# Kolab Now review (2026): is it worth paying for? > Swiss-hosted email, calendars, contacts and tasks Checked Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Kolab Now is a hosted groupware service from Apheleia IT AG in Switzerland. It combines email, contacts, calendars, tasks and notes, with sync to phones and desktop clients over standard protocols. It is built on free and open-source software, and accounts can use a custom domain and add users from an admin panel. - **Category:** Email Apps - **Made by:** Apheleia IT AG (since 2013) - **Website:** https://kolabnow.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you want a single-user plan, as only Group Account appeared in the signup data. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Kolab Now is a paid product with a free trial, starting at CHF 9.90 per month (Group Account). - **Pricing model:** Free trial - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** Free for the first 30 days, per the signup page. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Group Account | CHF 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. | Read from https://kolabnow.com/signup on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Kolab Now before buying. ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Small businesses and families who want one hosted mailbox suite with shared calendars - People who want mail, calendars and tasks synced to their existing apps - Buyers who prefer Swiss hosting and open-source software ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Kolab Now is Swiss-hosted email with calendars, contacts and tasks, starting at CHF 9.90 a month for a group account. The only plan we found is for groups, and its pricing page would not show readable text. - **Value for money: C.** CHF 9.90 a month is near the middle of what email services charge, and it's for a group account. We found no cheaper single plan. - **Free plan and trial: C.** Free for the first 30 days, per the signup page. Whether it wants a card isn't on record. - **Features: B.** Email, calendar, tasks, sharing, documents and a video room, with sync over standard protocols. The listing shows no gap in the job. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. You set up your own domain and add users, and phones and desktops sync through clients you pick. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** A hosted web service, with sync to Thunderbird, Outlook, eM Client and Apple apps. No apps of its own. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Kolab Now's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. The pricing page would not show readable text, so the price rests on the listing. ## Where it stands among email apps - Kolab Now's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 29 of the 122 other email apps we grade, and level with 24. - It stands best on features (B, above 79 of 122) and worst on free plan and trial (C, above 9). The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/email ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Kolab Now you would be making an email client: sending, receiving, threading and searching years of mail. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 69 of the 122 other email apps grade higher. Kolab Now is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself. - You could make: Calendar and tasks: an app builder makes these well. - You could not: An email client: sending, receiving, threading and searching years of mail. - You could not: Video calls. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook and eM Client among them. - You could not: Sharing with other people, which means accounts and invitations. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, eM Client, Apple Mail, Apple Calendar **Tags:** Open source, Email client, Calendar, Tasks, Video calls ## Alternatives - [Fastmail](https://toolgpa.com/tools/fastmail): Paid, ad-free email with calendar, contacts and custom domains. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/fastmail-vs-kolab-now) - [mailbox](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailbox-org): Paid, ad-free email with cloud storage and office tools from Germany. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/kolab-now-vs-mailbox-org) - [Posteo](https://toolgpa.com/tools/posteo): Ad-free, green-powered email from Berlin for €1 a month. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/kolab-now-vs-posteo) - [Zoho Mail](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zoho-mail): Ad-free business email hosting with calendar, tasks and notes. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/kolab-now-vs-zoho-mail) - [Proton Mail](https://toolgpa.com/tools/proton-mail): End-to-end encrypted email service based in Switzerland. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/kolab-now-vs-proton-mail) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://kolabnow.com/ - https://kolabnow.com/signup Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/kolab-now Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).