What Is VIPRE SafeSend? What the Outlook Add-in Does, and How to Get the Same in Gmail
SafeSend is an Outlook add-in that stops you at Send when an email goes outside your company, lists the recipients and attachments to confirm, and scans for sensitive words. Here is every feature, the PC vs web add-in split, the new Outlook change, and what to use if you are on Gmail.
SafeSend in one paragraph
VIPRE SafeSend is an add-in for Microsoft Outlook. When you click Send on an email that includes anyone outside your company, it opens a window instead of sending. The window lists the outside recipients and any attachments, and you confirm them before the email goes. It can also scan the email and its attachments for words or patterns your IT team has listed as sensitive. IT buys it, sets which domains count as "inside", and rolls it out to everyone.
It exists to stop one kind of mistake: the email that goes to the wrong person. In law, accounting, finance and healthcare, that mistake can be a reportable data breach, which is why SafeSend is popular there.
What SafeSend does, feature by feature
1. External recipient confirmation
The main feature. If any recipient is outside your company's domains, Send opens a confirmation listing those addresses. In the usual setup each one has a checkbox, and you tick them before the email can go. Internal-only emails send as normal.
2. Attachment review
The same window lists the files attached to the email, so you confirm you are sending the right ones to the right people. This catches the "wrong version" and "wrong client's file" mistakes, which a recipient check alone does not.
3. Keyword and pattern scan (DLP)
Admins can set a list of keywords and regular expressions, such as account number formats, project code names or "confidential". SafeSend checks the email and its attachments for them at Send and flags what it finds. DLP stands for data loss prevention.
4. Internal domain list
IT decides which domains count as internal. Subsidiaries, a second brand or a sister company can all be marked as inside, so emails to them do not trigger the window.
5. Policies for different groups
The newest version of the web add-in (6.0, released December 2025) lets one install run several policies, so, for example, the finance team can get a stricter setup than everyone else. It also added an admin role with limited rights and a "soft block" mode, where the user is warned but can still choose to send.
6. Central deployment
SafeSend is installed by IT, not by each person. Users cannot remove it or switch it off on their own, which is part of the point.
The two versions: PC add-in and web add-in
This trips people up, so it is worth knowing which one your company has.
| PC add-in | Web add-in | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Classic COM add-in | Office web add-in |
| Runs in | Classic Outlook on Windows | Outlook on the web, Outlook for Mac (Microsoft 365), new Outlook |
| Deployed by | Installer or Group Policy on each PC | Microsoft 365 or Exchange admin |
| Future | Ends when Microsoft retires COM add-ins | VIPRE's upgrade path |
Microsoft is moving everyone from classic Outlook to the new Outlook for Windows, which does not run COM add-ins. VIPRE's advice is to move to the web add-in, or to SafeSend Cloud, a hosted version it has announced but not yet released. The December 2025 release also dropped support for Exchange 2019 and for older Outlook 2016 and 2019 builds.
What SafeSend does not do
- It does not run in Gmail. SafeSend is Outlook only. There is no Chrome extension and no Google Workspace add-on.
- It does not cover Slack, Teams chat, LinkedIn or support tools, where the same client data also gets sent to the wrong place.
- It asks every time. The window opens on every email that goes outside. People who send dozens of client emails a day learn to click through it. We wrote about this in why "Are you sure?" pop-ups stop working.
- A small team cannot just start using it. It is sold per user per year through VIPRE and its resellers, and set up by IT.
Pricing
SafeSend is licensed per user per year, with lower prices at higher volumes. VIPRE does not publish a price list. UK public-sector listings have shown prices starting around £24 per user per year. Expect a quote.
SafeSend features for Gmail users
If your company is on Google Workspace, none of this is available as SafeSend. Each feature has a Gmail answer, though, and we wrote a guide for each:
| SafeSend feature | Gmail on its own | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| External recipient confirmation | A banner, no stop, skips your contacts | Gmail external recipient warning |
| "Are you sure?" before Send | Not available, only Undo Send | How to make Gmail ask before sending |
| Attachment review | A reminder when "attached" has no file | Check attachments before sending in Gmail |
| Keyword and pattern scan | Workspace DLP, on some editions, at the server | Stop sending sensitive data in Gmail |
| Catching late Cc and reply-all mistakes | Nothing | Reply-all and Cc mistakes in Gmail |
The short version: Presend is a Chrome extension that runs in Gmail and Outlook on the web and checks every email at Send. Set its External recipients check to Block and you get the SafeSend stop in Gmail: "Hold on", the outside addresses listed, then Send anyway or Review message. We put the two side by side in Is there a SafeSend for Gmail? and in our SafeSend alternative page.
Ready to try Presend?
Free to start. Nothing you write is stored. 30-second install.
Add to Chrome (free)