Forward Email vs StartMail: privacy compared
Forward Email and StartMail are both rated in email providers against the same 21 public criteria. Forward Email does better on open source, independent audit, tells users about requests, security headers, end-to-end encryption, POP3 support, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. StartMail does better on transparency report. Forward Email is based in the United States (Five Eyes); StartMail is based in the Netherlands (Nine Eyes).
| Criterion | Forward Email Our pick | StartMail |
|---|---|---|
| Grade | Grade A A (93/100) | Grade C C (66/100) |
| Jurisdiction | United States Five Eyes | Netherlands Nine Eyes |
| Open source Is all the source code needed to run the product public? | Yes source | No |
| No trackers or telemetry Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default? | Partial source | Partial source |
| No ads or data sales Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data? | Yes source | Yes source |
| Independent audit Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years? | Yes source | No |
| Transparency report Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds? | Partial source | Yes source |
| Tells users about requests Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it? | Yes source | No |
| TLS configuration Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better? | Yes source | Yes source |
| Security headers Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better? | Yes source | Partial source |
| Modern web standards Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test? | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| End-to-end encryption Can mail be end-to-end encrypted so that the provider cannot read message contents? | Yes source | Partial source |
| Encrypted mailbox storage Is stored mail encrypted with a key the provider does not hold? | Yes source | Yes source |
| Open protocols Can any standard app connect over IMAP, POP3, SMTP, CalDAV or CardDAV, without extra software? | Yes source | Yes source |
| Custom domains Can mail be sent and received with your own domain? | Yes source | Yes source |
| Sign up without personal data Can an account be created without a phone number or another email address? | Yes source | Yes source |
| Email security standards Does the mail domain score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl email test? | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| IMAP support Does the IMAP server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 993 and advertise IMAP4rev1 or IMAP4rev2 with IDLE push? | Yes | Yes |
| POP3 support Does the POP3 server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 995 and answer CAPA with UIDL? | Yes | No |
| SMTP submission Does mail submission work over implicit TLS on port 465 with SMTPUTF8, 8BITMIME, PIPELINING and AUTH? | Yes | Yes |
| Mail transport security Does the mail domain enforce encrypted, authenticated delivery with MTA-STS, DANE, DNSSEC, TLS-RPT and an enforced DMARC policy? | Yes | Yes |
| Sender Rewriting Scheme Is the envelope sender rewritten with SRS when mail is forwarded, so forwarded mail keeps passing SPF? | Yes source | No |
| ARC sealing Does the provider validate and add ARC (RFC 8617) signatures, so authentication results survive forwarding? | Yes source | No |
Summaries
Forward Email. Forward Email scores 93 out of 100 (grade A) on the email providers criteria. It meets 17 of 19 criteria: open source, no ads or data sales, independent audit, tells users about requests, TLS configuration, security headers, end-to-end encryption, encrypted mailbox storage, open protocols, custom domains, sign up without personal data, IMAP support, POP3 support, SMTP submission, mail transport security, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. It partly meets no trackers or telemetry and transparency report. It is based in the United States: Five Eyes member; subject to the US CLOUD Act. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade A+.
StartMail. StartMail scores 66 out of 100 (grade C) on the email providers criteria. It meets 10 of 19 criteria: no ads or data sales, transparency report, TLS configuration, encrypted mailbox storage, open protocols, custom domains, sign up without personal data, IMAP support, SMTP submission and mail transport security. It partly meets no trackers or telemetry, security headers and end-to-end encryption. It does not meet open source, independent audit, tells users about requests, POP3 support, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. It is based in the Netherlands: Nine Eyes member; EU member (GDPR). Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade B+.