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Scroogle Bridge

Use Scroogle Mail in Apple Mail, Outlook and Thunderbird

You shouldn't have to choose between the desktop client you've used for years and email that's actually encrypted. Scroogle Bridge is a small app that runs on your computer, decrypts your mail locally, and serves it to your client over standard IMAP and SMTP - so nothing about your workflow changes, and nothing about our zero-access storage changes either.

Download Bridge Read the setup guide
Why Bridge exists

Keep your desktop client. Add the encryption.

Ordinary IMAP means the server holds your mail in a form it can read. Ours can't - your mailbox is sealed with keys we never see. Bridge is the honest way to square that circle: the decryption happens on your machine, and your client never needs to know the difference.

No workflow surgery

Your folders, rules, signatures, offline archive and keyboard habits all stay exactly where they are. Bridge slots in underneath; your client thinks it's talking to a normal mail server.

Zero-access stays intact

We didn't bolt a plaintext IMAP door onto the side of the service - that would undo the whole point. Bridge keeps encryption and decryption on your device, where they belong.

Set up once, forget it

Sign in to Bridge, copy the local server settings into your client, done. Bridge starts with your computer and keeps syncing quietly in the background from then on.

Supported clients

Works with the clients people actually use

Bridge speaks standard IMAP and SMTP, so almost any desktop client works. These three are the ones we test every release against.

Apple Mail

macOS 13 and later. Bridge sits in your menu bar; Mail treats your Scroogle account like any other, including unified inbox and Spotlight search of your local cache.

Tested every release

Outlook

Outlook for Windows and Mac (2019 and later, plus Microsoft 365 desktop). Add the account as IMAP, point it at Bridge, and your calendar of habits survives untouched.

Tested every release

Thunderbird

Windows, macOS and Linux. The favourite pairing among our Linux users - Thunderbird plus Bridge is the closest thing to a native Scroogle desktop suite on every platform.

Tested every release

Using something else - Evolution, eM Client, mutt? If it speaks IMAP, it almost certainly works. The setup guide has generic settings for any client.

Under the bonnet

How does it work?

Bridge is a small local app. You sign in to it once with your Scroogle Mail credentials, and it fetches your encrypted mailbox and unlocks your keys - all on your own machine.

It then opens two ports that only your computer can see: IMAP on 127.0.0.1:1143 and SMTP on 127.0.0.1:1025. Your mail client connects to those instead of a remote server. When your client asks for a message, Bridge decrypts it locally and hands it over; when you hit send, Bridge encrypts the message before it leaves your machine.

Everything travelling between Bridge and our servers in Zurich stays encrypted, exactly as it does with our own web and mobile apps. The 127.0.0.1 address is your machine talking to itself - that traffic never touches the network at all.

The honest answer

Is it as secure as the apps?

Yes - the cryptography is identical. The same keys, the same OpenPGP-based encryption, the same zero-access storage. Bridge just moves where the decrypted mail is displayed.

Keys never leave your machine

Bridge unlocks your private key locally, the same way our apps do. It is never uploaded, never escrowed, never sent to us in any form. If your laptop is off, nobody - including us - can decrypt your mail.

Nothing decrypted on our disks

Decrypted mail is never written to our servers - not in caches, not in logs, not in "temporary" copies. What we store is ciphertext, before Bridge, after Bridge, always.

One thing to know

Your mail client keeps its own local copy of messages on your computer - that's how desktop clients work, Bridge or not. It's your disk, under your control; we'd simply suggest full-disk encryption, which your OS ships with. Our full security model spells all of this out.

Get Bridge

Download Scroogle Bridge

Version 3.4.0 · released May 2026 · open source, like all our clients.

Scroogle Bridge is included on Plus and Family plans. On Essential? Upgrading takes a minute and is prorated.
Download for Windows Download for macOS Download for Linux

Linux builds ship as .deb, .rpm and AppImage. Checksums and signatures are published with every release.

Read the setup guide
Good questions

Bridge, briefly

Do I need Bridge to use Scroogle Mail?
No. The web app and our iOS, Android and desktop apps all work without it. Bridge exists for one job: letting third-party IMAP/SMTP clients like Apple Mail, Outlook and Thunderbird work with an encrypted mailbox. If you're happy in our apps, you can ignore it entirely. See all our apps.
Why can't you just give me normal IMAP credentials?
Because ordinary IMAP requires the server to hand over readable mail, and our servers can't read your mail - that's the whole design. Any provider offering encrypted storage and direct remote IMAP is quietly holding keys on the server. We'd rather run a small local app than make that trade behind your back.
Can I run Bridge on more than one computer?
Yes. Install it on as many of your machines as you like - each one signs in and syncs independently. Bridge is included with your Plus or Family subscription, not licensed per device.

Your client. Your keys. Our job to keep it that way.

Scroogle Bridge is included on Plus and Family plans, along with unlimited aliases, 50 GB+ of encrypted storage and priority support.

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