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Email archiving

Keep your business email communication legally compliant — complete, tamper-proof and searchable at any time. Hosted on our own infrastructure in Switzerland.

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Basics

What is email archiving?

Email archiving is the automatic, long-term and tamper-proof retention of your business emails. Every incoming and outgoing message is copied when sent or received and stored in a separate, encrypted archive.

Unlike a regular mailbox, archived emails can no longer be modified or deleted. They remain available for years — even if someone removes the original message from their inbox or an employee leaves the company.

With our solution, all emails from your domains are archived automatically. The archive is searchable through a fast full-text search that also covers attachments. This lets you find any message in seconds, even years later.

Legal

Legal basis for email archiving in Switzerland

Many companies assume that since their emails are in the mailbox, retention is already taken care of. But that is not enough.

Legally compliant retention has to meet clear requirements: emails must be complete, unalterable and findable at any time. That is exactly where the everyday challenge begins.

A regular mailbox is designed for daily communication, not for long-term, tamper-proof retention. For that you need a separate archive that runs automatically in the background and works independently of the mailbox.

Mailboxes get deleted

when employees leave the company.

Storage space runs out

older emails often end up in the trash.

Emails get accidentally removed

and can no longer be restored once the backup has expired.

Messages can be altered or moved after the fact

their evidential value is lost.

Common misconception

Why simply keeping emails in your mailbox is not enough.

Swiss companies are legally required to retain their business-relevant correspondence. Since the bulk of this correspondence now goes by email, this obligation applies to virtually every company.

On the safe side with a professional archive

A complete email archive helps you meet all these requirements reliably — without having to worry about it in your day-to-day operations.

§ 01 Code of Obligations (CO Art. 957 and 958f)

The Swiss Code of Obligations requires that business books, accounting records and all business correspondence be retained for ten years. This includes emails that prepare, conclude or document a business transaction.

§ 02 Ordinance on Business Records (GeBüV)

The Ordinance on Business Records (GeBüV) defines the technical requirements for retention. It requires storage that is complete, true to the original, tamper-proof and available at any time. A professional email archive meets these requirements out of the box.

§ 03 Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP)

The revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection requires careful handling of personal data — including data contained in emails. Controlled retention with clearly defined deletion periods and access rights helps you stay compliant.

§ 04 Industry-specific requirements

Trustees, lawyers, doctors, financial service providers and medical professions are subject to additional requirements. These may include longer retention periods or stricter traceability rules.

Important difference

Backup or archive — what is the difference?

Backup

Protects against technical failures

If the mail server crashes or data gets corrupted, you restore the latest backup. Backups are usually created daily and overwritten after a certain time. If an email is deleted before the next backup runs, it is gone.

Email archiving

Saves every message immediately

Email archiving stores every single message immediately as it is sent or received. Archived emails cannot be modified or removed. This is how you meet the legal retention obligation, which a backup alone cannot satisfy.

Backup Email archiving
Purpose
Recovery after a failure
Legally compliant long-term retention
When data is saved

Periodically (e.g. daily)

Immediately on send and receive
Tamper-proof

No

Yes
Meets CO / GeBüV requirements

No

Yes
Retention period

Limited — weeks to months

Freely configurable — e.g. 10 years
Full-text search

Limited

Fast, attachments included
Emails deleted before the backup

Not included

Fully included
How it works

How email archiving works

Our solution runs automatically in the background — with no effort for you or your team. As soon as archiving is enabled for a domain, every incoming and outgoing email is copied server-side and stored securely.

1

Activation in the customer portal

Select the domains whose emails you want to archive in the customer portal.

2

Automatic capture

Every incoming and outgoing email is archived automatically — your team won't notice a thing.

3

Secure storage

The email is encrypted, compressed and stored on our Swiss infrastructure.

4

Access and search

Access the archive via the control panel at any time and find any message in seconds.

All features at a glance

Our email archiving offers everything you need for professional, legally compliant retention.

Automatic archiving in both directions

All incoming and outgoing emails are archived without any user action. Capture happens server-side — before the message even reaches the employee's mailbox.

Tamper-proof retention

Once in the archive, content cannot be modified or deleted. The result is a tamper-proof record of all your business communication.

Configurable retention period

You decide how long emails stay in the archive. We recommend ten years, in line with statutory requirements. That keeps you on the safe side, whatever comes up.

Automatic deletion on expiry

Once the configured retention period expires, emails are removed automatically. This keeps your archive lean and prevents outdated data from being stored unnecessarily.

Granular control per domain and mailbox

Enable archiving selectively for the domains you need. Individual email addresses within a domain can be excluded from archiving.

Fast full-text search

Find any email in seconds — even years later. The search covers both message bodies and attachments such as PDFs or Office documents.

Encryption and security

Emails are protected with TLS during transmission and with AES encryption at rest. Your data stays secure at all times.

Recovery and export

Download individual emails, redeliver entire mailboxes, or export the archive in an open format.

Web-based control panel

Access happens directly in the browser — no extra software required. Manage permissions and retention periods centrally.

Use cases

Who benefits from email archiving?

Email archiving is for any business that wants to retain its correspondence in a legally compliant way and safeguard its everyday email communication.
SMEs with bookkeeping and retention obligations
Every company subject to bookkeeping obligations in Switzerland must retain business-relevant emails for ten years. A professional archive meets this obligation automatically — with no extra effort for your accounting or IT teams.
Trustees, lawyers, doctors and advisory professions
Regulated professions face higher requirements for documenting client communication. A tamper-proof archive lets you meet these requirements reliably and produce evidence of any message when needed.
Online shops and e-commerce providers
Orders, complaints, delivery confirmations: in case of disputes, complete documentation is critical. A full archive lets you prove every agreement reliably.
Companies with staff turnover
When employees leave the company, their mailbox often goes with them. Important correspondence with customers and suppliers can be lost in the process. Archiving makes sure this communication is preserved independently of any individual mailbox — essential for handovers to successors and for ongoing business operations.
Protection against accidental data loss
It happens quickly in daily work: an important email gets deleted by accident, or a mailbox is cleared too early. Since the archive runs server-side and independently of the mailbox, your business communication stays fully documented even when something goes wrong in the mailbox.
Preparing for tax inspections and audits
During an audit or tax inspection, you need to produce business-relevant records at short notice. With fast full-text search, you find any required email within seconds — even years later.
Security & Data Protection

Your data stays in Switzerland — and belongs to you

100% Swiss infrastructure

Stored exclusively on our own server infrastructure in a Swiss data center. No outsourcing to third-party providers.

Data protection under Swiss law

Your data is governed solely by Swiss data protection law. A clear legal framework, independent of foreign legislation.

Multi-layered encryption

TLS during transmission, AES encryption at rest. Without the key, data is unusable — even in the case of theoretical access.

Redundant storage

We store archives redundantly across multiple locations within our infrastructure. Your data is available at all times.

FADP and GDPR compliant

Our solution meets the requirements of the revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection and also supports GDPR requirements.

No vendor lock-in

Export your archived emails at any time in an open format. No hidden barriers, no forced dependency.
Pricing

Prices and activation

Our email archiving is billed transparently with no hidden costs. You only pay for the storage you actually use.
Flexible, transparent and no minimum term
  • Enable archiving per domain
  • Exclude individual email addresses
  • Set retention period individually
  • Storage scales flexibly with you
Start free trial

Requirements
Email archiving is available to all customers using Novatrend web hosting whose MX record points to our servers. Not a customer yet? We will migrate your website and up to five mailboxes free of charge.

Free trial

30
days, no commitment

then CHF

10.-
per 10 GB / month

Setup

How to activate your email archiving

Activation takes just a few steps — no waiting, no external help required.

For existing Novatrend customers
  1. Sign in to the customer portal
  2. Open the "Email Archiving" menu item
  3. Enable archiving for the domains you want
  4. Set the retention period (recommended: 10 years)
  5. Optionally exclude individual email addresses
For new customers
  1. Migrate your hosting to Novatrend free of charge
  2. Have your MX record pointed to our servers
  3. Activate email archiving in the customer portal
Our support team is happy to help you with the setup.
Start free trial

Frequently asked questions

FAQ

Key answers about email archiving at Novatrend.
Who is required to archive emails in Switzerland?
In principle, every company subject to bookkeeping obligations in Switzerland. The Swiss Code of Obligations (CO Art. 957) requires the retention of business books, accounting records and business correspondence. Since the bulk of this correspondence now goes by email, this obligation effectively applies to all SMEs, self-employed people and larger companies.
How long must emails be retained?
The standard statutory period is ten years. Longer periods may apply to certain sectors such as accounting, law or medicine. With our solution, you set the retention period individually.
What is the difference between a backup and email archiving?
A backup protects against data loss caused by technical failures. It is created periodically and can be overwritten. Email archiving, by contrast, stores every single message immediately as it is sent or received and makes it tamper-proof. Only archiving meets the legal retention obligations.
Where are my archived emails stored?
Exclusively on our own infrastructure in a Swiss data center. Data does not leave Switzerland and is not shared with third-party providers.
Who has access to the archive?
Only people you explicitly grant access rights to. Permissions are managed centrally via the control panel. We recommend limiting access to a small number of authorized people — for example management or accounting.
Can I cancel the archiving at any time?
Yes. Archiving is not tied to a minimum term. You can cancel the product on an annual basis.
What happens to my data after cancellation?
You can export your archived emails in an open format before cancelling. That way your data stays available and can be used with another provider if needed.
Does archiving also work with Microsoft 365?
No, that is not possible with our solution. With Microsoft 365, the MX record points to Microsoft servers. For our archive to capture all emails, the MX record needs to point to Novatrend.
Can I exclude individual email addresses from archiving?
Yes. Archiving is activated per domain, and individual email addresses within a domain can be excluded at any time.
How does searching in the archive work?
Through a fast full-text search in the control panel. You search not only message bodies but also attachments such as PDFs or Office documents. This lets you find any email within seconds — even years later.
Are attachments archived too?
Yes. Every email is archived in full, including all attachments. The search also covers the content of common document formats.
Is email archiving FADP- and GDPR-compliant?
Yes. Our solution meets the requirements of the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP). Since you can define individual retention periods and deletion rules, the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can also be met.
How much does email archiving cost?
The first 30 days are free. After that, archiving costs CHF 10.– per 10 GB per month. So you only pay for the storage you actually use.
Does archiving replace my normal mailbox?
No. The archive runs in parallel to the normal mailbox. Your team continues to work as usual — the archive runs invisibly in the background.
Questions, answers and guides

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You can find many answers to your questions directly in our support area.
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