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Add to SafariWhen comparing Mailpile vs ProtonMail, the Slant community recommends Mailpile for most people. In the question“What are the best free and open source email providers for Linux?” Mailpile is ranked 3rd while ProtonMail is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Mailpile is:
Uncluttered, highly intuitive, easy to use user interface.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Beautiful UI
Uncluttered, highly intuitive, easy to use user interface.
Pro Built-in rock-solid and easy-to-use encryption
Mailpile offers support for OpenPGP and S/MIME encryption and signatures in an easy to use manner.
Pro Theme support
The underlying architecture of Mailpile allows for themes that not only change the visual aesthetic of the client, but layout as well allowing for different UX designs.
Pro Secure
Encryption is turned on by default.
Pro Portable
The whole webmail client can be carried around on your external device (such as a USB stick) and used without having admin access to install.
Pro Free and open source
Licensed under AGPL.
Pro Good documentation
Pro Fast, scalable search engine
The search engine is at the very center of Mailpile. It was specifically designed to be able to handle large amount of e-mails without grinding the machine to a halt.
Additionally, the search includes a tagging feature that can automatically organize new mail by set rules or bayesian classifiers.
Pro Plugin architecture
Pro Internationalization support
Mailpile is available in over 40 languages.
Pro Built-in end-to-end encryption
Pro No personal information needed
To create an account you don't need to give any personal information, just choose username, domain, and password. Even the recovery email address is optional.
Pro Privacy respecting
User data is protected by strict privacy laws because all servers are located in Switzerland.
Pro Open Source
Pro Mobile apps
Apps for Android and iOS available.
Cons
Con Javascript-intensive Webmail
Free accounts are required to use Javascript webmail and encryption is done in the browser. Javascript cryptography is harmful for security and should not be used.
Con Encryption Keys are stored server-side
The keys are generated during account creation. Using your existing keys is prohibited and ProtonMail must store and control the private keys. Encryption cannot be secure unless the user controls the private keys.
Con Still lacks some useful features
At the moment, there is no calendar feature and contact management is quite poor. They will, however, start to work on it.
Con Ties to US Investors
ProtonMail takes money from US Investors
Con No IMAP and SMTP support for basic accounts
Basic accounts are restricted to the Protonmail web client. Support for IMAP and SMTP is available with a paid subscription only, and as such with basic accounts it is not possible to send and receive email with external applications.
Con Overly expensive for desktop support
Con Requires phone number for login
If you sign up over Tor or a VPN, it will require email or phone number verification. Email verification is disabled if you use an email that isn't from Google or Outlook.
Con Not fully Open Source
