crackthe.netPrivate email providers compared
Email providers that put privacy first, as they describe themselves: how far their encryption goes, the company and its country, free plan, and open source.
A VPN hides your connection, not your mailbox. An ordinary email provider can read every message that is not end-to-end encrypted. So can the provider of the person you write to. The providers below say that they put privacy first. How far their encryption goes differs, as their own words show.
- Company
Hush Communications Canada Inc., Canada- Free plan
- no
- Money back
- 60 days
- Open source
- no
- Apps
- web app, iOS
- Encryption per email: “To encrypt an email, just click the toggle.”
- Encrypted email and e-signable forms, mainly for healthcare, legal, and small-business use; also offered for personal use.
- No free plan listed; its website offers a 14-day free trial of the healthcare plan. Servers in Vancouver and Calgary, Canada, according to its privacy policy.
- Company
Heinlein Hosting GmbH, Germany- Free plan
- no
- Free trial
- 30 days
- Open source
- partly
- Apps
- web app
- “End-to-end encryption with PGP and S/MIME and storage in our data centres in Berlin.”
- Names BSI C5 and ISO 27001 certifications.
- No free plan; every plan can be tried free for 30 days.
Posteo
In its own words: “Posteo: Green, Secure, Ad-free”
- Company
- Posteo e.K., Germany
- Free plan
- no
- Open source
- partly
- Apps
- web app
- Encrypts all email data, including content, attachments, and metadata, and names an external security audit by Cure53.
- Sign-up without name or address: “You do not have to enter any personal information during signup.”
- One account for 1 euro a month; no free accounts.
- Company
Proton AG, Switzerland- Free plan
- yes
- Money back
- 30 days
- Open source
- yes
- Apps
- web app, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android
- End-to-end and zero-access encryption: “Zero-access encryption means we never see your inbox, on any plan.”
- A free plan: “Proton Mail will always offer a free secure email plan.”
- Run by Proton AG, which says it is incorporated and headquartered in Switzerland; the same company runs Proton VPN.
- Company
- Tutao GmbH, Germany
- Free plan
- yes
- Open source
- yes
- Apps
- web app, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android
- “All data in Tuta is stored end-to-end encrypted on our own servers in ISO 27001 certified data centers in Germany.”
- Quantum-safe encryption: Tuta says it replaced RSA with x25519 and Kyber-1024.
- A free plan: “Tuta Mail will be free, forever.” All apps are open source.
