In the midst of 2013, the Mailfence project was started by the founders of ContactOffice. In March 2016, the company released the publicBETA version of their end-to-end encryption and digital signatures for emails.
Features
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 contacts support import, export and can be accessed using CardDAV. Users organize them with tags and can also create contact lists.
Calendar
The calendar supports vCal/iCal import, export and can be accessed by using CalDAV. Users can share their calendars with group members and can also create polls.
Documents
The documents can be accessed using WebDAV or edited online. Users can drag and drop files in folders and categorize them with tags.
Groups
Groups allow users to share mailboxes, documents, contacts, calendars and perform instant chatting with group members in a secure way. A group administrator manages the access rights of group members and can also set another group member as co-admin or the main admin of the group.
Web-based clients
The web-interface comes with an embedded IMAP, POP3, CalDAV, and WebDAV client. Users can add external accounts and manage them centrally in the web-interface.
User management
Account owners can create and manage users using the admin console.
Server location
Since their servers are located in Belgium, they are legally outside of US jurisdiction. Mailfence is therefore not subjected to US gag orders and NSLs, notwithstanding extradition treaties with the US . Under Belgian law, all national and international surveillance requests must go through a Belgian court.
The service uses an open-source implementation of OpenPGP. Private keys are generated in the client-browser, encrypted with the user's passphrase, and then stored on the server. The server never sees the user's passphrase. The service also supports end-to-end encryption using passwords with the possibility of message expiration.
Digital signatures
The service gives the choice between "signing", or "signing and encrypting" an email message with or without attachments.
The service provides an integrated Keystore to manage PGP keys, and does not require any third-party add-on/plugin. OpenPGP keypairs can be generated, imported or exported. Public keys of other users can be imported through file or in-line text or can be downloaded directly from Public key servers.
Full OpenPGP interoperability
Users can communicate with any OpenPGP compatible service provider.
