Mailfence review

Mailfence is a browser-based email service built around OpenPGP encryption and digital signatures. You can create, import, publish and manage keys in the browser, then use them to encrypt messages to other OpenPGP users. That protects message contents when encryption is used; it is not the same as encrypting your entire inbox. In one Reddit discussion, a commenter specifically ranked Mailfence below services offering zero-access inbox encryption.

Email is only part of the package. Mailfence also includes calendars, online document storage and contact groups for sharing data. Its feature list includes aliases, custom domains, third-party mailboxes and supported mail protocols, but access depends on the plan: the Free and Base plans do not include POP, IMAP, SMTP or ActiveSync. Paid plans add capacity and, at higher tiers, custom domains and account administration. That makes Mailfence more of a bundled browser workspace than a standalone encrypted mailbox.

Mailfence’s clearest advantage is combining browser-based OpenPGP email with calendars, documents and contacts. If you already use OpenPGP, you can communicate with other OpenPGP services rather than keeping encryption inside a closed network. Digital signatures and in-browser key management are part of the offer, too. A commenter on r/Mailfence also said password-protected email is available as an alternative to sending a recipient a PGP key; that is a user report, not a detail in the published plan list.

The Free plan gives personal users 1 GB total storage, split between 500 MB of email and 500 MB of documents. Base, listed at €2.50 per month when billed yearly, increases that to 11 GB and adds 10 aliases. For a small team that needs standard mail-client protocols and its own domains, Entry is listed at €3.50 per month when billed yearly: 40 GB total storage, 50 aliases, two custom domains and an admin console for up to five accounts.

Some users in one Reddit thread described the service as stable and said support had been helpful. Those are individual accounts, not a service guarantee.

The main switching catch is protocol access. Free and Base include no POP, IMAP, SMTP or ActiveSync, so they are a poor fit if you want to keep using a desktop or mobile mail client. Entry is the first listed plan with those protocols, at €3.50 per month on annual billing. The Free plan has no aliases or custom domains; Base adds 10 aliases but still has no custom domains. You need Entry for domains, and it caps them at two and account administration at five accounts.

The bigger plans are harder to price-check: Pro’s price is not published on the vendor's site, and its billing is half-yearly. Ultra is listed at €29 per month, billed monthly. Pro includes 100 aliases, seven domains and up to 200 accounts; Ultra raises those caps to 200 aliases, 10 domains and 1,000 accounts. Those tiers may be more than a small team needs.

Privacy expectations also need care. OpenPGP protects messages you encrypt, but a Reddit commenter argued Mailfence does not provide zero-access encryption for the inbox. And in a user discussion, commenters reported no dedicated mobile app, describing browser access or third-party clients instead. Treat those as user reports, not a current product-status guarantee.

Mailfence has a free tier, then Base at €2.50/month and Entry at €3.50/month, both priced per month when billed yearly, according to the pricing data checked November 6, 2026. Free includes 1 GB total storage, no aliases or custom domains, and no POP/IMAP/SMTP/ActiveSync. Base raises storage to 11 GB and includes 10 aliases, but still has no custom domains or those protocols. Entry is the first step up for teams: 40 GB, 50 aliases, two custom domains, protocol access, and an admin console for up to five accounts.

The move from Base to Entry is €1/month at the listed annual-billing rates, but it buys more than storage. Pro adds 78 GB, 100 aliases, seven domains, and admin for up to 200 accounts; its price is not published here, and it is billed half-yearly. Ultra is €29/month, billed monthly, with 225 GB and admin for up to 1,000 accounts. No add-ons are listed. Month-to-month and annual rates are not published for some plans, so compare billing periods before treating the tiers as like-for-like.

Switching effort depends on which Mailfence plan you choose and what you need to move. Mailfence combines email, calendars, documents, contacts, and groups, so moving away may mean accounting for each separately. The published material does not explain its import process, export formats, or whether calendar, contact, and document data can be transferred in bulk. Confirm those details before moving important records.

For mail clients, Entry, Pro, and Ultra list POP/IMAP/SMTP/ActiveSync access; Free and Base do not. That makes the lower tiers a tighter fit if you want to move messages through standard mail protocols. The published sources include no Reddit posts or comments, so we can’t reliably say what users commonly cite as a reason for leaving. Before switching, check whether your destination can take your messages and other data, and whether your current plan provides the access you need to retrieve them.