Why you possibly can belief TechRadar
We spend hours testing each services or products we overview, so that you may be positive you’re shopping for the perfect. Find out more about how we test.
Mailfence relies in Belgium, which is an effective begin for any secure email provider – the nation is famed for its strict information safety laws.
And should you go for Mailfence, you don’t simply get safe electronic mail – there’s a messaging device, cloud storage module and calendar, too.
That marks this product out as an incredible different to standard electronic mail suppliers like Gmail and Outlook, and locations Mailfence in competitors with eager rivals like Proton and Mailbox.org, which additionally provide further instruments and skills alongside their core electronic mail providing.
Mailfence: Plans and pricing
Mailfence instantly outpaces Mailbox.org and squares as much as Proton by providing a free product – one thing that Mailbox.org doesn’t present.
The free tier on Mailfence delivers end-to-end encryption, entry to Mailfence’s Android and iOS apps and internet consumer, and one electronic mail deal with with 500MB of electronic mail house and 500MB of cloud document storage. That’s nice, however with Proton your free account consists of 1GB of electronic mail storage and 5GB of cloud storage capability.
Mailfence’s base package deal prices €2.50/$2.75/£2.10 monthly and gives 5GB of electronic mail house, 6GB of cloud storage and 10 aliases, and the entry-level product prices €3.50/$3.85/£2.95 and gives 10GB of electronic mail house and 30GB of storage.
At this degree, you additionally unluck POP, IMAP, SMTP and ActiveSync compatibility, so you should use Mailfence together with your favored electronic mail consumer, and you may get person administration and customized electronic mail domains – ideally suited for smaller organizations.
These costs are wonderful: Proton’s Mail Plus and Proton Limitless packages present extra storage however they’re dearer, and Mailbox.org is a bit more expensive, too.
Mailfence’s enterprise tiers are designated as Entry, Professional and Extremely. The Entry product is identical because the €3.50/$3.85/£2.95 product from the private plans.
The Professional product prices €9.50/$10.45/£7.99 and upgrades the storage and permits 100 aliases. It additionally provides phone assist. And the Extremely plan, which prices €29/$31.90/£24.40 month-to-month, provides a great deal of further storage and 200 aliases.
Customized enterprise plans may be constructed on request, too, with customized logos, domains, instruments, integrations and safety necessities, and Mailfence helps cryptocurrency funds.
Mailfence: Options
Mailfence makes use of end-to-end encryption with OpenPGP, with keys saved on Mailfence servers protected by AES-256 encryption. The service consists of an built-in keystore. All connections to Mailfence servers are encrypted with SSL/TLS for each internet companies and IMAP/POP/SMTP entry, and completely different third-party shoppers can use completely different passwords. TLS is used for outgoing SMTP messages.
Elsewhere, there’s digital signature assist, you possibly can ship password-encrypted messages and emails to non-Mailfence customers with symmetric encryption – which suggests the unlocking key’s by no means shared on Mailfence’s back-end methods
Reliance on PFS means no earlier communications may be accessed if there’s a breach, and the MTA-STS and DANE encryption strategies be certain that incoming mail is encrypted, too. The service helps two-factor authentication.
And, lastly, Mailfence additionally deploys IP stripping to make sure that your IP deal with is rarely connected to your messages.
Relating to safety that’s a robust begin, however Mailfence isn’t with out its flaws on this space. The service might strip your IP deal with from outgoing messages, however Mailfence does acquire and retailer IP addresses, sender and recipient addresses, timestamps, nations and another small items of data.
That is finished to make sure that Mailfence complies with Belgian legislation and Mailfence can inform customers if its companies are legally compromised. And whereas Mailfence maintains a “warrant canary” system and publishes transparency stories, this information storage might elevate eyebrows for customers who’re significantly cautious about privateness.
Moreover, whereas Mailfence makes use of plenty of open-source encryption and cryptographic strategies in its methods, the system’s software program and apps will not be open-source. Mailfence has mentioned they intend to open supply their code sooner or later, but it surely’s not occurred but.
Elsewhere, Mailfence deploys a helpful calendar which you could share securely with others, password-protected doc storage with fundamental modifying skills, and the contact module lets you construct safe teams for sharing delicate data between explicit individuals.
Mailfence: Interface and in use
Mailfence may need an affordable set of options, however its interface is a little bit outdated and clunky – even whether it is moderately practical.
On the principle display you’ll discover a calendar on the left, your account data on the correct and entry to your inbox, paperwork, contacts and different modules on the high. Head to the inbox, and also you’ll discover a typical three-pane show. You should use gentle or darkish modes, however that’s it for personalization.
Fortunately there are simple Android and iOS apps, and an affordable cellular interface, however no desktop consumer.
Mailfence: Help
Each Mailfence person will get entry to electronic mail assist, together with these on the free plan, however individuals on pricier plans – just like the Professional and Extremely plans – are prioritized. All paid plans get entry to cellphone assist, and the enterprise is energetic on Reddit and has an in depth data base on its web site.
Mailfence’s standard response time is inside 24 hours, and there’s loads of documentation on-line too. Apart from reside chat, it’s a really complete providing.
The competitors
Proton and Mailbox.org are two of Mailfence’s largest rivals. And whereas each are dearer than Mailfence, the distinction isn’t that large. They’re arguably extra dependable by way of safety resulting from Mailfence’s data retention and open-source state of affairs.
Elsewhere, Proton goes additional with its VPN and password manager function, whereas Mailbox.org gives extra workplace skills.
Mailfence does struggle again with its enterprise choices – get in contact with them, and so they’ll construct you an entire, custom-made answer.
Closing verdict
That’s a boon, Mailfence is reasonably priced, and regardless of our queries, it nonetheless gives good electronic mail safety. So should you’re budget-conscious and also you’re proud of the safety compromises concerned, then Mailfence is an effective possibility.
That mentioned, its rivals have extra sturdy safety and extra options, so it’s value investigating these should you’ve received some more money to spend.