Email providers
GandiMail privacy rating
Paid email hosting for custom domains from Gandi, a French domain registrar, with SOGo and Roundcube webmail and standard protocol access.
Summary
GandiMail scores 34 out of 100 (grade F) on the email providers criteria. It meets 6 of 19 criteria: no ads or data sales, transparency report, open protocols, custom domains, IMAP support and POP3 support. It partly meets TLS configuration, security headers and SMTP submission. It does not meet open source, no trackers or telemetry, independent audit, tells users about requests, end-to-end encryption, encrypted mailbox storage, sign up without personal data, mail transport security, Sender Rewriting Scheme and ARC sealing. It is based in France: Nine Eyes member; EU member (GDPR). Automated tests: SSL Labs grade B and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade B.
Score 34 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
- No
-
No
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
The privacy policy lists AT Internet audience-measurement cookies, which can be opted out of.
-
Yes
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
Funded by paid mailbox plans. No ads.
-
No
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
No independent audit is published. Gandi states ISO 27001 certification, but no report is public.
-
Yes
Transparency report Weight 2 of 3
Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?
Yearly reports with counts of information requests from authorities and content notices.
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No
Tells users about requests Weight 1 of 3
Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?
No published policy on notifying users about data requests.
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No
End-to-end encryption Weight 3 of 3
Can mail be end-to-end encrypted so that the provider cannot read message contents?
Not supported.
-
No
Encrypted mailbox storage Weight 3 of 3
Is stored mail encrypted with a key the provider does not hold?
Encryption at rest for stored mail is not documented.
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Yes
Open protocols Weight 2 of 3
Can any standard app connect over IMAP, POP3, SMTP, CalDAV or CardDAV, without extra software?
IMAP, POP3 and SMTP work with any client on every plan.
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Yes
Custom domains Weight 1 of 3
Can mail be sent and received with your own domain?
Every mailbox uses your own domain, registered with Gandi or elsewhere.
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No
Sign up without personal data Weight 2 of 3
Can an account be created without a phone number or another email address?
Creating a Gandi account requires an existing email address, and purchases require contact and payment details.
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No
Sender Rewriting Scheme Weight 1 of 3
Is the envelope sender rewritten with SRS when mail is forwarded, so forwarded mail keeps passing SPF?
The forwarding documentation warns that forwarded mail may fail SPF checks, and no SRS is documented.
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No
ARC sealing Weight 1 of 3
Does the provider validate and add ARC (RFC 8617) signatures, so authentication results survive forwarding?
No published documentation on ARC signing or validation.
Automated tests
-
Partial
TLS configuration Weight 2 of 3
Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?
Grade B
-
Partial
Security headers Weight 1 of 3
Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?
Grade B (75/100+)
-
Not tested yet
Modern web standards Weight 1 of 3
Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?
Not tested yet.
-
Not tested yet
Email security standards Weight 2 of 3
Does the mail domain score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl email test?
Not tested yet.
-
Yes
IMAP support Weight 2 of 3
Does the IMAP server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 993 and advertise IMAP4rev1 or IMAP4rev2 with IDLE push?
mail.gandi.net:993 (implicit TLS). IMAP4rev1 advertised with IDLE.
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Yes
POP3 support Weight 1 of 3
Does the POP3 server accept connections over implicit TLS on port 995 and answer CAPA with UIDL?
mail.gandi.net:995 (implicit TLS). CAPA: CAPA, TOP, UIDL, RESP-CODES, PIPELINING, AUTH-RESP-CODE, USER, SASL.
-
Partial
SMTP submission Weight 2 of 3
Does mail submission work over implicit TLS on port 465 with SMTPUTF8, 8BITMIME, PIPELINING and AUTH?
mail.gandi.net:465 (implicit TLS). Missing: SMTPUTF8.
-
No
Mail transport security Weight 3 of 3
Does the mail domain enforce encrypted, authenticated delivery with MTA-STS, DANE, DNSSEC, TLS-RPT and an enforced DMARC policy?
Passes: SPF. Missing: DMARC none, MTA-STS missing, TLS-RPT, DNSSEC, DANE none.
Email standards
- Yes: Mail serversMXmail8.gandi.net, mail12.gandi.net
- Yes: RFC 7208 sender policySPFpublished
- No: RFC 7489. Quarantine or reject counts as enforcedDMARCp=none
- No: RFC 8461 strict transport securityMTA-STSmissing
- No: RFC 8460 TLS failure reportsTLS-RPTmissing
- No: RFC 4033 signed DNSDNSSECnot validated
- No: RFC 7672 TLSA records on MX hostsDANEnone
- No: Brand logo record (not scored)BIMInone
- No: RFC 6186 and RFC 8314 service records (not scored)SRVnone
IMAP mail.gandi.net:993 · implicit TLS
- IMAP4REV1
- LOGIN-REFERRALS
- ID
- ENABLE
- IDLE
- SASL-IR
- LITERAL+
- AUTH=PLAIN
POP3 mail.gandi.net:995 · implicit TLS
- CAPA
- TOP
- UIDL
- RESP-CODES
- PIPELINING
- AUTH-RESP-CODE
- USER
- SASL
SMTP submission mail.gandi.net:465 · implicit TLS
- PIPELINING
- SIZE
- VRFY
- ETRN
- AUTH
- ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
- 8BITMIME
- DSN
Capabilities are what each server advertises before login. How these tests work