The 7 best secure email providers

• Secure email providers offer end-to-end encryption to prevent third parties from seeing transmitted content.
• Fully encrypted email providers aren't quite as common as end-to-end encrypted texting services, which offer robust security.
• Here are seven of the best secure email providers you can subscribe to today.

These days, we expect much of our communication to be secure, often with end-to-end encryption. Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal are known for their enhanced security, for example, but many people still use email services that don't prioritize security in the same way. That's ironic because plenty of our routine communication still happens via email. If you want to switch to a secure email provider that can ensure only the intended recipient sees what you've written, here are seven of the best alternatives.

Protonmail

Protonmail is one of the best secure email provider options because of its wealth of security and usability features. It's built on open-source software with true end-to-end encryption, utilizing a zero-knowledge proof, which means that even Protonmail staff can't read the contents of the email it handles. The provider is Swiss-owned and data centers are underground in Switzerland, both nuclear-hardened and protected by Swiss privacy law.

You can use iOS and Android mobile apps as well as webmail. You can start with a free account that includes 500MB of storage. Paid subscriptions start around $6 per month.

Hushmail

Hushmail is a secure email provider that has sculpted plans for a number of specific verticals, including healthcare, law, small business, nonprofits, and personal use. Healthcare providers, for example, should appreciate that Hushmail is HIPAA-compliant and comes with built-in email archiving. The service uses OpenPGP to encrypt email and is located in Canada, protected by Canadian privacy laws. One nice addition: Hushmail offers signable, encrypted web forms along with its email services.

Unfortunately, Hushmail no longer offers a free tier of service. Professional plans start at $5.99 per month and the personal version starts at $49.98 per year. You can use Hushmail on the web as an iOS app. An Android app is forthcoming.

Tutanota

Tutanota combines end-to-end encryption with two-factor authentication and not only encrypts the entire message, including subject line and message header, but encrypts your contacts and offers a secure calendar as well. Tutanota is open-source and a zero-knowledge platform, so the provider's staff has no access to your messages.

You can start using Tutanota for free, with 1GB of storage, but the account is limited — for example, you can only search one month's worth of stored emails. For more robust search, you'll need to step up to a paid plan (which starts around $1 per month for personal plans or $5 per month for business accounts).

Zoho Mail

Zoho is a popular secure email provider because, in addition to offering end-to-end encryption, it's extremely affordable. Zoho uses both encryption in transit and encryption at rest strategies, so the data is unreadable both if intercepted and while stored on its servers. Moreover, Zoho fully supports secure email access like two-factor authentication and single sign-on, and automatically generates unusual activity reports if it sees suspicious account activity.

There are multiple subscription tiers, but Zoho's Mail Lite service is just $1 per month, and with 5GB of storage per user, might be as much as you need. It's also optionally part of a much more comprehensive suite of office productivity tools.

Mailfence

Mailfence is based in Belgium and is protected by that country's robust privacy laws. It relies on full end-to-end encryption, though unlike a solution like Tutanota, the software isn't open-source, and the email in your inbox isn't encrypted (it doesn't encrypt resting data). But Mailfence offers encryption on your calendar, documents, and contacts. There is a free tier of service that gives you 500MB of email storage — probably enough to try the service, but not enough for long-term use. Paid plans start around $3 per month for 5GB and 10 email aliases.

StartMail

StartMail does not offer true end-to-end encryption, but its Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) security is nonetheless strong and protected by Dutch privacy laws. The service features two-factor authentication as well. Created by the same team behind the privacy-minded search engine Startpage, a StartMail account also gives you access to an unlimited number of disposable, anonymous email aliases. There's no free tier of service, but you can get a free seven-day trial and service starts at $2.50 per month for 10GB of email storage.

Because there's no end-to-end encryption, unlike most email providers, StartMail doesn't offer a mobile app (though you can add browser shortcuts to your email). You're expected to use webmail or add your StartMail account to an existing email client.

Posteo

Posteo is a Germany-based secure email provider that offers end-to-end encryption, two-factor authentication, and protection via robust German privacy law. It's one of the few email providers that does not require you to enter any personal information as part of the signup process, and all emails are stripped of their IP addresses, making it extremely difficult to connect you to the account or your messages. In addition to webmail and mobile apps, Posteo also supports IMAP for connection to any mail client.

There's no free account, but you can sign up for an account for as little as about $1 per month. And if green tech is important to you, Posteo runs its data centers on 100% green energy from Green Planet Energy.