Most Secure Email Providers to Try in 2021

Kolab Now

Kolab now is yet another Switzerland-based open-source encrypted email service that is focused on providing small and medium-sized enterprises with secure email services and a complete online office suite. Kolab Now allows you to pass confidential information through emails easily without any problems. It charges its users directly and offers various monthly and annual plans for an individual account. Kolab now stores all your emails and file on their server in Switzerland, keeping your data safe from your own government agencies, scammers, as well as advertisers. Although Kolab Now doesn’t provide end-to-end encryption, the features Kolab offers are one of the best in the email today. Kolab maybe not cheap, they do provide great all-round email privacy.

CounterMail

Countermail is all about user security. Although its interface looks pretty outdated, its system is regularly updated while its email security is second to none. Just like ProtonMail, it also offers end-to-end encryption between the sender and receiver and uses OpenPGP to keep your email messages safe and your email account secure. Since it uses diskless data servers, nobody will be able to read or write anything you send through these servers. CounterMail is very open and honest about how their system works and are always ready to display how secure their system is for everyone.

Features

• Supports IMAP
• Allows modification of different settings for your account
• Doesn’t keep IP address logs
• Includes a built-in password manager for password protection
• Uses anonymous email headers
• Supports email filters
• Available for desktop and IOS

Runbox

Not the most popular secure email service than the ones mentioned above, but RunBox is slowly catching up to the top email providers in terms of email encryption. Runbox uses various security tools to keep your data away from the cybercriminal who want to steal it. When you send an email using Runbox, they are sent through a secure encrypted connection, and everything sent between Runbox servers and your email address is also encrypted. The data stored on the Runbox server is locked in a vault (in Norway) where it is protected by the constitution. Runbox also provides annual plans using bitcoin for extra anonymity. Runbox uses two-factor authentication and with no external tracking cookies, it is almost impossible for scammers to hack into any Runbox email account.

Features

• Create email aliases to use different email addresses with just one account
• Powerful and reliable in processing and storing a large amount of data.
• Professional management of emails such as spam filtering, customized sorting, forwarding, etc.
• Integrated services
• Strong email privacy protection
• Spam and virus protection
• Plenty of storage space
• Universal access via Web, IMAP, WAP, etc.

If our ten suggestions are not what you were looking for then here’s an additional recommendation:

Startmail

Startmail is formed by the team of a private search engine called Start page. It is based in the Netherlands however, the company is following the Dutch law. All the emails are encrypted on Dutch servers. Startmail supports IMAP, SMTP and third-party app like Thunderbird.

Features

• PGP encryption
• Disposable email addresses
• IMAP/SMTP compatible
• Affordable plans

CTemplar

CTemplar is comparatively a new service or probably the newest option for you to try on. The company is based in Iceland and is getting popular because of the serious claim of being the world’s most secure and private email service. The reason behind the claim is Iceland’s strong privacy laws. Moreover, it also offers amazing security features with complete encryption protection.

Features

• Instantly Delete Emails 
• Built-in Kill Switch
• Anti-Phishing Protection
• Dedicated Bare-Metal Servers
• IP Removed from Emails

Bonus Tip

Using any secure email providers from the above list is up to you, but you can make your email even securer by using a VPN service. VPN creates a secure connection between your computer and the network (the email service provider). When you enable the VPN service, the internet traffic (emails, messaging, etc.,) travels through the VPN connection first. This means VPN secures your email, web browsing, chat, etc., from scammers and hackers.

So, if you have a VPN, enable it and keep yourself secure.

Security Features to Consider When Choosing the Best Personal Email Service

While searching for the most secure email services, be careful of what you’re considering. There are plenty of free email providers that might harm your email safety and privacy. Hence, to get the most secure email services, always consider the following criteria. Your personal email service should match a few, if not all, the features below.

End-to-end Encryption

The encryption feature is the most critical feature that makes an email service secure. A regular email service only provides encryption when your email reaches Gmail or Hotmail. End-to-end encryption keeps your message secure while transmitting and only allows the sender and receiver to read the message. Therefore, always consider an End-to-end encrypted email service as it’s the most prior email security feature.

Two-Factor Authentication

Another important feature to look for is two-factor authentication. It gets you the added layer of protection and stops intruders from accessing your account. If hackers somehow manage to learn your password, the 2FA gets you the backup key, and makes it impossible for a hacker to login to your account even after having the login credentials. You can deploy different options for two-factor authentication, including SMS 2FA, TOTP 2FA, Push-based 2FA, and more.

Metadata Security

When a user sends an email, some of his information is attached with that email as metadata header. The header covers critical information about your web browser, device, and recipient. However, a secure email service takes care of your metadata security by stripping out header metadata to protect privacy as much as possible.

Server Location

Server location is another strong security consideration. The main reason to always focus on server location is that some countries, including the USA, Canada, UK, and Australia, are the Five Eyes Intelligence network participants. These countries spy and share user data on their servers with agencies. Therefore, It’s suggested to select secure email services from safer countries that respect user privacy laws, including Sweden, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland.

How Does Secure Email Work?

Secure email works with end-to-end encryption, and the recipient can only decrypt your message. Yet, if you’re using a regular email provider, the service can read or scan emails through keywords, making it easier for hackers to intervene.

Secure email services have many encryption choices, just like PGB, that mix both symmetric and asymmetric encryption. Other encryption protocols like S/MIME use the certificate to ensure that no one has tempered the email you sent.

There are other encryption choices available such as Transport-level encryption, and end-to-end encryption.

Transport-level encryption safely delivers the email on the web, but email providers can read it. However, it can be combined with other protocols like TCP, HTTP or FTP to better work for other things like IMAP, SMTP.

Another email encryption is known as PGP, pretty good privacy. PGP encryption has everything in it. It deals with symmetric encryption, hashing, and a public encryption key. The best thing is users don’t have to exchange encryption keys every time. The whole encryption process takes place secretively, so you don’t have to worry about anything.

Yet, so far, End-to-end Encryption is the best as it prevents third-party and mail providers from reading the message. Only sender and receiver have private keys to decrypt message when needed.

Why Should You Use Secure Email Services?

Gmail is not a very secure option when it comes to security. There are many reasons why one should be using secure email services in the first place. However, to make things clear below, you can find a list of the practical reasons to use secure and encrypted email service.

Storing Messages in a Safe Location

A safer location is needed to keep your messages away from the Fourteen Eyes intelligence-sharing countries. Secure mail services have servers at private locations that won’t allow anyone to break into your emails.

Metadata privacy

Gmail or regular email services never encrypt the metadata header that contains data about you, your browser, device, and the receipt. Yet, secure email services always hide your metadata header to better ensure privacy.

Strong Messages Encryption

Unsecure email services never maintain encryption once your message arrives at its intended server. Any hacker or the email service itself can easily snoop on your messages. Secure email providers always manage end-to-end encryption that makes it impossible for anyone to read messages except you and the recipient.

Conclusion

When it comes to privacy, there are not may email services that guarantee anonymity and security. To keep your emails as private as possible you should use any of the email services listed above. Apart from the list above, there are some other secure email providers that we have not mentioned like Fastmail, SAFe-mail, etc., but they are also very useful when it comes to email encryption.

All these secure email services listed here are much better at protecting your privacy than Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and others. If used properly, end-to-end encryption will keep your emails safe when you send them to other users.