DuckDuckGo Email Protection is described in secondary comparisons as a free email forwarding service that provides a personal @duck.com address and automatically generated private @duck.com addresses for signups, and an alternative matters mainly for a custom domain or a full mailbox. Mail sent to a Duck Address is forwarded to an existing inbox. Private Duck Addresses can be deactivated individually, do not expire while the account is active and the address has not been deactivated, and cover many signups at no stated cost because the private addresses are generated automatically. DuckDuckGo is strong for free @duck.com forwarding, and an alternative becomes relevant for a custom domain, a different limit, or a full mailbox.
DuckDuckGo Email Protection
DuckDuckGo Email Protection provides two kinds of address. The personal Duck Address is a single @duck.com address chosen by the account holder. Private Duck Addresses are unique @duck.com addresses generated automatically, as described on the DuckDuckGo help page on private Duck Addresses, and the DuckDuckGo help page on expiry states that they do not expire while the account is active and the address has not been deactivated. That combination covers many signups, and no per-account alias limit was stated on the fetched help pages, although the fetched help pages do not describe custom domain support, a paid tier, or a dashboard.
Tracker handling and replies require care in the record, because the strongest statements about them come from secondary comparisons rather than from a fetched DuckDuckGo primary page. Secondary comparisons describe tracker stripping from forwarded mail and link tracking protection. The earlier article on whether DuckDuckGo Email Protection is safe covers the safety questions, and secondary comparisons also report that replies from a Duck Address are possible, with a limitation reported for a forwarding address on a unique domain without an SPF record, which means the service is not described here as receive-only. Secondary comparisons further state that no paid tier and no custom domain support are offered, but the DuckDuckGo Email Protection landing page failed to fetch on 2026-10-30, so those limits are stated as reported.
Custom domains
A custom domain is the clearest dividing line in this comparison, because an address on an owned domain remains under the control of the domain owner in a way that an address on a shared domain does not. An owned domain address can be moved between providers by changing mail routing. The same address on a shared domain such as duck.com stays tied to the provider that operates that domain, so a reader who builds signups and accounts around an owned domain keeps the address through a provider change, whereas a reader on a shared domain faces re-registration or forwarding arrangements when leaving a provider. DuckDuckGo addresses are @duck.com addresses in every description found during research, and secondary comparisons state that no custom domain support is offered, although the landing page failed to fetch on 2026-10-30. SimpleLogin Premium and addy.io paid plans support fully owned custom domains. Fastmail personal plans support owned domains as part of a mailbox service, AliasFleet Pro and Business plans support owned custom domains, and Firefox Relay Premium provides a Relay subdomain on a Mozilla domain rather than an owned domain. A reader who needs an owned domain therefore faces a narrower field.
Comparison of the main alternatives
The table below uses only figures from provider pricing pages fetched on 2026-10-30, except where a gap is noted, and prices are listed as shown on each page. Fastmail states that its prices are tax-exclusive. The other pricing pages fetched did not state tax treatment, so the prices are not compared as tax-inclusive totals, and no support response times or uptime figures were verified for any provider. A single ranking would mislead because each service trades a different limit for a different price.
| Service | Free tier | Paid tier and custom domains | Replies from an alias |
|---|---|---|---|
| SimpleLogin | 10 aliases, 1 mailbox, unlimited bandwidth | Premium $36 per year or $4 billed monthly, unlimited custom domains | Included on the free tier |
| addy.io | Unlimited standard aliases, 10 active shared domain aliases, 10 MB monthly bandwidth, 1 recipient | Lite $1 per month billed yearly, 1 custom domain; Pro $3 per month billed yearly, 20 custom domains | Lite 50 per day, Pro 200 per day, not included on Free |
| Firefox Relay | 5 email masks | Premium gives unlimited masks and a Relay subdomain; no price shown on the fetched Premium page | Premium only |
| Fastmail | No free plan listed | Individual $6 per month or $5 per month billed yearly, owned domains and Masked Email listed | No reply rule stated |
| AliasFleet | 10 active aliases, 1 verified destination inbox, 100 MB monthly forwarding | Pro with up to 3 custom domains, Business with up to 10 custom domains | Two-way reply routing on the free tier |
SimpleLogin
SimpleLogin is an open source alias service owned by Proton, and its pricing separates a small free tier from a paid tier that removes the alias and domain caps. The SimpleLogin pricing page lists a free tier with 10 aliases, unlimited bandwidth, reply from alias, and 1 mailbox. Premium costs $36 per year or $4 billed monthly. Premium adds unlimited aliases, unlimited custom domains, catch-all support, the ability to initiate a new email from an alias, unlimited mailboxes, and PGP encryption. Aliases created under a subscription continue to work normally after it ends. Creation of new aliases then stops at the free plan limit of 10. SimpleLogin fits a reader who wants replies on the free tier and unlimited custom domains on the paid tier, although a reader with more than 10 active signups needs the paid tier or a different free tier.
addy.io
addy.io is an open source alias service with a free tier built around volume limits rather than a hard alias cap, which reverses the SimpleLogin trade. The addy.io pricing page lists free unlimited standard aliases, 10 active shared domain aliases, 1 recipient, 2 alias domains, and 10 MB monthly bandwidth, while Lite costs $1 per month billed yearly and adds 1 custom domain, 5 recipients, 5 extra usernames, tracking pixel blocking, 100 MB monthly bandwidth, and 50 replies or sends from aliases a day. Pro costs $3 per month billed yearly, or $4 billed monthly. It adds unlimited shared domain aliases, 20 custom domains, 20 extra usernames, 30 recipients, unlimited bandwidth, and 200 replies or sends from aliases a day. addy.io therefore fits a reader who creates many aliases but sends little mail, although the free tier is not a full reply service and a reader who replies often will reach the 10 MB monthly limit quickly.
Firefox Relay
Firefox Relay is Mozilla's email mask service. Its structure is simpler than the alias services above because it centres on masks rather than on domains or bandwidth. The Firefox Relay Premium page states that everyone gets 5 email masks for free, and that Relay Premium gives unlimited masks, a unique Relay email domain for masks on the go, anonymous replies, promotional email blocking, and tracker removal. The same page lists reply to emails anonymously and a Relay email domain as Premium features, against 5 masks for the limited free tier. Anonymous replies and Relay-domain masks for on-the-go use are Premium features. The fetched Premium page showed a waitlist action and no price on 2026-10-30, a position confirmed on recheck the same date, so this article states no Relay Premium price as verified.
Everyone gets 5 email masks for free.
Firefox Relay fits a reader who already uses Firefox, wants a simple mask service, and is satisfied with 5 free masks or a personal Relay subdomain on Premium. The free tier is the smallest in this comparison at 5 masks. That count covers a handful of signups but not a broad set of accounts, and the absence of a verified Premium price means the paid tier cannot be compared on cost here. A reader who needs an owned domain faces the same portability limit as on a shared domain, because the subdomain remains on a Mozilla domain.
Fastmail
Fastmail is a paid mailbox service, not a forwarding layer over an existing inbox, and that difference defines its place in this comparison. The Fastmail pricing page lists Individual at $6 per month, or $5 per month at $60 for 12 months. The same page lists use of owned domains and Masked Email among the features on personal plans, with all prices stated as tax-exclusive. Fastmail therefore suits a reader who wants to replace the mailbox itself, with calendars, contacts, and files included. The fetched pricing text does not state a Masked Email count or a reply rule, so this article does not state those specifics. The trade is price and migration, since a reader who keeps an existing inbox pays for a mailbox that may not be needed.
AliasFleet alias service
AliasFleet is a managed alias service that forwards mail to an existing inbox. The AliasFleet pricing page states a free tier with 10 active aliases, 1 verified destination inbox, 3 managed subdomains, 100 MB monthly forwarding bandwidth, and two-way reply routing. The same page states that Pro plans support up to 3 custom domains and Business plans support up to 10 custom domains, with automated DNS diagnostics for MX, SPF, and DKIM. The pricing FAQ lists Pro at $12 per month normally. The Founders Club rate is $7 per month. AliasFleet fits a reader who wants managed, persistent aliases, with one alias per site, and the ability to pause or end an alias that leaks, while the service does not provide a mailbox.
The free tier caps active aliases at 10 and monthly forwarding at 100 MB, and owned custom domains require a paid plan. A bank account uses a permanent real dedicated address used only for financial accounts, never a masked or relay alias, because recovery, statements, and fraud alerts depend on that address. That rule applies across all alias services in this comparison. Readers who want a broader comparison can use the AliasFleet compare index. The guide to what an email alias is explains the alias mechanism behind the services compared here, and the safety questions about DuckDuckGo itself are covered in the earlier safety article linked above.
Domain, volume and mailbox differences
Owned domain support differs across the services in this comparison. SimpleLogin Premium, addy.io Lite and Pro, Fastmail personal plans, and AliasFleet Pro and Business include owned custom domains, while DuckDuckGo addresses are @duck.com addresses and Firefox Relay Premium provides a Relay subdomain on a Mozilla domain rather than an owned domain. Reply inclusion also differs by tier. SimpleLogin includes replies on the free tier, addy.io reserves replies for Lite and Pro with daily limits of 50 and 200, Firefox Relay reserves anonymous replies for Premium, and AliasFleet includes two-way reply routing on the free tier. DuckDuckGo replies are reported by secondary comparisons with a limitation for a forwarding address on a unique domain without an SPF record.
Volume limits bind at different points across the free tiers. The addy.io free tier caps monthly bandwidth at 10 MB, the SimpleLogin free tier caps aliases at 10, and the Firefox Relay free tier caps masks at 5. Paid tiers raise those limits in different ways, with addy.io Lite and Pro raising bandwidth and reply limits, SimpleLogin Premium removing the alias and domain caps, and Firefox Relay Premium removing the mask cap. The mailbox distinction is separate from those forwarding limits, because Fastmail provides a mailbox with owned domain support and Masked Email, while the other services forward mail to an existing inbox. The AliasFleet free tier caps active aliases at 10 and monthly forwarding at 100 MB. Owned custom domains sit on Pro and Business plans.
Top comments (0)