Comparison
Jan 8, 2026
CEO and co-founder
Mailforge Pricing Analysis: True Cost of Ownership for Agencies (2025)
The core Mailforge pricing model explained
Before calculating TCO, you need to understand how Mailforge actually charges. The pricing structure has two components that aren't immediately obvious from the headline rate.
Platform fees and per-mailbox costs
Mailforge uses a slot-based pricing system. Based on industry infrastructure comparisons from GMass's cold email infrastructure analysis, the pricing structure breaks down as follows:
Minimum commitment: 10 mailbox slots required ($30/month on monthly billing, $25/month on annual billing)
Per-slot cost: Approximately $2.50-3.00 per slot depending on billing cycle
Slot-based charging: You pay for slots, not active mailboxes. If you purchase 10 slots but only create 5 mailboxes, you still pay for all 10 slots
Annual discount: Choosing annual billing gives you 2 months free (roughly 17% savings)
Domain pricing: Approximately $14/domain/year when purchased through the platform
The slot-based model creates a billing trap. You cannot scale down costs by pausing inboxes. If you purchase 100 slots for peak season at $300/month but only run 60 active inboxes during slow months, you still pay the full $300. That's $1,200/year wasted on unused capacity.
The floor cost is $300/year before sending any emails. Once you purchase slots, you're locked into that capacity regardless of whether campaigns are actively running.
The difference between shared and dedicated IP structures
Mailforge operates on shared IP infrastructure. The platform distributes your mailbox accounts across IP pools used by thousands of other businesses, similar to platforms like Gmail or Outlook.
What shared IPs mean for your campaigns:
Reputation inheritance: You inherit the sending reputation of others using the shared servers, both good and bad
Noisy neighbor risk: When another sender on your shared IP blasts low-quality mail, providers throttle or block the entire IP range, affecting your campaigns regardless of your behavior
Limited control: You cannot isolate your sending reputation from strangers' actions
According to Saleshandy's cold email infrastructure guide, sender reputation significantly impacts deliverability outcomes. On shared infrastructure, your reputation partially depends on users you never interact with.
We built Inframail on dedicated IP infrastructure for exactly this reason. Each account runs on isolated IPs where your behavior alone determines your ESP trust. For a full comparison of IP structures, dedicated IPs function like private lanes where your reputation stays protected from other users' mistakes.
Mailforge total cost of ownership at 50, 150, and 300 inboxes
The real question isn't "what does Mailforge charge per inbox?" It's "what will I actually pay each month when running client campaigns at scale?"
I've calculated TCO across three scenarios that map to common agency profiles. These calculations include platform fees, domain costs, warmup tools, and sending platforms for accurate margin planning.
Scenario 1: 50 inboxes (the boutique agency)
This profile fits agencies managing 5-8 clients with 6-10 inboxes per client for domain rotation.
Cost Component | Monthly Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Mailbox slots | $125-150 | 50 × $2.50-3.00/slot |
Domain costs | ~$58 | 50 domains @ $14/yr ÷ 12 |
Warmup (external) | $600-750 | 50 × $12-15/inbox |
Sending platform | $37-97 | Instantly or Smartlead |
SSL/Domain masking | $100 (optional) | $2/domain/month if enabled |
Total (All-In, no SSL) | $820-1,055/month | |
Infrastructure as % of billings | 27-53% | Assuming $2,000-3,000 client MRR |
At $820/month all-in for 50 inboxes, your cost-per-inbox is $16.40 when including warmup and sending platforms. If you're billing clients $2,000-3,000/month for lead generation services, infrastructure alone consumes 27-53% of client billings. That margin compression makes hiring a $50k junior account manager financially impossible on 15-20% target net margins.
For a step-by-step walkthrough of setting up infrastructure at this scale, watch our infrastructure setup guide.
Scenario 2: 150 inboxes (the scaling agency)
This profile fits agencies managing 12-18 clients running larger campaigns requiring more domain rotation.
Cost Component | Monthly Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Mailbox slots | $375-450 | 150 × $2.50-3.00/slot |
Domain costs | ~$175 | 150 domains @ $14/yr ÷ 12 |
Warmup (external) | $1,800-2,250 | 150 × $12-15/inbox |
Sending platform | $97-174 | Mid-tier Instantly or Smartlead |
SSL/Domain masking | $300 (optional) | $2/domain/month if enabled |
Total (All-In, no SSL) | $2,447-3,049/month | |
Infrastructure as % of billings | 6.5-8.1% | Assuming $37,500/month revenue |
You tripled your inbox count from 50 to 150, and your infrastructure bill nearly tripled from $820 to $2,447. That's the linear scaling problem with per-inbox pricing.
If you're running $2,500 average client retainers across 15 clients ($37,500/month revenue), infrastructure at $2,447/month consumes 6.5% of gross revenue on platform costs alone. But add warmup ($1,800/month), sending platforms ($97/month), and other operational costs, and you're squeezed to 12-15% net margin before paying yourself a salary. One client churn drops you into single-digit profitability.
Agencies booking 200+ appointments per month need infrastructure that doesn't punish growth. Learn more about calculating email sending capacity for your specific client load.
Scenario 3: 300 inboxes (the high-volume operation)
This profile fits larger agencies running high-velocity campaigns across 20+ clients.
Cost Component | Monthly Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Mailbox slots | $750-900 | 300 × $2.50-3.00/slot |
Domain costs | ~$350 | 300 domains @ $14/yr ÷ 12 |
Warmup (external) | $3,600-4,500 | 300 × $12-15/inbox |
Sending platform | $174-286 | Higher-tier plans |
SSL/Domain masking | $600 (optional) | $2/domain/month if enabled |
Total (All-In, no SSL) | $4,874-6,036/month | |
Annual infrastructure cost | $58,488-72,432 |
At 300 inboxes, your infrastructure-only costs exceed $4,800/month. That's $58,000-72,000 annually before any other operational expenses.
According to GMass's infrastructure provider comparison, this cost structure becomes problematic for agencies trying to maintain healthy margins. The math changes dramatically at this scale when flat-rate alternatives exist.
Hidden costs that inflate your monthly infrastructure bill
The slot-based pricing is just the foundation. Three additional cost categories affect your actual monthly spend that most agencies overlook during initial vendor evaluation.
Domain registration and renewal fees
Both Mailforge and alternatives require separate domain purchases. The industry baseline for .com domains runs $10-16 per year depending on your registrar.
Domain cost reality check:
50 domains: ~$600-800/year (~$50-67/month)
150 domains: ~$1,800-2,400/year (~$150-200/month)
300 domains: ~$3,600-4,800/year (~$300-400/month)
Platform domain purchases offer convenience but slightly higher prices at approximately $14/domain. External registrars offer domains at $10-13/year. For 100+ domains, external purchasing saves $100-400/year. You'll need to manually configure DNS records, which adds 15-30 minutes per domain for experienced operators, but the savings fund 4-8 hours of VA time.
For guidance on domain transfers, check our domain transfer step-by-step guide.
External warmup tool requirements
Warmup tools add significant expense at scale. Based on industry pricing analysis, dedicated warmup services cost:
Warmforge: $12/inbox/month
Warmup Inbox: $15-19/inbox/month
Warmbox: Starting at $15/month for 1 inbox
Lemwarm: $29/month per inbox
For 50 inboxes, external warmup at $12/inbox adds $600/month to your infrastructure bill. At 150 inboxes, warmup adds $1,800/month, pushing total costs well past the flat-rate break-even point. These costs often get overlooked during initial vendor evaluation.
Review our warmup migration guide for strategies to optimize warmup costs.
The cost of manual DNS management time
If your infrastructure provider doesn't automate DNS configuration, calculate the labor cost. Manual SPF/DKIM/DMARC setup takes 15-30 minutes per domain for experienced operators.
Time cost calculation for 50 domains:
Conservative estimate: 15 minutes × 50 domains = 12.5 hours
At $50/hour founder time = $625 opportunity cost
At $25/hour VA time = $312.50 direct cost
Automated cold email infrastructure platforms eliminate this time cost entirely. The platform handles DMARC, SPF, DKIM, and custom domain tracking automatically. Users report setup taking less than 10 minutes for multiple domains when DNS configuration is automated.
Watch our SPF/DKIM/DMARC 2-minute setup demonstration to see how automated configuration works.
Mailforge vs Inframail: The flat-rate alternative for scaling agencies
The core question: at what point does flat-rate pricing beat per-inbox pricing? Let me show you the exact math including warmup costs.
Comparing monthly spend at scale
Scale | Mailforge Platform + Warmup + domains | Inframail Platform + domains | Monthly Savings | Annual Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
10 inboxes | $150 + $120 = $270 | $129 | $141 | $1,692 |
33 inboxes | $129 + $396 = $495 | $129 | $396 | $4,752 |
50 inboxes | $150 + $600 = $750 | $129 | $651 | $7,812 |
100 inboxes | $300 + $1,200 = $1,500 | $129 | $1,371 | $16,452 |
150 inboxes | $450 + $1,800 = $2,250 | $129 | $2,121 | $25,452 |
Note on Scalability: Inframail's $129/mo flat rate remains the same whether you have 50 or 400+ inboxes. You only pay for the additional domains. All other providers charge per inbox, meaning your costs explode as you scale. | 300 inboxes | $900 + $3,600 = $4,500 | $129 | $4,401 | $52,812 |
The break-even point for platform fees alone sits at approximately 8-10 mailboxes when you include warmup costs. For agencies running 50+ inboxes, the savings compound dramatically.
At 150 inboxes, you save $2,151/month or $25,812 annually. That's enough to fund a full-time junior account manager at $50k salary, improve your net margin from 15% to 22%, or simply flow to profit and pay yourself reliably.
For the complete getting started process, visit our getting started collection.
Setup speed and automation differences
Both platforms offer fast initial setup times. But setup speed isn't about minutes saved during initial configuration. It's about the ongoing operational burden of managing infrastructure at scale.
With per-inbox pricing, you pay $2.50-3.00/month forever for each inbox. When a client churns, you're stuck paying for slots you purchased until you manually scale down your plan.
With Inframail's flat-rate model, you pay $129/month whether you run 50 inboxes or 500. When a client churns and you pause 15 inboxes, your bill stays identical. When you land a new client and spin up 20 inboxes the next week, your bill still doesn't change. Infrastructure becomes a fixed cost you can forecast 12 months out, not a variable expense that fluctuates with client churn.
Users report setting up 10 inboxes in under 10 minutes with automated DNS configuration and CSV export to sending platforms. Watch the full Inframail demo to see the complete workflow from domain purchase to inbox provisioning to Instantly export.
Dedicated IPs vs shared pools
This is where the technical architecture creates real business impact for agencies promising clients consistent results.
Shared IPs (per-inbox providers):
Your reputation depends on everyone else using that IP
One bad actor can get the whole IP range flagged
You have limited control over deliverability outcomes
Dedicated IPs (Inframail):
Your behavior alone determines ESP trust
Complete control over reputation management
No contamination from other users' sending practices
For agencies promising clients 70-85% inbox placement rates to hit contracted meeting volumes, dedicated IP infrastructure reduces the risk of deliverability drops caused by other users. Consistent inbox rates protect client retention and enable long-term relationships.
One Inframail user leveraged consistent deliverability to sign a $50,000 client using cold email campaigns. Another user books 6 calls per day consistently because inbox rates stay predictable on dedicated infrastructure. When your infrastructure doesn't randomly tank deliverability, you can confidently promise results instead of making excuses.
How to reduce costs if you're committed to per-inbox pricing
If you're locked into per-inbox pricing or prefer that billing model, here are four ways to compress your monthly infrastructure bill:
1. Purchase domains externally at $10-12/year instead of $14/year through platform
For 50 domains, buying through external registrars saves $100-200 annually. For 150 domains, that's $300-600/year. You'll need to manually configure DNS records, which adds 15-30 minutes per domain, but the savings fund 8-12 hours of VA time.
2. Use annual billing to capture the 2-month discount
Annual billing drops per-slot costs by roughly 17%. For 100 slots, that's $50/month or $600/year savings. The trade-off is you prepay $3,000 and lose flexibility if you need to scale down.
3. Negotiate bulk pricing at 200+ mailboxes
Volume discounts can bring per-inbox costs down significantly for bulk users, though specific thresholds aren't always publicly documented. If you run 200+ inboxes, request custom pricing before purchasing at standard rates.
4. Skip SSL/domain masking unless client compliance requires it
Domain masking adds $2/domain/month ($100/month for 50 domains). Unless your clients require SSL for brand protection, the deliverability benefit doesn't justify the 48% cost increase on domain expenses.
When to choose per-inbox pricing and when to switch
I'll be direct about where each option makes sense.
Choose per-inbox pricing if:
You run fewer than 10 inboxes total and won't grow beyond that in the next 12 months
You're testing cold email viability for the first time and need to minimize upfront commitment
You operate as a solo consultant, not an agency scaling client count
Switch to flat-rate infrastructure if:
You manage 10+ inboxes currently or plan to within 6 months
You run an agency with 5+ clients where infrastructure costs affect net margins
Deliverability consistency matters for hitting contracted meeting volumes and preventing churn
You want dedicated IP infrastructure without enterprise pricing
The decision isn't about which platform is "better." It's about matching the pricing model to your growth trajectory. Per-inbox pricing penalizes growth by making every new client more expensive to serve. Flat-rate pricing rewards growth by keeping infrastructure costs fixed regardless of client count.
For step-by-step setup instructions, watch the Inframail setup tutorial or review our FAQ documentation.
Calculate your actual infrastructure costs
Per-inbox pricing works for solo consultants and small operations running under 10 inboxes. At scale, the math flips dramatically.
For 150 inboxes, per-inbox pricing costs $2,250/month (including warmup) versus Inframail at $129/month. That's $2,121/month in savings or $25,452 annually. That's enough to hire a full-time junior account manager at $50k salary, improve your net margin from 15% to 22%, or simply flow to profit and pay yourself reliably.
The break-even point is approximately 8-10 inboxes when warmup costs are included. If you're above that threshold now or plan to be within the next quarter, evaluate flat-rate infrastructure before your next billing cycle.
Your next per-inbox billing cycle charges you for slots you might not need. Calculate your exact savings by entering your current inbox count, or watch our cold email system setup guide to see the platform work in under 10 minutes. We offer month-to-month billing with no contracts, so you can validate deliverability with real client campaigns before committing long-term.
Frequently asked questions about cold email infrastructure costs
Does per-inbox pricing include domains in the price?
No. Domains cost approximately $16.44/year through platform purchases or $10-13/year through external registrars. Platform pricing and domain costs are billed independently.
What is the break-even point between per-inbox and flat-rate pricing?
When including warmup costs ($12-15/inbox), the break-even point falls around 8-10 mailboxes. Above that threshold, flat-rate pricing saves money every month.
Is it better to buy domains separately or through the platform?
Platform purchases offer convenience but slightly higher prices (~$14/domain). External registrars offer domains at $10-13/year. For 100+ domains, external purchasing saves $100-400/year.
What warmup tools work with these platforms?
Most platforms integrate with Instantly, Smartlead, and export IMAP/SMTP credentials for use with any sending platform. Review our compatible email platforms guide for specific integrations.
Can I cancel per-inbox subscriptions anytime?
Most platforms allow subscription cancellation anytime through the app. Upon termination, prepaid fees are typically not refunded and any outstanding amounts become due immediately. Inframail offers month-to-month billing with no prepayment required, so you can cancel anytime without losing prepaid value.
How long does it take to migrate 50 domains to a new infrastructure provider?
It usually takes less than 24 hours. With bulk import, you upload a CSV of auth codes and the platform handles the transfer requests. Total hands-on time: 30-45 minutes. View our transfer guide for the exact workflow.
What happens to my email data if I cancel my infrastructure provider?
Your email history stays with your sending platform (Instantly, Smartlead), not your infrastructure provider. Infrastructure platforms only provide IMAP/SMTP credentials. When you cancel, you lose access to those inboxes, but campaign history, sequences, and contact data remain in your sending platform.
Key terminology for agency infrastructure
TCO (Total Cost of Ownership): The complete monthly or annual cost including platform fees, domain costs, warmup tools, and sending platforms. Essential for accurate margin calculation when evaluating infrastructure decisions.
Linear Scaling: A cost structure where expenses increase proportionally with volume. In per-inbox pricing, doubling your inbox count doubles your infrastructure bill, creating a margin compression problem as you grow.
Break-Even Point: The volume threshold where two pricing models cost the same amount. For per-inbox versus flat-rate infrastructure, the break-even is approximately 8-10 mailboxes when warmup is included, meaning flat-rate pricing saves money at any higher inbox count.
Shared IP: An IP address used by multiple senders where reputation is collectively determined. One bad sender can affect deliverability for all users on that IP.
Dedicated IP: An IP address assigned exclusively to one account. Your sending behavior alone determines reputation with email service providers.
DNS Propagation: The time required (typically 24-48 hours) for DNS record changes to spread across global nameservers. Automated platforms eliminate manual configuration but propagation time remains.
Slot-based Pricing: A billing model where you pay for reserved capacity (slots) regardless of actual usage. Cannot reduce costs by pausing or deleting inboxes within purchased capacity
