Mailfence is an encrypted email service that offers OpenPGP based end-to-end encryption and digital signatures. It was launched in November 2013 by ContactOffice Group, which has been operating an online collaboration suite for universities and other organizations since 1999.
In the midst of 2013, the Mailfence project was started by the founders of ContactOffice. In March 2016, a beta version of end-to-end encryption and digital signatures for emails was released. In January 2021, Mailfence released progressive web application for mobile devices.
Mailfence provides secure email features, with other functions such as Calendar, Contacts, Documents and Collaboration.Encryption and Two-factor authentication are available in the free version of the product. Most other features are only available with paid subscriptions that start at 2,50 € per month.
The service supports POP/IMAP and Exchange ActiveSync as well as vanity domains with SPF, DKIM, DMARC and catch-all address support. Users can send both plain and rich text emails, organize messages in folders and/or categorize them with tags, take notes by setting comment on each message and create default message signatures for every sender address. Different identities can also be managed using aliases and filters for incoming emails.
The service uses an open-source implementation of OpenPGP (RFC 4880) for emails.OpenPGP keypair is generated in client-browser, encrypted (via AES256) with the user's passphrase, and then stored on Mailfence server.The server never sees the user's OpenPGP keypair passphrase. The service also supports end-to-end encryption for emails using a shared password with the possibility of message expiration.
