Draft:Forward Email

Forward Email was launched in November 2017 by Nick Baugh, a software developer who previously worked at DuckDuckGo. The service was created in response to challenges with self-hosted email solutions. In a Hacker News discussion, Baugh explained that he developed Forward Email as "a great alternative to trying to set up your own small mail server."{{cite web|url=https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23959676|title=I made Forward Email after running into many issues with self-hosted solutions...|website=Hacker News|date=July 26, 2020|access-date=March 31, 2025}}

The service began as an email forwarding solution with privacy and security as design considerations.

After its initial release in November 2017, Forward Email gradually expanded its infrastructure and feature set. The service allows users to create custom email addresses on their own domains that forward to their primary email accounts, enabling them to maintain a professional online presence while managing communications through a single inbox.

In October 2019, Abhi Nemani, the former Chief Data Officer for the City of Los Angeles, noted his switch to Forward Email, describing it as "Simple and painless (and free!)".{{cite web|url=https://x.com/abhinemani/status/1187406737101545473|title=Abhi Nemani on X: 'Have now switched email forwarding from MailGun to ForwardEmail...'|website=X (formerly Twitter)|date=October 24, 2019|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

On November 23, 2020, Forward Email officially launched out of its beta program. David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and co-founder of Basecamp, commented on the service on Twitter, describing it as "a forwarding service for email that doesn't keep logs or store emails, and which works with ARC to ensure signed forwards don't trip email filters."{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1331183379686055936|title=DHH on X: 'Congrats to @niftylettuce for fully launching Forward Email...'|website=X (formerly Twitter)|date=November 24, 2020|access-date=March 31, 2025}}

From 2021 through 2025, Forward Email continued to develop its feature set and infrastructure. The service transitioned to a JavaScript and Node.js stack and added support for email forwarding aliases with regular expressions.

In 2023, Forward Email added IMAP support, POP3 capabilities, and additional security features. Bitwarden, a password manager, added support for Forward Email in their username generator as part of version 2023.7 released in July 2023, following a community contribution. The feature was implemented through GitHub pull request #4809, which was merged on June 9, 2023, allowing Forward Email to be used as a forwarded email alias provider in Bitwarden's username generator.{{cite web|url=https://github.com/bitwarden/clients/pull/4809|title=[PM-1060] Added new forwarder (Forward Email) by titanism · Pull Request #4809 · bitwarden/clients|website=GitHub|access-date=April 1, 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://community.bitwarden.com/t/add-forwardemail-net-to-the-generator-for-usernames/49844/4|title=Add ForwardEmail.net to the Generator for Usernames - Feature Requests / Password Manager - Bitwarden Community Forums|website=Bitwarden Community Forums|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

Forward Email provides email services including forwarding, storage, and sending capabilities.

The primary feature of Forward Email is email forwarding, which allows users to:

• Create custom email addresses on their own domains that forward to their primary email accounts
• Set up custom domain names and email addresses
• Configure multiple recipients for a single address
• Implement wildcard addresses (catch-all functionality)
• Create disposable email addresses
• Configure "Send mail as" functionality with Gmail and Outlook

Forward Email offers email storage and access solutions:

• IMAP Support: Allows users to access their emails through standard email clients
• POP3 Support: Enables another protocol for email retrieval
• CalDAV Support: Provides calendar functionality

Forward Email provides outbound SMTP capabilities:

• Email sending via SMTP protocol
• Email sending through API requests
• Queue and retry systems for email delivery

Forward Email has been integrated into various software tools and platforms:

• Cloudflare, a major web infrastructure company, includes Forward Email in their documentation for vendor-specific DNS records, providing configuration guidance for users who want to use Forward Email with Cloudflare's DNS services.{{cite web|url=https://developers.cloudflare.com/dns/manage-dns-records/reference/vendor-specific-records/#forward-email|title=Vendor-specific DNS records · Cloudflare DNS docs|website=Cloudflare Developers|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

• The npm package "email-templates" recommends Forward Email as their default transport service for sending emails.{{cite web|url=https://www.npmjs.com/package/email-templates|title=email-templates - npm|website=npm|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

• React Email, a framework for building email templates with React, includes documentation on using Forward Email with Nodemailer for sending emails.{{cite web|url=https://react.email/docs/integrations/nodemailer|title=Send email using Nodemailer - React Email|website=React Email|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

• The Email Sending Guide, a resource for SaaS builders, lists Forward Email as one of their recommended transactional email providers, describing it as "the only 100% open-source email encrypted email service" that supports "unlimited domains and aliases for no extra cost" and offers various features including SMTP, IMAP, POP3, and email API capabilities.{{cite web|url=https://sending.guide/docs/transactional/providers#forward-email|title=Transactional Email Providers |website=Email Sending Guide|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

Forward Email's technical architecture includes:

• Independent Infrastructure: Forward Email operates without third-party email service providers.
• Encryption Technology: The service uses encrypted SQLite mailboxes with ChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption.{{cite web|url=https://sending.guide/docs/transactional/providers#forward-email|title=Transactional Email Providers|website=Email Sending Guide|access-date=April 1, 2025}}
• TLS Encryption: Used for communications.

Forward Email's code is publicly available on GitHub, allowing for:

• Independent review
• Community contributions
• Verification of implementation

The team behind Forward Email maintains npm packages that collectively receive hundreds of millions of downloads per month, as shown by npm download statistics.{{cite web|url=https://npm-stat.com/charts.html?author=titanism|title=npm-stat: titanism|website=npm-stat.com|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

Forward Email has received reviews on Trustpilot, maintaining a 4-star rating based on 92 reviews as of April 2025.{{cite web|url=https://www.trustpilot.com/review/forwardemail.net|title=Forward Email Reviews|website=Trustpilot|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

Forward Email has received attention from several figures and organizations in the technology industry:

• David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and co-founder of Basecamp, mentioned Forward Email on Twitter in November 2020.{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1331183379686055936|title=DHH on X: 'Congrats to @niftylettuce for fully launching Forward Email...'|website=X (formerly Twitter)|date=November 24, 2020|access-date=March 31, 2025}}

• Abhi Nemani, former Chief Data Officer for the City of Los Angeles, publicly endorsed switching to Forward Email from MailGun in October 2019.{{cite web|url=https://x.com/abhinemani/status/1187406737101545473|title=Abhi Nemani on X: 'Have now switched email forwarding from MailGun to ForwardEmail...'|website=X (formerly Twitter)|date=October 24, 2019|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

• Bitwarden, a password manager, added support for Forward Email in their username generator in version 2023.7.{{cite web|url=https://github.com/bitwarden/clients/pull/4809|title=[PM-1060] Added new forwarder (Forward Email) by titanism · Pull Request #4809 · bitwarden/clients|website=GitHub|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

• Auth.js, an authentication framework of Next.js, includes Forward Email as an official provider for sending authentication emails.{{cite web|url=https://authjs.dev/getting-started/providers/forwardemail|title=Forwardemail|website=Auth.js|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

• WildDuck Mail Server, an open-source email server project, lists Forward Email as a third-party project that integrates with their technology, describing it as "a 100% open-source and privacy-focused email service that combines WildDuck with an encrypted SQLite storage layer and offers IMAP/POP3/SMTP/CalDAV and more."{{cite web|url=https://docs.wildduck.email/docs/additional-software/third-party-projects|title=Third party projects|website=WildDuck Mail Server|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

• ListMonk, an open-source newsletter and mailing list manager, added Forward Email as an official provider for sending emails.{{cite web|url=https://github.com/knadh/listmonk/pull/2016|title=Add Forward Email as a provider by titanism · Pull Request #2016 · knadh/listmonk|website=GitHub|access-date=April 1, 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://listmonk.app|title=ListMonk - Self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager|website=ListMonk|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

Forward Email is pending inclusion in Privacy Guides, a respected privacy-focused recommendation site that evaluates digital services based on stringent privacy and security criteria, with an open pull request at GitHub.{{cite web|url=https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/pull/2358|title=Add Forward Email by titanism · Pull Request #2358 · privacyguides/privacyguides.org|website=GitHub|access-date=April 1, 2025}} Unlike other email providers recommended by Privacy Guides such as Proton Mail and Tutanota, Forward Email is the only service with a fully open-source backend, making it unique among the recommended providers.{{cite web|url=https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/forward-email-new-features/24845|title=Forward Email (new features) - Privacy / Project Showcase - Privacy Guides Community|website=Privacy Guides|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

The service meets Privacy Guides' requirements for email providers, including zero-access encryption for email account data at rest, export capability in standard formats, custom domain support, and operation on owned infrastructure rather than third-party email service providers. Forward Email also supports OpenPGP and Web Key Directory (WKD), features that Privacy Guides considers best practices for email services.

In February 2024, Nick Baugh (using the GitHub username "titanism") contributed to Privacy Guides by submitting a pull request to remove Skiff Mail from their recommendations after Skiff announced it was shutting down.{{cite web|url=https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/pull/2398|title=Remove Skiff Mail by titanism · Pull Request #2398 · privacyguides/privacyguides.org|website=GitHub|access-date=April 1, 2025}} This pull request was accepted and merged, demonstrating Forward Email's active involvement in maintaining accurate privacy recommendations. Skiff Mail, which had its own Wikipedia article, was acquired by Notion and subsequently shut down its email service.{{cite web|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skiff_(email_service)|title=Skiff (email service)|website=Wikipedia|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

Forward Email has actively engaged with the Privacy Guides community, implementing features requested in community discussions. In July 2024, they added encryption support for TXT records on their free plan, responding directly to requests from Privacy Guides users.{{cite web|url=https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/forward-email-new-features/24845|title=Forward Email (new features) - Privacy / Project Showcase - Privacy Guides Community|website=Privacy Guides|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

Forward Email operates on a freemium business model, offering both free and paid tiers:

• Free Tier: Provides basic email forwarding functionality with limited features
• Paid Tiers: Offer additional features such as IMAP/POP3 access, increased storage, and enhanced security options

• Email forwarding
• Email privacy
• Disposable email address
• Email alias

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|https://forwardemail.net}}
• [https://status.forwardemail.net/ Status page]
• [https://github.com/forwardemail GitHub repository]