HideMail ️

Comparisons

HideMail vs addy.io

For one person choosing between two alias services with free plans: one counted in emails per day, the other in megabytes per month.

Prepared by George Daneke, founder of HideMail. Facts last checked 2026-10-15. We make HideMail, so we have a bias. Every claim about addy.io links to addy.io's own pages. How we checked.

Which should you choose?

addy.io wins on paid price and features. HideMail wins on free-plan volume, AI and automation, and what happens when you stop paying.

Side-by-side, on the rows that decide it

Prices in USD. Checked 2026-10-15. addy.io figures are from its pricing table and FAQ unless linked otherwise.

Decision HideMail addy.io
Plans Free; Premium $4 a month or $8.99 every 3 months Free; Lite $1 a month billed yearly ($12); Pro $3 a month billed yearly ($36) or $4 monthly; Duo and Family plans for 2 and 5 people
Aliases on the free plan 15 Unlimited on your username subdomain (make up any address on it), plus 10 on shared domains
Forwarding limit Free: 100 emails a day. Premium: 1,500 a month. Up to 10MB per message Free: 10MB of mail a month. Lite: 100MB. Pro: unlimited. Up to 25MB per message
Reply from your alias No. Replies go out from your real address Free: no. Lite: 50 a day. Pro: 200 a day
Custom domains Free: 1. Premium: 5, with catch-all Free: 0. Lite: 1. Pro: 20. Catch-all on Lite and Pro
Recipients (inboxes) Your account email Free: 1. Lite: 5. Pro: 30. One alias can forward to up to 10
PGP encryption No Yes, per recipient (help). Which plans isn't stated
Apps Chrome and Firefox extensions, Android app, Telegram bot Extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari and more; iOS and Android apps (Android also on F-Droid)
AI assistants (MCP) Official MCP server with 17 tools None found
Automation REST API and webhooks on every plan; official Raycast extension and n8n node REST API; webhooks from rules on Lite and Pro; Raycast extension; built into Bitwarden's username generator
Export and import CSV export of all aliases. CSV import for aliases on your own domain; reads the email, description and active columns addy.io uses CSV export in Settings. CSV import for custom-domain aliases from a template (help)
When you stop paying Existing aliases keep forwarding. No new aliases while over the free limit Custom domains, extra usernames, extra recipients and shared-domain aliases beyond 10 are deactivated
Open source / self-hosting No / No Yes (AGPL-3.0) / Yes (GitHub)
Company and hosting Independent. Hosted in Germany UK (law of England and Wales). Hosted in Amsterdam; backup mail server in Warsaw

The same scenarios, priced on both

One person, 12 months, cheapest billing option on each.

Scenario HideMail addy.io
12 aliases, a few newsletters a day, no custom domain $0 (free plan) $0 if your mail stays under 10MB a month; otherwise Lite, $12
40 aliases on one custom domain Premium: $35.96 ($8.99 × 4 quarters) Lite: $12 (up to 100MB of mail a month). Pro: $36 for unlimited mail
Paying monthly, no yearly commitment $4 × 12 = $48 Pro: $4 × 12 = $48. Lite is shown only with yearly billing

The same job in both: have an AI assistant create and track an alias

HideMail

  1. Connect HideMail's MCP server to Claude or another MCP client and sign in.
  2. Ask: "create an alias for the hardware store newsletter".
  3. The assistant calls create_alias with that note and gives you the address. Later, "turn off the hardware store alias" calls deactivate_alias.

addy.io

  1. Create an API key in addy.io settings.
  2. Connect a third-party tool or write a script that calls the addy.io API.
  3. Or skip the assistant: with a username subdomain, make up any address on the spot and addy.io creates it when the first email arrives.

addy.io's username subdomain makes creating aliases by hand very fast. HideMail is built for letting software do it for you.

What switching actually involves

FAQ

Is addy.io or HideMail better for a free plan?
It depends on how much mail you get. addy.io Free has unlimited aliases on your username subdomain plus 10 on shared domains, but only 10MB of forwarded mail a month and no replies. HideMail Free has 15 aliases and forwards up to 100 emails a day. If you get newsletters with images, addy.io's 10MB can run out quickly.
Which is cheaper for a paid plan?
addy.io. Its Lite plan is $12 a year billed yearly and includes a custom domain, replies from aliases and 100MB of mail a month. HideMail Premium is $35.96 a year when paid quarterly, or $4 a month. addy.io Pro is $36 a year billed yearly, or $4 a month.
Can I reply from my alias?
On addy.io Lite and Pro, yes (50 and 200 replies or sends a day). Not on addy.io Free. HideMail does not hide your address when you reply on any plan.
Does either work with AI assistants like Claude?
HideMail has an official MCP server with 17 tools for creating, listing, disabling and annotating aliases and setting up custom domains. On 2026-10-15 we found no official MCP server for addy.io. Both have a REST API.
Can I move my aliases from addy.io to HideMail?
Aliases on your own domain, yes: point the domain at HideMail and import addy.io's CSV export (Settings, Account Data). HideMail recreates each alias with its description and on/off state. Aliases on addy.io's shared domains or your addy.io username subdomain stay with addy.io.
What happens if I stop paying?
On addy.io, custom domains, extra usernames, recipients beyond one and shared-domain aliases beyond 10 are deactivated. On HideMail, existing aliases keep forwarding; you just can't create new ones over the free limit.

How we checked

Facts last checked 2026-10-15. HideMail facts come from our own plan configuration and pricing page. addy.io facts come only from addy.io's own pages, listed below. Where two of its pages disagree, we show both. We left out anything we couldn't verify. If either product changes its pricing or features, we update the affected sections, not just this date. If you spot something out of date, email [email protected].

Sources

Try HideMail free: 15 aliases, no card