2017 RANKING & REVIEWS
TOP RANKING BEST SECURE EMAIL SERVICES
Who Can Really See Your Emails?
We live in a world that is inundated with emails and overflowing inboxes on a daily basis. Not all of us are sending private or sensitive data across the internet, but even the most innocent emails can present a problem for users. How can you make email secure in today’s technology age?
Secure email providers are attempting to put a stop to data mining.
Many of the free email services on the internet today are making a profit by selling your information to advertisers or just flipping through to sell you on more targeted advertisements. Fortunately, there is a way to secure mail so that only you and your intended recipients can access it.
Award Emblem: Top 6 Best Secure Email Providers
Whether you want to prevent hackers and attackers from seeing your information or just want to keep more private, secure mail is a definite possibility. There are many options for the most secure email service today, and they aren’t the same as many of the typical providers. Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and AOL all offer free emails, but are they the most secure email provider?
In our ranking, we plan to take a closer look at which companies offer the most secure email service today. With a variety of rates, additional features, and ways to make your email secure, you’re sure to find a provider that meets all of your stringent criteria.
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AdvisoryHQ’s List of the Top 6 Best Secure Email Services
List is sorted alphabetically (click any of the secure email websites below to go directly to the detailed review section for that secure email service):
Top 6 Best Secure Email Services | Brief Comparison & Ranking
Most Secure Email Services | Price per Month | Based In |
Countermail | $6.33 | Sweden |
Kolab Now | CHF 4.55 | Switzerland |
Mailfence | As low as free | Belgium |
Posteo.de | €1 | Berlin, Germany |
ProtonMail | As low as free | Switzerland |
Tutanota | As low as free | Hanover, Germany |
Table: Top 6 Best Secure Email Providers | Above list is sorted alphabetically
What are the Benefits of Using a Secure Email Service?
Some of the most recent studies are showing that the number of emails, particularly for businesses, that are sent each day are reaching staggering amounts.
By the year 2019, it is estimated that each user will receive an average of 126 business emails each day. With numbers like this one, it’s no surprise that many users are wondering where to turn for the most secure email service.
The internet is full of individuals and companies who make a profit from your personal information. Email messages are not generally sent through the most secure email provider. When not encrypted or protected, those messages can be intercepted and read by attackers before they find their way to your inbox.
Image Source: Pexels
Particularly for users who send a lot of sensitive data, you’ll want to investigate the possibility of using one of these secure email providers as an additional layer of protection.
Are you one of the few people who don’t send many emails with sensitive information?
Unfortunately, you may still find that you can benefit from looking into one of these secure email providers. Information from within your emails has the potential to be mined in order to sell you on more specific advertising campaigns. This is especially true if you happen to be utilizing one of the free email service providers.
When it comes to finding the best secure email service, you want to be on the lookout for a provider that offers encryption. Many of the top choices for the best secure email service will also offer two-factor authentication and anonymization when creating a profile. No identifying features or IP addresses are collected from some of these secure email providers.
The most secure email is one that is stored in the servers of one of these most secure email service providers. The top choices are typically based outside of the United States, making it more difficult for the federal government to gain access to or control the data flowing through these secure email providers.
In this way, you can begin to send secure email with ease and give yourself a little peace of mind.
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AdvisoryHQ’s Selection Methodology
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Detailed Review – Top Ranking Best Secure Email Services
Below, please find the detailed review of each website on our list of secure email providers. We have highlighted some of the factors that allowed these most secure email providers to score so high in our selection ranking.
Countermail Review
Countermail has several unique features that qualify it as the best secure email service, including different storage and encryption methods. They claim to be the first of their kind to demonstrate strong usage of more secure methods to protect your email. If you want to send the most secure email, you may want to consider opting for Countermail.
Based out of Switzerland, its location alone makes it difficult for the United States government to shut down this most secure email provider. It also makes it difficult for them to demand any of the encrypted information stored on their secure webmail servers.
When it comes to their secure webmail servers, Countermail is the first of its kind to make use of diskless web servers. This prevents your IP address from being stored onto hardware and accessed in the event that the hardware is stolen.
Compelling features that set Countermail apart as one of the top secure email providers include:
- OpenPGP encryption with 4096 bits encryption keys
- Anonymous email headers
- Ability to use your own domain name
- Secure forms
- Dynamic aliases
- Android phone compatibility
They also have a one-of-a-kind USB key option to make your secure email even more private. You can set it up as an option for log-in or use it as a key file. When you try to access your secure email inbox, you will need to have your password as well as the USB key plugged into a port on your computer. This prevents hackers from guessing or obtaining your password and gaining access to your most secure email service.
Countermail does not provide an option for free accounts as a most secure email provider. Instead, you can opt for their basic plan which grants you 250MB of storage space. You will pay in 3-month increments at a rate of $19 each ($6.33 per month).
Bitcoin is also accepted through these secure email providers.
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Kolab Now Review
Kolab Now feels strongly about guarding against what has been referred to as the “stalker economy.” With primary objectives that include preventing industrial espionage, protecting legal privilege, and preventing identity theft, these secure email providers have a lot of great features to help safeguard your data.
One of the best features about Kolab Now is that they aren’t just secure email providers. They have an extensive list of other services that they offer to help you retain more of your information and your business’s information. In addition to being a secure email service, you can make use of these features:
- Calendar
- Task list
- Notes
- Save and share files
- Collect, organize, and share contacts
Data is stored exclusively in Switzerland for the utmost protection and security of all the secure email providers on the internet today.
Preventing the government from demanding your information or shutting down the operation, you have a lot more freedom to access these secure email service providers at your leisure. They utilize OpenPGP or S/MIME encryption to secure mail for users.
They also eliminate advertisements on your accounts.
Kolab Now has an incredible track record when it comes to security response, issuing updates and taking measures to protect users during the Heartbleed Bug infections. The response of their secure email providers then demonstrated a great ability to protect the information of all users.
For the individual user, Kolab Now gives you access to the entire suite of apps, secure hosting on their Swiss servers, and access for all devices for just CHF 4.55 per month (estimated $4.51). Group accounts support up to 100 users, admins, and personal domains at CHF 5.38 per user per month (estimated $5.34).
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Mailfence Review
One of the few choices that aren’t located in Switzerland, Mailfence is hosted in Belgium which automatically eliminates the PRISM and NSA organizations. According to their Belgian laws, only a federal judge with a court order has the ability to request information from their private servers, a rather unusual occurrence.
They focus on protection that all users are entitled to in order to find email secure in their inbox without spying. To that end, they are also able to entice users with freedom from advertisements, spam, trackers, and solicitations.
Their most secure email service allows you to send secure email with encryption and using two-factor authentication. A key is required for the end-to-end encryption that prevents third parties from opening or scanning the contents of your email.
Image Source: Mailfence
Additionally, the two-factor authentication allows you to send secure email using both a username and password as well as a time-based one-time password. This can be activated through the settings of your account on this best secure email service.
Much like Kolab Now, Mailfence is much more than just one of the top secure email providers. They have an entire suite of apps and services including a calendar, documents, and contacts.
Plans for this best secure email service start off as free for one group with up to two users. You receive 500MB worth of emails, 500MB worth of documents, 1,000 events on the calendar and 1,000 contacts.
Upgrading to their Entry or Pro plans gives you access to more storage (5GB to 20GB of emails and 9GB to 24GB of documents) and more groups and users (three groups with ten users or five groups with twenty users). Pricing for these upgraded plans to send secure email and utilize the suite of services are €2,50 per month and €7,50 per month respectively.
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Posteo.de Review
Based in Berlin, Posteo.de is a completely green and secure email service provider that is a top competitor in the industry. Utilizing 100% green energy from Greenpeace Energy, this company is committed to doing what is right when it comes to your privacy and when it comes to the environment. They claim to be a sustainable operation that is both ad-free and self-financed.
When it comes to the encryption offered by this best secure email service, they offer end-to-end encryption and inbound encryption (an optional way to receive secure webmail). It is protected through hard disk encryption that is shielded against physical theft, physical unauthorized access, and caprice. These secure email service providers also offer other security features:
- Encrypted connections within the platform
- Optional encryption of contacts and calendar
- An optional one-time password that changes every thirty seconds
- Does not store your password information to share with you or third parties
- Virus and spam filter
You can make the most of several different security features using this best secure email service.
Making an account through this most secure email provider is simple and private. They do not collect any of your personal details or track your individual IP address. Even your payment is anonymous.
When you make an account with these secure email providers, you can access a 2GB (upgradeable) email account. The cost is just €1 per month.
ProtonMail Review
The biggest advantage to selecting ProtonMail as the most secure email service is that it isn’t based here in the United States. Operating out of Switzerland, this means that it won’t be possible for the United States government to shut down their most secure email provider with ease. Not only that, but they also cannot force them to hand over information on the users who have accounts through their most secure email service.
Noted as the “only email system the NSA can’t access,” ProtonMail offers end-to-end encryption. The data contained within your emails cannot be shared with a third party, including ProtonMail itself. You can even send secure email to users who do not have their own ProtonMail account.
Another major benefit to this most secure email provider is that it does not require personal information. Not only that, but it does not track your IP address which could give away identifying information.
Other key features and capabilities for this best secure email service include:
- Self-destructing messages
- Hardware security to prevent information from ending up on the cloud
- Fully encrypted disks and multiple password layers on storage hardware
- SSL secured connections
- Send secure email to non-users as well
This most secure email provider offers a free version that includes 500MB of storage, one address, 150 messages per day, and limited support.
Upgrading to a paid account for their most secure email service gives you significantly more storage (5GB to 20GB), custom domains (up to ten), more messages per day (from 1,000 to unlimited), and custom email filters. Pricing for these ranges from €5 per month to €30 per month.
Image Source: ProtonMail
Tutanota Review
Tutanota is another of the top secure email providers that happen to be based in Europe (Hanover, to be exact). Without any need for input from you, this most secure email service automatically encrypts all of the data on your device, including your contacts. They have one of the most extensive solutions to the secure email dilemma offered by any of the contenders for the best secure email service.
Like many of the best secure email service solutions, Tutanota provides end-to-end encryption even when you send to a non-user of their most secure email service. It goes above and beyond, also shielding any attachments and subjects unless your recipient can produce a previously agreed-upon password.
You have the option to send encrypted or non-encrypted emails as well. Even if you choose not to encrypt emails you send, they are stored in an encrypted format on the server. Likewise, all emails that are sent to you will be encrypted on the server.
You can utilize this most secure email service from any web browser or through their mobile apps.
Like many of the secure email providers, Tutanota is designed to be free for everyone to make use of their basic right to privacy. For private use, you can gain 1GB of storage, a Tutanota domain, and community support for one user, free of charge.
Alternatively, upgrading to their premium plan costs €1,20 per month or €1 when you pay per year. When you pay annually, you do receive two months’ worth of their best secure email service per year for free. You have access to one GB of expandable storage and five aliases, as well as access to your own domain.
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Conclusion—Top 6 Best Secure Email Services
What features are you hoping to gain alongside the most secure email service? A secure email service should be able to protect your personal information, as well as perform an encryption for any information you send over their servers. While many providers offer the most secure email service, you’ll likely find that one appeals to you more than others.
If this is your first foray into the most secure email provider, you may want to take another look at your inbox. How much storage do you really need? How many emails do you send a day?
Answers to questions like these can help to determine which of these secure email providers offers the best secure email service for you.
When you consider the pricing, the extended features, and the overall level of security, you’ll find that these secure email providers are certainly leading the field. You can take back your privacy and send your most secure email starting today when you sign up for an account with one of these secure email providers.
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Reasonable efforts have been made by AdvisoryHQ to present accurate information, however all info is presented without warranty. Review AdvisoryHQ’s Terms for details. Also review each firm’s site for the most updated data, rates and info.
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