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

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

Pick Posteo if

• Fits if you want an ad-free mailbox that you pay €1 a month for directly
• Works for people who'd rather sign up without a name, address or phone number

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want email at your own domain, because custom domains are not supported
• Not for you if you like to try before you pay, as there's no free plan and no trial account
• Too light for anyone who wants cloud storage with their mailbox, since Posteo offers none
• Watch out: you prepay in euros with a €12 minimum top-up, and extra storage is €0.25 per GB a month
• Tight if you want an app of its own: there's no phone or desktop app, so you set up IMAP yourself

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.

Posteo

• Custom domains are not supported; addresses use Posteo's own domains such as posteo.de, posteo.net or posteo.com.
• There is no free plan and no trial account, though credit is refunded in full if you cancel within the first month.
• Payment is prepaid in euros, with a minimum top-up of €12, which is about one year's fees.
• It is used through webmail and a web app or through other mail apps over IMAP or POP3, and it offers no cloud storage.

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.

Posteo

One flat-priced account

€1 a month covers email with 4 GB of storage, 3 aliases, 3 calendars, an address book and notes. Storage can grow to 75 GB and aliases to 25 for small monthly add-on fees.

Encryption of stored data

Crypto mail storage encrypts saved email, attachments, metadata and notes, and the address book and calendar can each be encrypted with your own password at the press of a button.

End-to-end encryption in webmail

PGP through the Mailvelope plug-in and S/MIME through Posteo's own plug-in work inside the webmail interface, and incoming mail can be encrypted with either.

Sign-up without personal details

Registration asks for no name or address, payment data is kept separate from email accounts, and credit can be added by bank transfer, PayPal, credit card or cash.

Calendar, contacts and notes

Calendars sync over CalDAV and can be shared read-only by ICS link, contacts sync over CardDAV, and notes can be synchronized with Apple Notes.

Passkeys and login protection

Login supports two-factor authentication (TOTP), up to 5 passkeys and up to 5 app passwords. An extra protection mode blocks access from external programs over IMAP.

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.

Posteo

• Email account€1

  per month, prepaid from account credit

  4 GB of storage, 3 aliases, 3 calendars, address book and notes. Extra storage costs €0.25 per GB a month and extra aliases or calendars €0.10 each.