We are celebrating 10 years of mailbox.org!
Exactly 10 years ago, mailbox.org saw the first light of day – as an ad-free and secure provider that not only offers secure e-mail addresses but also a truly comprehensive alternative to Google G Suite. Then and now, we are committed to making the Internet a better place and doing our bit for digital sovereignty in Germany and Europe. We also place very high demands on ourselves in terms of data protection and IT security. This also means that we operate our services and infrastructure entirely ourselves – with our own hardware in our own data centres – under our control.
This was made possible by the expertise that founder Peer Heinlein and his team brought with them from Heinlein Support GmbH. To this day, the experienced professionals at Heinlein Support enable their customers to achieve digital sovereignty by providing practical Linux consulting and training for administrators, among other things.
A lot has happened since the founding of mailbox.org and the introduction of the "encrypted mailbox" for private and later also business customers. We have twice been recognised as the test winner with a "very good" rating in the leading German consumer organization’s "Stiftung Warentest" e-mail provider comparison. In 2022, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) awarded us the IT security label for "Secure e-mail transport" (BSI TR 03108). In the same year, mailbox.org also introduced OpenTalk - the user-friendly, modern and secure video conferencing solution from Europe. Founded as an independent company by Peer Heinlein, today a team of around 20 developers work on OpenTalk. This was also a big step on the way to our dream: to be the secure, comprehensive communication platform for everyone!
We have campaigned for data protection, digital sovereignty and IT security in many areas and made a difference - for example with our fight against data retention, which we took all the way to the Federal Constitutional Court.
Business customers have also recognised the need for digitally sovereign communication in recent years. As a result, mailbox.org has built up an exciting circle of well-known business customers, including the ComputerBase platform, the Senckenberg research organisation and SENEC. For teachers in Berlin and Thuringia, mailbox.org also provides secure e-mail addresses or the Online Suite on behalf of the respective ministries of education.
Our outlook for the future
This year we finally have the retread of our web interface up our sleeve, which we and our partner Open-Xchange have been working towards for over two years. This will bring many new features and a smooth, beautifully fast user interface - but more on that when the time comes.
We will also finally be able to switch our central authentication system completely over to OpenIDConnect, which will enable us to provide a completely revised end-to-end 2-factor authentication. We are currently setting up an official beta programme for our customers with exclusive advance access to new features for the many small and large innovations. Further details will follow shortly.
Thank you to all our supporters
Looking back, we would of course like to thank our many loyal supporters who have accompanied us over the past ten years. Many of you have done a lot for us, mailbox.org and "the idea" and have campaigned and taken a stand for free and secure communication with mailbox.org up and down the country, in forums, social media, with friends and acquaintances. We would like to thank our customers, some of whom have been with us since the very beginning and who continue to encourage us to keep improving with both positive and critical feedback and good ideas. We would like to thank all our companions and partners who are fighting side by side with us for digital sovereignty and free communication.
And we would like to thank our fantastic team, without whom mailbox.org would simply not be where it is today. Thank you for your commitment, knowledge and perseverance - for mailbox.org, for our partners and for our customers who have placed their trust in us.