Forwarding Compared: ImprovMX, Cloudflare

If you already forward mail with another service, this page explains the practical differences in plain terms. Provider pricing and limits change, so use the linked provider pages before making a purchase decision. This comparison was reviewed in September 2026.

At a glance

What each one is for

Cloudflare Email Routing is useful when DNS already lives at Cloudflare and you only need inbound forwarding. It requires Cloudflare DNS. Each routing rule has one destination, and destination addresses are verified and shared across the account. Cloudflare also offers a separate Email Service for sending, with its own plan and usage rules, so treat that as a different product decision.

ImprovMX is a dedicated forwarding service. Its current plan, alias, recipient, and log-retention limits are published on its pricing page. Mailboxes are a separate product. Check its current import and DNS options directly before planning a move.

TrekMail treats forwarding as one setting on a domain that can also hold real mailboxes. That is the practical difference: a client who starts with a single forwarded address and later wants a proper inbox does not move to another provider. You switch it on for that domain.

Moving your setup over

This is where most of the work usually goes, so we made it the short part.

Open a domain, go to Routing → Forwarding addresses → Import, and pick Cloudflare, ImprovMX, or a CSV file. We read your existing rules, show you exactly what will be created and what will be skipped and why, and create only the domains you tick.

Nothing at the old provider is changed or deleted. Your current forwarding keeps running until you point your MX records at us, so you can prepare the move days before you make it, and roll back by simply not switching.

Two limits worth knowing before you start: catch-all rules and wildcard addresses do not come across as individual addresses, because they are a domain-wide setting here. You set those under Catch-all inbox. And a domain has to be added to your account before its addresses can be imported; the preview tells you which ones are missing.

What you get here that forwarding-only services do not

• Mailboxes on the same domain. Forward press@, give the founder a real inbox at name@, on one domain, in one place.
• Cloudflare-assisted DNS. For Cloudflare zones, connect a token, review the record preview, and approve the changes before they are written.
• Pause instead of delete. Stop an address for a while and keep its recipients.
• A preview before anything changes. Both on import and when you save.
• API and AI agents. Listing, creating, changing and removing addresses all work over the API and through MCP tools, so setting up a new client domain can be one scripted step, and an agent can read the delivery history to check the mail is arriving, not just that a rule exists. Only the import wizard stays in the dashboard.
• Per-address delivery history. For each address you can see what arrived, where it went, and what the receiving server said, including mail our filters blocked as spam before forwarding it.

What we do not do

Being straight about this saves everyone time.

• Forwarding does not send. A forwarding address receives and passes on. Replies come from whatever inbox the recipient uses. If you need to answer as the address, create a mailbox.
• Forwarding delivery needs Pro or Agency. Nano and Starter can save rules, but the rules begin delivering after an eligible upgrade. If free forwarding is all you need and your DNS is already at Cloudflare, Cloudflare is worth considering.
• We do not import catch-all or wildcard rules as addresses, as described above.
• Delivery history is kept for days, not months. Each address has a per-message log, when mail arrived, who from, where it went and what the receiving server said, including anything spam filtering stopped before forwarding. It covers the last 30 days on Agency; older entries are removed.

Which to choose

If you want free forwarding, your DNS is at Cloudflare, and you will never need a mailbox on that domain, use Cloudflare.

If you forward for many domains, want a preview before changes, want to move an existing setup over in minutes, or expect some of those domains to grow into real mailboxes. That is what this is built for. See Forwarding Addresses to set one up.

Provider references

• ImprovMX pricing
• Cloudflare Email Service pricing
• Cloudflare Email Service limits