Thunderbird + Mailvelope — Private Email, Your Way

Why this stack

• Thunderbird: full-featured OSS email client with built-in OpenPGP.
• Mailvelope: browser extension to encrypt/decrypt inside webmail UIs.
• You control keys: generate, store, and back them up locally.

Set up in Thunderbird (simplest)

1. Add your mail account → End-to-End Encryption → Generate New Key.
2. Export your public key to share; keep the private key offline/backed up.
3. To mail someone privately: import their public key → compose → click the lock to encrypt/sign.

Thunderbird handles OpenPGP natively—no extra add-ons needed.

Webmail route (Mailvelope)

1. Install Mailvelope (Firefox/Chromium) → generate/import keys.
2. Open your webmail → compose → use the Mailvelope editor to encrypt.

Great for people who live in webmail but want real crypto.

Good hygiene

• Use ed25519 or RSA 3072+; set reasonable expiry and rotate keys over time.
• Share public keys via multiple channels; verify fingerprints out-of-band.
• Back up private keys + revocation cert to offline storage.

Get the tools

• thunderbird.net
• mailvelope.com