ImprovMX
ImprovMX is a bootstrapped email forwarding and SMTP service for custom domains, founded in 2013 in Paris and serving over 200,000 users via freemium subscriptions ranging from free to a $249/month Enterprise tier.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2013
- HeadquartersParis, France
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingSoftware
What ImprovMX does
ImprovMX is a bootstrapped email infrastructure company founded in 2013 and operated by owner Matthew Tse, headquartered in Paris, France. Its core product is an email forwarding service for custom domains: customers point their MX records to ImprovMX and inbound mail for their domain is routed to user-specified destination inboxes (typically Gmail, Outlook, or Microsoft 365), eliminating the need to host mailboxes or pay for full email suites such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. The platform combines MX-record routing, a custom Sender Rewriting Scheme (SRS) for SPF compatibility, DKIM/DMARC handling, an SMTP sending service for outbound mail from custom domains, and developer-facing tooling including a REST API v3, an official CLI, a Raycast extension, and per-domain webhook delivery of full email contents. Advanced routing features include catch-all aliases, regex matching, CEL-based rules, multi-destination forwarding, configurable logging levels (Minimum, Standard, Full) with up to 180-day retention on Enterprise, and email logs for delivery troubleshooting. Reported reliability figures include a 99.99% SLA over a trailing 90-day window and average forwarding latency under five seconds across mx1/mx2, smtp, and api endpoints.
The company operates a horizontal segmentation strategy across three buyer types: small businesses and indie entrepreneurs who want a low-cost alternative to full email hosting; developers and technical users who require programmatic control via REST/CLI; and enterprise organizations served through a scheduled-demo sales motion. Revenue is generated entirely through recurring subscriptions on a freemium model: a free tier (1 domain, 500 forwarded emails/day, 7-day log retention), a Light plan at approximately $50/year with higher domain/alias/email limits and basic SMTP sending, a Premium tier with expanded limits and extended log retention, and an Enterprise plan at $249/month with uncapped limits, priority queue treatment, and custom contracts. EU customer data is stored in French datacenters hosted by OVH under signed DPAs and the company claims 72-hour breach notification, supporting GDPR positioning. Distribution is primarily product-led: a free signup without a credit card, search-optimized setup guides for major DNS providers, 18+ dedicated competitor comparison pages, a 4.9-star Trustpilot rating, and organic testimonials from indie founders and small teams.
ImprovMX states it is 100% bootstrapped with no external investments or venture capital, reports over 200,000 active users, and describes itself as profitable and sustainable. It is expanding team and forming strategic partnerships, and publishes a public feature roadmap on GitHub. The company has no disclosed parent, subsidiaries, M&A activity, or institutional investors and maintains a 1-10 employee footprint.
ImprovMX firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- ImprovMX
- Legal name
- ImprovMX
- Website
- https://improvmx.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2013
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- ImprovMX is a bootstrapped email forwarding and SMTP service for custom domains, founded in 2013 in Paris and serving over 200,000 users via freemium subscriptions ranging from free to a $249/month Enterprise tier.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where ImprovMX is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Paris
- HQ country
- France
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
ImprovMX business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Infrastructure, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Email Forwarding Subscriptions: Tiered subscription model with a free plan for basic forwarding and paid plans (Light at $50/year, Premium/Pro at higher tiers) offering increased domain/alias limits, SMTP sending capabilities, extended log retention, and priority queue treatment.
- SMTP Email Sending (Premium Feature): SMTP sending capability available on paid plans (Light includes 25 emails/day, higher tiers include more). REST API Send feature is in progress per public roadmap.
- Enterprise Plans: Custom enterprise pricing at $249/month for high-volume users requiring uncapped limits and dedicated support.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Free | Free plan for basic email forwarding |
| Subscription | Annual | Light plan - entry paid tier for power users |
| Subscription | Annual | Premium plan - full feature set |
| Subscription | Monthly | Enterprise plan - high-volume custom solution |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels6 records
ImprovMX product offering
Product offeringCore offering
ImprovMX is an email forwarding service that enables users to receive email at their custom domain addresses and have those messages routed to existing personal inboxes such as Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, or Yahoo. The platform also supports outbound email sending through a paid SMTP add-on, advanced routing rules via regex and CEL expressions, webhooks, email logs, and developer-facing tools including a REST API, command-line interface, and a free ImprovMX Inspector for diagnostic lookups.
Product overview
ImprovMX is an email forwarding platform that provides a unified service for managing custom domain email. The core offering is email forwarding with advanced routing capabilities, complemented by SMTP sending, a REST API v3, and developer tools (CLI, Raycast extension). Key features include catch-all/wildcard aliases, regex and CEL-based routing rules, webhooks for email automation, and email logs for troubleshooting. The service forwards incoming mail to destination inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) while offering SMTP for outbound sending on paid plans.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Email Forwarding Service Core ImprovMX offering that allows users to forward email sent to custom domain addresses (e.g., [email protected]) to existing personal inboxes such as Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, Yahoo, AOL, or Fastmail, supporting unlimited domain aliases, catch-all forwarding, advanced regex and CEL routing rules, webhooks, email logs, and spam filtering across multiple tiers including Free, Lite, Premium, and Enterprise.
- ImprovMX SMTP Paid SMTP add-on that lets users send authenticated outbound emails from their custom domain through ImprovMX's SMTP servers without managing their own mail infrastructure; intended for transactional email and outbound messaging from custom domains.
- ImprovMX Inspector Free standalone diagnostic tool that lets users check whether their MX records, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are correctly configured for use with ImprovMX email forwarding, helping developers and administrators debug DNS and forwarding issues.
- ImprovMX CLI Command-line interface for ImprovMX that allows developers to manage domains, aliases, and routing configuration from the terminal, intended for technical users integrating email forwarding into their development workflows.
- ImprovMX Raycast Extension Raycast Store extension that lets macOS power users manage ImprovMX domains, aliases, and forwarding rules directly from the Raycast launcher interface, targeted at developers and productivity-focused users.
Quantifiable outcome
- Average email forward time under 5 seconds
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use ImprovMX
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
ImprovMX technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
Feature10 records
ImprovMX partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- OVHcoreEU customer data (specifically French datacenters) is hosted by OVH, a major European cloud infrastructure provider. This partnership ensures GDPR-compliant data storage for European customers.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights5 records
ImprovMX competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- SendGrid (Twilio): SendGrid is a major transactional and marketing email API provider owned by Twilio. Listed as a competitor on ImprovMX's comparison pages; relevant for outbound SMTP sending rather than forwarding, but a destination for buyers evaluating full email infrastructure.
- Zoho Mail: Zoho Mail is an established SMB-focused email hosting suite with custom domain mailboxes and basic forwarding. Explicit competitor on ImprovMX's comparison pages; broader incumbent serving similar small business buyers.
- Mailgun: Mailgun is an email API/deliverability platform for developers. Listed on ImprovMX's competitor page; overlaps where ImprovMX is extending into transactional SMTP sending (Light/Premium plans), making it a partial peer in outbound use cases.
- Fastmail: Fastmail is an established paid email hosting provider offering custom domain mailboxes plus forwarding. Listed as a competitor and targets overlapping developer/indie and prosumers who want custom domain email without Microsoft 365/Google Workspace.
- Cloudflare Email Routing: Cloudflare Email Routing is a free, bundled feature inside the Cloudflare dashboard. Named as a direct competitor on ImprovMX's comparison pages; offers basic forwarding for free, leveraging Cloudflare's incumbency in DNS/CDN and bundling it into the broader platform.
Emerging players
- Resend: Resend is a developer-first transactional email API, positioned as the modern alternative to Mailgun/SendGrid. Listed by ImprovMX as a competitor; overlaps with ImprovMX's outbound SMTP feature and competes for the same developer budget.
- Firefox Relay: Firefox Relay is Mozilla's email alias service for masking real addresses. Adjacent peer: while Mozilla-branded and focused on consumer aliasing, it competes for users seeking forwarder-style anonymization and custom domain forwarding add-ons.
Direct peers
- SMTP2GO: SMTP2GO is a dedicated SMTP relay/email delivery service explicitly listed on ImprovMX's competitor page. Comparable for users primarily seeking reliable outbound delivery with custom domain authentication.
- ForwardEmail: ForwardEmail is the most direct competitor: a privacy-focused, open-source custom domain email forwarding service. Directly compared on ImprovMX's own competitor pages and serves the same indie developer/SMB segment with overlapping free + paid tiers.
- SimpleLogin (by Proton): SimpleLogin is an email aliasing and forwarding service acquired by Proton. Explicitly named as a competitor on ImprovMX's comparison page. Overlaps with ImprovMX's domain-based alias and forwarding use case, with Proton adding privacy-brand strength.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
ImprovMX social profiles
Digital presenceImprovMX compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
ImprovMX financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
ImprovMX leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
ImprovMX funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
ImprovMX M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about ImprovMX
What does ImprovMX do?
ImprovMX is an email forwarding service that enables users to receive email at their custom domain addresses and have those messages routed to existing personal inboxes such as Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, or Yahoo. The platform also supports outbound email sending through a paid SMTP add-on, advanced routing rules via regex and CEL expressions, webhooks, email logs, and developer-facing tools including a REST API, command-line interface, and a free ImprovMX Inspector for diagnostic lookups.
Is ImprovMX a public or private company?
ImprovMX is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was ImprovMX founded?
ImprovMX was founded in 2013. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is ImprovMX based?
ImprovMX is headquartered in Paris, France, in the Europe region.
How does ImprovMX make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Email Forwarding Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are SMTP Email Sending (Premium Feature) and enterprise Plans.
Who are ImprovMX's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are SendGrid (Twilio), Zoho Mail, Mailgun, Fastmail and Cloudflare Email Routing. Emerging players are Resend and Firefox Relay. Direct peers are SMTP2GO, ForwardEmail and SimpleLogin (by Proton).
Does ImprovMX have an API?
Yes. ImprovMX REST API v3 allows programmatic management of domains, aliases, rules, email logs, SMTP credentials, and outbound email sending. Authentication uses HTTP Basic Auth with username 'api' and API key. Supports rate limiting with headers tracking budget. Features include: domain management, alias CRUD operations with batch support, email routing rules (alias, regex, CEL types), email log viewing and filtering, SMTP credential management, Send API for outbound emails with template support, and webhook configuration per domain. Developer documentation is at improvmx.com/api.