Mail piles up in several places at once: an old Outlook profile, a Gmail account, an IMAP mailbox at a former provider, a folder of PST files nobody dares delete. MailStore Home pulls all of it into one local archive with a single search box, and keeps the originals intact.
It comes from MailStore Software GmbH, now part of OpenText, and is free for private use. The current version is 26.3 (July 2026).
MailStore Home at a glance
| Latest version | 26.3, released 8 July 2026 |
|---|---|
| Licence | Free for private use only |
| Windows | 10 and 11 |
| Requires | .NET Framework 4.8 or newer |
| Storage | Local — the vendor states it has no access to your archived data |
| Portable mode | Yes, can run from a USB drive |
What it can archive
- Gmail, Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, MSN and Yahoo, signing in through the provider’s own consent screen.
- Any mailbox over POP3 or IMAP, which covers corporate and hosting-provider mail.
- Microsoft Outlook from 2003 to 2019, and Exchange Server mailboxes from 2003 to 2019.
- Thunderbird and SeaMonkey profiles.
- Files: PST, EML and other formats lying around on disk.
What you get afterwards
- One search across everything, including the text of attachments — PDFs and invoice formats such as ZUGFeRD and XRechnung are indexed.
- Open, reply and forward an archived message straight from your usual mail client.
- Export to other formats and mailboxes, which quietly makes it a decent migration tool.
- Optional deletion from the source mailbox after archiving — the way to free space in a full account.
- Access protection for the archive.
Important: what “private use” means
The vendor’s terms are specific, and worth reading before deploying this anywhere near a company:
- It may be used only for your own private email.
- Archiving business correspondence is expressly not permitted.
- Shared and role mailboxes — anything not tied to one named person — are explicitly excluded.
- Simultaneous use on more than one computer is prohibited; each installation needs its own right of use, and it must be deleted from the old machine when you replace hardware.
For company mail the vendor sells MailStore Server and MailStore Cloud. Those add multi-user administration, journaling and retention policies, none of which are in the Home edition.
Download and install
- Click the Download button at the top of this page and unpack the archive.
- Install .NET Framework 4.8 first if it is missing — the program will not start without it.
- Run the setup and choose either installation on this computer or the portable version for a removable drive. Do not put the portable version in Program Files — the vendor warns against it specifically.
- Create the archive, then add an archiving profile for each source: Gmail, IMAP, Outlook, a PST file.
- Run the profile once manually, check the result, then let it repeat on a schedule.
If you are updating an old installation: only versions 24.2.0 and newer can be updated directly. Anything older has to go through an intermediate version first.
Looking after the archive
The vendor is unusually blunt about this, and the advice is worth following:
- Exclude the archive folder from real-time antivirus scanning.
- Never sync the archive folder with Dropbox or similar tools.
- Do not point continuous backup software at it — use the program’s own backup function or back it up while it is closed.
An archive is only useful if it is intact, and these three rules are what keep it that way.
Common problems and fixes
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
| The program will not start | .NET Framework 4.8 or newer is missing. |
| Attachment contents are not found by search | Install the matching IFilter pack so those file types get indexed. |
| Gmail refuses to connect | Use the dedicated Gmail profile, which signs in through Google’s consent screen, rather than a plain IMAP profile with a password. |
| Old Windows or old version | Windows 7 and 8.1 support ended with version 23.1; some older sources such as Windows Live Mail and Exchange 2003 have also been dropped. |
| The archive misbehaves after a sync tool touched it | Restore from backup and exclude the folder from synchronisation. |
MailStore Home vs. alternatives
| Tool | How it compares |
|---|---|
| MailStore Server | Same vendor, for business email, multi-user and journaling; the licensed route once the use stops being private |
| Thunderbird with local folders | Free and open source, but a mail client rather than a searchable archive across sources |
| MailArchiva, Piler | Open-source server-side archiving, Linux-oriented and administration-heavy |
| Outlook PST archiving | Built into Outlook; no consolidation of other sources and no unified search |
FAQ
Is MailStore Home free?
Yes, free for private use. It is not a trial and does not expire.
Can I use it at work?
No. The terms prohibit archiving business correspondence and shared mailboxes; that requires the paid Server edition.
Can I install it on my laptop and my desktop?
Not at the same time — using it on more than one machine simultaneously is prohibited by the licence.
Does my mail leave my computer?
No. The archive is stored locally and the vendor states it has no access to it.
Can it free up space in a full mailbox?
Yes — archiving can optionally delete the messages from the source mailbox afterwards.
Can I run it from a USB stick?
Yes, choose the portable option during setup. Do not install the portable version into Program Files.
