Email Providers
Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook seem to dominate the email world, but none of them take your privacy seriously. Gmail gives third parties access to information inside your account and they even have the ability to target ads to you based on what’s inside your inbox. Look to the options below for privacy respecting email providers.
We have categorized emails providers based on threat model needs. End-to-End Encrypted meaning the most hardened of options offering end-to-end encyption and giving the user control of the encryption keys. Ad-Free/Private meaning email providers who do not access your emails for data, tracking you, or display ads as part of their service.
Use Instead Of: Gmail, Hotmail, Office 365, Yahoo.
End-to-End Encrypted
Proton Mail -
Free+
ProtonMail is a Swiss-based email service with no advertising and maximum possible privacy for its users, funded entirely by donations and subscriptions. The basic account is free, with paid-for accounts that have more features and storage.
StartMail -
$29.99/year
StartMail is a privacy-first email service from the founders of Startpage.com, based in the Netherlands. StartMail allows users to remain completely anonymous. The service is ad-free, doesn’t track your activity and accepts anonymous payment methods such as bitcoin. There’s a 7-day free trial.
Tutanota -
Free+
Tutanota is an encrypted email and calendar service based in Germany, with no advertising and the emphasis on privacy. The basic account is free, with paid-for accounts that have more features and storage. They also have their own apps for Android and iPhone.
Mailbox.org -
€12/year
Run by a German family business, mailbox.org offers email, online file storage and online office features such as calendars. There’s a one month free trial.
Ad-Free/Private
Fastmail -
$30/year
Fastmail is an Australian company that offers private email funded entirely by its users, with no advertising or tracking. There’s a free trial, after which accounts cost various different prices for different features and amounts of storage space.
Soverin -
€29/year
Soverin is based in the Netherlands and offers privacy-oriented email including custom domain name and optional web page too.
Email Aliases
SimpleLogin -
Free+
SimpleLogin allows you to creast email aliases utilizing a different identity for each website. Defend against spams, phishing and data breaches. This project is open-source and can be self-hosted.
AnonAddy -
Free+
AnonAddy is an open-source Anonymous Email Forwarding service allowing users to create unlimited email aliases for free. This can be self-hosted.
Email Provider Criteria
Location/Jurisdiction
Ad-Free/Private - Anywhere in the world.
End-to-End Encrypted - Outside of the US and the five-eyes.
Encryption
Ad-Free/Private - Emails must be stored on encrypted disks.
End-to-End Encrypted - Must encrypt at rest with zero-access. User must control encryption keys.
Privacy
Ad-Free/Private - Company does not read or use email content for ads or any other reason.
End-to-End Encrypted - Company has zero-access to email content. All emails are stored encrypted at rest, and are E2EE.
