Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office vs Mailfence

Compare Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office and Mailfence on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.

Both listed as alternatives to: Gmail, Microsoft 365, Outlook.com

Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office

Switzerland· Email Services

Needs review

Shortlist Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office when you need Swiss-hosted custom-domain IMAP mail plus Open-Xchange calendars, Drive, and optional browser docs under Hostpoint AG—with Swiss human support and free mailbox migration. Skip when you require end-to-end zero-access mail (consider Proton Mail) or a full Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace admin stack; for another Swiss multi-product cloud suite, compare Infomaniak kMail.

Swiss-hosted mailCustom domain IMAPOpen-Xchange Cloud OfficeDrive + CalDAV/CardDAV7-day Swiss supportB2B DPA (GTC annex)

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Mailfence

Belgium· Email Services

Needs review

Shortlist Mailfence when you want Belgian-operated webmail with interoperable OpenPGP, digital signatures, and a light calendar/documents suite—plus optional business private-label or on-prem license. Skip when you need automatic closed E2EE without key management (consider Tuta), a large Swiss privacy ecosystem (Proton Mail), or a minimalist German mailbox (Posteo / mailbox.org).

EU-operated (Belgium)OpenPGP E2EEDigital signaturesMail + calendar + docsCustom domains (paid)B2B DPA available

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Highlighted rows differ between the two products.

Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office vs Mailfence: Snapshot
Feature	Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office	Mailfence
Country of origin	Switzerland	Belgium
Category	Email Services	Email Services
Open source	No	No
Self-hosted	No	No
Headquarters	Switzerland	Belgium
Legal entity	Hostpoint AG, Neue Jonastrasse 60, 8640 Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland	ContactOffice Group sa, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 47b, B-1050 Brussels (BE 0466.241.584)
Governing law	Not listed	Belgian law; Brussels courts (Terms of Use)
US parent / control	No known US parent	No known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Low	Low
Hosting / residency	Primary: Hostpoint-operated servers and NetApp storage at Digital Realty (ex-Interxion) Glattbrugg, CH; Swiss e-mail/Drive residency claimed, dual backups, hourly snapshots. swiss hosting label (rankingCoach exception). Migration: Audriga (DE). Full public Sub-Processor List not found—DPA references list. Site analytics: Google Analytics, reCAPTCHA, Hotjar (not mailbox storage).	Primary production servers described as located in Belgium under Mailfence operational control (no intermediary managing servers per security page). No public AWS/GCP/Azure subprocessor list found. Backups stored in locations separate from offices/main DC (providers not named). Payment-card processing path not fully published.
Summary	Swiss custom-domain email and Open-Xchange Cloud Office (calendar, Drive, docs) from Hostpoint AG, with mailboxes and data hosted in Switzerland.	Belgian secure email suite with browser-side OpenPGP encryption, digital signatures, calendar, documents, and optional custom domains under ContactOffice Group SA.
Tags	productivity swiss-hosting email cloud-office open-xchange custom-domain sme imap groupware fadp	productivity privacy encrypted-email openpgp gdpr saas belgium

At a glance: Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office vs Mailfence
At a glance	Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office	Mailfence
HQ	Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland	Not listed
Legal entity	Hostpoint AG (CHE-101.974.997)	Not listed
Product	Custom-domain email + Cloud Office (Open-Xchange)	Not listed
Hosting	Hostpoint servers, Digital Realty Glattbrugg (CH)	Vendor-operated servers in Belgium (per security page)
Self-host / OSS	Neither (managed SaaS)	Not listed
Commercial model	Paid per-mailbox tiers; domain required; no free tier	Free tier + prepaid paid plans; Business packaging (see vendor site)
HQ / entity	Not listed	Brussels — ContactOffice Group sa (BE 0466.241.584)
Product launch	Not listed	Mailfence brand ~2013; ContactOffice lineage since 1999
Crypto	Not listed	OpenPGP E2EE + digital signatures; optional password-encrypted messages
Open source	Not listed	No (front-end OSS planned; not current)
Self-host	Not listed	SaaS default; Business license for large on-prem deployments
Independent audit	Not listed	No public audit PDF found

Key capabilities: Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office vs Mailfence
Key capabilities	Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office	Mailfence
Swiss-hosted mail	Yes	Not listed
Custom domain IMAP	Yes	Yes
Open-Xchange Cloud Office	Yes	Not listed
Drive + CalDAV/CardDAV	Yes	Not listed
7-day Swiss support	Yes	Not listed
B2B DPA (GTC annex)	Yes	Yes
EU-operated (Belgium)	Not listed	Yes
OpenPGP E2EE	Not listed	Yes
Digital signatures	Not listed	Yes
Mail + calendar + docs	Not listed	Yes

Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office

Custom-domain mailboxes with IMAP and free migration
Each plan is one inbox on a domain you control (new or external), with webmail plus IMAP/POP3/SMTP, unlimited forwards, aliases, out-of-office replies, server-side search, and spam/virus filters. Hostpoint’s free migration path (including Audriga-assisted moves from Gmail, GMX, Bluewin, Yahoo, and other hosts) is designed so teams keep historical mail when leaving FreeMail. Requires a domain; not a freemail brand address.
Open-Xchange Cloud Office: calendar, contacts, tasks
Browser suite for multi-calendar scheduling, shared address books, tasks, and appointment booking with free/busy style team scheduling. CalDAV/CardDAV sync targets Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Calendar, and similar clients. Fits SMEs that want groupware next to IMAP without a full Microsoft 365 tenant.
Hostpoint Drive with desktop and mobile clients
Swiss-hosted file storage included per tier (upgradeable within product limits), with share links, e-mail shares, access controls, and local clients for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android (Open-Xchange-powered). Business tier adds managing shared folders in teams. This is conventional cloud storage under Hostpoint—not zero-knowledge Drive.
Browser documents and real-time collaboration (Plus/Business)
From Cloud Office Plus upward, edit text, spreadsheets, and presentations in the browser with Microsoft Office file compatibility, real-time multi-user editing, and version history. Basic is mail-plus-calendar oriented; teams that live in shared docs should shortlist Plus or Business rather than Basic.
Swiss ops: dual backups, monitoring, seven-day support
Product pages claim Swiss data location, 24/7 monitoring, DDoS protection, hourly snapshots, daily mail backups with tiered retention (longer on higher tiers), and backup copies in two locations. Support is Swiss-based Mon–Sun daytime via phone, e-mail, WhatsApp, and form—useful for SMEs that need humans, not only tickets.

Mailfence

Browser-side OpenPGP end-to-end encryption
Encrypt outbound mail in the browser with the OpenPGP standard so intermediaries—including Mailfence when messages are properly E2EE—cannot read ciphertext. Fully interoperable with other OpenPGP tools (e.g. Thunderbird/GnuPG). Optional password-encrypted messages cover recipients who do not use PGP. Unencrypted mail still sits on servers in the normal webmail model.
Digital signatures and multi-key OpenPGP keystore
Sign messages for authenticity and integrity, and manage keys in-product: generate, import, export, publish, and hold multiple key pairs without browser plug-ins. Default generated keys are 4096-bit per the threat-model page. Passphrase protection of private keys limits crypto operations if only the account password is compromised.
Mail, calendar, documents, and groups in one account
Beyond inbox: shareable calendars, online document storage/editing, and contact groups for collaboration without bolting on a separate US suite. Storage and alias limits scale by plan; free accounts remain suitable only for light personal use.
Custom domains, aliases, and mail protocols on paid tiers
Higher plans add custom domains with SPF/DKIM/DMARC-oriented setup, larger alias counts, and classic client access (POP, IMAP, SMTP) plus ActiveSync where listed. Entry-level free accounts focus on web/PWA/apps rather than full protocol parity—verify the live plan matrix before procurement.
Business admin: API, SSO, private label, optional on-prem license
Mailfence for Business offers control-panel and XML-RPC API user provisioning, SSO and directory hooks (LDAP/AD/CAS), branding, and Belgian cloud hosting with SLA language—or a license to run on customer Linux servers for large deployments. Fit for orgs that need Belgian hosting with admin automation, not a consumer-only mailbox.

Assurance & compliance: Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office vs Mailfence
Assurance & compliance	Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office	Mailfence
Independent security / no-logs audit	Not found No public third-party no-logs or product security audit PDF for Cloud Office located on official pages.	Not found No public third-party audit PDF found. Vendor mentions security specialists, bug bounty activity, and inspection openness—not a substitute for a published audit. Privacy policy documents operational metadata collection (not zero-logs).
ISO 27001	Not found Company page describes the Glattbrugg data center as ISO- and FINMA-certified (facility). No Hostpoint-organization ISO 27001 certificate page found in this pass.	Not found No Mailfence ISO 27001 certificate claim found on primary security/GDPR/company pages.
SOC 2 / SOC 3	Not found No public SOC 2/3 report for Hostpoint Cloud Office found.	Not found
GDPR / EU data protection	Vendor claimed Swiss FADP primary; privacy states GDPR may apply in some processing. EU representative: Hostpoint Limited, Malta. Swiss–EU adequacy eases transfers. Customer remains controller for hosted content.	Vendor claimed Belgian controller/processor materials; dedicated GDPR page and technical/organisational measures overview. Confirm roles in your DPA.
US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Partial EuropeanStack assessment: Swiss AG, no known US parent, Swiss product residency claims → relatively low ownership exposure vs US SaaS mail. Residual factors: US-listed Digital Realty facility owner (colocation), possible US-group tools on full subprocessor/marketing stack, privacy exceptional-transfer language. Not a clean bill; not legal advice.	Partial EU entity (ContactOffice Group sa), no known US parent; servers claimed self-operated in Belgium without named US hyperscaler hosts. No formal public subprocessor inventory; payment processors not named. Assessment residual: partial transparency on data path. Not legal advice.
Data processing agreement (B2B)	Vendor claimed Annex 2 DPA + TOMs published with web-hosting GTC PDF; sub-processor engagement rules and audit rights described. Confirm applicability to your E-Mail & Cloud Office order and obtain current Sub-Processor List.	Vendor claimed Downloadable DPA linked from the GDPR page for organisational customers.
EU AI Act	Not applicable Not an AI product.	Not applicable Email/collaboration suite; not an AI system under typical procurement framing.
swiss hosting label	Vendor claimed Company states Hostpoint bears the swiss hosting label (HQ + data location in Switzerland), with rankingCoach exceptions noted.	Not listed

Considerations & known limitations: Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office vs Mailfence
Considerations & known limitations	Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office	Mailfence
Not zero-access / E2E mail	Medium Standard hosted mail: provider can access mailbox content for operations, spam filtering, and legal process. Unsuitable if your threat model requires only client-held keys.	Not listed
Full subprocessor inventory not self-serve	Medium DPA references a Sub-Processor List and change notifications, but a complete public e-mail-path inventory was not found on the marketing site. Request it (and any US-group vendors) before procurement sign-off.	Not listed
Facility ISO/FINMA vs org certification	Low ISO/FINMA language on public pages refers to the data center facility. Do not treat that as a verified Hostpoint ISMS ISO 27001 without a certificate.	Not listed
Docs collaboration only on higher tiers	Low Browser Office documents and real-time collab start at Plus; team shared-folder management is Business-oriented. Basic is intentionally limited.	Not listed
Customer still owns backup duty	Low GTC state customers remain responsible for their own backups; Hostpoint packages are supplementary and do not guarantee zero data loss.	Not listed
No public independent security audit	Not listed	Medium If vendor risk requires a published audit letter, ISO 27001, or SOC 2, treat Mailfence as incomplete until evidence is obtained offline or under NDA.
Closed-source SaaS	Not listed	Medium Cannot independently review server code or default-self-host like some FOSS mail stacks. Business on-prem license is a commercial path, not community self-host docs.
E2EE is opt-in OpenPGP, not automatic	Not listed	Medium Clear-text messages are operator-readable at rest. Users must encrypt/sign deliberately; training and policy matter for regulated content.
Operational metadata retention	Not listed	Low Privacy policy lists IP, message-IDs, addresses, subjects, and related fields for operations, abuse control, and legal process—not a zero-logs design.
Limited public subprocessor inventory	Not listed	Low Strong first-party claims of internal hosting, but no AWS-style public subprocessor table; confirm payment and support tooling in procurement.
US CLOUD Act (indicative)	Not listed	Low No known US parent; Belgian self-operated hosting narrative. Residual unknown payment/SaaS paths. Not a legal safe harbour guarantee.

Fit

Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office

Best fit when

Swiss SMEs and freelancers replacing FreeMail with branded @domain mailboxes
Teams that want IMAP mail plus shared calendars, contacts, and Drive in one Swiss panel
Buyers already using Hostpoint domains/hosting who want same-vendor mail and support
Organizations that prioritize Swiss data location messaging and Swiss daytime phone support
Migrators from Gmail/GMX/Bluewin who need an included mailbox migration path

Poor fit when

Security programs that require zero-access / E2E encrypted mail by default
Enterprises needing SSO/SCIM-centric identity and deep SaaS compliance tooling out of the box
Teams that only want free freemail without a domain or paid plan
Self-host or fully open-source groupware mandates
Buyers who need a published independent security audit report before shortlisting

Consider instead when

When: You need end-to-end encrypted, zero-access mail as the primary control
Consider: Proton Mail or Tuta
Hostpoint is conventional hosted Open-Xchange mail, not a zero-knowledge mailbox.
When: You want a broader Swiss cloud suite (kDrive, Swiss Meet, etc.) under one multi-product vendor
Consider: Infomaniak kMail
Compare suite breadth vs Hostpoint’s registrar/hosting + Cloud Office focus.
When: You need Microsoft/Google admin ecosystems, global collaboration defaults, or advanced DLP
Consider: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace
Trade Swiss-operator simplicity for global SaaS depth and US-group jurisdiction.
When: You want German privacy-oriented hosted mail with OpenPGP-centric workflows
Consider: mailbox.org or Mailfence
Different legal HQ and crypto posture; Hostpoint is Swiss SME groupware-first.

Mailfence

Best fit when

You need OpenPGP interoperability and digital signatures from a European webmail, not only proprietary E2EE
Belgian legal entity and self-described self-operated Belgian hosting are procurement requirements
Teams want mail plus calendar/documents/groups without moving to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace
You need custom domains, aliases, and classic clients (IMAP/POP/ActiveSync) on paid tiers
Business buyers evaluating private-label, API provisioning, SSO/directory integration, or large-scale on-prem license

Poor fit when

Security policy requires a published independent security audit, ISO 27001, or SOC 2 from the email vendor
You want fully open-source server/client stacks you can fork and self-host as default
Every message must be automatically E2EE with no OpenPGP key UX (Tuta-style)
You need Microsoft-class DLP, eDiscovery, compliance archives, and deep SaaS integrations
Zero-logs marketing is a hard requirement (Mailfence documents operational metadata collection)

Consider instead when

When: You want automatic encryption for all messages with minimal key management
Consider: Tuta
Different crypto model; less OpenPGP interop emphasis than Mailfence.
When: You want a larger Swiss privacy suite brand and ecosystem apps
Consider: Proton Mail
Trade Belgian ContactOffice ownership and PGP-centric UX for Proton’s broader product family.
When: You want a lean German ad-free mailbox without suite features
Consider: Posteo or mailbox.org
Simpler mailbox posture; different admin/domain/crypto tradeoffs.
When: You need full Google/Microsoft productivity and compliance tooling
Consider: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace (accept US-cloud risk) or EU office suites if residency is the driver
Mailfence is not a drop-in M365 replacement.

Open questions for due diligence

Hostpoint E-Mail & Cloud Office

What is the current Sub-Processor List for E-Mail & Cloud Office (including spam/AV engines, backup tooling, Audriga, any CDN)?
Does your contract package explicitly attach the web-hosting DPA annex to standalone Cloud Office mailboxes?
Any US-group processors in the live list that would change a CLOUD Act or transfer assessment?
Is there a customer-facing ISO/SOC report for Hostpoint operations beyond data-center facility claims?
Data residency guarantees in writing for dual backup locations (both fully in Switzerland)?

Mailfence

Will Mailfence provide a current written subprocessor list (including payment processors and any backup locations) for a company account?
Is any independent security assessment available under NDA for regulated buyers?
For Business on-prem license: exact minimum scale, support model, update cadence, and cryptographic feature parity vs SaaS?
Which plan tiers currently include IMAP/POP/ActiveSync and custom-domain limits for our user count?
How are disaster-recovery backup sites jurisdictions documented in the signed DPA annex?