Three months ago I watched a freelancer in a Slack group spend an entire afternoon debugging why her client proposals were landing in spam. She'd been using ImprovMX to forward business inquiries to her Gmail, then replying through Gmail's "Send mail as" feature with ImprovMX's SMTP relay. Worked fine for months. Then Google tightened their sending reputation checks, and suddenly half her outbound mail was getting flagged.

The fix took her four hours — rebuilding SPF records, verifying DKIM alignment, testing from multiple accounts. All to save maybe $40/year over just getting proper email hosting in the first place.

I'm not dunking on ImprovMX here. It does what it says: forward email cheaply. The product isn't broken. The problem is when people use forwarding as a substitute for hosting, then discover the gaps when something breaks.

So let's be honest about what each service actually offers. ImprovMX is a forwarding layer with SMTP bolted on. JustEmails is full email hosting with real mailboxes. Different products, different trade-offs.

Quick Verdict

TL;DR: ImprovMX wins if you literally just need mail forwarded to Gmail and you don't mind replies funneling through workarounds. JustEmails wins when you want actual inboxes — IMAP access, desktop clients, storage, team mailboxes, and sending that doesn't depend on third-party relay chains. For a deeper dive on how pricing models shape email hosting economics, see our flat-fee vs per-mailbox pricing analysis.

If you're a solo freelancer with one domain who's comfortable living inside Gmail, ImprovMX at $9/month might be fine. If you're managing multiple domains, adding team members, or sending transactional email from apps, the $49/year flat rate at JustEmails makes more sense than paying $108+/year for forwarding you'll eventually outgrow.

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Feature	ImprovMX	JustEmails
Pricing model	Per-plan monthly	Flat $49/year
Free tier	Yes (limited)	7-day trial only
Starting paid price	$9/month ($108/year)	$49/year
Real mailboxes	No (forwarding only)	Yes (unlimited)
IMAP/POP3 access	No	Yes
SMTP sending	Yes (on paid plans)	Yes
Webmail	No	Yes
Storage	None — forwards to external inbox	10 GB included
Domains included	1 on Basic, 10 on Premium	Unlimited
Aliases	Unlimited (paid) / 25 (free)	Unlimited
Catch-all	Paid only	Yes
Transactional API	No	Yes (1K/mo included)
SPF/DKIM/DMARC	Manual setup	Auto-configured
Team members	Not applicable	$2/member/month
Desktop client support	Not directly — you use Gmail/Outlook	Full IMAP/SMTP

The core difference: ImprovMX moves mail around. JustEmails stores and manages it.

Not better or worse — just different jobs. Pick the one that matches yours.

How ImprovMX Actually Works

ImprovMX sits on your MX records and forwards incoming mail to an existing inbox — usually Gmail. You create aliases (hello@yourdomain.com, contact@yourdomain.com), each forwarding to a destination address you already own.

On paid plans, you also get SMTP credentials. This lets you configure Gmail's "Send mail as" feature to reply from your custom domain instead of your @gmail.com address. Outbound mail routes through ImprovMX's servers, not Google's.

Sound familiar? It should. This is essentially the same architecture as Cloudflare Email Routing, except ImprovMX charges for features Cloudflare gives away (SMTP sending) and Cloudflare charges nothing for features ImprovMX gives away (basic forwarding).

The model works. Plenty of people use it.

But it's not email hosting. There's no inbox to log into. No folders. No storage. No way to access your mail from Thunderbird or Apple Mail without going through Gmail first. Everything flows through your existing inbox, which means your business mail lives in your personal email — mixed together, sharing storage, subject to whatever happens to that Gmail account.

Where ImprovMX Wins

Let's be fair. ImprovMX has real strengths.

Lower Barrier to Entry

ImprovMX's free tier exists. JustEmails doesn't have a permanent free tier — just a 7-day trial. If you want custom domain email at literally zero dollars and don't need SMTP sending, ImprovMX's free plan gives you that. 25 aliases per domain, forwarding to one destination. For a portfolio site that might get two emails a month, why pay anything?

Simplicity (If You're Already in Gmail)

If your workflow is "everything lives in Gmail," ImprovMX keeps you there. You don't learn a new webmail interface. You don't configure IMAP. You just forward to Gmail and set up "Send mail as." Your muscle memory stays intact.

I get the appeal. Switching workflows has friction. If you're deeply embedded in Gmail's search, filters, and labels, there's a transition cost to moving anywhere else. (I say this as someone who spent years in Gmail before switching. The first week felt weird. Then it didn't.)

Webhooks for Developers

ImprovMX Premium includes webhooks — get notified when emails arrive. If you're building something that reacts to incoming mail (support ticket parsing, form submissions, whatever), the webhook integration is genuinely useful. You don't need to poll IMAP or run your own mail server.

JustEmails has webhook notifications for transactional email delivery events, but not for general inbox arrival. Different use case.

Where JustEmails Wins

Now the other side.

Actual Mailboxes

This is it. The whole thing. JustEmails gives you real inboxes. Storage on our servers. IMAP access. Webmail you can log into.

Your email exists in a mailbox you control — not forwarded to somewhere else.

Why does this matter? Let me count the ways (and yes, I'm being a bit dramatic, but I've seen this trip up too many people):

Separation: Your business mail isn't mixed with your personal Netflix receipts. I once spent twenty minutes searching for a client invoice buried under promotional emails from a mattress company. Never again.
Client access: Use Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Outlook, or any IMAP-compatible app directly. No Gmail dependency.
Offline access: Sync via IMAP and read email without internet.
Portability: Export your mailbox anytime. You own the data.

With ImprovMX, you're permanently tethered to whatever inbox you forward to. Your business history lives in Gmail's storage quota, subject to Gmail's search, filtered by Gmail's spam detection. If you ever want to leave Gmail, you're migrating your personal email too — because that's where everything went. (Just like consolidating observability tools saves overhead, consolidating email into real mailboxes simplifies your stack.)

Multi-Domain Economics

ImprovMX Basic: $9/month for one domain. Want more? Premium is $29/month for up to 10 domains.

JustEmails: $49/year flat. Unlimited domains. No per-domain pricing. I'll admit that sounds too simple, and I was skeptical when I first saw it — there's usually a catch. There isn't.

If you're a freelancer with three side projects and a consulting brand, that's four domains. ImprovMX Premium runs $348/year. JustEmails runs $49/year. You save $299 annually — and get real mailboxes instead of forwarding.

Team Mailboxes

ImprovMX doesn't really do teams. Each alias forwards to an individual. There's no concept of multiple people accessing the same business inbox, shared drafts, or role-based access.

JustEmails lets you create unlimited mailboxes. Add team members at $2/member/month for admin access. Set up support@, sales@, billing@ — each as real inboxes that your team can access independently or share. The owner account is included free.

If you're scaling beyond solo, forwarding breaks down. Real mailboxes scale. (I've watched two agencies try to run client support through ImprovMX aliases forwarding to a shared Gmail. It was chaos. Don't do this to yourself.)

Bundled Transactional Email

Need to send password resets, order confirmations, or automated notifications from your app? JustEmails includes 1,000 transactional API emails per month at no extra cost. Need more? $25/year per 10K-email tier. Check our SMTP vs API transactional guide if you're deciding between SMTP relay and REST API.

ImprovMX doesn't touch transactional. You'd bolt on SendGrid, Postmark, Resend, or Amazon SES separately. More vendors, more bills, more SPF includes.

One-Shot DNS

JustEmails auto-generates your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. Add your domain, copy four DNS entries, verify. Green checkmarks when it's live.

Honestly? This is the part I appreciate most. DNS configuration is where most people's eyes glaze over, and where half the deliverability problems start. Our custom domain email setup guide walks through it if you want the full picture.

ImprovMX requires more manual work — especially for DKIM signing on outbound mail. You're managing their SPF include plus (often) Gmail's SPF include, and making sure DMARC alignment works when mail routes through multiple hops. Doable. Also more fragile.

Pricing Reality

ImprovMX (as of June 2026):

Free: 25 aliases, forward-only, no SMTP, no catch-all, 1 domain
Basic: $9/month ($108/year) — SMTP sending, unlimited aliases, catch-all, webhooks, 1 domain
Premium: $29/month ($348/year) — 10 domains, priority support, API access

JustEmails:

All-In Plan: $49/year — unlimited domains, unlimited mailboxes, 10 GB storage, IMAP/SMTP, auto-DNS, 1K transactional API emails/month
Storage add-on: +100 GB for $100/year (stackable)
Transactional API add-on: +$25/year per 10K-email/month tier
Team members: $2/member/month (owner included free)
Trial: 7-day free trial, card required

For one domain with basic forwarding needs, ImprovMX free or Basic might be sufficient. But the moment you want multiple domains, real mailboxes, or transactional API, JustEmails costs less while giving you more.

The "Send Mail As" Gotcha

Here's the thing ImprovMX doesn't advertise loudly: their SMTP sending goes through Gmail's "Send mail as" interface. You're not sending from ImprovMX directly — you're using Gmail, which routes through ImprovMX's SMTP relay, which sends with your domain.

That chain matters for deliverability. A lot.

Gmail checks sending reputation at multiple points. ImprovMX's IP reputation affects your delivery. If other ImprovMX users on shared SMTP IPs send spam, your mail suffers too. And DMARC alignment gets tricky — the mail originates from Gmail's servers, relays through ImprovMX, and claims to be from your domain. Some receiving servers flag that. (For a deep dive on DMARC enforcement, see our DMARC p=reject guide.)

With JustEmails, you're sending directly from our SMTP servers. One hop. Clean headers. DKIM signed by us, SPF aligned to us, DMARC passes cleanly. No relay chains.

Not saying ImprovMX can't deliver email — it obviously works for many users. But when deliverability problems happen, the multi-hop architecture makes them harder to debug. Been there. The freelancer I mentioned? She eventually moved to proper hosting and her spam problems vanished. Took her a week to trust it, kept checking spam folders that stayed empty.

Who Should Pick What

Choose ImprovMX if:

You're running a hobby project or personal blog
You genuinely just need forwarding and don't care about replies
You want to stay inside Gmail and accept the "Send mail as" workarounds
You need webhooks for incoming mail notifications
Budget is zero dollars and you won't need SMTP

Choose JustEmails if:

You want real mailboxes with IMAP access
You're managing more than one domain
You're adding team members who need separate inboxes
You want transactional API and mailbox hosting in one place
You're tired of relay chains and deliverability debugging
You'd rather pay $49/year once than $108/year for forwarding

Either works if:

You're a solo freelancer with one domain
Your email volume is low (honestly, if you get five emails a week, overthinking this is pointless)
You're technical enough to debug DNS issues yourself
You don't need desktop client access

(Side note: if you're also running paid ads for your business, you might want to check out ClickzProtect — protecting ad spend from bots is as important as protecting email deliverability.)

Migrating From ImprovMX to JustEmails

If you've outgrown forwarding, here's the switch:

Sign up at JustEmails and add your domain
JustEmails generates MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records automatically
In your DNS provider, remove ImprovMX's MX records
Add JustEmails' MX record
Add the three TXT records (SPF, DKIM selector, DMARC)
Wait for propagation — usually 15-60 minutes
Verify in the JustEmails dashboard
Create your mailboxes and configure your email clients

Your ImprovMX aliases stop receiving once MX records change. Any mail that was already forwarded to Gmail stays in Gmail. New mail goes to JustEmails.

For a detailed walkthrough on moving from other providers — including Google Workspace and Zoho — check our migration guides.

Final Verdict

Look, I don't think ImprovMX is bad. For what it is — cheap forwarding with SMTP relay — it works. Plenty of people use it happily. If you're reading this and ImprovMX is doing the job? Don't fix what isn't broken.

But.

If you're hitting walls — deliverability issues, wanting IMAP access, needing team mailboxes, tired of your business email living inside your personal Gmail — you've outgrown forwarding. That's not a failure. It's just scale.

JustEmails costs $49/year flat. Unlimited domains, unlimited mailboxes, real IMAP/SMTP, auto-configured DNS, transactional API included. No relay chains, no workarounds, no hoping Gmail's "Send mail as" doesn't break.

ImprovMX Premium costs $348/year and still doesn't give you an actual inbox.

The math kind of speaks for itself.

(And yeah — if you're evaluating other options too, we've written comparisons against Cloudflare Email Routing, Fastmail, MXroute, and Google Workspace. Different trade-offs depending on what you need.)

Frequently Asked Questions

Can ImprovMX send emails, or is it receive-only?

ImprovMX can forward incoming mail and offers SMTP credentials for outbound sending on paid plans. But it's not a mailbox — there's no storage, no IMAP access, no inbox you can log into. You still rely on Gmail or another service to read and organize your email. ImprovMX essentially lets you reply as your custom domain through Gmail's "Send mail as" feature using their SMTP relay. For many people this works. But if you want a real inbox you control, with folders and archiving and desktop client access, you need actual hosting.

Is ImprovMX free tier good enough for business email?

For side projects, maybe. The free tier gives you 25 email aliases per domain, 500 outbound emails/month, and forwards to one destination address. No SMTP sending — so no replying as your domain without upgrading. No logs, no analytics, no catch-all on free. If you're running actual client communication or need to send more than a handful of emails per day, you'll hit the walls fast. The $9/month Basic plan removes some limits, but you're still paying $108/year for forwarding, not mailboxes.

How does ImprovMX pricing compare to JustEmails?

ImprovMX free tier: receive-only, 25 aliases, limited features. ImprovMX Basic: $9/month ($108/year) for SMTP sending, unlimited aliases, webhooks. ImprovMX Premium: $29/month ($348/year) for multiple domains, priority support. JustEmails: $49/year flat for unlimited domains, unlimited mailboxes, real IMAP/SMTP access, and 1,000 transactional API emails included. If you're comparing paid plans, JustEmails costs less than ImprovMX Basic while giving you actual mailboxes instead of forwarding.

Should I migrate from ImprovMX to JustEmails?

If you've outgrown forwarding — yes. Signs you're ready: you want IMAP access from a desktop client, you're tired of everything funneling into your personal Gmail, you need multiple team members with separate inboxes, or you want transactional email and mailbox hosting on one platform. Migration is straightforward: create your domain in JustEmails, update MX records, copy the auto-generated SPF/DKIM/DMARC entries. DNS propagates in under an hour. Your ImprovMX aliases stop receiving, JustEmails takes over.

Try JustEmails

Unlimited custom domain email hosting for $49/year flat — unlimited domains, unlimited mailboxes, 10 GB storage, full IMAP/SMTP. Built for agencies, freelancers, and anyone managing email across more than one domain.

Start your 7-day free trial → · How it compares

JustEmails vs ImprovMX: Forwarding or Real Mailboxes?