eclipso Mail Europe vs Migadu

Compare eclipso Mail Europe and Migadu on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.

Both listed as alternatives to: Gmail, Microsoft 365

eclipso Mail Europe

Germany· Email Services

Needs review

Shortlist when you want German-hosted mail with direct IMAP/SMTP, optional OpenPGP/S/MIME free on all tiers, prepaid freemium cost control, and a small business suite (drive, calendar, hybrid SMS/fax/post). Skip when you need zero-access defaults, published ISO/SOC audits, or large-enterprise identity—consider Posteo, Tuta, Proton Mail, or mailbox.org instead.

Germany-hosted (claimed)OpenPGP + S/MIMEIMAP/SMTP nativePrepaid freemiumOwner-operated DEBusiness DPA (Art. 28)

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Migadu

Switzerland· Email Services

Needs review

Shortlist Migadu when you need Swiss-operated, standards IMAP/SMTP hosting with unlimited addresses across many domains under flat account quotas—especially agencies and multi-domain SMEs. Skip when you need provider E2EE defaults, contractual SLA on the default offer, mailbox 2FA, or bulk/transactional sending; consider Proton Mail/Tuta for E2EE, or mailbox.org/Mailfence/Posteo/Runbox for other European professional-mail tradeoffs.

Swiss operatorUsage-priced multi-domainSMTP/IMAP/POP3Mail hosted in FranceMulti-admin + APINo ads / no tracking

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Highlighted rows differ between the two products.

eclipso Mail Europe vs Migadu: Snapshot
Feature	eclipso Mail Europe	Migadu
Country of origin	Germany	Switzerland
Category	Email Services	Email Services
Open source	No	No
Self-hosted	No	No
Headquarters	Germany	Switzerland
Legal entity	Claus-Peter Beringer (eclipso Mail Europe), Grubstr. 9b, 95445 Bayreuth	Migadu-Mail GmbH
Governing law	German / EU law (GDPR, BDSG); BayLDA supervisory authority named in privacy notice	Canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Swiss Confederation (terms)
US parent / control	No known US parent	No known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Medium	Medium
Hosting / residency	Primary hosting claimed exclusively in Germany; privacy policy names Speedloc Datacenter (Görlitz) with AVV. Optional SMS/fax/post: Commify Germany, CM.com Germany, letterei.de (all DE). Payments: Stripe Payments Europe and PayPal (Europe). Site: Google reCAPTCHA; marketing ad partners documented; Matomo self-hosted analytics.	Mail servers stated in France (EU). Payment subprocessors Stripe and PayPal (US) for billing data. Full mail infrastructure/backup subprocessor list not published by name on primary pages.
Summary	Owner-operated German email and cloud suite with IMAP, optional OpenPGP/S/MIME, prepaid freemium, Drive/organizer, and hybrid SMS/fax/post—hosted in Germany.	Swiss-operated, standards-based email hosting for custom domains: unlimited addresses and multi-domain accounts priced by usage quotas, not per mailbox.
Tags	privacy email gdpr germany openpgp prepaid cloud-storage imap	privacy saas api email-hosting standards-based multi-domain

At a glance: eclipso Mail Europe vs Migadu
At a glance	eclipso Mail Europe	Migadu
HQ	Bayreuth, Germany	Not listed
Legal entity	Claus-Peter Beringer (owner-operated)	Not listed
Founded	2003 (vendor)	2014 (vendor About)
Hosting	Germany; Speedloc Datacenter (Görlitz) named in privacy policy	Not listed
Open source	No	Not listed
Self-hosted	No (SaaS)	Not listed
Commercial model	Freemail (ad-supported) + prepaid paid tiers	Flat per-account plans by daily message quotas + soft storage
Encryption	Optional OpenPGP + S/MIME; TLS in transit	Not listed
HQ / entity	Not listed	Migadu-Mail GmbH, Switzerland
Mail hosting	Not listed	Data centers in France (vendor Pro/Cons)
Open source product?	Not listed	No — built on open-source stack; service is proprietary SaaS
Self-host	Not listed	No
Ownership	Not listed	Bootstrapped; no outside capital (vendor claim)

Key capabilities: eclipso Mail Europe vs Migadu
Key capabilities	eclipso Mail Europe	Migadu
Germany-hosted (claimed)	Yes	Not listed
OpenPGP + S/MIME	Yes	Not listed
IMAP/SMTP native	Yes	Not listed
Prepaid freemium	Yes	Not listed
Owner-operated DE	Yes	Not listed
Business DPA (Art. 28)	Yes	Not listed
Swiss operator	Not listed	Yes
Usage-priced multi-domain	Not listed	Yes
SMTP/IMAP/POP3	Not listed	Yes
Mail hosted in France	Not listed	Yes
Multi-admin + API	Not listed	Yes
No ads / no tracking	Not listed	Yes

eclipso Mail Europe

Native OpenPGP and S/MIME in every plan
OpenPGP (RFC 4880/9580) key wizard and import work in webmail and apps, free from Freemail upward; S/MIME accepts user-supplied X.509 certificates for business clients. E2EE only applies when both sides use it—plain IMAP mail is not zero-access by default. Private keys for webmail PGP are held in the account under a passphrase for multi-device use.
Standard IMAP, POP3, SMTP plus CalDAV/CardDAV
Direct protocol access for Thunderbird, Outlook, Apple Mail, and mobile clients without a bridge product. Calendar and contacts sync via CalDAV/CardDAV; Premium and Business add WebDAV for the cloud drive. Suits teams that refuse locked-in web-only mail.
German-hosted suite: mail, drive, organizer
One account covers webmail, eclipso Drive file storage with link sharing, Media Center, calendar, address book, notes, and tasks. Vendor claims exclusive Germany data centres (privacy policy names Speedloc Datacenter, Görlitz). Storage and address limits scale by prepaid tariff; WebDAV and higher quotas need paid tiers.
Prepaid freemium with optional hybrid channels
Freemail signs up without credit card or phone number and is ad-supported; paid Connect/Premium/Business terms are prepaid and end automatically after a reminder. Credits enable SMS, fax, and hybrid physical post through named German gateways—useful for crafts and SMEs still on those channels.
Business domain and Art. 28 DPA on Business plan
Business includes a custom mail domain option, higher alias counts, daily send limits suitable for small campaigns, and an in-product Art. 28 GDPR DPA download per vendor docs. Not a full enterprise workspace: no public SCIM/SSO pack or multi-org admin model documented.

Migadu

Usage-metered accounts with unlimited addresses
Plans are flat per Migadu account. Within daily in/out quotas and soft storage guidance, create large numbers of mailboxes and host many domains without per-address fees—useful for agencies and multi-project teams. Soft storage does not hard-bounce mail; sustained over-quota use can force upgrades or limits.
Standards SMTP, IMAP4, POP3, and webmail
No proprietary client protocol. Connect Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Outlook, mutt, and others over TLS (typical endpoints imap.migadu.com:993, smtp.migadu.com:465, pop.migadu.com:995). ManageSieve filtering, aliases, pattern rewrites, identities, footers, auto-responders, and optional catch-alls cover classic postmaster needs. Data remains portable via standard protocols.
Multi-domain admin, multi-admin, and beta API
Agencies can hold many client domains under one roof, open multiple administrators (domain-scoped on higher plans), set per-domain/mailbox limits, and monitor traffic. A REST API (documented as early beta) manages domains, mailboxes, identities, forwardings, aliases, and rewrites for automation. Domain deletion stays UI-only as a safety measure.
DNS helpers and postmaster-style support
Optional built-in DNS ships mail records preconfigured; Migadu also offers DNS setup help at no extra fee and publishes diagnostics/activation flows. Support is ticket-based from people who operate the mail stack—not outsourced chat—with plan-dependent urgency outside office hours.
No ads, no product analytics cookies
Vendor policy states no advertising, no tracking of mailbox content for ads, and no website analytics cookies beyond session needs. Processing is framed for service delivery, abuse prevention, and legal obligations. Payment data still goes to Stripe and PayPal under separate processor terms.

Assurance & compliance: eclipso Mail Europe vs Migadu
Assurance & compliance	eclipso Mail Europe	Migadu
Independent security / no-logs audit	Not found No public third-party security or no-logs audit PDF located on official pages	Not found Vendor claims no ad scanning/sharing of mail content; no public third-party audit PDF located.
ISO 27001	Not found No ISO 27001 claim found on official security/about pages at research time	Not found Data centers described as internationally certified; no Migadu-organization ISO 27001 certificate found on primary pages.
SOC 2 / SOC 3	Not found No SOC 2/3 report referenced on official site	Not found
GDPR / EU data protection	Vendor claimed German controller, DPO contact, BayLDA authority, GDPR rights language in privacy policy; servers claimed in Germany	Vendor claimed Privacy policy asserts GDPR and Swiss DPA compliance; mail hosted in France per vendor.
US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Partial EU/DE owner-operated entity with DE hosting (Speedloc), but Stripe, PayPal, and Google reCAPTCHA/ad tooling introduce US-group processing paths for payment and website data. Not legal advice.	Partial Swiss entity, no known US parent, mail in France; Stripe and PayPal process payments with US transfers. Infrastructure subprocessors not fully named. EuropeanStack assessment—not a vendor certification. Not legal advice.
Data processing agreement (B2B)	Vendor claimed Art. 28 DPA described as included and downloadable on Business plan; confirm for lower tiers	Vendor claimed Privacy page states it serves as privacy policy and DPA; confirm suitability with counsel.
EU AI Act	Not applicable Email/cloud suite; not an AI system product	Not applicable Email hosting product; not an AI system offering.

Considerations & known limitations: eclipso Mail Europe vs Migadu
Considerations & known limitations	eclipso Mail Europe	Migadu
Not zero-access by default	Medium Without OpenPGP/S/MIME, mailbox content is accessible to the operator like traditional IMAP hosts. Webmail PGP private keys are stored in-account under a passphrase—review threat model vs pure local keys.	Not listed
US-group payment and site tooling	Medium Stripe, PayPal, Google reCAPTCHA, and documented ad partners process personal data outside pure DE mailbox hosting. Material for CLOUD Act and transfer diligence even if mail servers stay in Germany.	Not listed
No public ISO/SOC or independent audit	Medium Security assurance is first-party documentation only. Regulated buyers will need questionnaires, AVVs, and possibly on-request evidence.	Medium Privacy and no-ad-scanning claims are first-party. No independent audit report found for no-logs or security controls.
Freemail is ad-supported	Low Free tier includes advertising as a service component. Paid tiers are marketed as ad-free; verify current footer/banner behaviour on the live product.	Not listed
Owner-operated scale limits	Low Independent DE operator (not VC-backed hyperscale). Expect SME-grade support hours and product depth rather than global enterprise SLAs.	Not listed
US payment subprocessors (Stripe, PayPal)	Not listed	Medium Billing-related personal data can transfer to US processors under Migadu’s privacy policy. Mail content path is France/EU per vendor, but payment data is a separate CLOUD Act / transfer surface.
Incomplete public infrastructure subprocessor list	Not listed	Medium Primary pages name France hosting and certified DCs without a full vendor inventory for compute, storage, and backups. Procurement should request the current list and regions in writing.
No E2EE product default; no classic mailbox 2FA	Not listed	Medium Standards mail with TLS; vendor recommends user-side OpenPGP for strong content secrecy. IMAP 2FA is not offered; app-specific-style identities are not second-factor MFA.
Daily quotas and human-mail policy	Not listed	Medium Account-wide daily in/out caps and anti-bulk rules make Migadu unsuitable as a transactional/marketing ESP. Over-limit mail can be deferred or rejected after tolerance.
No default SLA on standard plans	Not listed	Low Vendor states standard offers lack SLAs; email is treated as asynchronous and occasionally disrupted. Enterprise SLA only via separate commercial discussion.

Fit

eclipso Mail Europe

Best fit when

Individuals and freelancers who want German mail with Thunderbird/Outlook IMAP and optional OpenPGP without a bridge
SMEs needing a custom domain, German server claims, and an Art. 28 DPA on the Business plan
Buyers who prefer prepaid terms that end automatically over auto-renewing Big Tech suites
Users who still send SMS, fax, or hybrid physical post from the same account
Teams migrating from Gmail/Outlook that value CalDAV/CardDAV and a bundled drive/organizer

Poor fit when

Orgs that require zero-access architecture where the provider never stores decryptable mailbox keys by default
Enterprises needing public ISO 27001/SOC 2 reports, SCIM/SSO, or multi-tenant admin
Buyers who refuse any US-group payment or website tooling (Stripe, PayPal, Google reCAPTCHA/ads)
Users seeking open-source or self-hosted mail only

Consider instead when

When: You want a simple paid-only German privacy mailbox without freemium advertising
Consider: Posteo
Posteo is ad-free paid; eclipso differentiates with freemail and hybrid channels
When: You prioritise always-on encryption over standard IMAP clients
Consider: Tuta or Proton Mail
Tuta uses proprietary E2EE clients; Proton needs Bridge for full IMAP-style access
When: You need a broader paid German workplace suite with stronger enterprise packaging
Consider: mailbox (formerly mailbox.org)
Compare admin, audit, and collaboration depth on current vendor docs
When: You need Google/Microsoft collaboration depth more than EU operator control
Consider: Gmail or Microsoft 365
Different jurisdiction and data-use models

Migadu

Best fit when

Agencies and freelancers hosting many client domains under one account with multi-admin or API provisioning
Organizations that want custom-domain mail with standard clients and portable IMAP—not a proprietary suite lock-in
Teams tired of per-seat pricing for large address spaces with modest real traffic
Buyers who value a small bootstrapped Swiss operator that publishes blunt product limits
Setups that need aliases, rewrites, identities, SIEVE, and postmaster-style controls more than collab apps

Poor fit when

Primary need is end-to-end encrypted mail by default (Proton Mail, Tuta, or user-side OpenPGP workflows)
High-volume transactional, marketing, or bulk outbound mail
Requirement for default contractual SLA, phone support, or multi-language admin UI
Mandatory mailbox 2FA on every IMAP login
Want a free long-term plan or Migadu-branded @provider addresses without owning a domain

Consider instead when

When: You need provider-managed end-to-end encryption as the default product promise
Consider: Proton Mail or Tuta
Migadu is standards hosting with TLS; content secrecy against the operator is not the design center.
When: You want another European professional host with a different admin/encryption/residency package
Consider: mailbox.org, Mailfence, Posteo, or Runbox
Compare DPA detail, audit packaging, and whether multi-domain usage pricing still wins for your address sprawl.
When: You need full workspace suite (docs, meet, identity) rather than email hosting alone
Consider: Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or Infomaniak-style European suites
Migadu deliberately stays postmaster-focused.
When: You need bulk or high-rate application email
Consider: A dedicated ESP (not Migadu); Amazon SES is the common Big Tech baseline—pair with EU ESPs if residency matters
Migadu rate-limits and bans intentional bulk use.

Open questions for due diligence

eclipso Mail Europe

Can non-Business tariffs obtain a signed Art. 28 DPA and full subprocessor list on request?
Is Speedloc the sole host for mailbox content (not only the marketing site), and are backup/DR locations exclusively in Germany?
Are independent penetration tests or ISO plans available under NDA for enterprise buyers?
What exact data minimisation applies to freemail advertising versus paid ad-free tiers (inbox content vs account metadata)?
How are OpenPGP private keys encrypted at rest in the account store, and is export/deletion documented for offboarding?

Migadu

What are the current named mail hosting, backup, and ancillary subprocessors and their countries?
Can Migadu provide ISO/SOC evidence for the organization or only DC-level certifications?
Is an independent security or penetration-test summary available under NDA?
Does the privacy-page DPA meet your controller’s mandatory clauses without a separate signed agreement?
What encryption-at-rest and key-management practices apply today versus the older public pro/con narrative?