Top 5 most affordable whistleblower services
1: Secret Contact
Free tier option
Secret Contact is a US based whistleblower portal focused on security, ease of use and affordability. If your business is based in the US and needs a simple, secure and cost efficient solution, Secret Contact may be your best option.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free plan and competitive pricing for higher tiers | Other higher priced solutions offer more features |
| End to end browser-side encryption | Only one language option |
| Up to 3 internal users with Basic plan | Not focused on EU/GDPR compliance |
| Business verification to prevent phishing | |
| Immutable report hash records to ensure integrity | |
| Optional multi-factor authentication and 'remember device' options | |
| Simple signup and setup process | |
| No limit on employees | |
| Imutable audit logs | |
| Reports are signed with the RAS algorithm to ensure integrity |
2: Huma
Free tier option
The free tier of Human offers a simple HR solution with a bare-bones whistleblower portal. This may be a good option for you if want a whistleblower portal for non-sensitive reports without spending any money. It might be the only free whistleblower solution on the market.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Nothing is added to the whistleblower solution in higher tier subscriptions |
| Part of complete HR solution | Complete HR solution may be heavy-handed or un-needed |
| Easy for whistleblowers to use | Reports can be accessed with a single key visible to the receiving business, and have no password or signing tokens to protect them |
| Multiple internal users | No end to end encryption |
| No business verification to prevent phishing | |
| No URL/domain customization and little to no report page customization or branding | |
| No categories or extra report fields | |
| No immutable audit logs | |
| No multi-factor authentication options |
3: 🤫 Hush Line
Free tier option
Hush Line is an open source tip-line platform that can be used as a whistleblower portal. If you are a small business or journalist that primarily needs to receive tips, but does not have a need for easy 2 way communication and does not need to receive files, Hush Line is a good choice.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free plan | No file/image uploads |
| Open source | No built in follow up communication |
| User/business verification | No custom report fields |
| End to end encryption | No audit logs (as far as I can tell) |
| Support for Tor Onion Service | No report immutability features (as far as I can tell) |
| Forward reports to your email for a "set and forget" approach | No customization for report page in free plan (only included in "Single Tenant" plan: $159.90/month) |
| Multi-factor authentication options | Only one user for free plan |
| Must set up PGP key before receiving reports |
4: EasyWhistle
Starting at 30$ / month
EasyWhistle is a GDPR and EU compliant whistleblower portal based in Finland. If EU/GDPR compliance, language support and reputability at a fair price, and your business has less than 30 employees is what you are looking for, EasyWhistle is a good choice.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Good price for reputable EU/GDPR solution | Double the price of Secret Contact |
| Up to 29 users in Micro plan | Only 29 employees for Micro plan |
| Multi-factor authentication options | No business verification to prevent phishing |
| Audit logs | Audit logs are not advertised as immutable |
| SSO options | |
| All languages supported in Micro plan | |
| End to end encryption |
5: Hintbox
Starting at 50$ / month
Hintbox is a German based ISO 27001 certified whistleblower service. If the added credibility of ISO 27001 certification, in depth language support and a well featured dasboard is important to your company, the extra cost of Hintbox compared to the previous companies in this list may be worth the investment.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ISO 27001 certified | The most expensive solution on this list |
| Unlimited users | No advertised audit logs |
| 30 languages supported with automated translation | No business verification to prevent phishing |
| Multi-factor authentication options | |
| End to end encryption | |
| Option to receive reports via email or phone | |
| Graphs |
