AnonAddy, now rebranded as addy.io, is a well-regarded email alias service. It does one thing: creates throwaway email addresses that forward to your real inbox. If that's all you need, it's a solid choice.
But if you're based in the UK and want to protect more than just your email, AnonAddy isn't really built for it. Your phone number, your identity across data breaches, the sensitive files you share online: none of that is covered. This guide looks at what AnonAddy does well, where it stops, and how Privify fills the gaps.
What AnonAddy (addy.io) actually does
AnonAddy is an email alias forwarding service. You create aliases like random-string@yourdomain.anonaddy.com, give those out instead of your real address, and AnonAddy forwards the mail to your inbox. If an alias starts attracting spam, you delete it and your real address is never involved.
It's open source, self-hostable, and has a generous free tier. The paid plans unlock more aliases, custom domains, and higher bandwidth limits.
AnonAddy pricing (2026)
- Free: up to 10 aliases, shared domains, limited bandwidth
- Lite: $1/month, 50 aliases, 1 custom domain
- Pro: $3/month, unlimited aliases, 20 custom domains
The pricing is genuinely cheap. For email-alias-only use, it's hard to beat on cost.
Where AnonAddy falls short for UK users
The limitation isn't a flaw so much as a scope decision. AnonAddy is built to solve one problem: email exposure. But most people who want to protect their email also want to protect their phone number, and those two things are closely linked.
The gap: When you sign up for a service online, you typically hand over both your email address and your mobile number. AnonAddy protects the email. Your real UK mobile number is still exposed every time you enter it into a form, a marketplace listing, or a verification screen.
There are a few other things AnonAddy doesn't cover either:
- No identity monitoring. AnonAddy won't tell you if your email has appeared in known data breaches. You'd need a separate service like HaveIBeenPwned for that.
- No secure file sending. Sharing a sensitive document like a passport scan, a contract, or a bank statement still happens over email or WhatsApp, neither of which expires or disappears after being opened.
- US-centric infrastructure. addy.io isn't specifically built for UK users. There's no UK virtual number, no 07 prefix, and no focus on UK-specific services like bank verification texts.
How Privify compares
Privify is built for UK users who want one place to manage their privacy across email, phone, identity, and file sharing.
Privify pricing (2026)
- Starter: £1.99/month - Email aliases, identity monitoring, and Privify Send. Comes with a 7-day free trial.
- Plus: £6.99/month - Everything in Starter, plus a real UK 07 virtual number with SMS and voicemail forwarding.
- Premium: £10.99/month - Everything in Plus, with voicemail transcription and unlimited forwarding destinations on top.
Worth noting: Privify Starter at £1.99/month covers email aliases, identity monitoring, and Privify Send. AnonAddy's Pro plan at $3/month doesn't include any of those last two. If you want the virtual UK number as well, Privify Plus at £6.99/month pulls everything into one subscription.
When AnonAddy is still the right choice
There are situations where AnonAddy makes more sense:
- You only want email aliases, nothing else. If phone number privacy isn't a concern and you're not interested in identity monitoring, AnonAddy's free or $1/month tiers are hard to beat on value.
- You want to self-host. AnonAddy is fully open source and can be run on your own server. Privify is a hosted service.
- You're outside the UK. Privify's virtual number is specifically a UK 07 number. If you don't need that, it's not a differentiator for you.
When Privify is the better fit
- You want to protect your phone number as well as your email. Giving out a Privify 07 number instead of your real mobile means SMS verifications, marketplace enquiries, and cold callers never reach your personal SIM.
- You want to know if your data has already been leaked. Privify's identity monitor checks your email against known breach databases and flags it if it shows up. AnonAddy doesn't do this at all.
- You share sensitive documents online. Passports to landlords, contracts to clients, passwords to family. Privify Send creates a link that expires once the recipient opens it, with no copies left sitting in anyone's inbox.
- You want one subscription rather than three separate tools. Email aliases, phone privacy, and breach monitoring each require their own service if you're not using Privify. It adds up.
The bottom line
AnonAddy is a good email alias tool and if that's genuinely all you need, it earns its reputation. But for UK users who want protection across their email and their phone number, and who want to know when their data shows up in a breach, it doesn't stretch far enough.
Privify starts at £1.99/month with a 7-day free trial, and the Plus plan at £6.99/month adds a real UK 07 virtual number on top.
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Email aliases, identity monitoring, and Privify Send, all included on the Starter plan. No card required to start.
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