Cleanmail

Cleanmail is an email-security relay for organisations that want filtering, continuity access and governance around an existing mail service. It fits businesses, public and health organisations, and managed service providers especially well when deployment location and retention rules matter. The trade-off is custom pricing, so buyers must match the service and SLA to a budget they cannot calculate from a published rate.

Overview

Alinto acquired the Swiss specialist Cleanmail in 2016, while Alinto dates its own founding to 2000. Cleanmail is positioned as a layer in front of professional mail servers and other email platforms, rather than a replacement for them. Its compatibility claim and no-infrastructure-change approach suit organisations with established messaging estates and limited appetite for migration work.

Alinto says the service removes 99,9% of spam and email viruses and addresses scams, phishing, spoofing, malware and ransomware. That broad threat scope is relevant to organisations protecting both users and corporate domains, although the percentage is the maker's stated performance claim. A free trial gives prospective customers a way to assess fit before committing to a paid service.

Key features

Inbound and outbound scanning: Incoming traffic is filtered for unwanted and malicious content, while outbound scanning is intended to detect misuse of a mail server and reduce the risk of domain or IP blocklisting. The two-way approach is more useful than inbound-only filtering for organisations accountable for their sending reputation.

Emergency webmail: When the normal messaging service is unavailable, users have an emergency webmail interface. It provides a continuity route during an outage, though it is a fallback rather than a substitute for the organisation's primary mail environment.

Domain and user controls: Administrators can maintain blocklists and allowlists at both domain and individual-user level. That granularity supports central policy with targeted exceptions, avoiding an all-or-nothing rule for every mailbox.

Archiving: Cleanmail can retain non-modifiable copies of incoming and outgoing messages, including attachments, for up to 10 years. The actual retention period depends on business rules and legal requirements, making this valuable for regulated records but something to define during implementation.

Monitoring and logs: The control panel combines real-time tracking, analytics, an overview, log files and self-service log access through the ELK stack. This gives administrators operational evidence for investigation and service oversight rather than relying solely on end-user reports.

Quarantine access: Quarantine is available to both users and administrators, allowing individual review alongside central control.

Deployment and hosting: Alinto offers SaaS, cloud and on-premises options, including dedicated platforms and customer-selected private or public clouds. Its private cloud can be hosted in the European Union, France, Switzerland or another country according to customer requirements, with infrastructure monitored around the clock.

Pricing

Cleanmail is paid software with pricing on request. There is no published seat, message or archive quota to use for a quick cost comparison, so an organisation must obtain a quote based on its deployment, retention and support needs. A free trial is offered, which is useful for validating filtering and continuity requirements before a contract.

Support includes L2 and L3 assistance during office hours, with response and resolution targets governed by the subscribed SLA. Help-desk contact is by email or phone. Buyers needing round-the-clock response or particular remediation times should examine the SLA because support scope and speed are tied to that subscription rather than guaranteed uniformly.

Platforms

Cleanmail is offered as a cloud gateway and supports self-hosted and web access models. It is described as compatible with all professional mail servers and any email platform, so it can be placed around an existing mail system without infrastructure changes. Deployment can be SaaS, public or private cloud, on-premises, or a dedicated customer platform. Private-cloud hosting locations include the EU, France and Switzerland, with other locations possible to meet customer requirements.

Who it's for

Businesses gain a combined inbound and outbound control layer, monitoring and optional long-term archiving without replacing their mail server. Public and health organisations may value emergency access, immutable copies and the ability to choose a hosting location. Managed service providers can use the deployment flexibility and domain- and user-level policy controls across customer environments. Small teams seeking a transparent, low-cost mailbox filter are less well served: custom pricing and SLA-dependent support make the buying process heavier than a fixed-price service.

Pros and cons

Pros

Broad threat coverage: Spam, viruses, phishing, spoofing, malware, ransomware and scams are addressed in one relay.

Continuity during outages: Emergency webmail keeps access available when the primary messaging service is down.

Governance features: Immutable archiving, user and administrator quarantine access, detailed logs and ELK-based monitoring support operational and compliance work.

Flexible placement: SaaS, cloud, on-premises and dedicated deployments, plus selectable private-cloud locations, accommodate different control and residency requirements.

Cons

No public price: Custom quotes prevent straightforward comparison and budgeting before contacting Alinto.

Support depends on the SLA: L2/L3 coverage is during office hours, and response and resolution times vary by subscribed terms.

Retention is conditional: Up to 10 years of archiving is possible, but the period is determined by business and legal rules rather than a single standard allowance.

Alternatives

Choose MailWasher instead when a freemium desktop and mobile option is preferable: its free plan covers one email account, while Pro costs $49.95 a year. JetEmail is the better fit for API or web-based marketing email, with a free tier for 1,000 subscribers and 1 GB of image storage.

Rspamd suits teams wanting a Linux, macOS or self-hosted open-source engine, including a free core. Pick Retarus Transactional Email for API/web transactional sending; its trial lasts 30 days and allows up to 5,000 emails. Sophos Secure Message is an alternative web service with paid Sophos Email tiers and a free trial.

Mailprotector offers a free Radar email-security check and account-manager pricing for its products. MX Guarddog is a freemium web option charging $0.25 address per month with no limit on addresses or messages. Apache SpamAssassin is the choice for free, self-hosted, command-line filtering on Linux and API environments.

Browse more options in Email Anti-Spam Software.

Verdict

Choose Cleanmail when your organisation needs a mail-security gateway that combines two-way scanning, outage access, monitoring, controllable retention and flexible hosting around an existing platform. Look elsewhere if a published per-user price, always-on support terms or a lightweight consumer setup is more important than deployment and governance flexibility.