MailMate pricing, Free Mode and license keys
MailMate costs $10 every 3 months or $40 a year, plus VAT. What Free Mode keeps, who must pay, site licenses, refunds, and cheaper Mac mail apps.
By Emmett Miller
MailMate costs $10 every 3 months, or $40 a year, plus any VAT, and either one keeps it in Paid Mode. It starts in a free Trial Mode with every feature for 14 days of active use, and after that it keeps working in Free Mode, with every feature and a "MailMate Free Mode" label in the headers of the mail you send.
MailMate is a Mac mail app for IMAP accounts, made by one developer, Benny Kjær Nielsen, at Freron Software. It no longer sells the one-time license key many people remember. This page covers what each mode costs, who has to pay, and how to stop paying. Prices as of November 2026, from Freron's pricing, subscription and license pages.
MailMate plans and prices
| Mode or key | Price | What you get | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trial Mode | Free | Every feature | Asks you to choose a mode after 14 days of active use |
| Paid Mode, quarterly | $10 every 3 months, plus VAT | Every feature, a license key, headers say "MailMate" | Renews until you cancel |
| Paid Mode, yearly | $40 every year, plus VAT | The same, billed once a year | Renews until you cancel |
| Personal key, no subscription | $40 per year, plus VAT | A key that runs Paid Mode for 1 to 5 years | You replace the key in the app each time you buy |
| Site license | $40 per seat per year | Keys for 2 or more people, 1 to 3 years | Discount grows with seats, not with years |
| Free Mode | Free | Every feature | Headers say "MailMate Free Mode"; not for business use |
The yearly plan and the site license don't appear on the pricing page itself. They sit on the subscription page and the license configuration page. The price shown is in US dollars, and the pricing page says you pay "the equivalent in your local currency plus any VAT required."
Is MailMate free?
Yes, for personal and non-profit use. When a trial or a subscription ends, MailMate "will automatically switch to Free Mode," and "you continue to have access to all features of MailMate" (pricing). The developer says the same on his blog: Free Mode "doesn't really limit your use of MailMate" (blog).
Free Mode changes two things:
- Your outgoing mail is labeled. Every mail client names itself in a header line. In Free Mode that line says "MailMate Free Mode." The pricing page says most people you write to will never see it, but some mail clients show it.
- A button stays in the window. The top right corner of the main window counts the days since the switch. Click it to start paying again.
Free Mode is not meant for work. "If you are part of a business or you run a business relying on the use of MailMate then it is also required that you use MailMate in Paid Mode." Non-profit use is exempt.
Does MailMate still sell a lifetime license?
No. Freron sold one-time license keys for $50 until December 2024. In the post that announced the change, the developer wrote that "I will no longer be selling any $50 license keys" (blog).
Old keys still work, but most moved to Free Mode on July 1, 2025. Keys work "as if in Paid Mode for at least 2 years after its purchase date or until July 1st, 2025, whichever occurs last" (pricing). If you supported the app as a patron, you don't need to do anything, because "Patronage is equivalent to having a subscription."
If you want to pay once in advance and skip the subscription, buy a time-limited personal key. It costs "$40 per year (excluding VAT)," for 1 to 5 years, and "There's no discount for an increasing number of years" (license page).
Is there a business, team or student price?
There is a site license for teams, and no student price on Freron's pages. A site license costs "$40 per seat per year (excluding VAT), but there is an increasing discount with an increasing number of seats" (license page). The form takes 2 seats or more, for 1, 2 or 3 years. It doesn't list the discount for each seat count; you see it at checkout.
For any other kind of key, the subscription page asks you to email the developer.
How do you cancel MailMate or get a refund?
You cancel the subscription, and MailMate moves to Free Mode. Freron's pages don't give the steps to cancel. If you can't find them, ask with Help ▸ Send Feedback in MailMate. The developer's post says "you have to explicitly cancel your subscription to avoid further payments" (blog). Your key keeps working after you stop: "If you stop the subscription payments then your license key will continue to work for you" (subscription page).
Refunds are generous but short. The license agreement says "a refund is provided whenever the user feels that MailMate does not behave as expected." Ask with Help ▸ Send Feedback inside MailMate, and ask soon: "it's only possible to refund recent payments, as in only a few months old."
Why does MailMate cost what it does?
You pay for the developer to keep working on the app, not for support. MailMate has one developer. He wrote that paid upgrades failed for him because "version 1.0 of MailMate was released February 2011, and since then there has not been a single version bump requiring an upgrade fee" (motivation).
The pricing page is blunt about support: paying "does not, in any way, guarantee getting a quick reply to support emails or any reply at all." The license agreement adds that support is by email "and only to a very limited extent."
The developer also says you pay for what MailMate does today. Most users have an account with Google, Microsoft or Apple, and "all of them have a 'kill switch' for MailMate" (blog). In July 2025 he warned that "the OAuth2 support for Gmail might cease to work" (blog).
Is MailMate worth paying for?
If you run a business on it, you have to pay, and $40 a year is low for a Mac mail app. If you use it for yourself, Free Mode gives you the same app, so paying is a choice to keep it alive.
Before you pay, check how it ships. The download page calls the public release "more than 4 year old" and tells new users to use the beta (download). The last beta came out on July 2, 2025, and test releases continued to October 2, 2025 (test release notes). It works with IMAP accounts only, and "does NOT support Exchange using its native protocol" (license agreement).
For a full side by side, see Alrighty vs MailMate.
What costs less than MailMate? Alrighty and three free apps
MailMate is already cheap, so the only way to pay less is to pay nothing. These apps are free to start, and each one does a different part of MailMate's job.
Alrighty. Alrighty is our mail app for Mac, Windows and Linux. It puts iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts in one inbox and searches all of them on your Mac, matching what you mean as well as the words you type. Clean up lists the senders you likely don't want, and Stop mail unsubscribes you, archives their mail, and keeps their new mail out of your Inbox. The price is a 14-day trial with no card, then a Free plan or Pro. Free has a small monthly AI allowance and no sorting into groups. What it can't do: it takes iCloud, Gmail and Outlook only, so it can't add the Fastmail, Yahoo or other IMAP accounts many MailMate users keep. Its AI features send the emails they need to Alrighty's server, which asks OpenAI or another model company. It's a new app, with no long track record. See the features.
Apple Mail. It comes with macOS, so there is nothing to buy. Apple's guide says you can add "iCloud, Gmail (Google), Exchange, school, work, or other" accounts (Apple).
Thunderbird. It's "Free forever," with donations optional, and it lets you "Manage all accounts separately or in a unified inbox" (Thunderbird). It runs on Mac, Windows and Linux.
Mailspring. It's "free forever for Mac, Windows, and Linux," and Pro is $8 a month or $85 a year (Mailspring). Its Pro plan costs more than MailMate's $40 a year.
Our MailMate alternatives page compares these apps on encryption, accounts and AI.
Questions
Does MailMate's trial need a credit card?
Freron's pages don't mention one. You download the app, and it runs in Trial Mode at once. The trial counts days of active use, not calendar days. Outgoing mail says "MailMate Trial" during the trial.
What happens to my license key if I stop paying?
It keeps working. MailMate switches to Free Mode when the paid period ends, and the key stays valid. To pay again, click the Free Mode button in the main window, so MailMate links your old key to the new payments instead of making a new key.
Does paying get me faster support?
No. Freron's pricing page says paying does not guarantee a quick reply, or any reply. You pay for maintenance and development. To report a bug, use Help ▸ Send Feedback in the app.
Can a company use Free Mode?
No. The pricing page says a business that relies on MailMate must use Paid Mode. A team can buy a site license at $40 per seat per year, with a discount that grows with the number of seats.