Cleanmail vs MailChannels Inbound Filtering

Cleanmail is Alinto’s email security relay for filtering unwanted and malicious messages. Alinto says it eliminates 99,9% of spam messages and email viruses, and protects against scams, phishing, spoofing, malware, and ransomware. An outbound scanner checks outgoing mail to help prevent server misuse and domain or IP blocklisting. Administrators can manage allowlists and blocklists at the domain and individual-user levels. The control panel provides real-time tracking, analytics, and log files, with self-service log access using the ELK stack. If the standard messaging service is unavailable, an emergency webmail interface provides another way to access email. Cleanmail can archive non-modifiable copies of incoming and outgoing mail, including attachments, for up to 10 years, subject to business rules and legal requirements. Alinto describes it as compatible with professional mail servers and says it does not require changes to existing infrastructure. Deployment choices include SaaS, cloud, and on-premises options, including dedicated platforms and customer-selected private or public clouds. Alinto says its private cloud is hosted in the EU, France, Switzerland, or another country according to customer requirements. Pricing is on request, and a free trial is available.

MailChannels Inbound Filtering blocks spam, phishing, and malware before they reach hosted inboxes. It is designed for hosting providers that handle mail at scale, with a multi-tenant setup: one MX record can protect domains across a provider’s fleet, while controls remain available for individual domains. Multiple independent detection engines identify threats, and the product says it enforces SSL/TLS, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC inline, preventing mail that fails authentication from reaching customers. Customers can manage safelists, blocklists, and false-positive recovery. Intelligent Quarantine offers senders a self-service release link, and a daily digest lets users release legitimate held messages with one click. Log Search enables customers and support agents to find messages in mail history. The service supports downstream SMTP mail servers and has a cPanel and WHM plugin; the plugin requires cPanel and WHM version 68 or higher and PHP 5.6 or higher. Setup includes domain provisioning, mail-server preparation, and routing inbound traffic through MailChannels. Pricing is on request. The product page advertises a 30-minute human response, 24/7, from engineers.