Introduction
Porkbun is a domain registrar that also sells its own hosted mailbox product called Porkbun Email, alongside free forwarding and a Proton Mail add on. Mango Mail is a dedicated email host built around unlimited domains and addresses under one storage based plan. Here is how the two compare if you are deciding between them for a custom domain inbox.
Pricing Philosophy
Mango Mail
Mango Mail keeps pricing simple. You pay for your storage plan, and can create as many domains, mailboxes, and aliases as you need within your plan. This makes costs predictable as your organization grows. All plans come with unlimited domains and addresses letting you use your data however you see fit. Mango Mail's Small Business plan offers 30GB for $60/year ($5/month) unlimited mailboxes).
Porkbun Email
Porkbun Email is billed per mailbox, at roughly $36/year ($3/month), with each mailbox getting 10GB of storage and access through webmail, POP3 and IMAP. Because the hosted mailbox product is priced per address, costs scale directly with the number of mailboxes you create.
Per Mailbox Billing vs Storage Based Billing
Porkbun charges for each mailbox you create. As you add new mailboxes, each one is billed separately and increases your total cost.
Mango Mail's storage based model removes per mailbox billing entirely. You can create as many separate mailboxes as you need within your storage tier without paying an additional fee for each one.
Designed for Multiple Domains
Whether you manage client domains, personal projects, family domains or business brands, Mango Mail lets you manage everything from one account, on any of its tiers. Porkbun's email hosting is tied to domains managed within a Porkbun account, and each hosted mailbox on any of those domains is billed individually. There is no unlimited domain bundle in the pricing model as described in Porkbun's own documentation.
Standard Email Protocols
Both providers support the protocols most users expect. IMAP, POP3, SMTP, webmail access and custom domains are supported by both Mango Mail and Porkbun Email. You can continue using desktop clients like Thunderbird, Outlook, Apple Mail or mobile mail apps with either provider.
Feature Breakdown
| Feature | Mango Mail | Porkbun Email |
| Registrar specific DNS setup guides | Mango Mail Docs include DNS setup guides that walk you through configuring DNS for over a dozen registrars. | Porkbun's own guides cover setup for domains managed in a Porkbun account. Documentation for connecting Porkbun Email to a domain registered and hosted elsewhere is not clearly laid out. |
| Migration Transfer tools | Mango Simple Transfer moves attachments, folder structure and full message content automatically, and supports providers such as Gmail and Outlook. | No dedicated migration tool is documented for Porkbun Email. |
| Catch-all addressing | Mango Mail supports catch-all addressing which allows misaddressed mail to still arrive in a "catch-all" mailbox. | Not supported with Porkbun Email. |
| Aliasing | Supported, allowing different addresses to all arrive in the same inbox. | Porkbun also allows aliasing but puts limits on the number of aliases allowed. |
| Subaddressing (plus addressing and subdomain addressing) | Mango Mail supports both plus addressing and subdomain addressing which allow you to use different names for the same mailboxes without needing to create a new address. You can simply use a special naming scheme to make new addresses on-the-fly. | Not supported. |
| Free forwarding aliases | Not part of Mango Mail's model, since Mango Mail addresses are full mailboxes within your plan rather than separate free forwards. | Up to 20 free forwarding addresses per domain, redirecting to an existing inbox rather than hosting mail directly. |
| Automatic backups | Supported. | Not documented as a feature of Porkbun Email. |
| Self-service password resets | Mango Mail allows email mailbox users to set their own passwords, and provides a secure password generator tool in the dashboard. | Porkbun also documents a self-service process for resetting a forgotten hosted mailbox password. |
Which Should You Choose?
Choose Mango Mail if you
- Prefer storage based pricing that does not scale per mailbox
- Manage many domains or need many hosted addresses without a per mailbox fee for each one
- Want predictable costs as your organization grows, with the option to upgrade a plan and only pay the prorated difference
- Are looking for a easy solution with a fast setup
Choose Porkbun Email if you
- Only need one or two hosted mailboxes, where the flat rate of about $3/month per address is inexpensive at that scale
- Want the option to upgrade to Proton Mail's encrypted email through the same account
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mango Mail cheaper than Porkbun?
It depends on how many hosted mailboxes you need. For a single mailbox, Porkbun's roughly $3 a month is comparable to Mango Mail's plan prices. As soon as you need more mailboxes, Mango Mail's storage based pricing becomes cheaper than paying Porkbun's per mailbox rate.
Does Mango Mail charge per mailbox?
No. Mango Mail's pricing is based on data usage across your whole account, not the number of addresses or domains you have.
Does Porkbun charge per mailbox?
Yes, for its hosted Porkbun Email product, each mailbox is billed individually at roughly a year.
What happens if I have two businesses on Mango Mail?
You can fit both in a single plan. Mango Mail allows you to attach as many domains and users to your account as your plan's storage can fit, so whether you have one business or several, you only pay for one subscription.
Can I migrate from Porkbun Email to Mango Mail?
Mango Mail's Simple Transfer tool moves mail data, attachments and folder structure automatically. This allows you to seamlessly transfer your Porkbun mail data over to Mango Mail.
