SimpleLogin open-sources every component of its email forwarding service

SimpleLogin published its code from the first day of the project, which began in 2019 and became a company in 2020. Server and client code are all open, and the company pitches this as a reason to trust it with email. Open code also lets people run it on their own server. The founder says it has helped over 50,000 people since launch.

By Race to Scale Desk, edited by Lila Odinaev. Published 24 Oct 2026. How we work

What they ran

SimpleLogin started as a project in 2019 and became a company, SimpleLogin SAS, in 2020. According to the company's about page, the code was public from day one and drew contributions from outside developers. The server, browser extension, JS library and mobile apps are all published so anyone can read and change them. The pitch is about trust: users should not hand their inbox to a black box. Because the code is open, people can also run SimpleLogin on their own server.

What happened

On the SimpleLogin homepage, the founder says the service has helped over 50,000 people since it launched in 2020.

What the account does not show

The 50,000 figure is self-reported by the founder, with no baseline or yearly breakdown. The source does not tie that number to the open-source decision, so we cannot say how much of the growth came from it. The pages give no pricing, paid plan counts, revenue or team size, so they do not show whether the hosted service makes money. They also do not say how many people self-host or how many community contributions arrived.

Questions

Is SimpleLogin open source?

Yes. The company says all of its components are open source, including the server, browser extension, JS library and mobile apps.

How many users does SimpleLogin have?

The founder says SimpleLogin has helped over 50,000 people since its 2020 launch, a self-reported figure.

Can you self-host SimpleLogin?

Yes. SimpleLogin says its email forwarding service can be run on your own server.