With all of the controversy that has surrounded large commercial email clients, many people are looking at alternatives. Global brands such as Twitter, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have admitted that they sell customer data to advertisers, leading to concerns around privacy and security.
Why choose a secure email client?
If you want to be able to send an email privately – without your client scanning the contents for advertising purposes – then it’s worth looking at other secure email clients on the market, such as Hushmail.
Your secure email client should be suitable for individual and business emails and offer other typical administration services, such as calendar and contacts list features. However, the most important aspect of all in today’s cybercrime age is that every communication and digital data transfer should be completely secure.
Our Hushmail review will tell you everything that you need to know.
What is Hushmail?
Hushmail is based in Canada, and it offers a proprietary service for encrypted emails that use the PGP protocol and vanity domains. It is built on OpenPGP standards. Basically, it’s like any other email client that you might be familiar with, but it offers top-of-the-range security standards and privacy features so that you don’t need to worry about your data getting into the wrong hands.
You can use it as you would any other “standard” email service, too – on your computer, your smartphone or on a digital device, whether you’re in the office, at home or on the go. There’s also a web-browser based version.
Service features
How does Hushmail work?
The extremely high levels of security are offered through advanced encryption. If both users use Hushmail, they will have public encryption keys that allow their software to unlock the message contents upon receipt. This allows the server to deliver encrypted and authenticated messages both ways.
However, no need for panic if your recipient isn’t using Hushmail either. Fortunately, if you tick the Encrypted checkbox, the recipient will read your encrypted email on a secure webpage. Additionally, you can also add a security question to your email as an extra layer of security.
Is Hushmail secure?
Absolutely, and this is one of its main features. In fact, the client is so secure that it’s used in regulated industries, such as the legal and healthcare industries. Here’s an example of how the service offers this exceptional level of security on an iPhone.
The encryption is in place regardless of whether your recipient is using Hushmail. Before the data is sent from your smartphone, it’s encrypted, with the protection being applied to both body message and any attachments. The app can support Touch ID, Face ID, and other multiple aliases and accounts, and it remains completely synced with the webmail account. This allows you to use other features such as settings and contacts seamlessly.
The client actually uses multiple layers of security, such as OpenPGP which protects email contents and SSL/TLS which maintains a secure connection between the user and the server. This is similar to the service offered by a VPN, which provides a secure tunnel between senders and server, as well as encryption for total confidentiality and security. It also masks your location by allowing you to use another IP address from a location of your choosing.
In fact, using the anonymizing power of a VPN along with Hushmail can help provide an extra layer of security, more than that offered by Hushmail alone. So we encourage you to check out some of the most reliable VPN providers on the market and subscribe to a VPN service.
Hushmail for healthcare
Our Hushmail review found that the healthcare industry uses it, for example, to deliver secure communications between provider and patient. The service is so secure that personal health data can be shared online whilst remaining compliant with strict regulatory requirements.
Similarly, legal companies choose to use it as they can send confidential client and legal data without any risk of it being accessed or scanned.
It’s important to note though that Hushmail works completely to the letter of the law and does not condone any illegal activities.
Customer service
Hushmail has a great reputation for its customer service. If you submit a ticket with a query or issue, it should be resolved within 24 hours.
Other features
You’ll find other features and benefits on offer as well, such as:
- A quick and easy form builder
- Unlimited email aliases for premium accounts to help mask your identity
- No advertising
- The option to use two-stage authentication for added security
- Easy contacts importing via a CSV file
- Auto-responder facility
- Spam filter
- Operates via iOs app, web, and mobile web, as well as desktop
- Ability to get mail notifications to other non-Hushmail accounts
- Supports user email signatures
Hushmail vs ProtonMail
Both of these secure email clients are highly popular with individuals, families, and businesses that want to preserve their privacy online. Both Hushmail and ProtonMail offer end-to-end encryption and state of the art security features, as well as a free trial for individual users. However, there are some differences, in terms of features such as storage and attachment limits, and the pricing structures vary as well. The summary below will tell you what you need to know:
Hushmail | ProtonMail | |
Owner | Hushmail Communications | Dr. Andy Yen, Wei Sun and Jason Stockman |
Released | 1999 | 2014 |
Location | Canada | Switzerland |
Free version available | Yes, free 14-day trial available for personal users. | Yes, free to use for a basic private account. |
Cost | For small businesses, the cost is from $5.99 a month per user. For individual use, there is an annual fee of $49.98 with a free refund within a 60 day cancellation period. (The 60-day money-back guarantee applies to all plans.) | ProtonMail plus version at $48 a year Professional at $75 per user, per year Visionary for $288 a year. |
Mailbox storage | Business and premium accounts: 10 GB Free legacy accounts: 25 MB Premium customers who don’t use the desktop version: 1 GB limit. For the healthcare plans with more than 1 user: 15GB | Free version: 500MB Plus and professional: 5 GB Visionary: 20 GB |
Max. attachment limit | the maximum attachment limit is 50 MB for both incoming and outgoing emails. Individual attachments cannot exceed 20 MB each. | 25MB per email – and you can attach up to 100 files per email |
Security features | Two-factor authentication, full protection against: – eavesdropping – review of your content – email forgery – identity theft – government surveillance. | Two-factor authentication End-to-end encryption Cutting-edge security features Benefit of being located in Switzerland, which has strict privacy laws. |
Conclusion
If you want to communicate digitally without any fear of your data getting into advertising, government or cybercriminal hands, then Hushmail could be a great option for you. It is affordable, robust, extremely high-tech and has a good reputation for service. What’s more, it’s affordable and scalable, making it ideal for flexible needs.
VPN specialist and writer
Nadin has been tinkering with computers and gadgets for as long as she can remember. She has extensive knowledge about various topics, including IoT, Linux, digital security, and more. Nowadays, she works as an IT network professional and writes helpful guides in her free time.
Why is Hushmail even considered to be a secure email service.
I was with them a few years back but they told me that unless my email was sent PGP, which was a lot less used back then. The email stays on their servers in an unencrypted format and they can read it just like Gmail can. Not only can they but they do!…
How could this be considered at all without noting that fact??
Hello, Sam. It appears that this issue is a bit more complicated than we had initially thought. But the point is that Hushmail is secure enough for most users. However, it has complied with law enforcement requests in the past. We will dig into this problem further and update the article accordingly. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
I’ve been with Hushmail for several years now and am seeing an increasing number of problems. It locks up and stalls on occasion. It refuses to save drafts then has a brain fart and I lose an email I’m composing. The price keeps increasing by leaps and bounds every year while the stability drops. While they are based in Canada they’re owned by an American company. That I don’t trust.
I’m moving to Mailfence in Sweden.
I feel secure email service is an absolute must have nowadays. Two days ago I wanted to cancel a google playstore sub from my computer, and I could see all the things that I bought using my gmail adress, that creeped me out ! SInce I switched to ProtonMail and I feel a lot better.
The security of this hushmail and protonmail isn’t 100% as both providers already got agreements with organisations and countries abroad when it comes to terrorism, men trade and other criminals actions. But if you are a white board criminal in the financial sector, Switzerland has always offered a welcome hospitality….. and still does!!
I havel a free mailaccount from Husmail from the start up period and it still works. Pity they did stop this service.
Proton still dhas one!
My opinion is if you want a mail with a certain protection against scam, advertising and with some privacy these will do fine but beware : for a second Snowden this mails do not fulfill you requirements!!
hmmmm, this one looks neat, although i wish it had a free version instead of just a trial. at this point it looks like i’m going to go with ProtonMail because I need a secure email but I don’t need a whole lot, so ProtonMail seems like the best candidate.
ProtonMail keeps showing these other guys up, I tell ya. It automatically wins by having a free account and being a Swiss company. It’s a shame these other guys don’t always have a free account so we can check the service out. I’ll be sticking with Proton Mail myself!
Well considering the prices, Hushmail is pretty ok but I wonder how reliable they are. Not saying they aren’t because I haven’t tried them and ProtonMail just inpires more trust to me for some reason. Guess it’s because they’re based in Switzerland and those people really know how to protect their data.
Excellent Mailing service, simple to use end to end encryption, classification, and threat mitigation solution. In all Hushmail is Great!