MailCleaner
Email anti-spam software
Email security software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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What is MailCleaner
MailCleaner is an email filtering product focused on blocking spam and malicious messages before they reach user mailboxes. It is typically deployed by IT teams to protect inbound and outbound email flows for organizations running their own mail infrastructure or using hosted email. The product is commonly offered as a gateway-style filter and is available in deployment models that can include on-premises and hosted options, depending on the edition and provider.
Gateway-based spam filtering
MailCleaner operates as an email gateway filter, allowing organizations to stop unwanted messages before delivery to mail servers or cloud mailboxes. This approach can reduce mailbox clutter and lower the load on downstream mail systems. It also supports centralized policy enforcement across domains and users, which is useful for IT-managed environments.
Deployment model flexibility
MailCleaner is commonly positioned for environments that want control over where filtering runs, including on-premises scenarios. This can fit organizations with data residency requirements or those operating their own mail servers. Compared with mailbox-only tools, a gateway model can be easier to standardize across mixed mail platforms.
Administrative control and policies
The product is designed for administrator-managed configuration, including rule-based filtering and quarantine handling. Centralized administration supports consistent enforcement across multiple domains and user groups. This is helpful for MSP-style operations and IT teams that need auditable, repeatable controls.
Less focus on advanced threat
MailCleaner’s core positioning centers on anti-spam and email hygiene rather than advanced, behavior-based threat detection. Organizations seeking deeper capabilities such as sophisticated phishing analysis, automated incident response, or broad collaboration-suite protection may need additional tools. This can increase operational complexity when compared with more all-in-one email security stacks.
Gateway setup and maintenance
Gateway deployments typically require DNS/MX changes, mail routing configuration, and ongoing tuning to balance false positives and false negatives. These tasks can be more involved than end-user mailbox add-ons. Smaller teams without dedicated email administrators may find initial rollout and ongoing operations more demanding.
Limited public vendor transparency
Publicly verifiable, up-to-date corporate details (such as definitive headquarters location, founding year, and official social profiles) are not consistently available from a single authoritative source. This can make vendor due diligence harder for procurement teams. Buyers may need to confirm ownership, support model, and service-level commitments directly with the provider or reseller.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Community Edition | Free (no license fee) | Open-source Community Edition; limited automatic updates (ClamAV only); community/forum documentation for support; no paid support provided. |
| Virtual Appliance — Basic | Contact sales — quoted per mailbox / year | On-prem Virtual Appliance tier; per-mailbox/year licensing; automatic spam rules updates (~15 min), hourly virus definition updates, basic support (longer SLA). Price is sales-quoted. NOTE: MailCleaner Virtual Appliance was discontinued on March 31, 2025 (see notes). |
| Virtual Appliance — Premium | Contact sales — quoted per mailbox / year | On-prem Premium tier; same updates plus premium support (email/phone/remote, faster SLA), multi-domain, clustering, rebranding, MX backup, advanced options. Price is sales-quoted. NOTE: Virtual Appliance discontinued on March 31, 2025. |
| ISP / ASP (Hosted) | Contact sales — pricing models: per-domain, per-server, or by volume; first 30 days free trial | Hosting/ASP models adapted for resellers/ISPs; vendor states "Prices adapted to service resale" and offers 30-day free trial for ISP/cloud offerings. |
| Enterprise / ISP (large-scale) | Contact sales (custom) | Enterprise/ISP solutions sized/quoted for high-volume deployments; supports clustering, AD/Office365 integration; many add-ons available. |
| Optional add-ons (Spamhaus, SURBL, ESET, etc.) | +20% (listed as "add 20% to the price of the MailCleaner Virtual Appliance Solution license") | Official pages state some options are priced as a percentage increase over the base Virtual Appliance license (e.g., Spamhaus, SURBL, ESET: +20%). |
Notes:
- Many paid tiers are "sales-quoted" (price optimized/quoted by sales per mailbox or per-customer). The vendor’s site does not publish fixed numeric list prices; customers are instructed to contact sales or an official reseller for a quote.
- The MailCleaner official site states that the MailCleaner Virtual Appliance is no longer available since March 31, 2025 and points customers to an alternative (Cleanmail) for professional cloud filtering. Some product pages nevertheless document legacy pricing models and free trials (30 days) for ISP/Virtual Appliance offerings.
Seller details
MailCleaner SA
Geneva, Switzerland
2004
Private
https://www.mailcleaner.org/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mailcleaner
