MailHow vs Forward Email
Forward Email is $36/year for unlimited domains, open source, with a serious API — and no webmail at all. MailHow is $29/year and ships an actual inbox.
The short version
Forward Email is the closest thing to us on price and model: $36/year, unlimited domains and aliases, open source, and genuinely impressive engineering underneath (encrypted per-mailbox SQLite, a published Cure53 audit). The catch is the thing you'd notice on day one: there is no webmail. You bring Thunderbird, or you self-host a client. If you want to own the plumbing, they are excellent. If you want to open a browser and read your mail, that is what we sell.
What it costs: one person, five domains
$29/yr flat, unlimited domains, 10GB, and a webmail client we build.
Enhanced is $3/month for unlimited domains and aliases with 10GB pooled storage and roughly 9,000 outbound messages a month. Extra storage is $3/month per 10GB. No trial, but a 30-day automatic refund.
Side by side
| MailHow | Forward Email | |
|---|---|---|
| Price for the persona | $29/yr | $36/yr |
| Domains | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Webmail | Purpose-built unified inbox | None — bring Thunderbird or self-host a client |
| Sending allowance | 100/hour (~2,400/day) | ~9,000/month |
| Public API | Yes (v1) | Extensive REST API + webhooks |
| Protocols | IMAP, POP3, SMTP, JMAP, CalDAV, CardDAV | IMAP, POP3, SMTP, CalDAV, CardDAV |
| PGP / S-MIME | No | OpenPGP and S/MIME |
| Open source | Runs on open-source Stalwart; app is not | Open source (custom licence) |
| Security audit | Stalwart's engine audited by Radically Open Security | Cure53 audit published June 2026 |
| Free tier | Free to receive, with IMAP | Free forwarding — but the config sits in publicly-readable DNS TXT records |
| Hosting | Germany (Hetzner) | US (Delaware LLC), own IPs |
A green check marks a row where Forward Email beats us. Figures checked 2026-07-08 — they change their prices and we change ours, so verify before you buy.
Where Forward Email is better
- A far deeper API than ours, with webhooks — and they had it years before we did.
- A published third-party security audit (Cure53, June 2026), plus real cryptographic engineering in how mailboxes are stored.
- Open source, OpenPGP and S/MIME — none of which we offer.
- Free email forwarding for custom domains that genuinely costs nothing, if forwarding is all you need.
Documented friction with Forward Email
Every item below links to its source. We list only things that are published and checkable — not rumours, and not our opinion of them.
There is no first-party webmail. Their FAQ directs you to a third-party client or to self-hosting one.
Forward Email FAQAn independent reviewer hit Gmail SPF bounces and unanswered support, describing the documentation as confusing and concluding “you're kind of on your own”.
james.cridland.net, Forward Email and Gmail (2025-06)A multi-DKIM outbound bug has been open since 2024.
GitHub issue #394
Which one should you actually buy?
- You are happy in Thunderbird or another mail client and do not want webmail.
- You want an API and webhooks more than you want an inbox.
- Open source and a published audit are decisive for you.
- You only need forwarding — their free tier does that and we would rather you didn't pay us for it.
- You want to open a browser and read your mail. They do not have webmail; we are a webmail product.
- You want all your domains merged into one inbox rather than routed as aliases.
- You want EU hosting.
Receiving on your own domains is free on MailHow, with no card — so you can point one domain at us, leave the rest where they are, and see for yourself before moving anything. Start free.
Sources
Checked 2026-07-08. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will fix it — including when the correction favours Forward Email.