Originally published at guushu.com/notes. I keep the original updated, so this copy may lag.
My own support@ runs on the first column of the table below, and for one person reading mail that's plenty. The comparison of Cloudflare Email Routing vs Google Workspace vs Zoho only gets interesting once you ask three things. Do you just need to receive at your domain? Do you need to reply as that address from a real mailbox? Do two people need to handle the same address?
Each question knocks out a column. I left prices out of the table on purpose. They change, and the pricing pages are one click away. What each option can do doesn't.
Which option fits which need?
Receive only: Email Routing, $0, 10 minutes.
Reply as support@ from a mailbox: Zoho's free tier or one Workspace seat is the shortest path.
Two or more people on one address: run one of the self-hosted inboxes built on Email Routing, or pay someone to run that shape for you. The rest of this note is detail on those three lines.
The comparison table
Checked 2026-09-16 against Email Routing, Google Workspace pricing and Zoho Mail pricing.
| Cloudflare Email Routing | Google Workspace (1 seat) | Zoho Mail | Self-hosted on Cloudflare | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software cost | $0 | Per seat, monthly | Free tier; paid per user | $0 code; all three say they run on Workers Free for small teams, R2 activated separately |
| Receives at your domain | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, via Email Routing |
| Stores mail | No, forwards only | Yes | Yes | Yes, your D1 / R2 |
| Reply as support@ later | No | Yes | Yes | Yes, via Email Sending or Resend |
| Multiple addresses | Up to 200 rules per domain, plus catch-all | Aliases on one seat | Aliases; limits per plan | Unlimited patterns, one Worker |
| Two people, one address | One rule, one destination; fan-out needs a Worker | Delegation / Groups | Shared mailbox on paid tiers | Yes, no seat pricing |
| Max message size | 25 MiB | Per their docs | Per their docs | 25 MiB (Email Routing limit) |
| Programmable | Yes, Email Workers | Gmail API | Zoho API | It is your code |
| Setup | 10 min | DNS verify + DKIM | DNS verify + DKIM | 1 to 3 h, then you run it |
| DNS you hand over | MX + SPF | MX + SPF + DKIM + TXT | Same | MX + SPF, plus DKIM if you reply |
The fourth column is three projects, checked 2026-09-16. cloudflare/agentic-inbox is Cloudflare's own (Apache-2.0, Workers + D1). HQBase is AGPL-3.0 (Workers + D1 + R2 + Queues). ResolveHQ is source-available, not open source (Email Routing + Resend + D1 + R2 + Queues).
Scope and license differ, the stack doesn't. Details and the 30-line handler are in Cloudflare Email Worker inbox.
What the table does not say
Email Routing is a forwarder that can run code. A rule can target a Worker, and the Worker gets the raw MIME. Nothing else in the table lets you put a function between the MX record and the mailbox for free.
Workspace is the one that just works: one seat, one mailbox. You pay for that seat every month, even for an address that might get ten messages a week. Its MX records also replace Cloudflare's.
Zoho's free tier is real. It's fine for one person. The shared-mailbox features sit on paid plans, which puts Zoho in the same spot as Workspace once there are two of you.
The self-hosted column works, and you're the one running it. Two people on one support@ with no seat pricing already exists three times over on GitHub, one of them maintained by Cloudflare. The catch: you keep the D1 schema migrated, and you get paged when the reply path breaks.
Who covers two people on one support@ without running it yourself?
Workspace and Zoho do it with a second seat. The self-hosted projects do it for the cost of running them. Nobody in the table offers the same Worker-plus-D1 shape as a hosted service, for people who'd rather not run one more thing.
If the first column is all you need, the setup and its three limits are in Cloudflare Email Routing support address.
The hosted half of the fourth column, the same Worker-plus-D1 shape with someone else on the pager, is a waitlist page today, not a product. The form asks which address you route: guard.guushu.com/inbox.
Original, with any later corrections: guushu.com/notes/cloudflare-email-routing-vs-google-workspace-zoho/
