Mailforge, part of the Salesforge stack, sells cold email mailboxes on distributed shared-IP infrastructure. It is one of the cheapest ways to get a large number of sending mailboxes live, and the reason it is cheap is structural rather than promotional: you send from a pool shared with other customers.
Whether that is a good trade depends almost entirely on your volume and your list quality, and the honest answer is that for some teams it genuinely is.
A note on prices. Every figure here was checked in September 2026 and infrastructure vendors change tiers often. Treat these as the shape of each offer rather than a live price list, and confirm the current number before you commit.
What you get
| Mailforge | |
|---|---|
| Model | Shared IP pool, distributed infrastructure |
| Dedicated IP | Not offered |
| Price per mailbox | From about $3 monthly, around $2 on annual billing |
| Minimum order | 10 mailbox slots |
| Domains | Around $14 a year each |
| Warmup | Through the wider Salesforge stack |
| Sending platform | Not included, sequencing is a separate product |
The pooling trade, stated fairly
Most content on this subject treats shared IPs as an unambiguous downside. They are not. Below roughly 1,500 to 2,000 sends per IP per month, a well-behaved pool outperforms a dedicated IP, because a dedicated IP with thin traffic gives filters too little signal to form a view. The threshold is the whole argument.
So for a team sending a few hundred emails a day, pooling is not the compromise; it is the technically correct choice.
The real question is a different one: what kind of pool? The distinction that matters is not shared versus dedicated, it is managed versus unmanaged. A pool with entry vetting, enforced ramps, complaint monitoring and rotation behaves like infrastructure. An open-enrolment pool where anyone can buy ten slots and upload a purchased list behaves like a lottery, and the ticket is your placement.
With any low-cost pooled provider, that is the question to ask before the price question. It is also the one thing you cannot audit from outside.
Where the cost actually lands
The sticker price is not the total. Mailforge sells infrastructure; sequencing, lead data and reply handling are separate purchases within or beyond the Salesforge stack. At 100 mailboxes the mailbox line is $200 to $300 a month, and the sequencer, lead data and inbox sit on top of it.
That is a legitimate way to buy, some teams want infrastructure decoupled from their sending platform, particularly agencies who have already standardised on a sequencer. It is worth pricing the whole stack rather than the mailbox line, because the mailbox line is usually the smallest part of it.
Who Mailforge suits
- First-time cold email at low volume. Ten slots, low monthly cost, no infrastructure knowledge required. This is a genuinely reasonable place to start.
- Teams already inside the Salesforge stack, where warmup and sequencing are already paid for.
- Anyone whose complaint rate is likely to be high and who would rather not put that on their own IP. This is an uncomfortable thing to say out loud, but it is a real reason people choose pools, and it is also the reason to care what kind of pool you are joining.
Who should look elsewhere
- Anyone past about 2,000 sends per IP per month. Above the threshold, pooled reputation becomes the constraint rather than the safety net.
- Agencies running multiple clients. One client’s purchased list on a shared pool can degrade placement for every other client. Per-client isolation is the product you are selling; a shared pool undermines it.
- Teams who need to debug placement. On a pool, a placement drop has no traceable cause you can act on. That is the hidden cost, and it shows up exactly when it is expensive.
- Anyone who would rather buy one thing. If infrastructure, sequencing, lead data and reply handling arriving on four invoices sounds like overhead, it is.
The verdict
Mailforge is honestly priced for what it is: shared-pool infrastructure at close to the floor of the market, with a 10-slot minimum that makes it easy to start. If you are below the volume threshold and you can satisfy yourself that the pool is managed rather than open, it is a defensible choice.
Above the threshold, or if reputation isolation is something you need to be able to point at, the calculation changes, and the right comparison is not pool versus pool but whether you want the option to move to a dedicated IP without changing vendors. Mailboundry prices both: vetted managed pools from $0.80 and dedicated IPs from $1.30, with the sending platform included rather than sold alongside.
Next: all six providers priced side by side, the volume threshold in detail, or the head-to-head comparison.
Frequently asked questions
What does Mailforge cost?
From about $3 per mailbox per month, or around $2 on annual billing, with a 10-mailbox-slot minimum and domains at roughly $14 a year. Sequencing, lead data and reply handling are separate purchases. Confirm current pricing before committing.
Does Mailforge offer dedicated IPs?
No. All sending is from a shared pool distributed across its infrastructure. If reputation isolation matters to you, that is the structural limit of the product.
Is a shared IP pool bad for cold email?
Not below about 1,500 to 2,000 sends per IP per month, under that, a well-managed pool beats a dedicated IP because a thin-traffic dedicated IP gives filters too little signal. The question that matters is whether the pool is vetted and monitored or open-enrolment.
Who should not use Mailforge?
Teams past the volume threshold, agencies who need per-client reputation isolation, and anyone who needs to be able to trace a placement drop to a cause.
What is the main alternative?
Any provider that prices both models so you can move as your volume grows. Mailboundry offers vetted managed pools from $0.80 and dedicated IPs from $1.30 with the sending platform included.