Email Alias Services Compared: AnonAddy, SimpleLogin, and Firefox Relay

Email alias services solve a specific problem: you want to give out an email address that isn’t your real one. Aliases forward messages to your actual inbox, but the sender never sees your real address. You can disable individual aliases if they start getting spam, without touching your main account.

There are three serious options for this in 2026. Here’s what each one actually does.

What Email Aliases Are (and Aren’t)

An alias service isn’t encrypted email. It doesn’t protect the content of your messages — it just masks your address. When someone sends to your alias, the service strips the original recipient, rewrites headers, and forwards to your inbox.

This is useful for:

• Signing up to services without giving your real address
• Creating per-service addresses so you can identify which one leaked your contact info
• Receiving mail from strangers without exposing your identity
• Reducing spam by disabling individual aliases

It doesn’t help if the threat is someone who already knows your real address, or if you need the content of messages protected from interception.

AnonAddy

AnonAddy is open source, self-hostable, and has a generous free tier. The project is transparent about its funding and code.

Free tier: 10 shared domain aliases, unlimited standard aliases on your own subdomain (e.g., you.anonaddy.com), 10 MB/month of bandwidth
Paid starting price: $12/year (Lite), $36/year (Pro)
Open source: Yes — fully auditable
Self-hostable: Yes — you can run your own instance
Custom domains: Paid plans and self-hosted
Reply from aliases: Yes
Catch-all: Yes (on subdomain aliases)

Privacy approach: AnonAddy stores as little data as possible. Forwarded emails are not stored after delivery. The service is run out of the UK, which means UK law applies, but the founder has been transparent about the operational security decisions involved.

Practical limitation: The free tier’s 10 MB/month bandwidth cap is real. If you’re forwarding emails with attachments regularly, you’ll hit it. The subdomain catch-all (*.you.anonaddy.com) is clever and essentially gives you unlimited aliases, but you have to share that subdomain structure with any service that gets your alias.

SimpleLogin

SimpleLogin was acquired by Proton in 2022. It integrates tightly with the Proton ecosystem — if you have a Proton account, SimpleLogin premium is included.

Free tier: 15 aliases total (not monthly — 15 total)
Paid starting price: $30/year (or included with Proton paid plans)
Open source: Yes
Self-hostable: Yes
Custom domains: Paid plans
Reply from aliases: Yes
Catch-all: Yes (on custom domains)

Privacy approach: Under Proton’s umbrella, SimpleLogin benefits from Proton’s infrastructure and Swiss jurisdiction. Proton is one of the more privacy-credible companies in this space, though the acquisition means you’re now trusting a larger organization.

Practical consideration: If you’re already a Proton user, SimpleLogin premium is essentially free. For non-Proton users, the $30/year price and 15-alias free tier make it less compelling than AnonAddy’s free tier for light use.

Notable feature: SimpleLogin’s directory feature lets you generate aliases on the fly at the moment of need — yourword.yourdirectory@simplelogin.co — without pre-creating them.

Firefox Relay

Firefox Relay is Mozilla’s take on the same problem. It’s simpler than the others, with fewer options, but backed by Mozilla’s credibility and integrated into Firefox.

Free tier: 5 aliases
Paid starting price: $1.99/month (includes phone masking as well)
Open source: Yes
Self-hostable: No
Custom domains: No
Reply from aliases: Yes (on paid plans)
Catch-all: No

Privacy approach: Mozilla is a non-profit foundation with a longer track record in the privacy space than either AnonAddy or SimpleLogin (pre-Proton). The service is operated out of the US, which has weaker email privacy law than the EU or UK, but Mozilla’s stated commitment to user privacy is backed by its organizational mission.

Practical limitation: The 5-alias free tier and lack of custom domain support make this a limited option for heavy users. It’s best suited for occasional use or people already in the Firefox ecosystem.

Which One to Use

For privacy-first users with no Proton account: AnonAddy. The open source code, self-hosting option, and transparent operation make it the most independently verifiable option. The free tier is practical with the subdomain catch-all.

For Proton users: SimpleLogin is a clear choice — you’re already paying for it. The integration between SimpleLogin aliases and Proton Mail makes the workflow smooth.

For casual users who want minimal setup: Firefox Relay works fine for the occasional throwaway address without creating another account.

One Thing None of Them Do

Alias services protect your identity from the services you sign up to. They don’t protect your communications from surveillance once the message reaches your real inbox. If your real inbox is Gmail, Google still processes those forwarded messages.

For genuine end-to-end privacy, pair an alias service with a privacy-respecting email provider. Use the alias to receive, and your encrypted email provider to read.