Email Aliases for Privacy: SimpleLogin vs Addy.io

Most people use one or two email addresses for everything. The same address they give to their bank is the one they give to a random newsletter, a discount coupon site, and a forum. When any of those leak or sell their list, the address ends up in spam databases and data broker profiles.

Email aliases solve this at the root.

What Email Aliases Do

An alias is an email address that isn’t your real address. You create shopping-target@alias-provider.com, give it to Target’s website, and any email sent to that alias gets forwarded to your actual inbox. You reply through the alias — the retailer never sees your real address.

When a company starts spamming you or selling your address, you delete the alias. The spam stops immediately, and your real address is completely unaffected. You can trace exactly which service sold or leaked your address.

This is the core use case: containment. Every service gets its own address, so compromises stay contained.

SimpleLogin

SimpleLogin is the most polished alias service available. It was acquired by Proton in 2022 and is now part of the Proton ecosystem, though it remains functional as a standalone service.

How it works: Sign up, create aliases from a dashboard or browser extension, and set a mailbox (your real email address) to forward to. You can create aliases on-demand or generate random ones.

Sending from aliases: SimpleLogin handles replies correctly. When you reply to an email forwarded through SimpleLogin, the reply goes out from the alias — the recipient sees shopping-target@simplelogin.io, not your real address. This is important and something some cheaper alias tools get wrong.

Custom domains: On the paid plan ($4/month or included with Proton Unlimited), you can use your own domain for aliases. So instead of @simplelogin.io addresses, you get anything@yourdomain.com. This makes the alias less obviously an alias.

Browser extension: A solid browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and others. When you’re on a signup form, the extension can suggest creating an alias for that site right in the browser.

Proton integration: If you use ProtonMail, SimpleLogin integrates directly. You can manage aliases from within Proton’s dashboard and have them forward to your Proton address. The Proton-side settings worth reviewing once everything funnels into that one mailbox — Sentinel, recovery options, and the custom-domain DNS records if you are running aliases on your own domain — are collected in the Proton Mail settings reference.

Open source: SimpleLogin’s code is open source. For those who want to self-host, that’s possible.

Addy.io (Formerly AnonAddy)

Addy.io is the primary alternative to SimpleLogin. It’s open source and has a generous free tier.

Free tier: Addy.io’s free plan allows up to 10 shared domain aliases (addresses ending in @anonaddy.me etc.) and unlimited standard aliases using a subdomain you get on signup. This is more generous than most competitors.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $1/month (Lite) and $3/month (Pro). Pro adds custom domains, more aliases, and higher bandwidth.

Custom domains: Available on the Pro plan. Same concept as SimpleLogin — use your own domain for aliases.

Catch-all support: One standout feature. You can enable catch-all on your subdomain or custom domain, meaning any address at that domain automatically forwards, without you having to pre-create it. any-random-word@yoursubdomain.anonaddy.me just works. This is handy for never having to think about creating an alias — just make up an address on the spot.

API: Both services offer APIs, useful if you want to automate alias creation or integrate with other tools.

How to Use Aliases Effectively

One alias per service: The whole point is isolation. One alias for your bank, a different one for Amazon, another for your gym. If you reuse aliases across services, you lose the traceability benefit.

Use a naming convention: Something like servicename-month@alias-provider.com. This makes the aliases self-documenting — you can look at an alias and know exactly where it came from.

Don’t give aliases to people: Aliases are for services. For people — friends, family, colleagues — use your real address. Aliases are about containing data broker and service exposure, not hiding from people you have relationships with.

Keep the alias and the real address separate: The whole point of using an encrypted email provider is undermined if you forward everything through an alias service hosted by a less privacy-respecting company. Use a forwarding address that matches your privacy goals, which in practice means one of the encrypted email providers worth switching to rather than the Gmail account you are trying to get away from. If that mailbox does not exist yet, how to create a secure email account walks the sign-up itself, including how to register and lock recovery without handing over the identity the aliases are meant to protect.

Review disabled aliases periodically: When you disable an alias, it starts bouncing. Check that you haven’t disabled something you still need.

When to Use Apple’s Hide My Email

If you’re in the Apple ecosystem, Apple offers a built-in alias service called “Hide My Email,” available with any iCloud+ subscription ($0.99/month).

It’s simpler than SimpleLogin or Addy.io: tap-to-create aliases in Safari, Mail, or any iOS app. Aliases forward to your iCloud email.

The limitation: aliases point to iCloud, which is not an E2EE provider. If you’re already on ProtonMail, routing through iCloud isn’t ideal. But if you use Apple Mail and don’t have privacy concerns about iCloud itself, Hide My Email is convenient.

Setting This Up

1. Sign up for SimpleLogin (free tier) or Addy.io (free tier)
2. Connect your primary mailbox (see the ProtonMail setup guide or the Tuta setup guide if you have not created that account yet)
3. Install the browser extension
4. Next time you sign up for a service, create an alias instead of using your real address
5. For existing important accounts (bank, primary services), gradually rotate in aliases if you care about isolating them

This takes 30 minutes to set up and saves significant cleanup effort over time. The discipline of “one alias per service” is the main thing to build — the tools handle the rest.