Zoho Mail is the closest thing to a direct competitor: a genuine free tier for custom-domain email. There is one restriction on that free plan worth knowing about before you commit to it.
Choose Zoho Mail if you want the wider Zoho suite. If you are already using Zoho CRM, Books or Projects, keeping mail in the same account is a real advantage, and their paid mail tiers are competitively priced and mature.
Choose WS Mail if you want to use your own mail app on the free tier. Zoho's free plan does not include IMAP or POP, so Outlook, Apple Mail and Thunderbird cannot connect to it — you are limited to Zoho's own web and mobile clients until you upgrade. Our free tier includes IMAP, POP and SMTP.
| Dimension | WS Mail | Zoho Mail |
|---|---|---|
| IMAP / POP on the free plan | Included | Not included — upgrade required |
| Verified sender identity | Credential-checked badge, public verification page | Not offered |
| Free shared-domain inboxes | Five @wshealthmail.com inboxes on top of your domain | Not offered |
| Free plan user cap | Two on your domain plus five shared | Five users on one custom domain |
| Free plan storage | 5 GB per user | 5 GB per user |
| Wider product suite | Mail, calendar, tasks, notes | Large suite — CRM, Books, Projects and more |
| Maturity | Newer platform | Long-established, very large install base |
Zoho's forever-free plan is a legitimately good offer: five users on a custom domain with 5 GB each. The restriction that catches people out is that IMAP and POP access are not included. In practice that means Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird and third-party mobile clients cannot connect to a free Zoho mailbox — you use Zoho's own apps or nothing.
For some teams that is fine. It becomes a problem in two situations: when someone insists on the mail client they have used for a decade, and when you later want to leave, because a mailbox you cannot connect a standard client to is a mailbox that is awkward to migrate out of.
Our free tier includes IMAP, POP and SMTP for exactly that reason. Being easy to leave is a feature; it is the part that makes "free forever" mean something.
Competitor capabilities described as published by the vendor at the time of writing. Check their current plan comparison before deciding.
No. IMAP and POP access are not included on Zoho’s free plan, which means Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird and third-party mobile clients cannot connect to a free Zoho mailbox — you use Zoho’s own web and mobile apps until you upgrade to a paid tier.
Yes. IMAP, POP and SMTP are available on the free tier, so any standard mail client works from day one. It also means your mail is straightforward to migrate out later, which we consider part of what makes a free plan honest.
They are close. Zoho offers five users on one custom domain with 5 GB each. We offer two mailboxes on your own domain plus five free @wshealthmail.com inboxes, also with 5 GB per user — so more addresses in total, but fewer on your own domain.
The free tier has no expiry and no card, so evaluating us costs nothing but the signup.
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