In Depth Pricing Comparison
Let's say you only need one email address, and have 3 GB of data to store. For one year of use, this will cost:
Protonmail | $48.00 |
Fastmail | $60.00 |
Google Workspace | $72.00 |
Zoho | $12.00 |
Hushmail | $49.98 |
Purelymail | $10.00 |
This comparison assumes you use the simple pricing plan. Using the advanced pricing plan and the defaults given in the advanced pricing calculator, Purelymail would cost $5.18.
Other companies tend to only state limits for storage (though they likely limit other resource use too), so for comparison we tend to pick the cheapest plan that can store 3 GB (uncompressed).
It's not clear whether other companies charge for message size before or after compression. This comparison assumes uncompressed, but that may be inaccurate. In any case, 3 GB uncompressed is a decent amount of mail that should take years to accumulate.
For Protonmail, this assumes the "Plus" plan, paid in USD at the annual rate. That plan allows up to 5 GB storage.
For Fastmail, this assumes the "Standard" plan. This plan allows up to 30 GB storage. (There is also a cheaper "Basic" plan with 2 GB storage for $36/year.)
For Google Workspaces, this assumes the "Basic" plan, which allows up to 30 GB of storage that this comparison does not account for. More importantly, GSuite offers much more than email, which may factor into your decision.
Zoho assumes the 'Mail Lite' plan, with 5 GB storage.
Hushmail offers up to 10 GB of storage.
Feel free to let us know if this comparison is inaccurate or becomes out of date!