Fastmail Email vs Thelemail

Fastmail Email provides email, calendars, contacts, and file storage for individuals, families, and businesses. Mail tools include search, pinning, snooze, scheduled sending, offline support, and private memos on messages. Fastmail says its paid service has no ads, personal-data mining, or third-party sharing. It says customer data is encrypted in transit and at rest, supports TLS 1.3 and Perfect Forward Secrecy, and offers two-step verification and passkeys. Customers can choose the EU or US as their primary data residency. Fastmail offers apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, plus a browser app. Access protocols include JMAP, IMAP, POP, SMTP, CardDAV, CalDAV, and WebDAV; OAuth is documented for third-party clients. Fastmail does not provide end-to-end encryption in its own apps, though PGP or S/MIME can be used through supported third-party apps. Plans range from Basic at $4 a month to Family at $14 a month, with different storage and account allowances. The service is paid, has no free plan, and offers a 30-day trial. Every plan includes 24/7 expert support from real people.

Thelemail provides private email hosting for individuals, families, and small teams, including people with custom domains. Mail between Thelemail accounts is encrypted on the sender’s device and decrypted on the recipient’s device; stored mailbox content is ciphertext protected by a random key the server does not hold. For outbound mail, it uses WKD/OpenPGP when the recipient publishes a compatible key, or standard SMTP with TLS where supported. Custom-domain setup verifies ownership and prepares SPF, DKIM, and DMARC before incoming mail is moved. Core mail processing and encrypted mailbox storage are hosted in the EU. The service includes TOTP and WebAuthn two-factor authentication. Its production browser and macOS clients, key transparency log, and local export tool are published under AGPL-3.0; the export tool decrypts mail locally into MBOX files. Apps are listed for Android and iOS. Free plans are available; paid plans start at €2 / month, billed annually. Standard IMAP/SMTP access and a local bridge are not currently available, and Thelemail has not completed an independent security audit or formal compliance certification.