Highest Safety grade
Proton Mail
- Privacy
- 7.2
- Safety
- 7.3
- Tor onion address
- Open source
- Accepts cash
Identity · October 2026
Anonymous email without a phone number
An anonymous email account is one you can open without a phone number, without another email address and without a card. It is the first thing most other sign-ups ask for, so it sets the ceiling on the privacy of everything built on top.
Providers differ on whether sign-up works over Tor, what they demand when their abuse filter triggers, how mail is encrypted at rest and which country’s courts they answer to.
Email in short
15 email usable without mandatory ID are listed and graded here. 3 have terms that rule out identity checks entirely. The highest Safety grade belongs to Proton Mail (7.3/10), and the highest Privacy grade to LNemail (8.5/10). 3 accept Monero and 7 publish a Tor onion address.
- Listed
- 15
- ID never required
- 3
- May ask for ID
- 0
- Accept Monero
- 3
- Onion address
- 7
- Incidents on record
- 1
Reflects the listings as of 22 Oct 2026.
Our picks
Where to start
-
-
Highest Privacy grade
LNemail
- Privacy
- 8.5
- Safety
- 5.7
- No account needed
- Open source
- Nobody accountable
-
Best that never asks for ID
Posteo
- Privacy
- 7.8
- Safety
- 6.5
- No account needed
- Accepts cash
- No email needed
Picked by rule from the recorded facts, not by payment. Compare Proton Mail and Tuta side by side →
15 listed
Email, ranked by Safety grade
| # | Service | KYC | Privacy | Safety | Evidence | Accepts | Incidents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Proton Mail Tor onion address Open source Swiss end-to-end encrypted email with a free tier; paid plans payable in Bitcoin or cash | Not mentioned KYC 1 | 7.2 | 7.3 | Docs reviewed | BTC | |
| 02 |  Tuta No account needed Open source German encrypted email and calendar with open-source clients and a free tier | Not mentioned KYC 1 | 6.5 | 7.3 | Docs reviewed | ||
| 03 | Posteo No account needed Berlin email provider at €1/month that separates payments from accounts; takes cash | Never KYC 0 | 7.8 | 6.5 | Docs reviewed | ||
| 04 |  Onion Mail Tor onion address Accepts Monero No account needed Email with an official onion address, PGP storage encryption and anonymous signup | Not mentioned KYC 1 | 7.4 | 6.5 | Docs reviewed | XMRBTCETH | |
| 05 |  mailbox German prepaid email and office suite that accepts pseudonyms and cash by post | Not mentioned KYC 1 | 7.0 | 6.5 | Docs reviewed | ||
| 06 |  StartMail No account needed Paid private email from the Startpage founders; annual plans payable in Bitcoin | Not mentioned KYC 1 | 6.2 | 6.5 | Docs reviewed | BTC | |
| 07 |  Mailfence Belgian OpenPGP email suite with a free tier and Bitcoin or Litecoin payment | Not mentioned KYC 1 | 5.9 | 6.5 | Docs reviewed | BTCLTC | |
| 08 |  Riseup Mail Tor onion address No account needed Donation-funded activist email collective; accounts by invite code | Not mentioned KYC 1 | 7.2 | 6.0 | Docs reviewed | ||
| 09 |  Disroot Tor onion address Volunteer-run platform offering free email and collaboration tools, funded by donations | Not mentioned KYC 1 | 6.7 | 6.0 | Docs reviewed | ||
| 10 | LNemail No account needed Open source Anonymous email accounts paid over Bitcoin Lightning, 1,000 sats per year | Never KYC 0 | 8.5 | 5.7 | Docs reviewed | BTC | |
| 11 |  Mailum Tor onion address Accepts Monero No account needed Open source Encrypted webmail with no phone or ID at signup; formerly branded CyberFear | Not mentioned KYC 1 | 7.8 | 5.4 | Docs reviewed | BTCXMR | |
| 12 |  monocles German privacy project bundling email, cloud, chat and search in one paid account | Not mentioned KYC 1 | 5.8 | 5.0 | Docs reviewed | ||
| 13 |  cock.li Tor onion address No account needed Free, donation-funded email host with irreverent domains and Tor access | Not mentioned KYC 1 | 7.0 | 4.8 | Docs reviewed | ||
| 14 |  NeroMail Accepts Monero No account needed Disposable receive-only email address, extendable to 60 minutes for Monero | Never KYC 0 | 8.4 | 4.6 | Docs reviewed | XMR | |
| 15 | ghostBox Tor onion address Small one-time-payment mailbox with IMAP, POP3, SMTP and webmail | Not mentioned KYC 1 | 6.9 | 4.6 | Docs reviewed |
Across all 15
How they compare on features
The share of listed services that offer each feature, and that carry each warning in their terms. Select a row to see the services behind it.
How many offer
How many have this in their terms
Criteria
What we check for every email provider
- Sign-up without phone or recovery email
- Tor access and onion address
- Encryption at rest and open-source clients
- Jurisdiction and transparency reports
On record
Recent incidents among email
high
Data leak cock.li
Reported theft of about one million user records through retired webmail software
Security press reported in June 2025 that an attacker exploited the Roundcube webmail platform used by cock.li and offered the resulting databases for sale. According to the service's own statement as reported, records for an estimated 1,023,800 users who had logged in to webmail since 2016 were exposed, with contact entries for a further subset; passwords, email content and IP addresses were not included. The service removed Roundcube entirely.
Outcome unknown Source: bleepingcomputer.com ↗
Questions
Email: common questions
How do I create an email without a phone number?
Choose a provider that never asks for one. Sign up with only a username and password, skip the optional recovery fields, and store the password and any recovery code in a password manager. The providers on this page are sorted with those that need the least first.
Which email providers do not ask for a phone number?
Several never ask. Others ask only when sign-up comes from a VPN or Tor address. The sign-up field on each listing states which.
Is encrypted email anonymous?
Encryption protects the content of your mailbox. Anonymity depends on what the provider learned about you at sign-up and whether you connect over Tor or a VPN.
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