Mailshade vs Trocker
Trocker is the closest competitor to Mailshade on coverage: it blocks tracking pixels in Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo Mail, with partial Office 365 support, and it is open source. For users on those three clients it works. The gaps show up at the edges — Trocker has no Superhuman support, and its reporting is a shield icon plus a per-message count rather than a real per-sender history. Mailshade blocks tracker requests at the network layer via Chrome's declarativeNetRequest across all six web clients — Gmail, Outlook, Office 365, Superhuman, Yahoo Mail and ProtonMail — and records every blocked event in local IndexedDB, then renders a per-sender dashboard with Recharts so you can see which senders repeatedly try to track you. Both tools are open source, so you can audit either on GitHub; the difference is coverage and what happens after a pixel is blocked.
Where Trocker and Mailshade agree
Both block tracking pixels rather than merely flagging them, both are open source, and both run as MV3 browser extensions. If you only use Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo Mail, Trocker covers the request-blocking basics.
Where Mailshade pulls ahead
- Superhuman: Trocker does not support it; Mailshade does. No other dedicated blocker covers Superhuman.
- ProtonMail and Office 365: Mailshade treats both as first-class clients; Trocker's O365 support is partial and it has no ProtonMail content script.
- Reporting: Trocker shows a count; Mailshade keeps a per-sender history in IndexedDB and charts it, so you can tell which senders track you most.
- Click-tracking: Mailshade unwraps redirect links so a click does not phone home.
When Trocker is the right pick
If your inbox is entirely Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo, you want a known open-source tool, and a blocked-count is enough reporting for you, Trocker is a solid choice with a longer track record on those clients.
FAQ
Does Trocker support Superhuman?
No. Trocker covers Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo Mail, with partial Office 365 support, but it has no Superhuman content script. Mailshade is the dedicated option for Superhuman and also covers ProtonMail.
Is Mailshade open source like Trocker?
Yes. Both are open source. Mailshade is published under AGPL-3.0 at github.com/mailshade/mailshade, so you can audit exactly what it blocks and confirm it sends nothing about your inbox to a server.
What does Mailshade's reporting show that Trocker's does not?
Trocker shows a per-message shield and a blocked count. Mailshade records each blocked event in local IndexedDB and renders a per-sender dashboard, so you can see which senders attempt tracking repeatedly and how often.
Does Mailshade send any inbox data to a server?
No. Blocked events and block-lists live in IndexedDB on your device. There are no analytics and no servers handling your inbox. The only network interaction is the Polar checkout for a paid license.
How much does Mailshade cost?
Paid plans start at $3.99 per month or $19 one-time for the Founders Lifetime tier, limited to the first 1000 seats. Pricing is at mailshade.org. Trocker is free.