Private email Providers
Society has become even more dependent on online communications such as email and messaging services and email is one of the most important aspects of our life because our email address is links most of our accounts; it’s what we use to get logins and collect receipts. Access to our email account can give someone access to almost our entire online life. That’s why it’s important to make sure you’re using an email provider that’s private, secure, and not controlled by a big tech giant.
You will find the following free email services such as Gmail or Yahoo! have relatively little to no respect for the privacy of users’ inboxes. This disregard for user privacy is the bread and butter of Google, Yahoo, and other free email services. They earn thousands of pounds through advertisers who want to keep track of individual purchasing habits or to identify potential customers by matching purchasing patterns with advertisements.
Many people just want to move away from big tech giants who have invaded so many aspects of our lives and want to support the alternatives.
If you are concerned with the privacy of your email inbox, switching to a more secure and private email service is the only way to go. However not all of these services are free – that’s because you are paying for a product, instead of being used by the company.
If you weigh the advantages over the cost, you might realize that in the end, your security and privacy you get are worth the price you pay for the service.
Below is a list of top secure and private services who ensure the privacy of your personal information is contained in your email inbox.
A secure email provider based in Switzerland, Proton Mail at the point of this info being published will cost you €3.99 (euros) per month for 15GB storage and ten email addresses or €9.99 (euros) a month for 500GB of storage space and 15 email addresses.
There is also a free version which gives up to 1GB of storage and 1 email address
End-to-end encryption means even employees at the company can’t see the contents of your emails.
Proton Mail’s other features include IP address stripping, email encryption at rest on Swiss servers, support for mobile devices, compatibility with email clients, and support for open-source Android apps.
Keep in mind, Proton Mail doesn’t encrypt email subject lines.
Mailfence is based in Belgium and offers several features including calendar and contact management, file storage and, more importantly, PGP encryption for emails.
It also has a reliable email and phone support as well as support for cryptocurrency. As a paid email service, Mailfence provide UK data storage.
Other features of Mailfence include full OpenPGP encryption support, and SMTP/POP/IMAP support.
This company is run by a small team of privacy enthusiasts based in Germany, Tutanota offers a secure email service without sacrificing its intuitive and user-friendly user interface.
Tutanota is an affordable and is a wise choice for those who want encrypted email on a budget of just €1 (euro) a month for a 1GB storage and one user or for €4 (euros) a month you get two users and 10GB of storage.
The free plan also gives 1GB of space.
Tutanota uses its encryption standard that incorporates AES and RSA. As such it encrypts the subject line of the email as well – but does not support PGP, IMAP, POP, or SMTP, meaning you can’t connect it to an alternative email client.
Runbox is based in Norway and has been in operation for over 20 years.
This email service fully supports SMTP, POP, and IMAP protocols, meaning it also supports third-party email clients. This is great if you just want an easy to use service that’s cheap and not Gmail.
However, Runbox does not have its own mobile or desktop apps as of yet and doesn’t offer end to end encryption.
Other features of Runbox include IP address stripping, GDPR compliance, basic file storage, and strong data protection in Norway.
Runbox starts at $19.95 per year.
This is another Germany-based email provider, which also provides a high level of privacy and security for its users.
What sets this email provider apart from others is the fact that it does not support custom domains, has no spam folder (it just reject emails it thinks is spam) and has no trial or free mode.
When it comes to privacy, Posteo strips IP addresses from email and does not keep email logs. The service also offers a high level of encryption standards.
Posteo starts at €1 per month.
From the same company that built the Netherlands-based private search engine, Startpage. StartMail allows users to employ PGP encryption while emails are encrypted at rest on its servers located in the Netherlands.
One notable feature of StartMail is that it allows users to create temporary, disposable email addresses “on the fly.”
StartMail also says it keep as little data of its users as possible and it handles encryption on the server-side rather than on the browser.
The service accepts cryptocurrency payments, supports IMAP and SMTP support, and strips IP addresses.
StartMail is $59.95 per year and allows unlimited aliases.
This is a is very affordable private email provider based in Germany. Its basic plan start at €1 per month and offers 2GB of storage.
They also offers a full email and productivity suite, with tons of features as well, a calendar, address book, basic cloud storage, spreadsheets, office documents, presentations, among more productivity functionality.
When it comes to encryption, mailbox.org fully supports PGP encryption. It also supports mobile apps and third-party email integrations but has no app of its own.
A Swedish company operating for over 10 years, CounterMail is a secure email provider.
It uses OpenPGP encryption, boasting 4,096-bit encryption keys. It maintains no-logs and has diskless servers that it says can effectively protect user privacy.
CounterMail allows anonymous email headers.
It strips the sender’s IP address as well. Additionally, emails and attachments are stored at rest and encrypted with the use of OpenPGP.
CounterMail starts from $4.83 per month.
Another full-featured email provider is Kolab Now. Based in Switzerland, this email provider is best suited for business users and privacy-focused teams, more than individuals.
A subscription to the email service includes email, contacts, calendar, scheduling, collaboration/sharing tools, and cloud file storage.
Kolab Now is also a bit pricey considering that it lacks end-to-end encryption features but it does have more productivity and sharing abilities.
Other features of Kolab Now include cryptocurrency payments, fully supports POP, SMTP, and IMAP, and has full email suites as some of its strongest pros.
Kolab Now is CHF 5.00 (around $5.50) per month.
For those who want a basic email service with lots of storage space, Soverin could be a good option. Soverin is a basic and private email platform that stores its data on servers located in Germany. The company is based in Netherlands. It strips IP addresses from headers and also uses strong encryption standards.
Soverin offers 25 GB of storage for all its plans and email date are protected by the Dutch privacy laws and GDPR. It can also be used with third-party email clients.
Other features of Soverin include strong data protection under Dutch privacy laws, 25GB of storage for all subscription plans and it can be used with third-party email clients. Its downside includes the lack of mobile apps support, it is not open source and has no built-in encryption option.
Soverin starts at € 3.25 per month (around 3.88 USD)