Alt Web

Posteo

Alternative to commercial American email providers such as Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo, which analyse your messages

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Description

Posteo is an independent email provider in Berlin: for €1 a month, it offers an ad-free mailbox with calendar and address book, financed only by its users. It is an alternative to Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo, whose free accounts are paid for with advertising and data.

Patrik and Sabrina Löhr founded it in 2009. The company, Posteo e.K., has no investors and no loans, and says it has more than half a million customers and a team of over 40. Its servers run on green electricity from the cooperative Green Planet Energy, and it banks with GLS Bank and Umweltbank. Signing up needs no personal details, payment can be made in cash, and payment data aren’t linked to the account; its transparency report shows that in 2025 it received 85 requests from authorities and could release no user data, because it holds none.

The €1 includes 4 GB of storage (doubled in February 2026), three aliases and three calendars; extra storage costs €0.25 per GB a month (checked November 2026). Posteo encrypts connections, can encrypt the whole mailbox at the click of a button, and only sends mail over encrypted connections when that option is on. It works with any email program over IMAP and POP3. Stiftung Warentest named it test winner in 2015, 2016 and September 2026, with a grade of 1.7. It doesn’t accept custom domains: addresses end in posteo.de, .net or .com.

Strengths

  • No advertising, no investors and no loans: the company lives only on its customers’ €1 a month.
  • Anonymous sign-up and cash payment, so in 2025 there was no user data to give the authorities.
  • Green electricity from Green Planet Energy, and money held at GLS Bank and Umweltbank.

Weaknesses

  • There is no free plan, and more storage than 4 GB costs extra.
  • Custom domains aren’t supported, so a business or a family name can’t be used as an address.
  • The spam filter can’t be switched off, and the encryption on arrival is not end-to-end encryption.

Who it is for

Individuals and families who want to leave Gmail or Outlook for a private mailbox and are ready to pay €12 a year. Small businesses that need their own domain will have to look elsewhere.

Sources

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