Anyone shopping for a Migadu alternative should know up front that Migadu's pricing model is one of the smartest in this market. Mailboxes, domains and aliases are unlimited on every plan. What's metered is message volume per day, and that single decision is why the product is cheap and why people occasionally outgrow it overnight.
This is a comparison written by someone who thinks Migadu is good. The interesting question isn't whether it works — it's whether the meter they chose matches how your team actually sends mail.
What Migadu Meters
Their pricing page is refreshingly readable. Four plans, all with unlimited mailboxes, domains and aliases:
| Plan | Price | Received/day | Sent/day | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Micro | $19/year | 200 | 20 | 5 GB |
| Mini | $9/mo or $90/year | 1,000 | 100 | 30 GB |
| Standard | $29/mo or $290/year | 3,000 | 500 | 100 GB |
| Maxi | $99/mo or $990/year | 10,000 | 2,000 | 500 GB |
Read that as a philosophy rather than a price list. Migadu decided that the cost of running mail correlates with traffic, not headcount, and priced accordingly. Nobody has to justify creating invoices@, because addresses are free.
If you've been paying per user somewhere else, this is the model you were looking for, and no Migadu alternative improves on the idea itself.
The Number That Catches People
Look again at the sent column. Micro allows 20 outbound messages a day. Mini allows 100.
For one person answering correspondence, 20 is plenty. For a two-person team with a support address, 20 is Tuesday morning. And the limit is daily, so hitting it doesn't mean upgrading later — it means being stuck until tomorrow.
This is the single most common reason a Migadu alternative gets searched for, and it usually arrives as a surprise, because the mailbox count that drew you in was unlimited and nothing about the plan felt small.
The honest framing: it isn't a trick. The limits are stated plainly on the pricing page, and the price is low precisely because they're low. The mistake is evaluating on mailbox count when the meter is volume.
Before comparing any Migadu alternative, count what your team actually sends on a busy day, including automated notifications from your own applications. If that number is near 100, Mini won't hold. If it's near 500, you're looking at Standard at $290 a year, and the comparison changes shape.
Soft Storage, and Why No Migadu Alternative Should Undercut It
Credit where it's due. Migadu states there are no hard storage quotas and that messages won't bounce regardless of plan capacity. Go over and they may ask you to upgrade; they won't reject your mail.
That's more humane than the industry norm and worth naming, because most providers do the opposite — a full mailbox rejects mail, and the sender finds out before you do. A Migadu alternative that quietly enforces hard quotas is a downgrade on this specific point, whatever else it offers.
Support Is Tiered, and They Say So
Support scales with the plan: 24/7 priority on Maxi, office hours on Standard, best effort on Mini and Micro.
Micro also leaves out mailbox limit settings, welcome messages and multi-administrator access — so the cheapest plan is genuinely a personal plan, not a small business one, and shouldn't be evaluated as though a team will share it.
"Best effort" is an honest phrase for what most cheap hosting actually provides. Just make sure it matches the day mail stops and somebody has to answer for it.
Where a Migadu Alternative Changes Shape
Beyond the meter, four differences decide most evaluations of a Migadu alternative.
Sending limits that aren't the product. Ours are daily and per plan, from 200 a day on Nano to 2,500 on Agency, with an account-wide ceiling on top. See sending limits. Neither of us is a bulk platform. The difference is that a normal working day doesn't approach the limit.
Mailboxes you don't host. A client who stays on Workspace can still be read here, with replies going out through Google so SPF and DKIM still line up. See the unified inbox. Migadu doesn't offer this.
Search across the portfolio. Cross-mailbox search covers every folder in every mailbox you can reach in one query, which is a different job from searching the inbox you're standing in.
Files in the same account. Attachments over the usual ceiling are your problem on any Migadu plan. Drive here turns them into revocable share links and mounts over WebDAV.
The concession, stated plainly: our mailbox and domain counts are capped by tier where Migadu's are unlimited. If unbounded counts at a low price is the requirement, they win and you should take it.
When Migadu Is Simply the Right Choice
Stay put if most of this is true:
- You have many addresses that receive far more than they send.
- Your busiest day's outbound volume sits comfortably under your plan's limit.
- Unlimited mailboxes and domains genuinely matter to you.
- You host every mailbox you work with.
- Best-effort support is fine because you can diagnose your own problems.
That describes a lot of people, and for them Migadu is excellent value that a Migadu alternative won't beat on price. The case for moving is a send limit you keep brushing against, client mailboxes you don't host, or a portfolio too large to search one inbox at a time.
The Verdict, Whoever You Are
Migadu made a smart choice — meter volume, not people — and it pays off differently depending on who you are.
One person, one domain. Micro at $19 a year with unlimited addresses is superb value, provided you send under 20 messages a day. Check that number honestly, including automated mail from your own applications, because it's the one that surprises people. If you clear it, stay.
A team. Mini's 100 sent a day is the ceiling to watch, and it's daily — hitting it means waiting until tomorrow, not upgrading later. Beyond the meter: support@ as a shared mailbox with membership instead of alias copies, storage capped per address so one archive doesn't consume the pool, two-factor on each person's mailbox, and mail rules running at delivery on every device.
Mail for other people's companies. Unlimited addresses stop being the constraint; the work around them becomes it. Thirty client domains means thirty DNS setups by hand, against a previewed Cloudflare change or a Domain Connect click plus a bulk domain add. Then setup invites so you never hold client passwords, verification in the same account, 13 interface languages, and your own brand on the dashboard and webmail they log into.
Credit where it's due: their soft storage policy — no hard quotas, mail never bounces — is better than the industry norm, ours included.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Migadu's daily sending limit?
20 messages a day on Micro, 100 on Mini, 500 on Standard and 2,000 on Maxi. Received limits are 200, 1,000, 3,000 and 10,000 respectively.
Does Migadu really allow unlimited mailboxes?
Yes — mailboxes, aliases and domains are unlimited on every plan, with soft enforcement on domains at the Micro level. That part of the offer is genuine and it's the reason to consider them.
What happens if I exceed Migadu's storage?
Nothing abrupt. They state there are no hard quotas and mail won't bounce; they may ask you to upgrade. It's one of the better policies in this market.
Is a Migadu alternative cheaper?
Usually not at the low end — $19 a year is hard to beat. The comparison changes when your send volume pushes you to Standard at $290, because at that price you're choosing between meters rather than between prices.
Can Migadu handle a support inbox several people answer?
An alias delivering to several mailboxes works, but that's copies rather than membership — nobody sees who already replied. A shared mailbox is the difference, and it matters as soon as two people answer the same address.
Is migration between the two straightforward?
Yes, both ends speak plain IMAP, so it's a standard mailbox copy driven from a CSV and reconciled against the source afterwards. See bulk migration. DNS cutover is the real work, not the copying.
Do I lose my aliases and filters?
No. Aliases, catch-all routing and Sieve filters all have direct equivalents, since Sieve is a standard rather than a vendor feature.
