ImprovMX vs Zoho Mail (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Zoho Mail grades higher than ImprovMX: 3.2 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
ImprovMX grades higher on the free plan. Zoho Mail grades higher on value for money, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
ImprovMX
Email forwarding and sending for custom domains
Zoho Mail
Ad-free business email hosting with calendar, tasks and notes
Which one is for you
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
Pick Zoho Mail if
- Fits if you run a small business and want addresses on your own domain for $1 a person a month
- Works for teams already on Zoho CRM or Projects, which plug into the inbox
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you just want a free personal inbox, because Gmail and Outlook need no domain and no setup
- Not for you if you want Apple Mail or Outlook on the free plan, which has no IMAP, POP or ActiveSync and isn't in every data centre
- Tight if you never delete anything, as Mail Lite gives each person 5 GB, or 10 GB for $1.25
- Watch out: Mail Lite and Mail Premium are yearly only, and retention, eDiscovery and S/MIME start at $4 a person
- Watch out: the phone app gets reports of missing emails and a delete button that misbehaves
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAImprovMXFair | 3.2GPAZoho MailVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | AMail Lite is $1 a person a month, billed yearly, where the low quarter of this category starts at $4 and the middle is $8. Even Workplace Standard, with the office apps and chat in it, is $3. Mail Lite has no monthly option, though. |
| Free plan and trial | 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. | CFree for up to 5 people on one domain, which is unusual, but the walls are close: 5 GB each, no IMAP, POP or ActiveSync, so no Apple Mail, Outlook or Thunderbird, and Zoho only offers the plan in some data centres, so you may not be able to get it at all. |
| Features | 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. | BMail on your domain with SPF, DKIM, DMARC and BIMI, a calendar, tasks, notes, shared drafts, Streams for commenting on an email, an admin console and a free migration tool. Retention, eDiscovery and S/MIME sit on the $4-and-up plans. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You change your domain's DNS records to point mail at it. | B4.6 from about 8,000 App Store ratings, a notch under Gmail's and Outlook's apps. Short of top marks because there's homework first: you point your domain at Zoho before any mail arrives, and reviewers find settings split between inbox and admin screen. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with an API and webhooks. No integrations list, phone app or desktop app. | AWeb, Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android, with paid plans readable in Outlook, Apple Mail or Thunderbird over IMAP. It plugs into Zoho CRM, Projects, WorkDrive and Cliq, and there's Zapier. The free plan has no IMAP, so it's Zoho's own apps only. |
| Best for | email forwarding for your own domain | email on your own domain from $1 a head |
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: ImprovMX and Zoho Mail. How we grade
Price against what you get
ImprovMX starts at $4.17 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Zoho Mail starts at $1 a month for each person and scores 3.3.
Zoho Mail scores higher and starts $3.17 a month lower. Of the other email apps on the chart, 27 score higher than ImprovMX for less, and none scores higher than Zoho Mail 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
- ImprovMX also covers inbox filtering and transactional email.
- Zoho Mail also covers tasks, calendar and email client.
At a glance
| ImprovMX | Zoho Mail | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $50 per year (Light, up to 5 domains) | $1 per user / month, billed annually (Mail Lite, 5 GB) |
| Free plan | 1 domain, 25 aliases, 500 forwarded emails a day, 7-day email logs and API access. No SMTP sending. | Forever Free Plan: email hosting for one domain and up to 5 users, with 5 GB of mail storage each. IMAP, POP and ActiveSync are not included, and it is available only in select data centers. |
| Free trial | None listed | 15-day free trial of the highest edition, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | ImprovMX | Zoho Corporation |
| Price read from | improvmx.com | zoho.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
Zoho Mail
- The free plan covers one domain and 5 users, has no IMAP, POP or ActiveSync access, and is offered only in select data centers.
- Mail Lite and Mail Premium are sold on yearly subscriptions only. Monthly billing exists only for the Workplace plans.
- Email retention, eDiscovery and S/MIME are limited to Mail Premium and Workplace Professional.
- Zoho states 24x7 support by email, phone and live chat for paid plans, and guided migration by a dedicated agent only for companies with more than 50 users.
Key features
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.
Zoho Mail
- Email on your own domain
- Addresses at your company's domain with group addresses and email and domain aliases. SPF, DKIM, DMARC and BIMI are built in.
- Calendar, tasks, notes and bookmarks
- A calendar, contacts, ToDo, notes and bookmarks sit inside the mailbox, so events and tasks are handled in the same window as mail.
- Streams and shared drafts
- Streams lets a team comment, assign tasks and post announcements around email. Drafts, single emails and whole folders can be shared for review or delegation.
- Zia AI assistant
- Zia drafts replies and summarizes long threads, and Zoho Mail can be connected to AI apps through Zoho Mail MCP.
- Admin console and compliance
- Role-based access, security policies, audit logs and two-factor authentication for admins. Retention, eDiscovery and S/MIME come with Mail Premium and Workplace Professional.
- Migration tools
- A free automated tool moves email, contacts and calendars from Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or any IMAP provider, with migration specialists available at no extra charge.
Plans
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.
Zoho Mail
Forever Free$0
One domain and up to 5 users with 5 GB of mail storage each. No IMAP, POP or ActiveSync access; offered only in select data centers.
Mail Lite$1
per user / month, billed annually (no monthly plan)
Custom-domain email with 5 GB of mail storage per user, or 10 GB for $1.25, plus calendar and tasks. No file storage.
Workplace Standard$3
per user / month, billed annually ($4 billed monthly)
30 GB of mail storage per user plus WorkDrive, the office apps, Cliq, Meeting and Vault. File storage starts at 100 GB per team.
Mail Premium$4
per user / month, billed annually (no monthly plan)
50 GB of mail storage and 50 GB of retention storage per user, with email retention and eDiscovery, S/MIME and mobile access management.
Workplace Professional$6
per user / month, billed annually ($7 billed monthly)
100 GB of mail and 100 GB of retention storage per user, 1 TB of team file storage, the Premium compliance tools and Zoho Connect.
Workplace EnterpriseCustom
Custom limits across the Workplace products, with Active Directory cloud sync and endpoint controls. Priced through Zoho sales.
Ways to pay less
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.
Zoho Mail
- Annual discount
About 20% off with annual billing
Zoho's pricing FAQ cites a discount of roughly 20% for annual billing. Workplace Standard is $3 per user / month billed annually against $4 monthly, and Workplace Professional $6 against $7.
- Nonprofit
Special pricing for nonprofits
The pricing FAQ says non-profit and charitable organizations get special pricing, arranged by contacting Zoho sales.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, ImprovMX or Zoho Mail?
As of Nov 12, 2026, ImprovMX starts at $50 per year (Light, up to 5 domains), and Zoho Mail starts at $1 per user / month, billed annually (Mail Lite, 5 GB). 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, ImprovMX or Zoho Mail?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both ImprovMX and Zoho Mail have a free plan.
Which platforms do ImprovMX and Zoho Mail run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Zoho Mail 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.