Email client privacy ratings

Apps for reading and sending email from any provider.

33 email clients are rated against 8 public criteria, and 33 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Our picks are Forward Email or Betterbird. Of the 23 with a known jurisdiction, 14 are based in a Five Eyes country, and 18 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.

Open-source email clients only · Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown

Email clients privacy ratings, sorted by pick and then by grade
Name	Grade	Score	Data	Jurisdiction	Open source	No trackers or telemetry	No ads or data sales	Independent audit	OpenPGP support	Connects directly	Blocks remote content	Works with any provider
Forward Email Our pick Email client for Forward Email accounts, available as webmail and as desktop and mobile apps built from one source-available codebase, with built-in OpenPGP and optional encryption of locally stored data.	Grade B	81	100%	United States Five Eyes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	No
Betterbird Our pick Fork of Mozilla Thunderbird that follows its Extended Support Releases and adds extra fixes and features. Available for Windows, macOS and Linux.	Grade B	89	100%	Germany Fourteen Eyes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Delta Chat Decentralized messenger that uses email servers for delivery, with automatic end-to-end encryption through Autocrypt and OpenPGP. Works with chatmail relays or existing email accounts.	Grade A	92	100%	Germany Fourteen Eyes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes
aerc Terminal email client for Linux and macOS with IMAP, JMAP, Maildir and Notmuch support and PGP encryption through GnuPG.	Grade B	89	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Claws Mail Lightweight GTK email and news client for Linux and Windows, extended through plugins for OpenPGP, HTML rendering and spam filtering.	Grade B	89	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Evolution GNOME groupware application for Linux that combines email, calendar, contacts and tasks, with support for IMAP, POP3, Exchange and OpenPGP.	Grade B	89	100%	United States Five Eyes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
KMail KDE email client for Linux, part of the Kontact suite, with support for IMAP, POP3, OpenPGP and S/MIME.	Grade B	89	100%	Germany Fourteen Eyes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mutt Text-based terminal email client for Unix-like systems with built-in IMAP, POP3 and SMTP support, message threading and OpenPGP and S/MIME encryption.	Grade B	89	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NeoMutt Terminal email client for Linux and macOS based on Mutt, with built-in IMAP, POP3, SMTP and OpenPGP support.	Grade B	89	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Thunderbird for Android Open-source email app for Android from the Thunderbird project, based on K-9 Mail, which remains available as a variant. Works with any IMAP, POP3 and SMTP provider.	Grade B	89	100%	United States Five Eyes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mozilla Thunderbird Open-source desktop email client for Windows, macOS and Linux with calendar, contacts and built-in OpenPGP and S/MIME encryption.	Grade B	86	100%	United States Five Eyes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Alpine Text-based email client derived from Pine, for Unix-like systems and Windows, with built-in IMAP, POP3 and SMTP support and S/MIME encryption.	Grade B	83	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
FairEmail Open-source email app for Android that works with any IMAP, POP3 and SMTP provider and supports multiple accounts with a unified inbox.	Grade B	83	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Himalaya Command-line email client that manages mail over IMAP, JMAP, SMTP, Maildir, the Gmail API and Microsoft Graph, with composing and reading handled by the companion MML tool.	Grade B	83	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Geary Email app for the GNOME desktop on Linux that groups messages into conversations and works with IMAP accounts.	Grade B	78	100%	United States Five Eyes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sylpheed Lightweight GTK email client for Linux, Windows and macOS with POP3, IMAP and SMTP support, junk mail filtering and GnuPG encryption.	Grade C	72	100%	–	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mimestream Closed-source macOS email client for Gmail and Google Workspace accounts that syncs through the Gmail API and supports labels, filters and inbox categories.	Grade D	50	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	Yes	Yes	Partial	No	Partial	Partial	Partial
Apple Mail Email app built into macOS, iOS and iPadOS. Works with iCloud Mail and any IMAP, POP3 or Exchange account.	Grade D	47	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	Partial	Yes	No	No	Yes	Partial	Yes
Airmail Closed-source email client for macOS, iPhone and iPad with support for Gmail, Outlook, Exchange and IMAP accounts, rules, snooze and send later.	Grade D	44	100%	Italy Fourteen Eyes	No	Partial	Yes	No	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes
BlueMail Closed-source email client for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS and Linux that works with IMAP, POP3 and Exchange accounts, with a unified inbox, PGP and S/MIME encryption and optional AI features.	Grade D	42	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Partial	Yes
Canary Mail Email app for macOS, iOS, Android and Windows with built-in PGP encryption, tracker blocking and AI features.	Grade D	42	100%	Singapore Outside Eyes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Partial	Yes
eM Client Desktop and mobile email client for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS with calendar, contacts, chat and built-in PGP and S/MIME.	Grade D	42	100%	Czechia Outside Eyes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Partial	Yes
Mailspring Open-source desktop email client for Windows, macOS and Linux with a unified inbox and optional paid features such as read receipts and send later.	Grade F	39	100%	United States Five Eyes	Partial	No	Yes	No	No	Partial	Partial	Yes
Nine Closed-source email and calendar app for Android and iOS built around Exchange ActiveSync, with email-only support for IMAP accounts.	Grade F	39	100%	South Korea Outside Eyes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Partial	Yes
Mailbird Closed-source desktop email client for Windows, with a separate Mailbird Next app for macOS, that combines several accounts in a unified inbox with calendar and app integrations.	Grade F	33	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gmail app Google's email app for Android and iOS. Works with Gmail and Google Workspace accounts, and can also add Outlook, Yahoo and other IMAP accounts.	Grade F	19	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	No	No	No	Partial	Partial	Yes
Spark Mail Email app for macOS, Windows, iOS and Android with a smart inbox, team sharing and AI features. Push notifications and several features run through its servers.	Grade F	17	100%	Ireland Outside Eyes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
Spike Closed-source email app that shows messages as chat conversations and adds team chat, notes and video meetings, available for web, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.	Grade F	17	100%	Israel Outside Eyes	No	No	Partial	Partial	No	No	No	Yes
Superhuman Mail Closed-source email client for Gmail and Microsoft 365 accounts with keyboard-driven triage, read statuses and AI writing features, available for desktop, web and mobile.	Grade F	14	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	Partial	No	No	No	Partial
Edison Mail Closed-source email client for iOS, Android and macOS from Edison Software, an affiliate of YipitData, that sorts messages into categories such as packages, travel and receipts.	Grade F	11	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Partial	Yes
Microsoft Outlook Microsoft's email and calendar app for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and the web. Works with Outlook.com, Microsoft 365, Exchange and other IMAP accounts.	Grade F	11	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Partial	Yes
SnappyMail Webmail Self-hosted, IMAP-only webmail client forked from RainLoop, with built-in OpenPGP support.	Grade B	89	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
RoundCube Webmail Browser-based multilingual IMAP client with an application-like user interface.	Grade B	84	100%	–	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes

Questions

What is the most private option among email clients?

Our picks are Forward Email or Betterbird. Source-available webmail, desktop and mobile client with built-in OpenPGP and no third-party analytics. It works only with Forward Email accounts, not other IMAP and SMTP providers. Open-source (MPL-2.0) fork of Thunderbird with telemetry reporting turned off and built-in OpenPGP and S/MIME. It connects directly to any IMAP, POP3 and SMTP provider and blocks remote content by default.

How are email clients rated?

Each entry answers 8 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, OpenPGP support, connects directly, blocks remote content and works with any provider. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.

Does jurisdiction matter?

Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.