MailerZ vs Purelymail is a store decision, not a sticker contest. MailerZ is inbound MX plus optional authenticated SMTP around the Gmail or Outlook inbox you already use. Purelymail is low-cost mail hosting: IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and webmail on a simple yearly card. Keep Gmail and add a hop, or move the archive to their store. Do not run both MX sets and call it a hybrid.
Quick answer for mailerz vs purelymail
Choose MailerZ when the job is print hello@, keep Gmail, prove inbound, maybe send-as later. Free is one domain, ten aliases, 14-day store, send-as disabled, SMTP and API disabled. Solo is $40 per year. Starter is $8 or $80. Business is $19 or $190. Agency is $39 or $390. Unlimited is $99/month or $990/year. Confirm MailerZ pricing. Limits are not an inbox SLA. Product path: features and migration planner.
Choose Purelymail when the job is a hosted mailbox at a low yearly price. Their public simple card on 9 September 2026 listed $10 a year with no hard limits on users, domains, or storage, and soft limits that can move you to advanced pricing. They publish IMAP, POP3, SMTP, webmail, routing rules, and sieve. Quote purelymail.com/pricing the day you buy. This page does not invent a plan they do not list.
Transport still follows IETF RFC 5321 — Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Someone publishes MX. Senders connect. The difference is where the body lives after 250. MailerZ stores what it needs for the hop, then forwards. Envelope SRS may rewrite the return path. Header From stays as received. Purelymail stores the message as a mailbox object you open with IMAP or webmail. That is hosting. It is a valid product. It is not a cheaper MailerZ.
ImprovMX is closer to MailerZ’s class than Purelymail is. If you are comparing inbound routers, read their live card. Do not rank Purelymail as “the cheaper forwarder.” They sell a store that can also route. Google’s helpful-content guidance is about pages; see helpful content.
The user problem and the decision criteria
People search this pair after a Reddit thread praised $10 email, a registrar offered hosting, or Gmail started to feel like the wrong archive. Those are different jobs. Cheap IMAP is cheap when you will actually open that IMAP. Cheap leftover FORWARD on a hop is spam risk. Gmail as the archive is attention you already paid.
| Question | If yes | If no |
|---|---|---|
| Is Gmail or Outlook already the system of record? | A hop can be enough. | You are shopping for hosting. |
| Do people need IMAP or webmail on the domain? | Quote Purelymail or another host live. | Do not buy IMAP to print three aliases. |
| Must replies show the domain from Gmail? | MailerZ paid SMTP. Free cannot. | Inbound-only forwarding is valid. |
| Can leftover MX be deleted? | Cutover is possible on either path. | Stop. Split MX looks random on both. |
| Need Calendar, Drive, suite admin? | Buy a suite. Neither vendor is Workspace. | Do not buy seats for printed aliases. |
Technical mail flow
Exclusive MX names one owner. On MailerZ the owner forwards into a destination mailbox you already have. On Purelymail the owner is their store unless you configured their routing to send a copy elsewhere. Two MX products mean some senders never reach the store you are watching.
They say you can retrieve with IMAP or POP3 and send with SMTP, and that you can route incoming mail. Routing on a host is still one MX owner with internal rules. MailerZ plus Purelymail MX is two owners. Do not confuse their sieve with leftover MX.
Self-send from Gmail hides both paths. Foreign probes are the gate. After 250, open the store you named: Gmail for MailerZ, IMAP or webmail for Purelymail. Empty MailerZ history plus leftover Purelymail MX means the envelope went to them.
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC follow the sending hop. IETF RFC 7208 — Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and IETF RFC 6376 — DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) do not care which logo is cheaper. Two SPF records permerror. Names are in IETF RFC 1035 — Domain names.
Step-by-step setup and decision path
Write the store in one line
Gmail stays, or IMAP on the domain. If you cannot write that line, you will buy both and dual-publish.
Quote both pages the same day
MailerZ /pricing. Purelymail pricing and their homepage honesty list. Screenshot.
Build the map or mailboxes before the cut
Aliases on MailerZ, or users on Purelymail, while old MX stays exclusive.
Publish one exclusive MX set
Delete Google, Microsoft, registrar, parking, and the other vendor the same hour.
Foreign probe
Unique subject. Open the named store. History on MailerZ, or IMAP on Purelymail.
Drain the loser without its MX
Keep a login to export. Do not leave its exchanger published “until we are sure.”
Failure modes and proof
| What you see | Likely cause | Proof |
|---|---|---|
| Some mail in Purelymail, some in Gmail | Dual MX | Second resolver lists both products |
| MailerZ history empty | Wrong zone, missing alias, or leftover host | NS plus MX listing |
| 250 empty Gmail | Filter or HOLD | Recovery |
| IMAP empty after cut to MailerZ | You expected a store we do not run | Job line said hop, not IMAP |
| 550 on MailerZ send | Free plan or unauthorized SMTP | Paid send-as ticket |
| Obscure receiver blocked Purelymail | They disclose this risk on their homepage | Quote their drawback list; do not invent ours |
Proof is a store name, two live quotes, one MX listing, and a probe into the store you named. Agencies run this per zone. Client A can keep Gmail on MailerZ while Client B wants $10 IMAP. Mixing both MX on one zone is leftover MX with a Reddit thread.
MailerZ workflow and product boundary
MailerZ is inbound MX plus authenticated SMTP. Envelope SRS only. Header From never rewritten. It is not IMAP, not Workspace, not an open relay. Unhosted SMTP is 550 / 550 5.7.1.
HOLD stores unknown local-parts on Free. Free is one domain, ten aliases, 14-day store, send-as disabled, SMTP and API disabled. Solo is $40 per year: 5 domains, 25 aliases, 90-day store, 2,500 outgoing, five outgoing per hour, unknowns forwarded. Starter is $8 or $80. Business is $19 or $190. Agency is $39 or $390. Confirm pricing. Limits are not an inbox SLA. No SOC 2 claim lives here.
Features describe routing. They do not grow IMAP because someone liked $10 hosting. Paid plans do not buy a bake-off with Purelymail MX.
Cost, alternatives, and live quotes
Purelymail simple pricing on 9 September 2026 was $10 a year. They say there are no hard limits on users, custom domains, or storage, and that heavy use may move you to advanced pricing via their calculator. Re-open their pricing page before you buy. Advanced numbers are theirs to publish.
| Choice | What you get | What you give up |
|---|---|---|
| MailerZ Free | Hop into Gmail, HOLD, 14-day store | IMAP folders on the domain |
| Purelymail $10/yr | A hosted store. Quote live | Gmail as the only archive if you move |
| MailerZ Solo $40/yr | Send-as from Gmail | Their IMAP price if IMAP was the job |
| Both MX “to be safe” | A quiet second inbox | A complete archive in one place |
| Workspace seats for hello@ | A suite. Quote Google live | The Gmail you already use as destination |
Time is a line item. A dated quote costs less than a year opening the wrong store. Leftover MX costs more than $10 or Solo. A Free-plan send-as argument still costs more than the upgrade.
What $10 a year actually buys
It buys infrastructure they describe as boring: IMAP, POP3, SMTP, webmail, multiple domains and users without a per-seat card on the simple plan. It does not buy Gmail’s search, labels, and phone app if you abandon Gmail. If staff will not open a new webmail, you bought a cheap store nobody reads.
They publish routing rules and sieve. That is useful when the host is the owner. It is not a reason to keep Google MX beside them. Internal routing is one product. Leftover MX is two products.
They say you can try a trial with credits. Quote that page. We will not invent a trial length. MailerZ Free is a receive path you can start without calling it a trial of IMAP.
Files, calendar, and contacts are Fastmail’s class, not this page’s assumption. Purelymail’s homepage pitch is email. If you need a calendar suite, quote Fastmail or Workspace live. Do not stretch $10 into a suite.
Marketing and lists are out. Their homepage says no unsolicited or marketing mail, no warm-up, no mailing lists you run. MailerZ is also not a campaign sender. US Federal Trade Commission — CAN-SPAM compliance guide still applies if you mail lists elsewhere. Neither product is an open relay.
Soft limits and honesty
Purelymail is unusually blunt. They list drawbacks: some obscure receivers block them, no 24/7 staff, UI can be awkward. Quote that list. Do not turn it into a smear. Do not claim MailerZ never gets blocked. Inbox placement is not an SLA we sell.
Soft limits mean $10 is not a promise of infinite AWS. If you become heavy, they may ask you onto advanced pricing. That is honest metering. MailerZ publishes hard caps on aliases, store days, and send-as. Different honesty shapes. Read the shape you will staff.
They run on AWS and point at a status page. We will not invent their uptime number. We publish no inbox SLA and no SOC 2. Controls: security.
Support hours matter at 2 a.m. If you need a 24/7 desk, quote a suite or a host that sells that desk. MailerZ support is not a SOC 2 badge and not a 24/7 claim. Their ticket delay is their sentence. Ours is ours.
HOLD versus their routing of unknowns is a policy you must read on their side. Do not assume they HOLD. Do not assume they catch-all. Quote docs the day you decide. Guessed names in a cheap IMAP store still train whoever reads that store.
Cut without leftover MX
Screenshot the old exclusive set. Build the new map or mailboxes. Cut one owner. Delete the other names the same hour. Query two resolvers. Foreign probe. Drain the loser without its MX. Close on TTL plus a day.
If you leave Purelymail for MailerZ, export IMAP first if you need the archive. Gmail will not invent that history. If you leave MailerZ for Purelymail, destination Gmail remains; their new store starts empty except what you import.
Registrar email and parking MX still appear. Re-query after website saves. Night operators who add both “to test” recreate leftover MX with a $10 sticker.
Rollback is one dated exclusive screenshot. Restoring both products is the split. Wait TTL. Probe the owner you restored.
Send-as is a second ticket on MailerZ. Free has no send-as. Their SMTP is part of the host. Do not mix a 550 5.7.1 into an inbound leftover-MX thread.
Legal hold is an export. It is not a second live exchanger. Two-factor on whichever store you keep. Open a held MailerZ body for break-glass and expect an audit row. That is a control, not SOC 2.
Agencies: per-zone store name. Client A hop, Client B IMAP. Filename screenshots with the zone. Quote Agency when the MailerZ fleet needs more domains. Confirm pricing. Do not invent a partner rate on $10 hosting.
IPv6 versus IPv4 on the new MX hostname is reachability after names are exclusive. Do not republish the old class because AAAA failed. Fix the host.
If a second operator needs the order without a call, send this page plus leftover MX troubleshooting. Store line. Live quotes. Exclusive cut. Probe the named store. That order prevents a bake-off.
Paid MailerZ plans do not grow IMAP. Purelymail advanced pricing does not become leftover MX insurance. One inbound owner. Always.
The artifacts that close mailerz vs purelymail are a store name, two dated pricing screenshots, one resolver listing, and a probe into that store. Everything else is sticker comfort. Sticker comfort is how leftover MX survives a quarter.
Clients and Thunderbird versus Gmail
Purelymail tells you to use any client, or their webmail. That is the hosting pitch. Thunderbird, Apple Mail, and Outlook desktop speaking IMAP to them is a real workflow. MailerZ does not grow that workflow. If the founder lives in Gmail on a phone, IMAP credentials are homework they will skip. Then the $10 store becomes a second place nobody searches.
Apple Mail and Outlook can also send as a domain through MailerZ paid SMTP while still receiving in Gmail. That is hop plus existing store. It is not IMAP on Purelymail. Do not tell a user to “just add the account” without naming IMAP versus SMTP send-as. Those are different setup screens.
Families who want lastname.com in Apple Mail on every iPad are shopping for hosting. Founders who want hello@ in the Gmail they already archive are shopping for a hop. MailerZ vs Purelymail is that fork. A Reddit comment that only says “$10 email” does not name the fork.
POP3 download-and-delete is a trap during migration. If someone POP3s the old host while you cut MX, you can lose the only copy. Export first. Prefer IMAP while you drain. Then cancel.
Shared IMAP passwords on a $10 account are still shared passwords. Seats on MailerZ are operators of the map. Do not confuse three family IMAP users with three MailerZ seats. Different objects.
If a contractor needs the domain in Thunderbird for three months, hosting can be simpler than teaching them Gmail send-as. If the contractor will leave, offboard IMAP and rotate. Hop maps are easier to remap than leftover IMAP profiles on a laptop you never see.
What we will not claim
We will not claim MailerZ has better inbox placement than Purelymail. They disclose that some obscure servers block them. We do not claim we never get blocked. Placement stays with the receiver.
We will not claim SOC 2, ISO, HIPAA, or an inbox SLA. We will not copy an AWS reliability slogan onto MailerZ. We will not invent 24/7 support for either side.
We will not claim $10 stays $10 under heavy use. They say soft limits can move you to advanced pricing. Quote the calculator if procurement asks. Do not promise unlimited forever on their behalf.
We will not claim their UI is bad as a conversion tactic. They said it themselves. Quote the homepage. A comparison that only mocks UI is a brochure.
We will not claim MailerZ is cheaper than $10. Solo is $40 per year. Free is $0 with tight caps. Cheap IMAP versus Free hop is not the same unit. The unit is the store you will open.
We will not invent customer quotes or review counts. Helpful content is a store line and a live quote.
Two-factor on the store you keep. HOLD review if you store unknowns. Registrar republish. Morning re-query. Send-as as a second ticket. Legal hold as an export. Those rules survive any logo.
If you need Calendar and Files, quote Fastmail or Workspace. If you need a same-class forwarder, quote ImprovMX. This page stays hop versus low-cost host on purpose so those queries do not cannibalize each other.
Night cuts still need a morning re-query. Registrar products republish. Parking MX returns. Keep a drain login on the loser through TTL plus a day. Do not staff two inboxes as process. If accounting keeps opening Purelymail after you cut to MailerZ, you have leftover MX or a communications failure. Fix the listing first.
CATCH-ALL FORWARD on a hop during a class change trains Gmail with guesses while you are still deciding the store. HOLD unknown. Named aliases only for strings you printed. A noisy IMAP store after exclusive MailerZ MX means leftover Purelymail MX, not a MailerZ catch-all.
Do not keep Purelymail MX because you have not written SPF yet. Authentication is a send job. Inbound exclusive MX does not wait on a perfect TXT. Mixing homework with leftover MX is how the drain clock never starts.
If counsel asks to keep the $10 account, ask whether they need IMAP login or public MX. Almost always they need an export. Frozen stores do not require exchangers. Paying $10 next year for leftover MX is leftover MX with a friendly invoice.
Weekend cuts hide republish until Monday. If you cut Friday, re-query Saturday and again Monday after the first website save. MailerZ vs Purelymail setup includes those checks even when the drain clock is only an hour. A Monday mood that the $10 account “might as well ride the year” is how leftover MX becomes the unofficial backup.
Self-send from Gmail to a Purelymail IMAP user can look like a hybrid win while public MX still splits banks and universities. The foreign probe is the gate on either class. Composer UI is not proof. A unique subject from a mailbox that is not the destination is proof.
Agencies that sell “email included” must still name the class on the invoice. Hop plus Gmail is one line. $10 IMAP is another. A proposal that says both and publishes both MX is leftover MX with a statement of work. Filename the MX screenshot with the client zone. Offboard deletes the hop you sold, or the host you sold, not a blend.
FAQ
What is the safest way to handle mailerz vs purelymail?
Name the store first. If Gmail or Outlook is already the archive, keep it and add a MailerZ hop with exclusive MX. If you need IMAP, POP3, and webmail on the domain, quote Purelymail live and move the store. Do not publish both MX sets.
Does this require a new mailbox?
MailerZ does not. It is not IMAP. Purelymail does: they publish IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and webmail. Buying both and pointing leftover MX at both is split delivery, not a hybrid.
Will it work with Gmail or Outlook?
MailerZ yes as a destination when MX is exclusive and the alias exists. Paid send-as is separate. Free has no send-as. Purelymail can coexist with Gmail only as a separate store or as a forward target you configure on their side. Dual MX is still a hard stop.
What DNS records are involved?
Either path needs exclusive MX for one inbound owner. MailerZ needs verification TXT and, if you send, dashboard SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Purelymail publishes its own MX and related records. Leftover Google, Microsoft, or the other vendor’s MX splits mail. See RFC 5321.
What should I test before production?
Write the store in one line. Recreate aliases or mailboxes. Publish one MX set. Delete leftovers. Foreign probe with a unique subject. On MailerZ, match history to Gmail. On Purelymail, open IMAP or webmail. Self-send is not the gate.
Key takeaways
- MailerZ vs Purelymail is hop versus hosted mailbox, not two forwarders.
- Keep Gmail and add MailerZ, or move the store and quote Purelymail live.
- Their simple card was $10/yr on 2026-09-09 with soft limits. Re-quote.
- They publish IMAP, POP3, SMTP, webmail. MailerZ is not IMAP.
- Dual MX is leftover MX. One owner. Foreign probe.
- They disclose receiver blocks and no 24/7 desk. Quote them. No inbox SLA here.
- Free receives. Solo $40/yr starts send-as. Confirm /pricing.
- Envelope SRS only. Not SOC 2. Not a campaign sender.
Conclusion and next action
If you want low-cost hosting with IMAP, quote Purelymail and cut exclusively to them. If you want the Gmail you already search, start free on MailerZ and do not buy a store you will not open. Do not publish both MX sets. Name the store, then pay the card that matches it.
Ready to keep Gmail
Start free with one domain and exclusive MX.
Inbound on Free. Solo when send-as is the job. Sign in if the domain is already there.
Review when either pricing page changes, and quarterly otherwise. Author: MailerZ editorial, Secuno LLC.