Private-Mail Review

Private-Mail is a new secure email product for individuals and businesses from the makers of TorGuard VPN and TorGuard Email. It’s not even a year since TorGuard Email has been introduced, but now it seems that TorGuard has decided to seriously compete with the best in secure email market.

So should you switch from TorGuard Email or any other secure email to Private-Mail? Is it safe enough? Read more about what features and innovations Private-Mail brings to the table.

Private-Mail features

For starters, Private-Mail offers not only email service but also encrypted cloud storage designed for secure sharing – something that was absent in TorGuard’s previous secure email client. As your files on Secure Cloud are stored and encrypted separately from your email, this provides added security – in the unlikely event that your email account gets compromised, your cloud storage will remain safe.

This is not the only news from the creators of Private-Mail. Their secure email solution boasts the following features as well:

1. Secure OpenPGP email encryption

Inherited from the TorGuard Email, secure OpenPGP email encryption gives a 100% guarantee that your data will remain private. Being compatible with OpenPGP, Private-Mail provides you with unbreakable security and also allows you to store PGP keys in your browser. Now you’ll be able to keep away the advertisers from accessing and selling your data.

2. Cloud Storage encryption

Private-Mail cloud storage uses Paranoid encryption to protect your file uploads with military-grade AES-256 cipher. Since you are the only one who has the key, there’s no way a third-party, or even Private-Mail, could read the contents of your files.

3. MITM attack protection

Private-Mail will protect you against the so-called man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks and similar threats. That’s possible because of the encryption which makes it impossible for any third-party to read or intercept your email correspondence.

4. Ease of access

While it’s impossible for others to read your emails, it’s really easy for you to access them. Although it has desktop and mobile clients, Private-Mail doesn’t require any specific software and can be managed from anywhere in the world without any compromise to security. All you need is a web browser to access your data.

5. Great for businesses

While many secure emails are fit for individuals, not all can serve the needs of business clients. That’s not the case with Private-Mail. It allows you to manage everything with a single admin account, use Groupware for collaboration with your team, and customize the inbox with whitelabel branding or your own domain name.

6. Feature-rich webmail

Focusing on privacy often leaves secure emails lacking in features that we’re used to. Luckily, Private-Mail has its own calendar (which can be synced with your smartphone), tasks, notes, bulk import, email alias, and IMAP/POP3 support. Most importantly, its advanced search will allow you to quickly find the right message without sifting through them all.

7. Email Alias

The problem of even the most secure email is that once your address goes public, you can expect unwanted messages in your inbox. To counter that, Private-Mail allows you to create email aliases that act as forwarders. Once you don’t need it, simply delete the alias, and no more messages will be coming your way.

8. 24/7 customer support

Private-Mail clients in the US can benefit from 24/7 phone support, while live chat is also available. And if this is the same support team we know from TorGuard VPN, be ready for polite and knowledgeable representatives that will address all your concerns.

How does Private-Mail work?

Private-Mail uses OpenPGP encryption to secure both sending and receiving. You don’t have to provide any personal information to create a Private-Mail account. Even if you did, it wouldn’t be accessible to TorGuard due to the encryption.

What’s more, you don’t need any special software to use your Private-Mail account – your webmail inbox is accessible with any web browser. In addition, business clients can also set up IMAP and POP3 accounts. Finally, you can also use a desktop, Android, or iOS client for your convenience.

The cloud storage that comes with Private-Mail encrypts your files with the help of Paranoid encryption that uses bank-grade 256-bit AES cipher. And since it’s separate from your email storage, one will always stay safe in case another gets compromised.

Is Private-Mail secure?

Private-Mail is as secure as secure email gets. Encrypted using OpenPGP, your content is beyond access even to Private-Mail creators. The keys are stored locally and can be easily imported to any browser for use anywhere in the world. As your emails get encrypted and decrypted locally, there’s no way for third-parties to alter their contents.

The Private-Mail network undergoes regular security audits to make sure your data remains private. The combination of OpenPGP, AES, RSA encryption algorithms, and open-source software means that your emails are protected by state of the art solutions.

Is Private-Mail anonymous?

Private-Mail is as anonymous as a real secure email should. To start with, you don’t need to provide any personal information when creating an account. Furthermore, your data is encrypted on the client side in such a way that no one, not even the Private-Mail team can decipher it.

Private-Mail has no ads, and doesn’t track, store, or log any of your information. But your anonymity also depends on whether you can stay incognito before and after using secure email. For that, it’s recommended that you use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

Using a VPN will hide your IP address both from the ISP and other third-parties. It will also encrypt your whole connection, putting all your traffic in a safe tunnel that no one can access. Therefore, to stay truly anonymous while using Private-Mail, we recommend getting any of the Top 10 VPN services.

Private-Mail pricing

Private-Mail offers more than one plan aimed at individuals and businesses:

• Free – 100 MB email and 100 MB cloud storage
• Standard – 10 GB email and 10 GB cloud storage – $8.95/month
• Pro – 20 GB email and 20 GB cloud storage – $15.95/month
• Business Pro – 100 GB email and 100 GB cloud storage – $64.95/month

The plans differ not only in storage space. The most basic free plan has only webmail access, while Standard adds iOS and Android Private-Mail apps, 5 email aliases, priority support, and extra client functionality (contacts, calendar, synchronization).

The Pro plan is not that much different from the Standard one in terms of quality, but it sure makes up for its almost double price with twice as much storage and 20 email aliases.

Finally, the most luxurious Business Pro plan for Private-Mail includes ten separate email accounts, custom domain, custom logo, and the option to configure POP3, IMAP, and SMTP access.

Is Private-Mail cheap compared to the competition?

Comparing Private-Mail prices to those of its competitors is hard because the features offered are optional to some and vital to others. For example, Private-Mail’s Standard plan offers 10 GB of storage compared to the similarly-priced industry leader ProtonMail‘s 5 GB Professional plan. But the latter gives you two custom domains, and Private-Mail offers those only in Business Pro.

Yet if we had to draw a conclusion on Private-Mail pricing, it’s quite similar to that of the best secure emails. Even though the service has just started, expect them to join the VIP club – if not this year, then in 2020 for sure.

Private-Mail vs. ProtonMail

Let’s see how Private-Mail compares with ProtonMail.