Disroot Email vs Riseup Email

Disroot Email provides free email accounts through webmail and desktop or mobile email clients. Its Roundcube webmail includes threaded messages, filters, folders, attachment previews, and MIME and HTML support. Mail clients can connect using IMAP over SSL, SMTP with STARTTLS, SMTPS with TLS, or POP over SSL; suggested options include Thunderbird, Evolution, KMail, ClawsMail, Mailpile, K-9 Mail, FairEmail, and iOS Mail. Connections to the mail server use SSL, while outgoing messages use TLS if the recipient’s server supports it. Messages remain unencrypted on Disroot’s servers unless users encrypt them themselves. Disroot says its data is stored on its own servers in a Netherlands data center. Email logs may include usernames, IP addresses, and sender and recipient addresses; they are retained for 48 hours and not backed up. The free email plan includes a 1 GB mailbox and 64 MB attachments. Plus addressing routes sub-addresses to the original mailbox. Users can link a custom domain for sending and receiving mail through a lifetime feature tied to a donation amount they choose. The service supports Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web, Windows, and extensions.

Riseup Email is a free email account available through webmail or a mail client. Riseup describes the service as part of movement-run communications infrastructure for activists and allies. New accounts require an invite code from someone who trusts the applicant, and each account has 1 GB of storage. Riseup recommends Thunderbird and lists mail-client options for Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS. Clients connect using IMAP or POP, with SMTP for outgoing mail. Riseup says messages are individually encrypted on its servers and can be unlocked with the account password, but the service is not end-to-end or client encrypted unless users add Mailvelope or another OpenPGP solution. It says it does not log users’ internet addresses or include the sender’s IP address in outgoing email. Riseup services have Tor onion services, and email to certain activist providers is delivered over them. Trash messages are deleted after 21 days and Spam after 7 days. Riseup does not back up all old messages, so users are responsible for keeping their own copies. The service is funded entirely by small user donations.