Comparison

Fastmail vs Zero Inbox

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Fastmail

This app offers a privacy-focused email, contacts, and calendar experience with powerful tools for organization and communication. It provides features like offline access, advanced search, and customizable actions to streamline your workflow. Enjoy a secure and ad-free environment designed for efficient personal and professional use.

Highlights
  • Offline email, contacts, and calendar access
  • Powerful search with attachment indexing
  • Inbox decluttering tools (snooze, mute, block spam)
  • Customizable swipe gestures
  • Shared calendars for planning
  • Secure, private, and ad-free experience
Features
Read full description

Email, contacts, and calendars made better Fastmail gives you full control of your communication, with speed, privacy, and tools that work the way you do. The New York Times says: ”If you want something easy to use that isn’t tied to one of the big tech giants, Fastmail is a great option.” Do more with email • Stay connected anywhere – Read, draft, and search offline. • Powerful search – Find anything fast, even inside attachments. Plus, use the Search Refinement Toolbar to quickly add, remove, or adjust filters. • Declutter your inbox – Snooze emails, mute threads, block spam, and unsubscribe easily, and set up rules to automate your flow. • Stay organised your way – Use folders or labels to keep things tidy, and categorize messages without opening them. • Work smarter – Schedule or undo send, add private memos, set VIP-only notifications, and resize images in the compose window. • Custom swipes – Quickly archive, delete, or take other actions with up to four swipe gestures. Your preferences stay consistent across devices. • Easy navigation – One-tap access to mail, calendar, contacts, and settings. Customize the toolbar in Display Options, or hide it altogether. • Faster inbox actions – Select messages by tapping avatars, or using a two-finger swipe for faster multi-select. Smarter calendars • Plan together – Share calendars with family or teams. • Sync seamlessly – Works with Google, iCloud, and more. • Always in sync – Updates instantly across devices, with full time-zone support. Connected contacts • Shared or private address books – Keep context from recent conversations and meetings. Why Fastmail? • Privacy first – No ads, no tracking, no selling your data. It’s your data, not ours. • Secure and trusted – Robust encryption of your data both in transit and at rest. Passkeys and 2FA keep your email private and safe. • No lock-in – Over 20 years delivering better email. People stay because it’s better, not because it’s hard to leave. • Real support – 24/7 online help from real people, no chatbots. • Migrate in minutes – Move mail, contacts, and calendars from your old provider in minutes. Better for everyone – Fastmail supports open standards, keeping email private and usable for all.

About

Zero Inbox

This email application streamlines inbox management with customizable multi-action swipe gestures. Effortlessly process emails by assigning multiple tasks to a single swipe, such as archiving, trashing, or sending to a to-do list. Enjoy a fast and intuitive email experience.

Highlights
  • Multi-action swipe gestures
  • Customizable swipe actions
  • Fast loading speed
  • Integration with Todoist
  • Smart avatar loading
  • Dark mode
Features
Read full description

Zero Inbox is an email app designed for zeroing your inbox via enjoyable swipe actions. Unlike traditional email's swipe action can only allow one action per swipe, we provide multi-action swipe for each direction, empower you to process your email effortlessly on daily basis. For example, for swiping right, you can choose - Swipe right-down-right to push the email to Todoist - Swipe straight right to archive - Swipe right-up-right to trash We also worked hard to make the app to provide blazing fast loading speed. There are more awesome features to come in the following updates: - Customizable swipe actions - In mail swipe action (like Tinder but for email) - Multi-step swipe (one swipe can do many things like Mark read + Archive + push to Todoist) - Smart avatar (load sender's avatar from known email list or public avatar database) - Dark mode

Screenshots

Fastmail4 screens
Zero Inbox3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Zero Inbox at none against Fastmail's 1. Zero Inbox also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.4). Fastmail's advantage is ratings volume (609 vs 3). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Fastmail sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $6.49 per month. Zero Inbox asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Fastmail holds the better App Store score, 3.9 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Fastmail has 609 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 49% of Fastmail's written reviews are positive against 50% of Zero Inbox's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Fastmail versus Zero Inbox: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFastmailZero Inbox
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.9 (609 ratings) — better3.7 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews48.6% of reviews50.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings609 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.412.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB27 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFastmail Pty LtdLaunch Platform LLC

Customer experience

Fastmail

All ratings606 ratings
Positive67.8%
Neutral9.7%
Negative22.4%
Written reviews453 reviews
Positive48.6%
Neutral19.4%
Negative32.0%

Zero Inbox

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

Bugs and requests

Fastmail

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Blank screen on app launch
  • Notification badges not updating correctly
  • Delayed email delivery
  • Unreliable swiping gestures
  • Disappearing toolbar buttons

Requested features

5 requests
  • Offline email access
  • Customizable notification sounds
  • Integration with native iOS apps
  • Dark mode support
  • Multiple account management

Zero Inbox

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Fastmail

Subscriptions1
  • Fastmail Monthly Plan$6.491 Month
None

Zero Inbox

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Fastmail free?
Fastmail is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Zero Inbox free?
Zero Inbox is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Fastmail or Zero Inbox?
Fastmail is rated higher. Fastmail averages 3.9 out of 5 from 609 ratings, while Zero Inbox averages 3.7 from 3 ratings.
Do Fastmail or Zero Inbox have ads?
Neither Fastmail nor Zero Inbox shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Fastmail or Zero Inbox?
Fastmail ships an update every 3 weeks, and Zero Inbox every 3 weeks. Most recently, Fastmail was updated on November 6, 2026 and Zero Inbox on November 2, 2026.

Other comparisons