ForwardThis
ForwardThisvsrelay.app

ForwardThis vs Relay.app

Relay.app is shutting down, so this is less a comparison than a map. Relay.app ran workflows somebody built, with human steps inside them: a run paused, an assignee approved it or filled in a form over Slack or email, and the run carried on. ForwardThis also stops and asks a person, but there is no workflow around the pause. You forward an email, write what you need, and the risky parts are held because of what they are, not because a builder put a gate there. If what you are replacing is a scheduled or webhook-driven flow, Zapier, Make and n8n are the honest destinations. If what you are replacing is the human judgment in the middle of it, read on.

ForwardThis and Relay.app, side by side

Status

Relay.appWinding down. New signups and upgrades are closed
ForwardThisLive, and taking new accounts

How it works

Relay.appYou build a workflow, then put human steps inside it
ForwardThisYou forward an email with instructions. Nothing is built

Who decides to pause

Relay.appThe builder, at design time, one step at a time
ForwardThisThe risk of the action itself, judged for every job

What a pause asks for

Relay.appAn approval, or a form of typed fields, over Slack or email
ForwardThisApproval of the exact words, or of the exact action

Who gets asked

Relay.appAny assignee: a workspace member, an address, a channel
ForwardThisThe person who forwarded the email, and nobody else

Triggers

Relay.appWebhooks, schedules, RSS, batches, manual runs, a mailhook
ForwardThisOne: the email you forward

Pricing unit

Relay.appPer step, with AI credits metered separately
ForwardThisPer action: one email is one action, back-and-forth included

Apps

Relay.appAround 80 native integrations
ForwardThis145+

Undo

Relay.appAn approval can stop a step before it runs
ForwardThisApproval before, and undo for 24 hours after

Taking data out

Relay.appAn export tool for workflows, run history and tables
ForwardThisRaw email held 24 hours, then deleted. No bodies kept

Relay.app pricing and limits checked 5 September 2026.

Which one fits how you work?

Choose Relay.app if

  • You are still inside the wind-down window with runs in flight. Finish the export first; there is nothing to gain from cutting over before the data is out, and Relay.app's own announcement has the deadlines and the export tool.

  • What you actually depended on was a workflow that fires on a schedule or a webhook, with one human step in the middle. ForwardThis has no workflow to put a step inside, so the fair replacements are Zapier, Make or n8n.

  • Your approval step was really a form. Relay.app asked an assignee to type in fields and fed them into the run; ForwardThis only ever asks yes or no to a proposed action.

  • Approvals had to route to other people by name, with due dates, reminders and escalation when they went stale. That was a genuine Relay.app strength, and ForwardThis asks only the person who sent the email.

Choose ForwardThis if

  • The work that mattered arrived as an email anyway, and rebuilding it as a workflow was always the tax on getting it done.

  • You want the approval without the design work. Nobody has to decide in advance which steps deserve a gate, because the decision is made against the action every time.

  • You want a way back as well as a way to stop it: undo for 24 hours on reversible work, after it has already happened.

  • You want to be working today rather than after a migration. There is nothing to rebuild, because there was never anything to build.

What a single forwarded email does

The trigger is the email you forward. There is no editor and nothing to design in advance. This whole job is one email. In Relay.app it would be a workflow you build first, with the approval step placed at design time.

You forward

Marcus Adeyemi

Variation 7 - additional groundworks

Your instructions

Log variation 7 against the Harrow Road job, post it to the site channel, and set a reminder to chase the sign-off on Friday.

  • Asana

    Log variation 7 on the job

    Harrow Road / Variations

  • Slack

    Post it to the site team

    #harrow-road

    Variation 7 on Harrow Road: additional groundworks to the north boundary. Marcus has sent the figures and wants sign-off by Friday.

    Sent after approval

  • Google Calendar

    Set the sign-off chase

    Friday, 9am

You receive a confirmation email once complete, with an undo button that works for 24 hours.

Get started

Setup in 30 seconds.

What is ForwardThis?

ForwardThis is an ops assistant for your inbox. It turns email into action, without the hassle. Compatible with over 145+ of the apps you use every day.

  • Works with any email

    Compatible with any personal or professional email provider. Gmail, Outlook and more.

  • 145+ apps

    Works across all the apps you already use every day. With more being added every month.

  • Setup in seconds

    No complex setup, apps to install or workflows to build. Sign up, forward, done.

  • Secure & private

    ForwardThis only acts on the emails you send it, and no data gets retained after actions have been completed.

Try it with a real email.

Forward any work email to the address below and see what ForwardThis can do. No signup required.

Occasional product emails may follow.

Workflows from this page, ready to run

FAQs

Relay.app is shutting down. What happens to my workflows?
Relay.app has turned off new signups and upgrades, free accounts and their data are being deleted, and paying customers keep access free for a fixed window before it closes. There is an export tool that covers workflows, run history and tables, and annual customers were offered pro-rated refunds. Relay.app's own announcement carries the deadlines and the export link, and it is the source to trust over any third party, this page included.
Is ForwardThis a Relay.app alternative?
No, and it would be dishonest to pitch it as one. Relay.app was a workflow builder with people inside the workflow. ForwardThis has no builder, no schedules and no webhooks. What survives the move is the part where a person checks something before it goes; everything that ran on its own does not.
ForwardThis has approvals too. How are they different?
The difference is who decided there should be a gate. In Relay.app a builder placed an approval step at a chosen point in a workflow and picked the assignee, the message and what happened if it went overdue. In ForwardThis nobody places anything. Every action is checked before it runs, and anything that sends words to other people or cannot be undone is held and shown to you first. Relay.app made you decide in advance where the gate went; ForwardThis decides from the action itself.
Where should my scheduled Relay.app workflows go?
To another workflow builder. Zapier is the broadest and the easiest to move a simple flow into, Make is the cheapest at volume and the closest in feel to a visual canvas, and n8n is the one to pick if self-hosting matters. ForwardThis cannot run any of them, because nothing happens until an email is forwarded.
Can ForwardThis ask somebody else to approve, the way an assignee did?
No. The approval goes back to the person who forwarded the email, on the same thread. There are no assignees, no due dates and no escalation rules. For a job that only needs the sender's own eyes on it that is simpler; for an approval chain across a team it is a real gap, and Relay.app was better at it.
What happens to the email after the job is done?
It is kept for 24 hours so the work can be undone if needed, then deleted. ForwardThis does not keep copies of your email.

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