Free email account services like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo do not offer the most secure email services. They do not prioritise your privacy and none encrypt your messages end-to-end.
And if your government chooses to snoop via your email, none of these three businesses will object.
Fortunately, there are several alternatives available.
What Are Secure Email Providers?
Your email account and the contents of your emails are kept secure by features offered by a secure email provider.
Usually, end-to-end encryption is used to accomplish this. End-to-end encryption refers to the encryption of an email from sender to recipient during the whole transmission process.
Why Do You Need a Secure Email Provider?
For most people, a secure email provider probably isn’t necessary. But if you are a journalist, activist or someone who wants to be extra confident that the messages you send and receive are protected, check out the email services below. These services keep emails private, secure, and encrypted.
1. ProtonMail
Started in 2013 by CERN scientists in privacy-friendly Switzerland, ProtonMail is the most well-known secure email provider.
It offers end-to-end asymmetric encryption and is open source. If you send fewer than 150 messages daily and don’t require a lot of storage, ProtonMail is free to use.
Because ProtonMail is so safe, if you lose your password, it cannot retrieve your emails. The service doesn’t have a way to decrypt emails without your password or a recovery account on file because the decryption happens when you log in.
Your IP address is also not stored by ProtonMail. Emails sent using a no-log email service like ProtonMail cannot be used to identify you.
ProtonMail also offers a mobile app for Android and iOS.
ProtonMail Pricing: Free plan offers 1GB of storage and up to 150 messages/day; paid plans start at €3.99/month (billed annually) for 15GB of storage for unlimited messages.
2. Tutanota
Germany-based Tutanota’s layout and degree of security are comparable to those of ProtonMail. All emails sent and received using Tutanota are encrypted and then decrypted on the recipient’s end. Other people cannot access the private encryption key.
Additionally, Tutanota encrypts the subject line, sender, and recipient identities. To keep you safe, IP addresses and emails are removed from the heading metadata. There is a stringent no-logs policy as well, but Tutanta’s otherwise impeccable reputation is marred by Germany’s membership in the Fourteen Eyes intelligence alliance.
Tutanota Pricing: Free for up to 1GB of storage; €1/month (billed annually) to unlock premium features like custom domains and filters.
3. Posteo
German-based Posteo offers secure email services, and because it enables anonymous registration and payment, it is well-liked by journalists and activists who need to maintain their anonymity.
Your data is encrypted by Posteo both in transit and at rest. You can choose to enable end-to-end encryption even though Posteo doesn’t do so by default. You can use Posteo with an email client like Outlook because POP and IMAP are supported.
Posteo Pricing: €1/month for 2GB of storage. Posteo doesn’t offer free service.
4. Mailbox.org
Mailbox.org is designed for corporate users searching for an alternative to Google or Microsoft products. In addition to email, it provides video conferencing, secure cloud storage, an address book, a calendar, and a task list.
This email service provider employs PGP encryption, a widely used public-key encryption tool.
Although there is no free plan, Mailbbox.org is reasonably priced. You can sign up for the service and pay for it anonymously. Additionally, Mailbox.org takes pleasure in using renewable energy.
To show its dedication to privacy, Mailfence donates 15% of the money from its Pro plan subscribers’ subscription fees to the European Digital Rights Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, both of which work to defend free expression online and digital privacy.
Mailbox.org Pricing: €1/month for 2 GB mail storage, no cloud storage. €3/month for 10 GB mail storage and 5 GB cloud storage. €9/month for 25 GB mail storage and 50 GB cloud storage
5. Mailfence
Based in Belgium, Mailfence is a secure email provider offering end-to-end encryption and two-factor authentication. It offers a 500 MB storage space free plan.
Digital signatures are available and OpenPGP encryption is used by Mailfence. It has a password manager as well.
Although it doesn’t guarantee the highest level of security, it does include a variety of workplace functions including calendars and chat. Mailfence is a good option for those who have been using Gmail or Outlook and want something more secure with a comparable degree of usefulness.
Mailfence Pricing: Free for up to 500 MB of emails and 500 MB of documents. €2.50/month for 5 GB of emails and 12 GB of documents.
