Mailfence Review: A Solid, European, Privacy-First Email Service

I’ve been trying out Mailfence, a Belgian email service that positions itself as a secure and private alternative to Gmail and Proton Mail. After spending some time with it, here’s my honest take.

Getting Started: Sign-Up Is Straightforward

Signing up for Mailfence is a clean, no-nonsense process. You pick your @mailfence.com address, set a password, and agree to the terms — including confirming you’re at least 16 years old, in line with GDPR requirements.

One step that caught my attention was the activation and recovery email screen. Mailfence requires a recovery address to both activate your account and allow password recovery. It’s a sensible safety net, but be aware: if you use a disposable or banned email domain here, registration will fail outright.

Speaking of which — I did hit this wall during my own sign-up attempt:

Not a dealbreaker, but worth knowing: Mailfence actively blocks disposable email domains and can temporarily restrict registrations by IP or country. If you hit this, just wait 24 hours or contact their support team. In my case, the support team resolved it by creating the email address.

The Interface: Functional But Old-School

Once you’re in, the interface is clean and organized — but there’s no escaping the fact that it feels a bit dated compared to the polished experience of Gmail or even Proton Mail. Think Outlook circa 2014. It gets the job done, but don’t expect a sleek, modern UI.

Composing emails is simple and straightforward, as you’d hope:

Beyond email, Mailfence includes a documents section (cloud storage) and a calendar, making it more of a privacy-focused productivity suite than just a mailbox. The document storage is a nice bonus, and it even lets you mount it as a virtual drive from your computer.

Encryption: Powerful, But You Have to Set It Up

This is where Mailfence differs meaningfully from competitors like Proton Mail and Tuta (formerly Tutanota). Both Proton and Tuta encrypt everything automatically — your inbox is always encrypted, zero-knowledge, by default. Mailfence doesn’t work that way.

Mailfence supports OpenPGP end-to-end encryption and password-based encryption, but these are opt-in features — you actively choose to encrypt a message when composing. Regular emails sent to non-Mailfence recipients travel as standard email unless you manually apply encryption. This is a meaningful distinction for privacy-first users.

That said, the encryption tools Mailfence provides are genuinely powerful when you use them. OpenPGP support means you can exchange encrypted emails with anyone using PGP-compatible software — not just other Mailfence users. You can manage keys, digitally sign messages, and verify sender authenticity. This interoperability is actually a major advantage over Tuta, which uses a proprietary encryption format that locks you into its ecosystem.

The welcome/info screen gives you a good overview of what’s available and nudges you to complete your profile and explore subscription tiers:

Missing Features

One frustration worth flagging: there’s no “Send Later” functionality. For a service targeting professionals and privacy-conscious power users, this feels like a notable gap. Proton Mail has scheduled sending; Mailfence doesn’t (at least not yet). Minor? Yes. Annoying? Also yes.

Pricing: Fair and Transparent

Mailfence offers a free tier and several paid plans. Pricing is reasonable and straightforward — more competitive than Proton’s paid tiers in several respects. The free account gives you enough to evaluate the service properly, and upgrading unlocks features like email filters, more storage, and access via desktop mail clients (IMAP/POP/SMTP).

GDPR-Compliant and Green: The European Advantage

Mailfence is based in Belgium, operating under strong EU privacy law — making it a solid choice for European users who want to keep their data within European legal jurisdiction. It’s also powered by 100% green energy, which is a nice bonus.

Verdict

Mailfence is a solid, trustworthy email service — especially for users who want European data protection, flexible OpenPGP encryption, and a suite of productivity tools (calendar, documents, contacts) in one privacy-respecting package. The fair pricing and genuine GDPR compliance make it a credible alternative to Big Tech email.

It’s not for everyone, though. The interface feels dated compared to Proton Mail or Gmail, there’s no always-on automatic encryption like Tuta offers, and the lack of “Send Later” is a small but real annoyance. If you want zero-knowledge encryption by default without thinking about it, Proton or Tuta may suit you better.

But if you want open standards, OpenPGP flexibility, European hosting, and a complete productivity suite at a fair price — Mailfence deserves serious consideration.

Last Updated on 23 February 2026