Cleanmail

Cleanmail is an email-security relay for organisations that want filtering, continuity access and policy controls around an existing mail system. It suits businesses, public and health organisations, and managed service providers most. The main case for it is broad inbound and outbound protection with flexible deployment; the main reservation is that pricing is supplied only on request.

Overview

Alinto’s Cleanmail sits between the internet and a professional mail server or other email platform, filtering traffic without requiring changes to existing infrastructure. Alinto acquired the Swiss email-security specialist Cleanmail in 2016 and was founded in 2000, giving the product a long-running company context without tying customers to a particular mail platform.

Alinto says Cleanmail eliminates 99,9% of spam messages and email viruses and addresses scams, phishing, spoofing, malware and ransomware. That breadth is relevant to organisations that need more than basic junk-mail filtering, although the percentage is the maker’s stated performance claim rather than a promise that every environment will see the same result.

Key features

• Inbound and outbound scanning: Incoming messages are checked for unwanted and malicious traffic, while outgoing mail is scanned to help prevent server misuse and domain or IP blocklisting. The two-way approach is more useful for organisations protecting both users and sending reputation than an inbound-only filter.
• Threat controls and quarantine: Phishing and malware scanning are included, with quarantine access for both users and administrators. Domain-level and individual-user allowlists and blocklists provide more precise policy control, though they also require someone to maintain exceptions responsibly.
• Emergency webmail: If the normal messaging service is unavailable, an emergency webmail interface keeps access to mail available. It is a practical continuity measure for organisations where an outage would interrupt operations.
• Archiving: Cleanmail can retain non-modifiable copies of incoming and outgoing messages, attachments included, for up to 10 years. The actual retention period depends on business rules and legal requirements, making this particularly relevant to regulated organisations that need durable records.
• Monitoring and logs: The control panel offers real-time tracking, analytics, an overview, log files and self-service log access through the ELK stack. These tools should help administrators investigate delivery and filtering activity rather than relying only on user reports.
• Deployment choice: Alinto lists SaaS, cloud and on-premises options, including dedicated platforms and customer-selected private or public clouds. Its private cloud is hosted in the European Union, including France or Switzerland, or another country to meet customer requirements; the infrastructure is monitored 24/7.
• Support: L2 and L3 assistance is available during office hours by email or phone. Response and resolution times depend on the subscribed SLA, so service expectations will vary by contract.

Pricing

Cleanmail is a paid product with pricing on request, and a free trial is available. There are no published seat, message-volume or retention quotas to compare, so it is best suited to organisations prepared to discuss requirements with Alinto rather than buyers seeking a transparent self-serve price.

Custom pricing can make sense for deployments that need private hosting, archiving or an agreed support SLA. It also makes budget comparison harder, particularly for smaller teams. Ask for the trial conditions, renewal terms and the cost impact of the chosen deployment, retention rules and support level before committing.

Platforms

Cleanmail is offered as a cloud gateway with self-hosted and web access. Alinto describes it as compatible with all professional mail servers and any email platform, so it can add a security layer to an established environment instead of forcing a mail-system migration.

Who it's for

Businesses, public-sector bodies and health organisations are the clearest fit, especially where continuity access, long retention and administrator-level controls matter. Managed service providers can also use the deployment flexibility and per-domain or per-user list management when supporting multiple customer environments.

It is less compelling for a small organisation that only wants a low-cost personal spam filter and does not need outbound controls, archiving or contractual support.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Broad protection: Inbound threat filtering, phishing and malware detection, plus outbound scanning, cover both incoming risk and compromised-account or server misuse.
• Continuity built in: Emergency webmail provides a fallback when the primary messaging service is down.
• Flexible hosting: SaaS, cloud, on-premises, dedicated and customer-selected private or public-cloud deployments accommodate different governance needs.
• Useful governance controls: Non-modifiable archiving, ELK-based logs and domain or user lists support regulated and operationally complex environments.

Cons

• Opaque cost: Pricing on request prevents straightforward comparison and makes the total cost dependent on the quotation and SLA.
• Support is contract-dependent: Office-hours L2 and L3 coverage is available, but response and resolution commitments vary with the subscribed SLA.
• List administration takes ownership: Fine-grained allowlists and blocklists are powerful, but maintaining exceptions can add ongoing administrative work.

Alternatives

For a consumer-friendly freemium option with Android, iOS and Windows clients, consider MailWasher; its free plan covers one email account without support, while Pro is $49.95 a year.

JetEmail is a better direction for teams seeking a web or API-based marketing suite with a free tier for 1,000 subscribers and 1 GB of image storage.

Choose Rspamd when a Linux, macOS or self-hosted, open-source filtering engine is preferable; its open-source core is free, with a Scale plan at £100 a month.

Apache SpamAssassin is the free, self-hosted choice for command-line filtering tools and Perl modules.

Mailprotector offers a free email-security check and paid products through an account manager.

Symantec IT Management Suite is a licensable suite or set of individual components sold through a partner.

MailChannels Inbound Filtering is another paid inbound-filtering service with sales-led pricing.

Mailinblack Protect is worth considering for multi-engine inbound and outbound protection with integrated controls and SIEM enrichment.

Verdict

Cleanmail is a strong match for organisations that need a mail-security gateway without replacing their professional mail platform, particularly when outbound protection, emergency access, archiving and deployment location are important. Choose it for that combination and Alinto’s configurable hosting and support options. Look elsewhere if transparent pricing, a lightweight personal product or a fully self-managed open-source filter is the priority.