Bring email encryption straight into your browser. We recommend using Firefox for this. It can be used to encrypt and sign electronic messages, including attached files, without the use of a separate, native email client (like Thunderbird) using the OpenPGP standard. List of supported email providers.
Reviewed by Marcus Holmberg
Mailvelope
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Threat level
Hardened
A hardened pick. Worth the effort once you have chosen to shrink your footprint on purpose. Enough for most people. Threat levels
Our take
Mailvelope bolts OpenPGP onto webmail like Gmail or Outlook straight in the browser, which is its whole appeal and its whole limitation. It only protects message contents, not metadata, and both sides need keys set up, so it is fiddly and only as private as the people you write to. Use it when you are stuck on a mainstream webmail account and need genuine end-to-end encryption for specific messages; do not mistake it for switching to a private provider.
GitHub at a glance
mailvelope/mailvelope
Stars
1,834
+ 10 this week
Last commit
27d ago
healthy
License
AGPL-3.0
Latest release
v6.3.0
28d ago
Stars, last 30d
Website at a glance
mailvelope.com
A+ score 105
Strong website security headers
Graded by Mozilla HTTP Observatory, tested 13d ago
Inspect this site yourself
Measures the security configuration of the tool's own website, not the privacy of the product itself. A strong tool can still score low here.
Mailvelope alternatives
FairEmail FairEmail is a fully featured, open-source email client for Android that uses standard IMAP/SMTP protocols and supports OpenPGP and S/MIME encryption. It blocks remote image tracking, confirms link opens, and stores no data on third-party servers.
Thunderbird Mozilla Thunderbird is a email client, personal information manager, news client, RSS and chat client.
K-9 Mail K-9 Mail is an open source email client focused on making it easy to chew through large volumes of email. Designed for both novice and power users and offers lots of features…
Canary Mail Canary's security suite is second to none with Seamless End-To-End Encryption, Full PGP Support, Biometric App Lock, On-Device Fetch, No Ads, No Data Mining & Open Source Mail…
Apple Mail Apple Mail is the built-in email client on macOS and iOS, supporting IMAP, SMTP, and S/MIME. Mail Privacy Protection hides the user's IP address and loads remote content via Apple proxy servers to block tracking pixels.
GNOME Evolution GNOME Evolution is a Linux personal information manager combining email, calendar, contacts, and tasks in one application. It uses standard protocols (IMAP, SMTP, CalDAV, CardDAV) and supports native OpenPGP and S/MIME encryption without plugins.
Mailvelope license, in plain English
AGPL-3.0 Strong copyleft · network
Free to use, even commercially. Changes must be published under the same license, and running a modified version as a network service counts as distributing it.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Patent use
- Private use
Requires
- Disclose source
- Network use is distribution
- Same license
- State changes
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: The network clause is the point. Anyone who runs a modified version as a hosted service has to publish those changes, so the code handling your data stays inspectable. This is why privacy-first projects reach for AGPL.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.
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