Mailfence Review

Mailfence is the privacy project of ContactOffice Group, a Brussels company that has run web collaboration software since 1999, and the 2013-launched service inherits that lineage: alongside encrypted mail you get calendars with free/busy scheduling, contacts, document storage and user groups. It is closer to a private Google Workspace than a bare mailbox.

The encryption model is its defining choice. Rather than inventing a proprietary scheme, Mailfence implements OpenPGP in the browser with an integrated keystore: you can generate keys, publish them, sign messages and exchange end-to-end encrypted mail with anyone running Thunderbird, GnuPG or any other PGP tool. It also supports password-protected encrypted messages for non-PGP recipients and digital signatures for authenticity. The flip side deserves emphasis: unencrypted mail sitting in your account is not zero-access the way Proton's is. Mailfence can technically read plain messages, so the privacy guarantee is only as strong as your use of PGP.

Jurisdiction is a quiet strength. Belgium has constitutional privacy protections and requires judicial orders for data disclosure, the company is outside the Five Eyes alliance, and servers sit in Belgian datacenters. Mailfence publishes a transparency report and warrant canary, and its founders have been vocal privacy advocates in EU policy debates.

Pricing is friendly. A free tier offers 1 GB to test the waters. Base at EUR 2.50 per month adds storage and aliases but notably not custom domains; the Entry plan at EUR 3.50 is where your own domain, 50 aliases and full POP/IMAP/SMTP access arrive, making it the real starting point for anyone serious. Pro (around EUR 7.50 with roughly 78 GB combined storage and priority support) and the maximal Ultra tier scale up from there. All paid tiers include proper DKIM, SPF and DMARC controls.

The weaknesses are cosmetic and structural at once. The web interface is functional but visually stuck in an earlier decade, mobile apps lag the desktop experience, and the polish gap against Proton, Fastmail or even mailbox.org is noticeable daily. As a small company, Mailfence also cannot match the documentation depth or support responsiveness of larger rivals, though the Ultra tier's 24/7 line helps.

Choose Mailfence if you value OpenPGP interoperability, Belgian jurisdiction and an all-in-one suite at a fair price, and you are disciplined about encrypting what matters. Choose Proton if you want encryption you cannot forget to use, or Fastmail if the daily experience matters more than cryptography.