Why it exists

Handing your real email to every signup form creates an unbreakable identity link between services — and a spam windshield that grows by the year. addy.io (born as AnonAddy in 2019) treats aliases as disposable control points: invent one per site on the spot, receive and reply through it normally, and deactivate it silently the day it leaks. It's fully open source (server, apps and extension), supports OpenPGP encryption of forwarded mail, and can be self-hosted — so the alias layer never has to depend on a vendor you can't audit.

Main features

• Unlimited aliases on your subdomain — anything@johndoe.addy.io with no per-alias creation step; shared domains (@addy.io, @mailer.me, …) hide your username entirely; random alias generation included.
• Bring your own domain — catch-all or per-alias mode, plus regex-based auto-adding of unknown aliases so first contact is never bounced.
• OpenPGP per recipient — attach your public key and every forwarded (and optionally auto-reply) message is encrypted before leaving; even the subject can be encrypted — nice for Gmail/Outlook snooping concerns.
• Native iOS & Android apps and extensions for all major browsers — aliases a click away anywhere, all open source and free even against a self-hosted instance.
• Silent deactivation or bouncy deletion — turn off leaked aliases with one toggle; ban domains and senders per alias.
• Tracking-pixel blocking — recently added, forward mail strips the beacons.
• Self-hostable — documented Docker deployment, AGPL-3.0 throughout.

Who it's for

• Privacy-conscious people who want aliasing without buying into a big ecosystem.
• OpenPGP users who want mail encrypted in transit-ish — better: at rest, on any provider.
• Self-hosters running their own alias server under their own domain.
• Budget-tier users: the free plan is genuinely usable rather than a demo.

How it compares

• SimpleLogin — the compatible giant, now owned by Proton; addy.io is the independent counterpart with a more generous free tier and equally serious self-hosting story.
• Firefox Relay / Apple Hide My Email — less flexible (no wildcard on shared domains on Relay's cheaper tiers) and closed source.
• + plus-addressing — free but permanent: you can't deactivate, and the base address still identifies you.
• Self-hosted mail done by hand — run your own mail server (Stalwart or Mailcow) and do the aliasing yourself; addy.io is the middle path that stays low-ops.

Notes

• The free plan includes most features; paid tiers mainly add custom domains, more recipients and higher alias limits on shared domains.
• Reply-from-alias works by sending your reply to a special on-the-wire address — no client plugins needed, works from phone or webmail.
• Deactivated aliases don't bounce by default (a deliberate privacy choice: silent drop), which spammers can't use to verify that your address exists.
• Widely recommended across the privacy community (Privacy Guides, PrivacyTools) and audited by usage rather than a marketing budget.

Useful links

• Official site: https://addy.io/
• Source code: https://github.com/anonaddy/anonaddy
• FAQ: https://addy.io/faq/
• Help centre: https://help.addy.io/