support for the first 14 days only.
Starter$15
per month for 10,000 emails, billed monthly
30 days of reports, ticket, chat and phone support, subaccounts and SMS. Extra emails $1.20 per 1,000. Price rises with volume: $30 a month at 50,000 emails.
Professional$75
per month for 100,000 emails, billed monthly
Adds a dedicated IP address and email testing tools. Extra emails cost $0.85 per 1,000, and the price rises with volume.
PremierCustom
Over 3 million emails a month, with personalized setup and support.
Ways to pay less
Forward Email
No public discounts listed.
SMTP2GO
- Annual discount
Two months free with yearly billing
Paying yearly gives two months free: Starter at 10,000 emails is $150 a year instead of $180, and Professional at 100,000 is $750 instead of $900.
- Education
30% education discount
SMTP2GO's education page offers schools a 30% discount, with unlimited users and systems on one account.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Forward Email or SMTP2GO?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Forward Email is cheaper to start with: $3 a month, against $15 a month for SMTP2GO. Forward Email starts at $3 per month for unlimited domains, and SMTP2GO starts at $15 per month for 10,000 emails, billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, Forward Email or SMTP2GO?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Forward Email and SMTP2GO have a free plan.
Which platforms do Forward Email and SMTP2GO run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Forward Email 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.