At a glance
- A white label email service lets you rebrand an existing email platform and offer it under your own brand
- This guide focuses on four main types: reseller hosters, infrastructure providers, outreach/sales tools, and enterprise platforms
- Privacy and data jurisdiction matter – especially for EU clients or regulated industries
- In practice, relatively few providers put strong privacy and deep white‑label options on equal footing; most lean more toward one than the other
- Mailfence offers business and private‑label solutions, combining EU‑hosted infrastructure with OpenPGP‑based end‑to‑end encryption.
Interested in Mailfence for your business?
Drop us your email and we’ll get back to you to discuss your needs!
What is a white label email service?
A white label email service lets you take someone else’s email platform, apply your branding (logo, domain, colours), and offer it as part of your own service portfolio. The original provider still runs the underlying infrastructure, handling servers, security, and updates. You handle clients and relationships.
Simple, right?
Here’s where it gets tricky. “White label email” covers very different products. Some providers offer mailbox hosting for resellers. Others offer sending infrastructure for developers. Others focus on sales outreach tools. And some cater specifically to enterprises with compliance requirements.
This guide breaks down the four main categories – with a focus on privacy, since that’s increasingly what separates good providers from forgettable ones. If you’re looking to offer secure business email under your own brand, understanding these distinctions is essential.
How do you evaluate a white label email service?
Before comparing specific providers, you need evaluation criteria. These factors matter regardless of category.
Branding depth. Surface-level providers let you swap a logo. Good ones give you custom domains, branded login pages, white-labelled admin panels, and your colours throughout. If the provider’s branding shows anywhere clients might see, that’s a red flag.
DNS and deliverability. Your email domain affects trust and inbox placement. Quality providers handle MX records, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configuration. Poor DNS setup tanks deliverability.
Admin tools. These determine how much work white labelling creates. Look for centralised consoles, API provisioning, group controls, and audit logging. Weak admin tools multiply support burden as you scale.
Privacy and security. Can the provider read stored emails? Is end-to-end encryption available? Who controls keys? These questions reveal whether privacy is genuine or just marketing copy.
Data jurisdiction. Where emails physically live determines which laws apply. EU-hosted services fall under GDPR. US-hosted services face CLOUD Act exposure. For regulated industries, jurisdiction is a compliance requirement – not a nice-to-have.
When selecting any software vendor – including white-label email providers – businesses consistently prioritize the same factors. A 2024 Gartner survey of over 3,400 software buyers reveals what matters most:
Security dominates the list, with nearly half of buyers citing it as a key priority. For white-label email specifically, this means encryption, compliance certifications, and data jurisdiction aren’t nice-to-haves, but requirements.
What are the four main types of white label email providers?
The market splits into four categories. Here’s a quick comparison:
| Type | What you get | Best for | Examples |
| Reseller / white-label hosters | Complete mailbox plans, branded admin panels, billing integration | Web hosts, Managed Service Provider (MSPs), IT resellers | Qboxmail, PolarisMail, PrivateMail |
| Infrastructure / building-block | APIs, SMTP relays, DNS control, dedicated IPs | Developers, SaaS platforms | Mailgun, Infraforge, Zoho ZeptoMail |
| Outreach / sales tools | Sequence automation, bounce management, agency branding | Sales agencies, lead gen firms, SaaS | Reply.io, Snov.io, BigMailer |
| Enterprise / high-end | Compliance certs, SLA guarantees, dedicated support | Large orgs, regulated industries | Atmail, Open-Xchange |
Let’s break each down.
Reseller / white-label hosters
These offer hosted mailbox plans with branded admin panels, webmail interfaces, and billing integration. You resell complete email accounts under your brand.
What’s included:
- Individual mailboxes
- Calendars and contacts
- Branded control panels
- Web Host Manager Complete Solution (WHMCS)/billing integration
- Sometimes multi-level reseller support
Top providers:
| Provider | Standout feature | Location |
| Qboxmail | Mailboxes up to 100GB, strong white-label features | Italy (EU) |
| PolarisMail | WHMCS integration, sub-reseller support | US |
| PrivateMail | Encryption features, white-label option | US |
Best for: Web hosting providers, MSPs, IT resellers bundling email with other services.
Infrastructure / building-block providers
These expose lower-level components – mail servers, SMTP relays, DNS control, APIs. You get flexibility to build custom workflows or integrate email into your own stack.
What’s included:
- API-first design
- SMTP relay
- Deliverability tools
- Detailed logging
- White-label domains and dedicated IPs
Top providers:
| Provider | Standout feature | Best use |
| Mailgun | API-focused, scales well | Transactional email at scale |
| Infraforge | Cold email infrastructure, automated DNS | Outbound campaigns |
| Zoho ZeptoMail | Transactional email, white-label options | App notifications |
Best for: Developers building email into applications, SaaS platforms needing sending infrastructure.
Outreach / cold-email / sales tools
Platforms built for sales outreach, sequence automation, and bounce management. Many offer agency branding options.
What’s included:
- Multi-step sequences
- Lead tracking
- Bounce handling
- CRM integration
- Agency/white-label modes
Top providers:
- Reply.io – multi-channel outreach with white-label capabilities
- Snov.io – lead generation and outreach with agency features
- BigMailer – affordable campaign tools with unlimited sub-accounts
Best for: Sales agencies, lead generation firms, consultants running outbound campaigns.
Enterprise / high-end platforms
Solutions built for large organisations or regulated industries.
What’s included:
- Compliance certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2)
- SLA-backed uptime
- Dedicated account management
- Advanced audit trails
- Custom integrations
Top providers:
- Atmail – 20+ years of white-label expertise, US or EU data centres
- Open-Xchange – carrier-grade email platform for telcos
Best for: Enterprises, government agencies, healthcare, financial services.
What about privacy-focused white label email services?
Here’s something most guides skip: the intersection of privacy and white-label is surprisingly small.
Most white-label providers focus on features and scalability – not on keeping data private. They’ll host your branded email, but they (or their infrastructure partners) can typically access message contents. For many use cases, that’s fine.
But if your clients handle sensitive information – legal, healthcare, activism, journalism – you need providers where privacy isn’t an afterthought.
Security‑ or privacy‑oriented providers with white‑label options
| Provider | Privacy strength & model | White‑label / reseller depth | Data location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailfence | Excellent (OpenPGP E2EE, no ads or data mining) | Business/private‑label deployments with custom domains, branded interface and admin console for organisations | Belgium (EU) |
| Qboxmail | Ok privacy (EU data protection, no ad‑funded model) | Strong white‑label: custom control panels, branded webmail, full reseller tools | Italy (EU) |
| PolarisMail | Security‑focused IMAP hosting with emphasis on reliability and spam protection | Strong reseller / white‑label features including WHMCS integration, sub‑resellers, branded webmail | US‑hosted |
| PrivateMail | Encryption and secure cloud storage for email and files | Moderate white‑label: logo and custom domain branding on business plans, but less focus on deep multi‑tenant reselling | US‑hosted |
Strong privacy, different model
Proton Mail and Tuta offer very strong privacy and encryption. They have business plans with custom domain support, but they’re not classical white-label resellers – they keep direct control of accounts and branding in most scenarios. You can’t fully rebrand their service as your own. For a detailed comparison of how these providers stack up, see our guide to the best secure email providers.
Where does Mailfence fit?
Mailfence is a secure, privacy-centric, EU-hosted email solution with private-label options for selected institutions.
Here’s what that means in practice. Mailfence offers private-label versions of its software to universities, enterprises, and service providers who need branded, privacy‑respecting email. These are negotiated partnerships – not self‑service reseller signups – which lets businesses agree on fair pricing and resource levels that match their specific needs and number of users.
What you get with Mailfence private-label:
- Full productivity suite (email, calendar, contacts, documents, groups)
- End-to-end encryption via OpenPGP
- Digital signatures for sender verification
- EU data residency under Belgian privacy law
- No advertising, no data mining, subscription-funded
For organisations serving clients who need genuinely private email – not just branded email – Mailfence for Business offers something most providers can’t match. But it requires a partnership conversation, not a shopping cart checkout.
Interested in Mailfence for your business?
Drop us your email and we’ll get back to you to discuss your needs!
Key takeaways: white label email service
1. Four categories: reseller hosters, infrastructure providers, outreach tools, enterprise platforms
2. Most white-label email providers prioritise features over privacy – few do both well
3. Privacy- or security-focused options with white-label: Mailfence, Qboxmail, PolarisMail, PrivateMail
4. Proton/Tutanota offer strong privacy but aren’t classical white-label reseller models
Final thoughts
A white label email service lets you offer professional services without building infrastructure. But the market spans very different products – and privacy varies wildly between providers.
If your clients just need branded mailboxes, plenty of reseller hosters will do. If they need genuine privacy with EU jurisdiction and encryption, your options narrow significantly. Consider exploring secure email hosting options that prioritise data protection.
Know which category fits your business, and be honest about whether privacy matters to your clients. The answer shapes everything else.
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