SimpleLogin 7.5 / 10

SimpleLogin is an open-source email alias service that lets you generate a unique address for every site, service or contact you want to reach your inbox. Started in 2020 by Son Nguyen Kim, it was acquired by Proton AG in April 2022 and today operates as a SAS subsidiary of the Swiss Proton group — aligning it with Proton Mail, Proton VPN and the rest of that ecosystem while keeping its own brand, codebase and public repository at github.com/simple-login/app.

How it works

You sign up with an email address — no phone, no KYC — and SimpleLogin becomes a permanent "alias generator" in front of that mailbox. Every alias ([email protected], for example) forwards to your real address, and you can reply from the alias without revealing your real email thanks to a reverse-alias mechanism. You can also bring your own domain for catch-all and subdomain aliases, turn on per-alias PGP encryption, route through multiple destination mailboxes, and protect the account with TOTP or WebAuthn 2FA. Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and mobile apps for iOS and Android generate new aliases in one click. Paid Proton subscribers get SimpleLogin Premium included.

KYC and privacy

SimpleLogin requires an email at signup but collects no government ID, no phone, no real name. The service is fully open-source — backend, browser extensions and mobile apps — which means independent engineers can verify how mail is stored, forwarded and encrypted. In June 2022 it passed an independent security audit by Securitum, one of the larger European application-security firms, with no critical findings. Because traffic routes through Proton infrastructure, standard Swiss/EU privacy protections apply; because the code is auditable and self-hostable, users who distrust any third party can run the whole stack themselves.

Strengths and limits

The structural strengths are unusual for an email product: open source at every layer, a published external audit, a major custodian (Proton) whose business model already depends on not abusing user mail, and a reverse-alias that lets you reply without ever giving out your real address. The limits are real but narrow. You still need an account with SimpleLogin (email + password), which technically means some identifier lands in their logs; the free tier is generous (unlimited forwards, unlimited bandwidth) but capped at 10 aliases, and premium pricing around $30/year puts sustained heavy use behind a paywall. The service is also custodial in the classical sense — they process your mail to forward it — so for inherently secret content, pair SimpleLogin with end-to-end PGP between you and your correspondent.

Verdict

SimpleLogin scores 7.5 / 10 at KYC level discreet (L2). It is, in practice, the strongest combination of open-source rigour, audit history and usability in the email-alias category, and since the Proton acquisition it carries significant operational backing. Anyone running a separate Proton Mail account already has Premium for free — an obvious move. For non-Proton users, the $30/year plan buys unlimited aliases and is cheaper than most alternatives of comparable quality.