FAQ What Is Mailpile

What is Mailpile?

Mailpile is email software (an app) that runs on your desktop or laptop computer. You interact with the program using your web browser. The goal of Mailpile is to allow people to send e-mail in a more secure and private manner than before.

Where does Mailpile store my mail?

With Mailpile, your e-mail is downloaded from the Internet (via an email server POP3 / IMAP), and stored locally on the computer where Mailpile is running.

Then how do I access it when my computer is turned off?

You don't! :-) for this reason, you may prefer to leave Mailpile running on a computer that is always on. You can then access it over the network using your web browser.

Is Mailpile webmail like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail?

Like common webmail, you use your web browser to access your Mailpile. However unlike most webmail solutions, Mailpile runs on "your own computer", so you have control over your data and your privacy. However, you can run Mailpile on a computer in the cloud (aka server). Confusion often comes from the fact that Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail are both email clients (MUAs) and email servers (MTAs). Thus, Mailpile is 50% "like" said services, and you can still use Mailpile (as a client) with Gmail as a server.

If I use Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail with my Mailpile isn't my mail still going through their servers and kept there indefinitely?

Yes, your data would still be copied to Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail's servers (as well a a copy on your computer). If you started sending encrypted email, it would be leaving large encrypted blobs on their servers tho :)

How much does Mailpile cost?

Mailpile is free of charge, you just download it and use it. It is also free of advertisements. Development is supported by voluntary donations from our community, from people like yourself who want a more secure and privacy friendly solution for e-mail. We accept donations here: https://www.mailpile.is/donate/

I am a techie, can I change how Mailpile works?

Yes, Mailpile is 100% Free, Open Source Software. You can find the source code online and make any changes you please here: https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile

If anyone can view the code & change Mailpile, doesn't that make it less secure?

Quite the opposite, we believe Open Source facilitates peer review and quality engineering. If the entire community of security professionals can examine how Mailpile works under the hood, they can and will help us find and fix problems quicker than would otherwise be possible.