ForwardThis vs SaneBox
If you came here for a SaneBox alternative, ForwardThis is probably not one. SaneBox reduces what reaches you: it sorts incoming mail by importance, files the unimportant into SaneLater, and rounds it up in a daily Digest. ForwardThis does nothing about volume. It acts on the mail you keep, and only when you forward it, turning one email and a short instruction into the CRM entry, the filed document or the task. That makes them complements far more than substitutes, and plenty of people should run both.
ForwardThis and SaneBox, side by side
How it works
What you get
Reduces the volume
Sending work onward
Sees your email
Runs without you
Pricing unit
Free plan
Paid from
Apps
Email providers
Safety net
SaneBox pricing and limits checked 5 September 2026.
Which one fits how you work?
Choose SaneBox if
Volume is the problem. SaneBox reads the headers of everything arriving and files the unimportant out of sight, and it reports that its users spend three to four hours less a week on email.
You want senders gone rather than sorted. SaneBlackHole takes a sender out of the inbox for good, and the daily Digest still shows what was filtered so nothing vanishes silently.
You want triage running on its own, on everything. ForwardThis only ever touches the emails you choose to forward, so it will never rescue an inbox you have stopped reading.
Your mail lives on Exchange, ActiveSync or a plain IMAP server. SaneBox covers all of them, which most inbox tools do not.
Choose ForwardThis if
The filtering already works and the admin is still there. The emails that survive triage are precisely the ones that create a CRM entry, a filed document, a task and a bill.
SaneFwd and SaneAttachments get close and stop short. A copy of the message in Todoist is still a copy of the message, and an attachment swept into Dropbox by a size rule lands under a filename pattern, not in the supplier folder this particular job belongs to.
You would rather not hand over the mailbox. SaneBox needs standing access to sort mail as it arrives, and ForwardThis sees only the one message you send it.
You want every feature without picking a tier. SaneBox gates Power Tools by plan; on ForwardThis the free plan has all of them and the price is about how much work you send.
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.
Ardleigh Timber
Price list update from 1 November
ardleigh-pricelist-nov.pdf
Your instructions
Save the new price list under Ardleigh, note the 6 percent rise on their record, and remind me to requote the Bexley job before the end of the month.
Box
Save ardleigh-pricelist-nov.pdf
Suppliers / Ardleigh Timber
Capsule
Note the 6 percent rise
Ardleigh Timber
TickTick
Set the requote reminder
Friday 30 October
You receive a confirmation email once complete, with an undo button that works for 24 hours.
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.
FAQs
- Is ForwardThis a SaneBox alternative?
- No. Sorting incoming mail by importance, blackholing senders and digesting the rest is SaneBox's job, and ForwardThis does none of it. It is worth reading on only if the real complaint is not how much mail arrives but how much work each kept email creates.
- Can I use both?
- Yes, and they never collide. SaneBox works on mail before you read it and ForwardThis works after you have read it, so there is no shared job to fight over. The usual pattern is to let SaneBox decide what reaches the inbox, then forward the few that create real work.
- How is this different from SaneFwd and SaneAttachments?
- Both are standing rules, and both hand the raw material to another app rather than doing the work in it. SaneFwd bolts automatic forwarding onto a training folder, so anything filed there is copied on to an approved address such as Todoist, Asana or an accountant, and what arrives is the email. SaneAttachments sweeps attachments over a size floor into Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive or Evernote under a filename pattern you set once. ForwardThis is neither a rule nor a copy: one message, forwarded on purpose, with an instruction on top, and what happens at the other end is the outcome. The bill drafted against the right supplier. The note on the right record. The price list in the folder that supplier's paperwork actually lives in.
- Will ForwardThis reduce how much email I get?
- No. It has no view of your inbox, so it cannot filter, unsubscribe, snooze or blackhole anything. Volume is a real problem and it is SaneBox's problem, not this one. ForwardThis reduces the work that the mail you keep leaves behind.
- How does the pricing compare?
- SaneBox is per mailbox with features tiered by plan: Snack is $9.49 a month or $65 a year for one account and two Power Tools, Lunch is $15.99 a month or $109 a year for two accounts and six, and Dinner is $42.99 a month or $319 a year for four accounts and the lot. There is a 7-day free trial and no standing free tier. ForwardThis is per action for the whole account: 10 actions a month free with every feature, then $15 a month for 100. One forwarded email is one action however many apps it touches.
- Does ForwardThis need access to my inbox like SaneBox does?
- No, and the difference is structural rather than a matter of who is more careful. SaneBox has to see everything arriving, because triage is impossible otherwise, and it is straightforward about the boundaries it keeps: headers are what it reads to sort, message bodies are retrieved only for optional features and are never stored. ForwardThis has no connection to your mailbox at all. The only email it sees is the one you forward, and the email is deleted within 24 hours of the work being done.