Free business email: a detailed comparison of free tiers

"Free business email" means using your own domain without paying, or paying only for features beyond the basics. The major free tiers differ significantly in what they restrict.

Main free options compared

Tencent Exmail (free)

• Custom domain supported, no hard limit on account count published officially
• Reasonably full feature set: IMAP/SMTP, calendar, storage
• Tied to the WeChat Work ecosystem; IMAP requires a client-specific password

Aliyun Qiye Mail (free)

• Up to 50 member accounts
• IMAP only exposes the last 30 days by default; full history requires a manual setting in the admin console
• Ads in the interface; basic feature set

Rovela (free)

• 5 mailboxes, 1 GiB storage
• Full IMAP/SMTP, webmail, DNS-assisted setup
• No time limit on mail history
• No ads

Zoho Mail (free)

• Up to 5 users, 5 GiB per user
• Feature-rich, aimed at international users
• Slower in mainland China

How to decide if free is enough

Three things to check: whether the account limit fits, whether storage is sufficient, and whether IMAP client support is good enough. For a team of five or fewer that uses webmail or standard mail clients and does not store large volumes of attachments, Rovela's free tier usually covers the need.

For five to fifty accounts, Tencent Exmail is a common choice because its account ceiling is generous. The caveat is the WeChat Work dependency — if the team does not use that ecosystem, check whether the features you actually need are all there.

When to upgrade from free

The typical triggers are running out of accounts, running out of storage, needing a shared team inbox, or needing to send via API for automated workflows. Paid tiers across providers run from a few yuan to a few tens of yuan per user per month. The upgrade usually does not require changing email addresses.

Rovela's free tier requires no credit card — sign up, add a domain, and create mailboxes immediately.