mailbox vs WEB.DE (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, WEB.DE grades higher than mailbox: 2.8 against 2.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 6, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
mailbox grades higher on value for money and features. WEB.DE grades higher on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
mailbox
Paid, ad-free email with cloud storage and office tools from Germany
WEB.DE
German freemail with a sorted inbox, cloud space and paid MailPlus
Which one is for you
Pick mailbox if
- Fits if you want paid, ad-free email with servers in Germany
- Works for families, as up to 10 mailboxes can share calendars, contacts and Drive storage
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free mailbox, because all you get free is a 30-day trial
- Tight if you pick Light, with 2 GB of mail storage, no Drive storage and support for contract questions only
- Not for you if you want the provider's own phone app, as mail runs in the browser or in other mail apps
- Watch out: Light must be paid a year in advance, and prices are in euros
- Pricey if you're a business, as the calculator adds a service package from €25 a month on top of each user
Pick WEB.DE if
- Fits if you read German and want a free address with a phone app
- Works for people who want PGP and a calendar in the same account
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you don't read German, as the site and sign-up are in German
- Tight on free: 1 GB of email storage, small next to rivals
- Watch out: FreeMail includes WEB.DE informiert messages, which only MailPlus lets you opt out of
- Watch out: prices are in euros
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAmailboxGood | 2.8GPAWEB.DEGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | ALight is €1 a month, paid as €12 a year, and Standard with 20 GB, custom domains, Drive storage and the office suite is €3 a month paid annually. Against an $8 middle for this category, that's under almost everything here. Prices are in euros, and Light is 2 GB with support for contract questions only. | BFree with 1 GB of email storage, and MailPlus is €3.99 a month, inside the cheaper half of email prices. The free mail space is small. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan, since the service carries no advertising. Any plan can be tried free for 30 days, and nothing on record says whether the trial asks for payment details. | BFreeMail is free with 1 GB of mail, 4 GB of online storage and 2 addresses, which one person could live on. |
| Features | BWebmail over IMAP, POP3 and SMTP, PGP and S/MIME handled inside the webmail, aliases, and calendar, contacts and tasks on every plan, with Drive storage, a browser office suite and video meetings on the higher ones. The mail job is covered. | CMail, calendar, address book, PGP and a cashback portal. The gaps are in the listing: only 1 GB of mail storage and fixed WEB.DE informiert messages on the free plan. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. Webmail opens in any browser, but there's no app to install, so using your own mail app means setting up IMAP yourself, and on Light support only answers contract, credit balance and password questions. | BNo store rating on record, but you sign up and start using it with nothing to set up. The site is in German. |
| Platforms and integrations | CThe browser is the only place mailbox has an app of its own. It speaks IMAP, POP3, SMTP, CalDAV and CardDAV, so other mail apps can connect, but the integrations on record are just Mailvelope and OX Drive, which is what phones use for files. | BWeb plus iPhone and Android apps. No desktop app or API is listed. |
| Best for | paid, ad-free email hosted in Germany | free German webmail with a sorted inbox |
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: mailbox and WEB.DE. How we grade
Price against what you get
mailbox starts at about $1.12 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. WEB.DE starts at about $4.46 a month and scores 2.7.
WEB.DE scores higher, and starts $3.34 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other email apps on the chart, 6 score higher than mailbox for less, and 6 score higher than WEB.DE 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
- mailbox is end-to-end encrypted, according to its own site.
- mailbox also covers tasks, documents, video calls and file sync.
- WEB.DE also covers inbox filtering and file sharing.
At a glance
| mailbox | WEB.DE | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | €1 per month, annual payment only (€12 a year, Light) | €3.99 per month (MailPlus) |
| Free plan | None | FreeMail: €0 with 1 GB of email storage, 4 GB of online storage, attachments up to 20 MB and 2 email addresses. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial of any plan | MailPlus: first month free |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Heinlein Hosting GmbH | 1&1 Mail & Media GmbH |
| Price read from | mailbox.org | web.de |
| Checked | Oct 6, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
mailbox
- There is no free plan; any plan can be tried free for 30 days.
- The €1 Light plan is paid a year in advance and has 2 GB of mail storage, no Drive storage and support limited to contract questions.
- There are no mailbox apps of its own for mail: it runs in the browser or in other mail apps, and file sync on phones uses the separate OX Drive app.
- Prices are in euros. Private prices include VAT, business prices are net, and the business calculator adds a service package from €25 a month.
WEB.DE
- The site and sign-up are in German, and prices are in euros.
- FreeMail includes the 'WEB.DE informiert' messages as a fixed part; MailPlus lets you opt out.
- FreeMail storage is 1 GB for email, much less than free tiers of some rivals.
- The €2.47 own-domain plan is for the domain itself; the page does not state a separate price for MailPlus on a custom domain.
Key features
mailbox
- Webmail with IMAP, POP3 and SMTP
- Mail is read in the browser or in any mail app over IMAP, POP3 and SMTP. Standard and Premium add a tabbed inbox, email statistics and collection from external POP3 accounts.
- PGP and S/MIME encryption
- The Guard feature handles PGP and S/MIME inside webmail, and incoming mail can be kept in a PGP-encrypted inbox. Mailvelope and mailbox's own PGP key server are supported on every plan.
- Aliases and custom domains
- Light includes 3 @mailbox.org aliases, Standard and Premium 25. The two higher plans add custom domains with 50 or 250 aliases and 25 or 50 disposable addresses.
- Drive cloud storage
- 10 GB on Standard and 100 GB on Premium, expandable for a fee, with password-protected download links that expire, WebDAV access and optional encryption with your own PGP key.
- Office, calendar and contacts
- Text documents, spreadsheets and presentations are edited in the browser on Standard and Premium. Calendar, contacts and tasks are on every plan and sync over CalDAV and CardDAV.
- Meet video conferencing
- Browser-based video meetings with breakout rooms, screen sharing, chat and surveys. Guests join from an invitation link without an account or an install.
WEB.DE
- Intelligent inbox
- Incoming mail is also shown sorted into five categories such as Social or Newsletter; messages are only sorted, not changed.
- Mail app for Android and iOS
- The app offers push notifications, a personal spam filter, a four-digit PIN lock and one-time setup of email encryption.
- PGP encryption
- WEB.DE has a help page on encrypting email in three steps with PGP, and the app can encrypt selected messages.
- Calendar, address book and cloud
- A calendar and address book sit in the mailbox, and the online storage is reachable from it; Windows and macOS cloud apps are listed.
- Cashback portal
- A free WEB.Cent cashback portal sits in the mailbox; the paid tariffs earn up to double the cashback.
Plans
mailbox
Light€1
per month, annual payment only (€12 a year)
2 GB of mail storage, 3 @mailbox.org aliases, calendar and address book. Support covers contract, credit balance and password reset questions only.
Standard€3
per month, paid annually (€36); €4 paid monthly
20 GB of mail and 10 GB of Drive storage, 25 aliases, custom domains with 50 aliases, online document editing and family accounts.
Premium€9
per month, paid annually (€108); €12 paid monthly
50 GB of mail and 100 GB of Drive storage, custom domains with 250 aliases, replies within 24 hours on business days and a phone callback service.
Business€1 to €12
per user / month, net, plus a service package
Business Light, Standard and Premium accounts at €1, €4 and €12 a user, with a service package: Silver €25, Gold €75 or Platinum €250 a month.
EnterpriseCustom
For large companies with advanced requirements, quoted on request.
WEB.DE
FreeMail€0
1 GB email storage, 4 GB online storage, 20 MB attachments, 2 addresses; includes WEB.DE informiert.
MailPlus€3.99
per month
5 GB email storage, +5 GB online storage, 100 MB attachments, 4 @email.de addresses, double cashback.
Eigene Domain€2.47
per month
FreeMail mailbox on your own domain, with up to 500 addresses you create yourself.
Ways to pay less
mailbox
- Annual discount
Save 25% when paying annually
Standard costs €3 a month when paid annually (€36) against €4 paid monthly, and Premium €9 a month (€108) against €12. The prices page labels both as a 25% saving.
WEB.DE
- Other savings
MailPlus first month free
The tariff comparison page offers MailPlus with the first month free.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, mailbox or WEB.DE?
As of Nov 13, 2026, mailbox is cheaper to start with: about $1.12 a month, against about $4.46 a month for WEB.DE. mailbox starts at €1 per month, annual payment only (€12 a year, Light), and WEB.DE starts at €3.99 per month (MailPlus).
Which has a free plan, mailbox or WEB.DE?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only WEB.DE has a free plan. mailbox does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do mailbox and WEB.DE run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only WEB.DE lists 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.