Business emails must be stored in digital form, processed in a legally compliant manner, and archived.
There is no single “email archiving law”. Instead, requirements derive from different legal bases such as the German Commercial Code (HGB), the Fiscal Code (AO), and the Principles for properly maintaining, keeping, and storing books, records, and documents in electronic form (GoBD). Failure to archive can lead to problems during tax audits — or even criminal penalties.
Note
Company size does not matter — even solo self‑employed individuals are subject to the duty to archive.
Emails that contain business and commercial letters or are tax‑relevant must be archived. In addition, all emails that make your business activities traceable should be archived.
Our email archiving
We offer reliable email archiving for your company.
Save yourself the effort and risk of error‑prone manual archiving: together with our email hosting, all inbound and outbound emails of your company can be archived automatically, legally compliant, and immutably.
Emails can be viewed and searched via a web interface. By default, each employee can access their own archived emails. Rules can be configured so specific users can access multiple addresses. Separate logins for external auditors are supported.
If needed, emails can be restored from the archive to the mailbox with just a few clicks.
Retention period and storage method
Retention periods vary — e.g., 6 years for commercial correspondence or 10 years for revenue and expenses. Sometimes the clock starts at the beginning of the next fiscal year, so emails must be stored even longer.
We therefore archive your emails for 11 years from receipt by default. That keeps you on the safe side and relevant emails are always available. Automatic deletion after 11 years can be paused temporarily if required.
Archival storage is encrypted and signed, deduplicated, and compressed. Your data is protected against unauthorized access and tampering. Regular backups of the entire archive at geographically separate locations ensure safety even in unforeseen events.
Export/import of emails
You can export emails from your archive yourself at any time via the web interface.
Bulk export/import is possible with our help. Switching from another archive provider to us (or vice versa) is generally feasible.
Questions?
Any questions or special requirements? Get in touch — we’ll advise you and find the best solution together.
Pricing
Email archiving base package
This base package is required and includes:
- Legally compliant archiving for 11 years from receipt
- Automatic archiving for 5 mailboxes
- 50 GiB archive storage
- Web access with mailbox logins; users can see their own (and optionally additionally configured) archived emails
- Web access for auditors
- Daily backups of the archive
Price: €9.99 / month
Setup: €19.99 one‑time
Automatic archiving for additional mailboxes
Add automatic archiving for any number of mailboxes.
Price: €0.49 / month / mailbox
Additional storage
Extend your archive storage as needed. If storage becomes tight, you’ll be notified early.
Note
Because retention is 11 years and emails can’t be deleted before expiry, reducing archive storage is generally not possible.
Price: up to 500 GiB €0.10 / month / GiB, above that €0.07 / month / GiB
Example calculation
| Service | Quantity | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Base package | 1 | €9.99 |
| Additional auto‑archived mailboxes | 7 | €3.43 |
| Additional storage | 50 GiB | €5.00 |
| €18.42 |
FAQ
Can emails be deleted from the archive?
In general: no — deletion is not possible because the archive must be immutable.
In special, well‑justified cases specific emails can be marked as private by an auditor, making them invisible to regular users.
Is manual sending to the archive possible in addition to automatic archiving?
Generally possible, but not recommended. Proper archiving requires that original inbound and outbound messages are archived — which is only guaranteed with automatic archiving. Forwarding modifies the original content.
What happens if my archive storage is full?
We monitor archive storage together with our services and inform you in time with options to expand. To ensure proper operation, you should book additional storage if needed.
How much storage do I need for my archive?
That depends on your email volume. As retention is 11 years, required storage grows over time. In our experience, emails in the archive require on average 50-75% of the storage the same emails occupy in mailboxes.
Can I migrate from another email archive to cryeffect Media Group?
Usually yes. Your current provider must supply your archived emails as .eml or .mbox files. These can be imported into our system. We’ll help assess feasibility and perform the migration if desired.