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Fastmail Reviews: 4.3/5 — Solid Choice
Fastmail is a privacy-focused email hosting and productivity service offering fast web and native apps, custom domains, masked/disposable addresses, calendar and contacts, file storage, and open-standards APIs. It targets individuals, families and businesses with paid plans (no free-forever tier) and emphasizes security, interoperability (JMAP/IMAP/SMTP/CalDAV/CardDAV) and data-residency choice.
| Capabilities |
API
OSS
|
|---|---|
| Segment |
Small Business
Mid Market
Freelancer
|
| Deployment | Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Desktop Linux, Desktop Mac, Desktop Windows, Mobile Android, Mobile iPad, Mobile iPhone |
| Support | 24/7 (Live rep), Email/Help Desk, Knowledge Base |
| Training | Documentation |
| Languages | Approx. 36 languages (web interface), English |
Fastmail Pros and Cons
- Strong privacy stance (no ads, masked email, encryption)
- Broad support for open standards and interoperability (JMAP, IMAP, CalDAV, CardDAV)
- High-quality native apps with offline support across major platforms
- Productivity features (snooze, scheduled send, undo, pin) and clear pricing plans
- Open-source contributions (Cyrus, Squire, Overture JS) and published developer docs
- No free-forever plan (only paid plans with a free trial)
- Basic plan restricts IMAP/SMTP/app-passwords (limits external client access on lowest tier)
- No built-in office productivity suite (docs/spreadsheets)
- Not intended for high-volume transactional or bulk email use
- Not a zero-knowledge E2EE provider — Fastmail retains access under controls
Fastmail’s Individual plan is €5 a month. Its Family plan is €11 — and covers six people, each with their own private inbox and 60 GB. That is €1.83 per person against €5.00, a 2.7× difference, for six euros more. From three people onward, Family is cheaper than buying Individual accounts, and nothing on the pricing page points this out. If more than two people in your household need email, Fastmail is one of the few products in this series where the top consumer tier is also the value one.
- What it is: Independent premium email, calendar and contacts hosting, with your own domain.
- Best for: Households and small teams who want email that is not funded by advertising.
- Pricing: From €5/month individual, €11 for a family of six. Verified August 2026.
- The honest catch: Committing three years instead of one saves under 7%.
What Is Fastmail?
Fastmail is independent email hosting — a paid alternative to free webmail, run by an Australian company that has been at it since 1999. The proposition is simple: you are the customer, not the product, with no advertising and no scanning of your mail to sell you things.
Every plan includes email, calendar, contacts and files, access to all Fastmail apps, and what the company calls “premium mail features” — offline support, Scheduled Send, and integrations with 1Password and Dropbox. Support is 24/7 from real people, which is stated on every tier rather than reserved for the top one.
The company leans hard on open source and standards: it is a major contributor to JMAP, the modern email protocol, and its service works with standard IMAP, CalDAV and CardDAV clients rather than locking you into its own app.
Pricing splits two ways — Individual & Family and Business — with four commitment terms behind each: 1, 12, 24 or 36 months.
Every plan offers a 30-day free trial.
How Fastmail Works
- Two plan families — personal and business.
- Four commitment terms: 1, 12, 24 and 36 months.
- Storage is per person, not pooled.
- Every feature is on every tier — you buy people and storage.
- 30-day free trial on all plans.
- Your own domain supported throughout.
Fastmail Pricing
Prices in EUR as served to a European visitor, per month at each commitment term.
Individual & Family
| Term | Individual (1) | Duo (2) | Family (up to 6) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 month | €6 | €10 | €14 |
| 12 months | €5 (€60) | €8 (€96) | €11 (€132) |
| 24 months | €4.75 (€114) | €7.60 (€182.40) | €10.44 (€250.60) |
| 36 months | €4.67 (€168) | €7.47 (€268.80) | €10.27 (€369.60) |
| Storage | 60 GB | 120 GB (60/person) | up to 360 GB (60/person) |
| Per person (12mo) | €5.00 | €4.00 | €1.83 |
Business, per user per month:
| Basic | Standard | Professional | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 months | €3 (€36/yr) | €5 (€60/yr) | €9 (€108/yr) |
| Storage per user | 6 GB (5 mail + 1 files) | 60 GB (50 + 10) | 150 GB (100 + 50) |
What actually decides your cost:
- Family is the cheapest way to buy Fastmail, and it is not close. €11 a month for up to six people is €1.83 each, against €5.00 on Individual and €4.00 on Duo. Each person gets their own private inbox and their own 60 GB — the storage is per head, not shared. The break-even is three people: three Individual accounts cost €15 against Family’s €11. Below that, Duo at €8 beats two Individuals at €10. There is no configuration above two people where buying separate accounts makes sense.
- The commitment ladder rewards the first step and almost nothing after. Moving from monthly to a 12-month term saves 16.7% on Individual (€6 → €5). Going to 24 months saves a further 5.0%, and 36 months just 1.7% more — so tripling your lock-in from one year to three saves 6.7% in total. On Family that is €0.73 a month. Take the 12-month term; the two longer ones ask for a great deal of commitment in exchange for very little.
- Storage is per person, which changes how the plans compare. Family’s “up to 360 GB” is six lots of 60 GB rather than a shared pool, so a heavy user cannot eat a light user’s allowance. That is the right design for a household, and it means the headline number is not inflated the way pooled figures often are.
- Business Basic’s 6 GB is very small, and Standard gives ten times more for €2. €3 per user buys 5 GB of mail and 1 GB of files; €5 buys 50 GB and 10 GB. For business email — where attachments accumulate and nobody deletes anything — 5 GB is a couple of years at best. The €2 difference is the single easiest upgrade decision on the page.
- Professional is for archives, not features. €9 per user brings 100 GB of mail and 50 GB of files. Since every plan includes the same functionality, the only reason to pay it is volume — so work out your actual mailbox sizes before assuming you need it.
- Features are not gated, which is unusual and welcome. Email, calendar, contacts, files, all apps, offline support, Scheduled Send, 1Password and Dropbox integrations, and 24/7 support from real people appear on every tier including the cheapest. You are buying seats and storage, nothing else. Very few products in this review series price this cleanly.
- The 30-day trial is generous by category standards. Most email hosts offer 14 days or none. Thirty days is long enough to actually migrate a mailbox, live in it, and find out whether the apps and filters suit you — which is the only real test.
- Prices are regional. The pricing page detected our location and served EUR on a French URL, with a country selector listing well over a hundred territories. The figures above will not match what a US, UK or Australian visitor sees, so check your own.
-
The affiliate cookies expire at two different lengths, and it is worth noting.
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Who Should Use Fastmail
- Households of three or more. Family at €1.83 per person is the standout value here.
- Anyone leaving free webmail. No ads, no scanning, and a real support team.
- Users of standard mail clients. IMAP, CalDAV and CardDAV rather than a walled garden.
- Small businesses on their own domain. Standard at €5 per user is well-specified.
It fits poorly for anyone wanting a free tier, since there is none; for business users on Basic, whose 6 GB will fill; and for people who want end-to-end encrypted mail by default, which is a different product category.
Honest Pros and Cons
Strengths
- Family covers six people for €11 — €1.83 each, with 60 GB apiece.
- Every feature on every tier, including 24/7 human support.
- 30-day free trial, longer than most competitors.
- Storage is per person, not a shared pool.
- Open standards — IMAP, CalDAV, CardDAV, JMAP.
- Independent and ad-free, funded by subscriptions.
Limitations
- No free tier — the trial is the only free option.
- 36-month commitment saves under 7% over 12 months.
- Business Basic gives only 6 GB per user.
- Prices vary by region and may differ from those quoted.
- Nothing about Family’s value is signposted on the pricing page.
- The affiliate cookie window is ambiguous — 90 days on one cookie, 14 on another.
Fastmail Alternatives and How It Compares
- Google Workspace is the default for business email, with a wider app suite and a bigger data footprint.
- Zoho Mail undercuts almost everyone on price and includes a free tier for small teams.
- Proton Mail is the choice if end-to-end encryption by default matters more than client compatibility.
- SaneBox is complementary rather than an alternative — it layers filtering onto whatever mail host you keep.
The Verdict
Fastmail is a straightforward product with an unusually honest pricing structure and one genuinely good deal buried in it.
The honest part: every feature is on every tier. Email, calendar, contacts, files, all the apps, offline support, Scheduled Send, 1Password and Dropbox integrations, and 24/7 support from real people are included at €5 a month exactly as they are at €11. What you buy as you move up is people and storage, nothing else. After reviewing a long run of products that reserve their AI, their API or their integrations for higher-paying customers, a ladder that only sells capacity is refreshing.
The good deal is Family. €11 a month covers up to six people, each with a private inbox and their own 60 GB — storage is per head, not a shared pool. That works out at €1.83 per person, against €5.00 on Individual and €4.00 on Duo. The break-even is three people: three Individual accounts cost €15 where Family costs €11, and the gap only widens. Nothing on the pricing page draws attention to this, but for any household with children, a partner and a couple of spare addresses, Family is the plan — and it costs just €6 more than Individual.
On commitment, take the 12-month term and stop there. Moving from monthly to annual saves a real 16.7% on Individual. Moving from 12 months to 36 saves only 6.7% more — €0.73 a month on Family — in exchange for tripling how long you are locked in. That is a poor trade, and it is the kind of detail a pricing page rarely makes easy to see.
For business use, the decision is nearly as simple. Basic at €3 per user gives 6 GB — five for mail, one for files — which for business email is a ceiling you will hit. Standard at €5 gives 60 GB, ten times as much for two euros. Unless you are provisioning shared or rarely used mailboxes, Standard is the sensible floor, and Professional at €9 is worth paying only if your actual mailbox sizes demand it.
Two practical notes. The 30-day trial is longer than most of this category offers and is enough time to genuinely migrate and live in the account, which is the only way to judge an email host. And prices are regional — our pricing page resolved to a French EUR URL, so check your own country’s figures rather than these.
One small thing worth knowing if you are clicking through from a review: Fastmail’s affiliate tracking sets PartnerStack cookies at 90 days but its own ps_xid cookie at 14 days. We cannot tell from outside which one governs attribution, so if you are deliberating, deliberating quickly does no harm.
FAQ
How much does Fastmail cost?
On the 12-month term, in EUR: Individual €5 a month (€60/year), Duo €8 (€96) for two people, and Family €11 (€132) for up to six. Paying monthly costs €6, €10 and €14. Business plans are Basic €3, Standard €5 and Professional €9 per user per month on an annual term. All plans include a 30-day free trial, and prices vary by country.
Is Fastmail’s Family plan worth it?
For three or more people, yes, decisively. Family is €11 a month for up to six people, each with a private inbox and 60 GB of their own — €1.83 per person. Three separate Individual accounts would cost €15. For two people, Duo at €8 beats two Individuals at €10. There is no scenario above two users where separate accounts are cheaper, and Family costs only €6 more than Individual.
Should I commit to Fastmail for 24 or 36 months?
Probably not. The meaningful saving is the first step: monthly to 12 months saves 16.7% on Individual (€6 to €5). Going to 24 months saves a further 5.0% and 36 months only 1.7% beyond that — so three years saves 6.7% more than one year, which on Family is €0.73 a month. That is a small reward for tripling the lock-in.
How much storage does Fastmail include?
Personal plans give 60 GB per person — 50 GB of mail plus 10 GB of files. So Individual gets 60 GB, Duo 120 GB and Family up to 360 GB, allocated per head rather than pooled. Business plans differ: Basic 6 GB per user (5 mail + 1 files), Standard 60 GB (50 + 10) and Professional 150 GB (100 + 50). Basic’s 6 GB is the one figure most likely to become a problem.
Does Fastmail have a free plan?
No. There is no free tier — the only free option is the 30-day trial, which is available on every plan and is longer than most competitors offer. That is deliberate: Fastmail’s argument is that subscription funding is what lets it avoid advertising and mail scanning. If a permanently free mailbox is a requirement, Zoho Mail offers one for small teams.
Compare Fastmail with other popular tools in the same category.
I've used a lot of email services over the years and I'm sticking with Fastmail. I find them reliable, fast and reasonable priced, and they have most of the features I need.
I can't think of anything that I dislike about fastmail.
email hosting
I love the features that have been added to this platform. Features like masking is very innovative and a very much-needed feature to avoid spam emails. One more feature that excites me is the capacity to import emails from various other platforms, have indeed made this platform very attractive. The choice of domain available for the user to choose is very attractive.
I wish there was more memory storage available for the user to store their data. Though the billing plan was very cheap, I wish there had is an option to purchase at least 100 GB of storage in the paid version of the software
Fastmail is solving the problem of having multiple emails. Now, using this platform, we can store email information from multiple emails address by importing. Moreover, it helps in controlling spam messages by masking the email id.
In todays world data security is of emmense importance. Amd Fastmail provide a platform to send email with high level of privacy and security. It is open source. And very user friendly I believe this application has a bright future.
There is nothing in this app to dislike But it is sometime annoying to recieve a verification code for sending email ,especially when we are in hurry
Fastmail is solving the problem of data theft and privacy. With its advance algorithm i belive their capabilities of sending email privately.
Rock solid, fast and secure email service.
There's no client for MacOS. The mobile iOS client is great, but I miss the simple, secure client on my desktop, and the webmail isn't as convenient as an app.
Personal and business email services in one provider. I have my family covered without them having to use a free email and get downrated. I also can configure business addresses and connect to custom domains, add DKIM, etc.
It's very full-featured, including the use of my own domains. And the customer support is outstanding. I've been using it for about 20 years, and so far I think that only Gmail comes sort of close to the quality of this email service.
Occasionally the servers can be slow and it can take a while for it to update my incoming email. This doesn't happen very often, but is apparently the result of sustained hacking attacks.
They keep adding new features. I think they're pretty innovative.
One of the aspects of FastMail that appeals to me the most is how simple and straightforward its user interface is. My emails and contacts are very easy to handle because to the web-based email client, which is straightforward to browse and very customizable. The high degree of security that FastMail provides is another another aspect of the service that I value. It offers a two-factor authentication, a variety of encryption choices, and the capacity to access both my emails and my data over a secure connection. This is very helpful for me because I am responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the sensitive information associated with my company. The adaptability and expandability of FastMail are additional features that appeal to me. In addition, it offers me with a number of different storage choices and makes it simple for me to create and manage many email accounts. It is now much simpler for me to meet the requirements of my expanding company thanks to this. Last but not least, I think the customer service offered by FastMail is top-notch. They have a specialised staff that is there around the clock to help me with any concerns or inquiries that I might have. In general, FastMail is a dependable and protected email service that provides its users with a wide variety of features and helpful customer service.
When compared to other email hosting services, FastMail's prices can be more than average, which is one of the aspects of the service that I find most objectionable. The price may be an issue, particularly for users who need to create many email accounts; this may be a worry for individuals or small enterprises who are operating on a limited budget. Another problem I've had with FastMail is that the search tool isn't as powerful as what you get with some other email services. My experience has shown me that looking for certain emails may be a challenging and time-consuming process. This can be quite annoying when one is attempting to get essential information in a hurry. In addition, the user interface of FastMail is not as intuitive as the interfaces of some other providers, which makes it more difficult for me to access and manage my email accounts. Customers that rely on their mobile device for email management may find that the FastMail mobile app does not offer as many features as some of the other providers' mobile apps, which might be a drawback for those users. In general, FastMail is a service that I do not like using for a number of reasons, including the price, the restricted search capabilities, the unintuitive layout, and the lack of functions available on the mobile app.
The difficulty of effectively managing and safeguarding one's personal as well as professional email communications is addressed by the email hosting service provided by FastMail. It enables users to send, receive, and organise their emails, as well as manage their contacts and calendar in a dependable and effective manner. In addition, it manages the user's calendar and contacts. The challenge of securing my email correspondence is one of the primary issues that FastMail is resolving for me. My email is protected with advanced security features such as two-factor authentication, which helps to prevent unauthorised access to my account, and I am able to access my email through a secure connection when I use FastMail. Moreover, my email is protected with advanced security features when I use FastMail. Email organisation is just another issue that I no longer have to worry about thanks to FastMail's assistance. Because I can rapidly search for certain emails and easily arrange my email into a variety of folders and labels using FastMail, it is much simpler for me to keep track of critical conversations and remain on top of my inbox. In addition, FastMail has a comprehensive calendar and contacts management tool, which enables me to better organise my schedule and maintain communication with the people with whom I maintain relationships. This function is really helpful for me because I need to manage my contacts for my business in addition to keeping track of my appointments and meetings, and it does both of those things quite well. Overall, FastMail is helping me solve a lot of issues that I've been having with regard to the administration and security of my email, which is assisting me in being organised and productive while also protecting the private information that I save.
To start, Fastmail is beautiful from the branding, the colors, and everything about it. It has super fast email delivery and is the best business email suite I have ever seen or used.
Sometimes the sharing URLs may seem out of place, such as "user.fm" as the files domain. It doesn't make it identifiable as Fastmail and can be confusing, especially when sharing with outside users.
It helps provide us with a cheap yet highly reliable option for our business email, calendar, contacts, notes, files and more. It helps us be more productive by keeping everything in one suite of tools.
Fastmails service is a powerful, privacy focused alternative to other business email providers. Migration from GSuite was easy and support have been been nothing but fantastic.
The android app needs some polishing to get to the same standard as their iOS one but other than that, i've found FastMail a far better alternative to Google and Zoho
It's helped me move away from google to a more privacy centric firm with better customer service. A team who make me feel like i'm a valued customer for a comparable price to what google charge.
The interface is user friendly and very attractive. It is easy to set up and use. The storage that it provides even to its free user is huge - 5 GB. Its a fast and secure business webmail service provider.
Searching for any mail is bit difficult. My email search experience over Fastmail has never been a time-efficient activity. The mobile app can be improved as other similar rival apps generally comes with liitle more features
I use Fastmail for managing by organisation email. I trust Fastmail as it is highly secure and fast mail provider. Scheduling and keeping track of meeting has been made easy for me by using the calendar tool provided within.
I like the graphic interface with user management tools, calendars and files stored on the server.
I have some problems with the spam folder, sometimes important emails are sent to the spam folder.
Personalized email with domain, I do not have to hire hosting for this function. File storage, multiple shipping names and registered users.
I found Fastmail easy to setup starting from scratch. The account creation was simple, and the process guided me through until my email was up and running.
Sometimes the web interface for administering my account stops responding. It's done this on different browsers, different systems. Not a huge problem but I'd like to see it fixed.
The problem I'm solving with Fastmail is getting email up and running for a new domain without the time and expense of using an on-prem mail server. Having the solution completely contained with a single vendor has made management much easier.
Ease of use, web interface, speed, uptime.
Limited tools - it is just email, contacts and calender. The extra features like notes, ect are very simple and do not compare to Google Docs/Sheets/Ect.
Email hosting and management.
It's fast - much faster than Google Apps - and has a far less cluttered layout.
Importing from Google Apps requires too much research to be done by the end user. They really need to streamline the process. Obviously no support for Gmail extensions.
Just fast email. JMAP looks cool in future once more clients support it.
Your customers can organize different categories that interest them the most, like Travel, Volunteering, TeachDEV, Career, Friends, Family, and Newsletters. Gmail does not have other varieties to choose from like this.
A downside of this mail platform is the lack of storage space available to choose from. The largest .pst and .ost files can be up to 50GB. I would recommend adding an option to select 500GB or 1TB of storage.
If you go back to the basics and compare the costs, The Professional $9/month plan is cheaper than Google's Business Standard plan. The Fastmail option is an excellent decision if you want to cut costs and don't need the extra storage space. Most users don't need extra email storage unless they have large archived data files to store.
It is a relatively secure email service that can integrate with other products, and it provides end-to-end encryption with 5 GB of storage even as a free user. It is a great option for owning multiple domains.
They don't have any improvements in the past years and no feedback channel.
Has been great, the web interface is fast and with CalDav and CardDav you get your calendar+contacts in your favourite apps
It is a mail system that you can compose emails, receive emails, and send emails. You can make folders, and sometimes it follows the rules you set up for them. It will put things in the folders you created rules for a percentage of the time. It has a large amount of storage as well, which is good.
It forgets rules randomly and puts some emails in folders and the very same sender it puts in the spam folder. We have worked with them to try to correct this to no avail and have given up.
We get emails and send emails.
Secure E-mail provider Simple, Intuitive, Fast and Secure. No unwanted advertisements and it provides you one of the best privacy feature so far. It gives you a lot of benefits and the application is truly flexible that suits to your preferred settings. Thank you Fastmail team for giving us this wonderful application.
Now they're billing you two years in advance at $55. Keep it, I will get my mail for free elsewhere.
I have been using FastMail for few years, Its been perfect, never had a problem, I cannot find anything to criticise it. I have used support a couple of times to query odd emails and they were brilliant. I don't find many of today's products and services without fault, but I can't find fault with FastMail. In my view definitely worth the money.