ImprovMX doesn't host your inbox. We offer advanced[1] email forwarding to your existing inbox (Gmail, Outlook, etc.), with the option to send via SMTP.
Zoho Mail is the inbox itself where you read and send mail.
Your choice largely depends on if you need a hosted inbox or prefer to use your existing inbox.
ImprovMX
Zoho Mail
Setup
Must setup DNS records for forwarding and sending.
Mailbox hosting
No mailbox hosting, forwards to existing mailbox.
Apps
Just a web app.
API
API to manage forwarding, domains and aliases.
API manages mailbox.
CLI/MCP
Offers ZMail CLI and an MCP server.
Free plan
Free plan anywhere in the world.
Free plan only available in select data centers.
Pricing
Paid plans with high alias limits are cheaper.
Per-user mailbox plans are more expensive.
Webhooks
Full email contents delivered to your webhook.
Multi-recipient
Multi-recipient forwarding supported.
Limited—setup is unnecessarily complicated.[4]
Regex matching
Powerful regex matching.
Regex matching not supported with custom filters.
Compliance
ImprovMX is GDPR compliant.
1. We offer rules routing, wildcard addresses, multiple recipient destinations, regex aliases and webhooks.
2. Zoho does offer one-click migration but this is currently supported only by Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
3. Zoho webhooks are notification-style: they can send only basic fields (subject/from/to/time), and you use Zoho's API if you need the full email.
4. Zoho users report practical limitations/quirks when trying to forward to multiple different external addresses via rules.
5. ImprovMX's CLI is built for terminal workflows, automation, and ai coding tools like Claude Code and OpenAI Codex.
Questions? Reach out to us, we love chatting about email service providers.
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