5 Best Private Email Service Providers

Having an email address with own domain name is quite important for any legitimate business, as it helps to segment the client base, ensure data privacy, fast communication, scopes of marketing etc. Even though this can be achieved with a free service as gmail, taking it to a private email service provider enhances the aforesaid benefits while giving the user top notch support, which is essential for any business. This article lists out 5 best private email service providers for small to medium size business owners. All the following services support Aliases, Anti spam protection, Two Factor authentication, custom domain, calendar, contact list, and documents storing features .

Namecheap

Richard Kirkendall founded this company in the year 2000 with affordable pricing schemes. Even though they used to sell domain names only, nowadays there are a range of premium services from private email services, hosting, to CDN service.  It accepts cryptographic currencies like Bitcoin as its payment. At the moment, the cheapest plan of private email service starts from $0.79/month.

Features

1. It supports Net Neutrality.
2. Uses Privacy filter and encryption.
3. There are several account settings to customise the use for any work space.
4. It uses anonymous headers in emails.
5. SMTP, IMAP, POP3 support.

Tutanota

This is a German based company that assures complete privacy of data. Their private email service uses its own encryption model; hence Tutanota is very secure as this gives top most privacy to the user with top notch security. Since It’s a German company, the user gains the benefits of GDPR law as well. GDPR guarantees the right to access data, and privacy of the user.

Features

1. End to end encryption.
2. Encrypted mail boxes.
3. Web client, Android and iOS Apps are open source.
4. High privacy, and security.
5. Automatic filtering system in inbox
6. Being fully GDPR-compliance.
7. Third Party desktop application to browse emails for maximum security.

Mailfence

It is a company located in Belgium, Europe with strong privacy, and security features with end to end encryption support in email inboxes. However, with a valid Belgium court order, the data can be accessed by authorities even though it happens rarely as per the company.

Features

1. Being fully GDPR-compliance.
2. Encrypted mail boxes.
3. End to end encryption.
4. High privacy, and security.
5. High integrity of messages with Digital Signatures.
6. SMTP, IMAP, POP3 support

Kolab Now

It is a company based in Switzerland which provides a complete email suite, and as an alternative to Gmail, Office 365 with high privacy assurance.  It uses open source software for storing data, and communication purpose; hence having a greater transparency. Having 30 days money back guarantee policy makes it an ideal solution to try without wasting a cent.

Features

1. Complete security in Switzerland Jurisdiction.
2. Open source storing, and communication software.
3. Open standards, and formats are used for all storing, and communication.
4. Encrypted mail boxes.
5. End to end encryption.
6. Ability to create documents online
7. SMTP, IMAP, POP3 support

ProtonMail

ProtonMail is a similar service to Tutanota in terms of where the servers are located, privacy assurance, and the security, but it provides less space for free users, while being flexible enough to support third party email clients. However, ProtonMail doesn’t guarantee it supports all the third party email clients, as it uses an unconventional process to encrypt, and decrypt emails when emails are sent on Desktop. The process involves a small application, called Bridge that runs in the background to encrypt, and decrypt emails as they are being left, and entered the computer. The bridge does only support Linux, MacOS, and Windows operating systems.

Features

1. Complete security in Switzerland Jurisdiction.
2. Open source storing, and communication software.
3. Encrypted mail boxes.
4. End to end encryption.
5. Limited support to SMTP, IMAP via Bridge.
6. Support to Anonymous Emails
7. VPN feature via ProtonVPN.

How to Pick The Best Provider?

There are so many private email service providers are available, and each one has pros and cons, and therefore it’s important to compare them with the use case when picking the best email service provider, for instance if privacy is very important, Namecheap might not be the best choice as it’s an US company. The following criteria should be taken into the equation when making the decision.

• Jurisdiction : The location of the service provider, and the servers gives insights into the privacy model being used.
• Migration Features : Whether the previous data can be imported or not can be a deciding factor for already well set companies and businesses.
• Encryption : End to end encryption makes sure that the data is safe.
• User Interface : How is the UI? What are the features available along with it like- calendar, contacts, storage etc? Is the UI responsive to work on small screens?
• Pricing Scheme : Every provider has multiple pricing tiers with extra features. Some providers have a hard limit what purpose the email account can be used for like Business or Private.