Fastmail alternative

Patra vs Fastmail for business email.

Fastmail charges per person, from US$3 to US$9 per user per month billed yearly. Patra charges per account for storage the whole team shares, from US$35 a year for 10 GB. For 5 people who keep about 5 GB each, Patra costs US$49 a year and Fastmail Standard US$300, though Standard gives each person 50 GB of mail.

Last checked 16 October 2026
Fastmail facts from Fastmail’s own pages
US dollars, before tax

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Patra vs Fastmail: the quick verdict.

List prices in US dollars, checked on 16 October 2026: Fastmail’s from its US pricing page, before tax, and Patra’s plus applicable tax.

Fastmail and Patra at a glance
At a glance	Fastmail	Patra
Price for 5 people, for a year	US$300 on Standard (5 × US$60), or US$204 with one Standard admin and four Basic users	US$49 on the 25 GB plan, if each person keeps about 5 GB
Storage	Each person’s own: 6 GB on Basic, 60 GB on Standard or 150 GB on Professional, for mail and files	Shared by everyone: 10, 25 or 50 GB per account, and more on request
Mailboxes	Each person is a paid user	Unlimited within fair use (up to 1,000 per account), at no extra cost
Aliases	Up to 600 per account plus 15 per user, with shared addresses such as support@ and Masked Email	Aliases, groups and a catch-all on every plan, at no extra cost
Sending	4,000 to 16,000 messages a day for each user, by plan	400 to 1,000 recipients a day for the whole account, by plan
Outlook and Apple Mail	On Standard and Professional, not on Basic	On every plan, with a setup page for each person
AI	None built in. An MCP server lets you connect your own AI tool to read, organise or send your mail	None in webmail. A read-only admin connector (MCP) lets AI apps answer questions about your account, never about anyone’s mail. Included
Automations	Rules for incoming mail, such as move, notify, snooze or send a copy, a vacation auto-reply and a developer API	Telegram and Slack alerts, automatic replies, forwarding, filing and signed webhooks, with 1,000 to 10,000 runs a month by plan
Reselling and partner branding	Reseller accounts with a custom login page carrying your logo	Your name, logo, colour and support address on your clients’ admin console, sign-in and setup pages and our emails to them. Webmail still shows Patra
Free trial	Up to 30 days, no credit card. 120 messages a day until you pay	14 days, no payment details. 10 GB and 100 recipients a day until your first payment

What a team pays for a year.

A worked example with list prices checked on 16 October 2026. Fastmail charges per user and Patra by storage, so each row says how much mail each person keeps.

Yearly cost of Fastmail and Patra for teams of 2, 5, 10 and 20 people
Team	Fastmail, everyone on Standard	Fastmail, one Standard admin and the rest on Basic	Patra
2 people, about 5 GB each	US$120 2 × US$5 × 12 months	US$96 US$60 + 1 × US$36	US$35 10 GB plan, 400 recipients a day shared
5 people, about 5 GB each	US$300 5 × US$5 × 12 months	US$204 US$60 + 4 × US$36	US$49 25 GB plan, 600 recipients a day shared
10 people, about 5 GB each	US$600 10 × US$5 × 12 months	US$384 US$60 + 9 × US$36	US$79 50 GB plan, 1,000 recipients a day shared
20 people, about 2 GB each	US$1,200 20 × US$5 × 12 months	US$744 US$60 + 19 × US$36	US$79 50 GB plan, 1,000 recipients a day shared

What each Fastmail user gets. Standard: 50 GB of mail, 10 GB of files and 8,000 messages a day. Basic: 5 GB of mail, 1 GB of files and 4,000 messages a day, in Fastmail’s own apps only, because Basic doesn’t include IMAP or SMTP. A Basic user can have an address on your domain only when a Standard or Professional admin shares it.
What a Patra team shares. The plan’s storage and its daily sending total, counted for the whole account. Within that total, each address can send to up to 400 recipients an hour and 1,000 a day.
Paying monthly. On monthly billing, Fastmail Standard costs US$6 per user per month, so 5 people pay US$360 a year. Patra is billed yearly only.
When each person needs tens of gigabytes, Fastmail fits better: Standard gives every user 50 GB of mail for US$60 a year, while Patra’s largest self-serve plan is 50 GB for the whole account, with more on request.
Prices. Fastmail: US list prices before tax, from Fastmail’s US pricing page, and Fastmail shows local-currency prices in many countries. Patra: US dollars, plus applicable tax; Paddle’s checkout shows your local currency where it’s available.

Feature by feature, side by side.

What each service offers a small business, from each company’s own pages on 16 October 2026.

Fastmail and Patra compared feature by feature
Feature	Fastmail	Patra
How you pay	Per user. Each person is on Basic, Standard or Professional, and one account can mix plans.	Per account, by storage. Adding people doesn’t change your price; you move up only when you need more storage or sending.
List prices	Basic US$3, Standard US$5 and Professional US$9 per user per month billed yearly, or US$4, US$6 and US$10 month to month. Two- and three-year terms are offered at checkout.	10 GB for US$35, 25 GB for US$49 or 50 GB for US$79 a year, plus applicable tax. Billed yearly only.
Storage	Each user’s own: 5 GB of mail and 1 GB of files on Basic, 50 GB and 10 GB on Standard, 150 GB in total on Professional.	One pool for everyone: 10, 25 or 50 GB. Give any mailbox its own limit, from 1 GB, if you want to.
Needing more storage	Professional users can buy more in steps, each priced like one extra user; Basic and Standard users upgrade instead. Over quota, incoming mail bounces, at first temporarily and after a week permanently.	Move to a bigger plan at any time, and it applies at once; more than 50 GB on request. Warnings at 80% and 95%. When storage is full, new mail is held until there’s space, and mail held for more than 3 days goes back to its sender.
Your own domain	On Standard and Professional, up to 100 domains plus 1 per user. Basic users can use a domain only when a Standard or Professional admin shares it.	On every plan, up to 100 domains per account within fair use.
Mailboxes and addresses	One paid user per person. Up to 600 aliases plus 15 per user, shared addresses such as support@, catch-all addresses and Masked Email.	Unlimited mailboxes within fair use (up to 1,000), plus aliases, groups and a catch-all at no extra cost, and plus addresses (name+anything@).
Sending limits	Per user per day: 4,000 messages on Basic, 8,000 on Standard and 16,000 on Professional, with each recipient counted. Messages up to 70 MB.	400, 600 or 1,000 recipients a day for the whole account, by plan. Each address: up to 400 an hour, 1,000 a day and 50 per message. Incoming messages up to 35 MB; keep outgoing attachments under about 25 MB.
What it’s for	Mail between people. Fastmail’s terms say it isn’t designed for automated or transactional email, and its account limits page says it isn’t a bulk email sending service.	Person-to-person business mail. Newsletters, marketing, cold outreach and purchased lists aren’t allowed.
Apps	Fastmail’s web app and its own apps for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and Linux, with offline use.	Webmail in any browser, on computers and phones. No Patra phone or desktop app.
Outlook, Apple Mail and other mail apps	On Standard and Professional, over IMAP, POP and SMTP with an app password. Basic doesn’t include IMAP or SMTP.	On every plan, over IMAP and SMTP, with a setup page for each person and an Apple settings profile. POP3 isn’t available.
Contacts	Sync to other apps (CardDAV) on Standard and Professional.	Address books in webmail, with vCard import and export. They don’t sync to the contacts app on a phone or computer.
Everyday mail tools	Undo send, Scheduled Send, Snooze, mute, pinning and Masked Email. Scheduled Send, Snooze and mute aren’t on Basic.	Search, folders and colour tags, filters, out of office, signatures and saved templates, keyboard shortcuts and 27 languages.
Files and office apps	File storage on every plan: 1 GB per user on Basic, 10 GB on Standard, 50 GB on Professional.	Email only, with no file storage or office apps.
Rules and automation	Rules for incoming mail: mark as read, pin, notify, move, snooze, send a copy, or send to Trash or Spam. Also a vacation auto-reply, import of Gmail filters, and a developer API.	Filters in webmail, plus Automations: Telegram or Slack messages, automatic replies, forwarding with attachments, labels and folders, and signed webhooks for Zapier, Pabbly Connect, Make, n8n or your own code. 1,000, 3,000 or 10,000 runs a month by plan.
AI	None built in. An MCP server lets you connect an AI tool you choose, such as Claude Desktop, ChatGPT or Perplexity, to read, organise or send your mail, but not attachments. No separate price is listed.	None in webmail. A read-only admin connector (MCP) for AI apps such as Claude and ChatGPT covers your plan, storage, mailboxes, DNS records and delivery reports, never anyone’s mail. The account owner turns it on, and it’s included in every plan.
Admin tools	Several admins, a plan per user, a privacy option that hides a user’s data from admins, a login log for the last four weeks, and a tamper-proof retention archive on Professional.	Owners and admins, CSV bulk add of up to 100 people per file, setup links, a storage limit per mailbox, suspend and resume, and a log of admin actions that can’t be edited.
Sign-in security	Two-step verification with an authenticator app or security keys, passkeys, and app passwords for mail apps (not on Basic).	Two-step sign-in with an authenticator app for mailboxes and for the admin console, where admins also get backup codes, and app passwords for mail apps.
Encryption and spam	Encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest. Spam filtering with adjustable levels, and blocked senders.	Encrypted in transit and at rest; Patra’s servers can read mail in order to deliver it, filter spam and show it in webmail. Spam and phishing filtering on all incoming mail.
Backups and restores	A restore tool brings back deleted messages, and undoes changes to contacts and events, from the last 7 days.	Backups every 6 hours, kept 35 days, plus point-in-time recovery for the last 14 days. A deleted mailbox can be restored for 30 days.
Domain setup	Automatic setup when your domain uses Fastmail’s nameservers, or an MX-only setup. Fastmail can also register a domain for paid accounts, not on Basic.	The exact records in your DNS host’s own words, a checker that explains mistakes, and a share link for whoever runs your DNS. We email you if a record stops working later.
Moving your mail in	An import tool copies mail, contacts and events from Gmail and other accounts, and mail from Outlook.com and Office 365, with a migration guide and help from support.	Each person imports their own mail from their setup page, with ready-made settings for Gmail, Zoho, Yahoo, Fastmail and others, and any other IMAP provider works too. Microsoft 365 mail moves through a desktop mail app.
Where data is stored	Your choice of EU or US. With EU, the primary copy is in Amsterdam, and a replica, backups and logs are in the US.	Our Subprocessors page lists each provider we use, what it does and where it processes data.
Support	Email and a web form, 24/7 except holidays, and no phone. Fastmail says to expect a reply within 24 hours.	Email at hello@trypatra.com and a help centre with step-by-step guides. No phone or chat, and no response-time promise.
Resellers and partners	Reseller accounts at no extra cost, with a custom login page carrying your logo. Bill clients yourself (business plans, monthly terms), or let Fastmail bill them with no mark-up. Resold accounts get no free trial.	Partner pools from 75 GB for you and every client, monthly or yearly, prices on request. Your brand on clients’ admin console, sign-in and setup pages and our emails to them; webmail, server names and web addresses still show Patra. You set your own prices.
Billing and refunds	Card, PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Change plans at any time with a pro-rata credit; no refunds for unused subscription time.	Paddle, our merchant of record, handles payment, tax and invoices. Cancel at any time, and your plan runs to the end of the year you’ve paid for. Patra’s Refund Policy says you can get a full refund of your first payment if you ask within 14 days of it.
Free trial	Up to 30 days, no credit card. Until you pay: five active users, five addresses, 120 messages a day, and no forwarding rules or file sharing.	14 days from the day your account is approved, no payment details. Until your first payment: 10 GB, 100 recipients a day and 100 automation runs a month. New accounts are reviewed before they can send.

Fastmail’s pricing page names its business plans Basic, Standard and Professional; its help centre calls them Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Professional. For Patra’s plans and limits, see Pricing, Automations, AI assistants and what partners’ clients see.

Fastmail or Patra: which fits your team?

Choose Fastmail if…

Each person needs a big mailbox: Standard gives every user 50 GB of mail and 10 GB of files, and Professional 150 GB in total.
Your team sends a lot of one-to-one mail: 8,000 messages a day for each user on Standard, and 16,000 on Professional.
You want Fastmail’s own apps on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and Linux, with offline use, and, on Standard and Professional, contacts and events that sync to other apps.
You want passkeys or security keys for sign-in, Masked Email, or a choice of EU or US data storage.
You need a tamper-proof archive of every message sent and received, on Professional.
You’d rather not join a service in early access: Patra opened in October 2026 and is still adding features.

Choose Patra if…

You want one price for the whole team that doesn’t change when you add people, with unlimited mailboxes within fair use (up to 1,000 per account).
Your team’s mail fits a shared pool: 5 people at about 5 GB each fit the 25 GB plan, at US$49 a year.
Everyone should be able to use Outlook, Apple Mail or another IMAP mail app on every plan, with a setup page each.
You want incoming mail to trigger Telegram or Slack alerts, automatic replies or forwarding, built into every plan, and signed webhooks for tools such as Zapier, Make or n8n.
You want an AI app to answer questions about your account, such as storage, DNS records and bounces, without access to anyone’s mail.
You sell email to clients and want one storage pool for all of them instead of paying per user, with your brand on their admin console, sign-in and setup pages.

More comparisons

See all seven providers side by side, or compare Patra with Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho Mail, MXroute and Proton Mail.

Switching from Fastmail to Patra.

Set Patra up next to Fastmail. Nothing changes for your mail until you switch your MX record.

Step 1: Start free and add your domain
Every plan is free for its first 14 days, with no payment details. Fastmail keeps working while you set up.
Step 2: Add the DNS records
Your admin console lists them in your DNS host’s own words, and they don’t change where your mail goes. If your domain uses Fastmail’s nameservers, your DNS is managed in Fastmail’s settings, so decide where it will live before you close that account.
Step 3: Add your people
Create mailboxes one by one or from a CSV file. Each person chooses a password with their setup link.
Step 4: Switch your MX record
When everyone is ready, replace your current MX records with Patra’s. New mail starts arriving at Patra.
Step 5: Bring your old mail
Each person imports their mail from their setup page, with Patra’s ready-made Fastmail settings and a Fastmail app password. Fastmail includes IMAP and app passwords on Standard and Professional, not on Basic. Keep Fastmail open until everyone has finished.

Filters, signatures and out-of-office replies are set up again in Patra. For contacts, export a vCard file from Fastmail’s Contacts screen or its Migration settings, and import it in webmail.

The full switching guide Move your old mail

Questions, answered.

Something else? Write to hello@trypatra.com.

What’s the main difference between Patra and Fastmail?

Fastmail charges per user, and each person gets their own storage, sending allowance and Fastmail’s apps. Patra charges per account for storage the whole team shares, with unlimited mailboxes within fair use (up to 1,000 per account), built-in automations and a read-only AI connector for admins. Both host email on your own domain; on Fastmail, that needs at least one admin on Standard or Professional.

How much does Fastmail cost for a business?

On 16 October 2026, Fastmail’s US list prices were US$3 (Basic), US$5 (Standard) and US$9 (Professional) per user per month billed yearly, or US$4, US$6 and US$10 month to month, before tax. That’s US$36, US$60 or US$108 per user a year. Fastmail shows local-currency prices in many countries.

Is Patra cheaper than Fastmail?

It depends on how much storage each person needs. 5 people with about 5 GB each fit Patra’s 25 GB plan, at US$49 a year plus applicable tax, while Fastmail Standard costs US$300 a year before tax (5 × US$60), or US$204 with one Standard admin and four Basic users. If each person needs tens of gigabytes or sends a lot of mail, Fastmail gives more: Standard includes 50 GB of mail and 8,000 messages a day for every user.

Can I use my own domain on Fastmail Basic?

Not on its own. Fastmail’s Basic plan doesn’t include custom domains, but an admin on Standard or Professional can share a domain with Basic users. Basic also leaves out IMAP and SMTP, so Basic users can’t connect Outlook or Apple Mail. Every Patra plan includes your own domains and works with any IMAP mail app.

Does Fastmail work with Outlook and Apple Mail?

Yes, on Standard and Professional, over IMAP and SMTP with an app password. Fastmail’s Basic plan doesn’t include IMAP, SMTP, CalDAV or CardDAV. Patra works with Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird and other IMAP mail apps on every plan, and each person gets a setup page.

Does Fastmail have a free trial?

Yes, for up to 30 days with no credit card. Until you pay, a trial can send 120 messages a day and has five active users and five addresses. Every Patra plan is free for its first 14 days, with no payment details; until the first payment, an account can store up to 10 GB and send to 100 recipients a day.

Does Fastmail have AI features?

Fastmail hasn’t built AI into its apps. It offers an MCP server that connects an AI tool you choose, such as Claude Desktop, ChatGPT or Perplexity, with read, write or send access to your mail. Patra has no AI in webmail either; its read-only admin connector lets AI apps look up account details such as storage, DNS records and delivery reports, never anyone’s mail.

Can I resell or white-label Fastmail?

Fastmail offers reseller accounts with a custom login page carrying your logo. You either bill your clients yourself, on business plans with monthly terms, or let Fastmail bill them directly, with no mark-up. Patra’s partner pools start at 75 GB and put your name, logo, colour and support address on your clients’ admin console, sign-in page, setup pages and the emails we send them, and you set your own prices.

Sources, checked 16 October 2026.

Every Fastmail fact on this page comes from Fastmail’s own pages, read on 16 October 2026. Prices and plans change, so check them before you decide.

Fastmail pricing (US): plans and US list prices, storage per user, what Basic leaves out, plan changes, payment methods and refunds. Fastmail’s country pages, such as its UK pricing page, show local-currency prices.
Account limits: aliases, domains, sending, message size, storage and what happens over quota.
How do I choose a subscription plan? What Business Basic includes, and sharing a domain with Basic users.
Trial accounts: trial length, no credit card, and limits until you pay.
Server names and ports and App passwords: IMAP, POP and SMTP, app passwords, and what Basic doesn’t include.
Managing users as an admin and Account administrators: extra storage, admin tools, the privacy option, the login log and catch-all addresses.
Professional email retention archive: the tamper-proof archive on Professional.
Filters and rules and Fastmail’s developer page: rule actions, the vacation auto-reply, importing Gmail filters, and the developer API.
An MCP server for Fastmail (22 April 2026) and Connecting AI tools via Fastmail’s MCP server: no AI built in, and what a connected AI tool can do.
Reseller accounts and Terms of Service (in effect from 2 July 2026): reselling, billing options, and what the service is for.
Features, Fastmail features (help centre) and Download: everyday mail tools, the restore tool and the apps.
Security and Using two-step verification: encryption, passkeys and two-step options.
Custom domains with Fastmail and Registering a domain through Fastmail: domain setup and nameservers.
Fastmail’s migration page and its guide to moving from Outlook: the import tool. Importing and exporting contacts: exporting contacts as a vCard file.
Choosing your data residency: EU or US data storage.
Fastmail customer support policies: support channels, hours and reply times.

Patra’s facts come from our own pages: Pricing, Features, Partners, Security, Acceptable Use Policy, Refund Policy, Move your old mail and AI assistants.

Fastmail, Masked Email and other product names are trademarks of their owners; Patra isn’t affiliated with Fastmail or the other companies named here.

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