Most people looking for one have realised the addresses don't leave Apple with them. Hide My Email is excellent inside the ecosystem — the OS integration is better than anything a third party can offer — but every address ends @icloud.com, so leaving Apple means re-addressing every account. If that's why you're here, you want aliases on a domain you own. If you just want something that works outside Apple devices, the free options are simpler.
First, the feature it's often confused with
Hide My Email generates random @icloud.com addresses that forward to you. Custom Email Domain lets you use your own domain with iCloud Mail. They are separate, and Hide My Email addresses are not created on your custom domain.
So "I have iCloud+, so I already have custom-domain aliases" isn't right. If you've been assuming that, this may resolve your question without changing anything.
If you're leaving Apple, or might
This is the case that matters, and only one class of answer solves it: aliases on a domain you own. Then changing provider is a DNS change and the addresses never move.
Options: SimpleLogin Premium ($36/year, unlimited custom domains, replies, extensions), Proton Pass Plus ($35.88/year, bundled with a password manager), Fastmail, addy.io, or Don't SPAM Me (no subscription; you supply the domain, and it adds per-alias spam attribution but has no reply support). Prices from each provider's own pricing page. Checked: 2026-08-19.
The migration itself is the painful part, and worth doing deliberately: change the address on your important accounts first, confirm each works, then let the long tail move as those services happen to email you. Why this cost exists at all
If you just want it to work outside Apple
DuckDuckGo Email Protection — free, unlimited private addresses, replies, tracker removal, works anywhere. For casual use this is the closest like-for-like replacement and it costs nothing.
Firefox Relay — 50 masks free with tracker removal; Premium $11.88/year adds unlimited masks and a subdomain for creating them on the fly. Source: relay.firefox.com. Checked: 2026-08-19.
Both put addresses on their own domain, so they solve the cross-platform problem and not the ownership one.
If you want readable addresses
Hide My Email generates random strings. You can label them inside Apple's interface, but the address itself tells you nothing — seeing spam at a random string doesn't identify the company at a glance.
Any custom-domain option gives you ikea@yourdomain.com instead, where the source is on the To: line. Small difference per address; large difference across two hundred. Naming conventions
Quick answer
| Why you're looking | Go to |
|---|---|
| Might leave Apple one day | Any own-domain option |
| Use Windows or Android day to day | DuckDuckGo, or an own-domain service |
| Don't want an iCloud+ subscription | DuckDuckGo (free) |
| Want readable, self-documenting addresses | Own domain |
| Want to know which company leaked you | Don't SPAM Me |
| Want the cheapest paid tier | Firefox Relay Premium |
| Actually just wanted a custom domain in iCloud Mail | Stay — that's a different iCloud+ feature you already have |
Or keep both
Reasonable, and probably right for a lot of Apple users. Hide My Email is hard to beat for casual signups where the OS prompt appears — the convenience means you'll actually use it. Put the accounts you'd hate to lose on your own domain: banking, government, utilities. That splits the difference at the cost of one domain registration.