Email Routing forwards. Work Inbox answers.
Cloudflare Email Routing sends your domain's mail on to Gmail, but you can't reply from your own address: it only forwards. Work Inbox gives the domain real mailboxes, with shared ones for the team. Free for up to 5people, or self-hosted on the same Cloudflare account.
Forwarding, or an inbox
| Email Routing alone | With Work Inbox | |
|---|---|---|
| Mail to you@yourdomain arrives | Forwarded to Gmail or another inbox | In your own mailbox |
| Reply from you@yourdomain | No | From the address the mail came to |
| A shared support@ for the team | No | Shared mailboxes, free on every plan |
| Aliases and a catch-all | Forwarding rules | Aliases, catch-all, plus addressing |
| Spam filter and sender rules | No | Spam score on every message, allow and block rules |
| Price | Free | Free for up to 5 people, then €1 a person |
Hosted, in a few minutes
We run it. Work Inbox receives your domain's mail itself and sends it signed for your domain, so Email Routing steps aside for that domain.
- 01
Add the domain
Sign up, then Settings → Mail → Add domain.
- 02
Connect Cloudflare
Paste an API token with Zone Read and DNS Edit: Work Inbox adds the MX, DKIM and DMARC records. Turn Email Routing off for the domain first, its MX records are locked.
- 03
Add your people
Each person gets a mailbox on the domain, plus shared ones like support@. Mail now arrives and goes out from your addresses.
Self-hosted, next to Email Routing
Deploy Work Inbox to the Cloudflare account your domain is already on. Email Routing keeps receiving and hands every address to the Worker with a catch-all rule; Cloudflare Email Service sends. Open source, every feature, no fee to us: you pay Cloudflare for Workers, D1, R2 and sending.
Other inboxes on Cloudflare
Agentic Inbox is Cloudflare's open-source email client with an AI agent, deployed to your own Cloudflare account. It suits one person or a small team behind one Cloudflare Access policy. Work Inbox is built for a team: everyone signs in with their own account, shared mailboxes have their own access, and there is a hosted version you don't have to deploy.
| Feature |  Work Inbox |  Cloudflare Agentic Inbox |  Zoho Mail |  Google Workspace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per person | €1 / €2.50 / €5 a month (Starter, Pro, Business), billed monthly; first 5 people free, at least 5 billed; self-hosted free | Free; you pay Cloudflare for what it uses | Free for 5, then $1 to $7 a month | $7 to $22 a month (annual), $8.40 to $26.40 flexible |
| Free plan or trial | Included: Free for up to 5 people; 14-day trial for teams, no card. Self-hosting free for good | Included: Free to self-host | Included: Free plan for 5 people; 15-day trial of Workplace Professional | Partly: 14-day trial, no free plan |
| Shared mailboxes | Included: Unlimited on every plan, no licence per mailbox | Partly: Everyone who passes the Cloudflare Access policy can open every mailbox; no per-mailbox access | Included: Shared mailbox group type | Partly: No shared mailbox as such: Google Groups' collaborative inbox |
| Aliases and catch-all | Included: Unlimited aliases, catch-all per domain, plus addressing | Partly: Mailboxes for any address on the domain via a catch-all rule; aliases not listed | Partly: 30 aliases per mailbox; catch-all per domain | Partly: Up to 30 aliases per user |
| Notes or docs edited together | Included: Shared notes with live editing, checklists, tables, @mentions | Not available: Not included | Included: Zoho Writer in Workplace; Notebook separately | Included: Google Docs, the most polished live co-editing |
| Self-hosting and source code | Included: Open source; runs on your own Cloudflare account | Included: Open source (Apache 2.0), deploys to your own Cloudflare account | Not available: No: hosted by Zoho only | Not available: No: hosted by Google only |
| IMAP and mobile mail apps | Not available: Not yet: web app only (installable). IMAP gateway planned | Not available: Not mentioned in its README | Partly: Not on the free plan; paid plans not confirmed on the pricing page | Included: Gmail apps on iOS and Android; IMAP |
| Claude / ChatGPT (MCP) | Included: MCP server: search and read mail, notes, contacts and drive files on every plan; replies and changes on Pro and Business | Included: Built-in agent on Workers AI that drafts replies, plus an MCP server | Included: Official Zoho Mail MCP server | Partly: Official MCP servers in developer preview; Gemini on Standard and up |
| Calendar, contacts, files | Partly: Calendar, contacts (a team address book) and a shared drive; no office documents or video calls | Not available: Not included | Included: Calendar, contacts, WorkDrive, Meeting, Cliq | Included: Calendar, Contacts, Drive, Meet, Sheets, Slides |
Work Inbox vs Cloudflare Agentic Inbox, with sources.
Questions
Can I reply from my domain with Cloudflare Email Routing?
Not with Email Routing alone: it only receives and forwards. To reply from the address you need something that sends, and an inbox to keep the conversation in. Work Inbox is both: mail to your domain lands in a mailbox, and replies go out from the same address, signed for your domain.
Can I keep Email Routing turned on?
Yes, when you self-host: Work Inbox runs in the same Cloudflare account, Email Routing sends every address to it with a catch-all rule, and Cloudflare Email Service sends. Hosted, Work Inbox receives the mail itself, so Email Routing is turned off for that domain and its MX records are replaced.
What about Gmail's "Send mail as"?
It needs an SMTP server for your domain, and Email Routing has none. Work Inbox has no SMTP or IMAP access yet either: you read and answer the mail in its web app, which installs on phones.
What does it cost?
Hosted, up to 5 people are free for good, with shared mailboxes, aliases and notes; a bigger team pays from €1 a person a month. Self-hosted, Work Inbox is free and you pay Cloudflare for what it uses.
What is Cloudflare Agentic Inbox?
An open-source email client by Cloudflare that runs on Workers in your own account: Email Routing receives, Email Service sends, Durable Objects store each mailbox, and an agent on Workers AI reads, searches and drafts replies. Cloudflare Access guards the whole app.
Can a team use Agentic Inbox?
Its README says anyone who passes the shared Cloudflare Access policy can access all mailboxes, and that there is no per-mailbox authorization. Work Inbox gives each person their own mailbox and decides per shared mailbox who may open it.
Bring your domain
Your team's mail on it this afternoon.