Email Clients
Discover free, open-source, and secure email clients, along with some email alternatives you may not have considered.
When using end-to-end encryption (E2EE) technology like OpenPGP, email will still have some metadata that is not encrypted in the header of the email. Read more about email metadata.
OpenPGP also does not support Forward secrecy, which means if either your or the recipient's private key is ever stolen, all previous messages encrypted with it will be exposed. How do I protect my private keys?
Rather than use email for prolonged conversations, consider using a medium that does support Forward secrecy.
Recommended Instant MessengersDesktop Email Clients
Thunderbird
Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform email, newsgroup, news feed, and chat (XMPP, IRC, Twitter) client developed by the Thunderbird community, and previously by the Mozilla Foundation.
Mailpile
Mailpile is a free, community funded, open source email client with user-friendly encryption and privacy features.
Mailvelope
Mailvelope is a browser extension that enables the exchange of encrypted emails following the OpenPGP encryption standard.
Worth Mentioning
- NeoMutt - NeoMutt is an open-source command line mail reader (or MUA) for Linux and BSD. It’s a fork of Mutt with added features.
Mobile Email Clients
Android Email Clients
FairEmail
FairEmail is a minimal, open source email app, using open standards (IMAP, SMTP, OpenPGP) with a low data and battery usage.
K-9 Mail
K-9 Mail is an independent mail application that supports both POP3 and IMAP mailboxes, but only supports push mail for IMAP.
iOS Email Clients
Canary Mail
Canary Mail is a paid email client designed to make end-to-end encryption seamless with security features such as a biometric app lock.
Closed source
Worth Mentioning
- Letterbox - Letterbox is a free open-source mail client for iOS made as a part of an ongoing research project at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
FairEmail
FairEmail is a minimal, open source email app, using open standards (IMAP, SMTP, OpenPGP) with a low data and battery usage.
K-9 Mail
K-9 Mail is an independent mail application that supports both POP3 and IMAP mailboxes, but only supports push mail for IMAP.
Canary Mail
Canary Mail is a paid email client designed to make end-to-end encryption seamless with security features such as a biometric app lock.
Closed source
Worth Mentioning
- Letterbox - Letterbox is a free open-source mail client for iOS made as a part of an ongoing research project at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.