The U.S. Postal Service delivered 128.9 billion pieces of mail in 2021. With 66.2 billion of these being marketing mail (i.e., junk mail), it’s not hard to see why many businesses are turning to virtual mailbox services.
Virtual mailbox services help cut through the noise, helping businesses sort the good mail from the junk, and keeping physical mail off your desk. These services receive your physical postal mail items and digitize them via mail scanning so you can view your mail online in a digital mailbox.
For businesses without a brick-and-mortar address, this service is a popular and powerful way to deal with mail items — but also to get a real street address that customers can interact with.
iPostal1 is a popular choice in this market, but it doesn’t offer the right mix of features, locations, and price for everyone. We’ve collected eight great alternatives for your consideration if you’re looking for something different.
With so many services to choose from for your virtual address and mail needs, it can be tough to narrow the field down to the very best virtual mailbox. Look for these five elements to help you in your search.
Virtual address services vary in the number and quality of locations available. Look for a solution that offers desirable addresses in strategic locations.
Also consider whether you want the option to walk in and pick up packages. If that matters for your business, you’ll need to select a virtual mail service with a location within a reasonable distance of your actual physical location.
Having a virtual address isn’t enough: You also need a way to handle the mail that gets sent to it. Check into a provider’s capabilities here, as well as how much of each is included in your monthly rate — and how much you might end up paying in overage fees if you choose a limited plan.
The software experience is one of the biggest differentiators you’ll find. If you think about how virtual mailboxes work, at the center is your ability to view and manage mail from your computer or smartphone. The software platform provided by your vendor can make this an incredibly smooth process — or a convoluted, frustrating one.
Are you using other digital tools that connect to mail (whether sent or received), billing, or record keeping? You may want your virtual mailbox to integrate with some of those tools to give you greater automation potential.
Be aware that some virtual mailbox providers have already created extensive integrations with many popular tools, while others have no prebuilt integrations whatsoever.
Your virtual mailbox partner will regularly see potentially sensitive business information, so it’s vital to pick one that takes adequate steps to protect your data and privacy.
This is even more important if you’re in a field such as healthcare, where patient data is regulated and protected under HIPAA.
Stable is one of the best corporate mailing and virtual mailbox solutions on the market today. It’s intuitive and easy to use, and businesses can get up and running in just three minutes. With a virtual mailing address, mail forwarding service, opening, scanning, processing, shredding, and more, Stable takes the hassle out of business mail.
Stable’s software does more and does it better, offering the standard viewing and processing of mail along with automation, powerful search, tagging, customizable notifications, and an API and webhooks for further tech expansion.
Stable’s five locations are all prestigious U.S. cities, including New York, San Francisco, and Delaware. However, Stable also offers registered agent services in all 50 states.
Users on the Scale and Enterprise plans can access a deep roster of integrations to leading tools, including Slack, Zapier, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Notion, Outlook, and more.
Stable’s Grow plan is $49 per month, while the Scale plan is $89 per month. Enterprise plans are also available. While you’ll find other services with a lower base rate, Stable includes many features as standard that others charge for: unlimited business recipients, free mail scanning, and unlimited incoming mail just to name a few.
Earth Class Mail (now a subsidiary of Legalzoom) is a longstanding business offering virtual mailbox services. Since 2004, the company has offered a virtual mail service that intakes and processes all mail at a secure Earth Class facility.
Online access and check deposits are standard with Earth Class, as is a higher commitment to security. Earth Class prioritizes paperless but, like others, allows you to consolidate the mail you need to physically handle yourself and then forward that mail to your physical location.
Earth Class offers over 80 address options, all in the U.S. Note that the lowest price tiers do not give you access to those 80 addresses but instead require you to use Earth Class’s central location in Beaverton, Oregon.
Earth Class Mail delivers quality integrations that interface with many common services, including bill.com, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Intuit Quickbooks, and Xero.
Earth Class offers MailBox plans for individuals and smaller businesses. The lowest two tiers, $19 or $29 per month, are limited to the Beaverton, Oregon, address. Premium MailBox ($79/month) gives more than 80 address options.
Also available are Startup MailRoom at $139/month and Business MailRoom at $229/month. These include more pieces of mail per month.
VirtualPostMail offers a permanent mailbox address, check depositing, package forwarding, and free registered agent service. The business is known for its reliability and intuitive, well-built software interface.
VirtualPostMail also offers virtual assistant services and a leased physical address service. This can empower your business to open bank accounts and do other crucial tasks that require proof of address.
While VirtualPostMail’s capabilities are above average, it offers just four addresses — and none are particularly prestigious.
VirtualPostMail offers a Zapier integration.
Virtual Mailbox Address plans range from $20 to $90 per month, with the main delineator being the number of scans per month. All but the lowest tier offer unlimited incoming mail.
VirtualPostMail also offers TruLease: a leased physical U.S. business address allowing businesses to open bank accounts, sell on Amazon, and more. This starts at $1200 annually and includes a full virtual mailbox service.
Anytime Mailbox is one of the largest and most well-known virtual mailbox providers. Their global footprint is impressive, and you’ll find all the conventional elements here: scanning, opening, forwarding, recycling, local pickup, and (sometimes) check deposit.
With a wide range of variable plans and such an extensive network, chances are Anytime Mailbox has a location near you and a plan that more or less suits your needs.
Be aware of how Anytime Mailbox can boast such a large network. Many of its locations are not owned or operated by Anytime Mailbox — they’re third parties. This means that not every location is equipped to offer every feature or service. Several locations do not offer check cashing, despite this being a headline feature for the brand.
No integrations are advertised, but Anytime Mailbox does offer its own API. Tech-savvy businesses can incorporate Anytime Mailbox into their existing tech stack.
Pricing at Anytime Mailbox starts at just $4.99 per month, but that introductory rate isn’t enough for most businesses because the pricing structure is opaque. Every location is different: One South Carolina location ranged from $9.99 to $69.99/month, while an upscale New York address on 5th Ave runs between $29.99 and $99.99/month.
Physical Address is known for its excellent customer service and hands-on approach where it manages and staffs every single address. Some other services rely on third-party locations, which can lead to varying quality and vastly different experiences depending on your chosen address.
Beyond this key differentiator, Physical Address includes virtual storage, shredding, and registered agent services in its monthly rate, along with monthly pickup.
Staffing and managing locations can be costly, which may be part of why Physical Address has kept its footprint small. There are only eight locations, most in major markets like Las Vegas, Atlanta, Dallas, Orlando, Laguna Beach, and Manhattan.
Evernote is the only integration advertised by Physical Address.
Plans range from around $8 to around $27 monthly for the company’s Boise, Idaho, location. The biggest cost determiner is the number of envelope scans and content scans you need, with 30/10 at the low end and 200/100 at the high end.
If you choose an address other than Boise, prices will scale upward. A prestige address on Wall Street takes that $8 plan up to $20, for example.
PostScan Mail is another virtual mailbox service offering the standard fare (including viewing, scanning, forwarding, and shredding/recycling). Beyond those basics, PostScan offers its users some unique capabilities.
If you’d like more than one employee to have access, PostScan offers multiple user access at no extra charge. Unlimited cloud storage for your scanned mail is another nice touch. You can also physically walk into your local PostScan location to pick up packages or mail delivery.
PostScan seems to be in the middle of the pack in terms of U.S. locations: it has a presence in 47 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. It’s also one of the few firms with international locations, including six locations in Canada and a handful in other international hubs.
PostScan Mail does not appear to offer any integrations with other tools.
PostScan Mail’s plans initially seem attractive and affordable at $10 to $30 per month. However, with surprisingly low limits on total incoming mail, opening, and scanning, that initial low price point is not realistic. Overage fees are almost a guarantee. Worse, features that most competitors include in the monthly rate cost extra here (including mail forwarding and mail shredding).
Traveling Mailbox is another virtual mailbox service worth a look. It’s especially appealing to businesses that need HIPAA compliance, as it’s one of the few that advertises being a HIPAA-compliant mailbox.
Plans offer increasing numbers of incoming envelopes, page scans, and mailbox recipients as you ascend the price tiers. All plans offer free mail shredding and unlimited cloud storage, and junk mail doesn’t count toward your limits.
Traveling Mailbox integrates with Evernote, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive.
Plans range from $15 to $55 a month for small businesses. Enterprise plans start at $99 per month.
US Global Mail is a Houston-based virtual mailbox for businesses, and it also offers virtual address services. US Global Mail prides itself on eco-friendly elements like aggressive recycling initiatives, and it even plants a tree for every new user.
All the expected basic functions are here, including Interior scanning, recycling, junk mail filtering, and rebundling for shipping.
US Global Mail offers just 25 locations scattered across the U.S.
US Global Mail does not offer any first-party integrations.
Most business plans are $34.95 per month, with a small discount for annual plans. Their prestigious Bay Area address is $39.95.
But those rates come with some big caveats: Interior document scans are not included in this price, nor are bundling letters or items. Even picking up items yourself at a US Global Mail warehouse costs you extra.
Choosing the right virtual mailbox provider can seem daunting. So can whatever comes next: setting up your system to work with that provider is even more complex.
But not when you choose Stable.
Stable’s advanced tools and dedicated customer success agents help you set up your virtual mailbox in just three minutes. We cut out the complexity so you can get back to growing your business.
Ready to secure your virtual mailbox in minutes, not days? Get started with Stable now!
