Mozilla launches Firefox Relay Premium

Firefox Relay Premium, a subscription-based version of Firefox Relay, is now available in select countries.

Firefox Relay is an email forwarding service that I reviewed back in 2020 when it first launched. It makes use of aliases that act as a proxy between a user's email address and sites and services on the Internet. The main idea is to block spam by using the alias email address and not the user's email address for communication.

Instead of leaving the "real" email address on a site, e.g. when leaving a comment, signing up for a service, or buying something, a user of Firefox Relay would use an email alias that is provided by the service for that. Firefox Release forwards emails to the user's email address automatically.

The concept that is behind Firefox Relay is not new. Disposable Email Services have offered similar functionality for a long time. Some allow the creation of throwaway email addresses, others support accounts and email forwarding just like Firefox Relay.

The free version off Firefox Relay requires a Mozilla Account. It allows users to create up to 5 email aliases, which are created randomly using the *.relay.firefox.com hostname.

Firefox Relay Premium

Firefox Relay Premium is a commercial version of Firefox Relay. Like most commercial versions off services, it is offering more functionality to the user.

The three core differences compared to the free version of Firefox Relay are:

• Unlimited aliases -- Aliases are not limited anymore, users of Firefox Relay Premium can create as many aliases as they require.
• Custom email domains -- Users get the option to create a subdomain alias in the form @yourdomain.mozmail.com when they sign-up for Firefox Relay Premium.
• Replay to forwarded emails -- Firefox Relay Premium allows users to replay to emails using the Firefox Relay email address.

The introductory price is 0.99 Dollar, 0.99 Euro, 1.00 CHF. The service is available in the following regions at the time of writing: Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland).

Mozilla has not revealed when and by how much it will increase the price of the subscription.

Closing Words

The premium version of Firefox Relay adds much needed features to the email forwarding service. It is still limited, especially when it comes to custom domain use and other features, e.g. catch all email addresses or support for larger email attachments.

A service like Simple Login is available for $20 for the first year currently, and $30 thereafter, and it does support unlimited custom domains, which may be provided by the user, 5 subdomains, catch-all domain and support for PGP encryption.

Mozilla needs to add more features continuously to Firefox Relay Premium before it starts increasing the price of a subscription. Especially the one-custom domain limitation needs to be lifted, as services on the Internet could simply block mozmail.com from being used to interact with sites and services.

Now You: do you use a disposable email service / email forwarding service?

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