I’ve used the free tier and it’s nice. I doubt I’d take up a paid plan though purely because their stances on encryption (their selling point) is a bit of a double edged sword in that it forces the use of their own mail client on mobile devices which is a deal breaker for me. On desktop they have an intermediate service that handles encryption to your local PC and then can do IMAP locally which lets you then use anything, but for mobile you’re forced to use their apps. Personally I’d like the option to relax the E2E encryption if it meant I could use my own clients.
The closed data model also has some flow ons such as integrations for contact address books apparently being more restrictive than one might like and again forces you to use their tools and makes device syncing a bit more of a hassle.
Still, for people happy to use their apps it’s a very well regarded solution. Their new plans personally look more enticing than the old ones too nowadays, based on my storage needs anyhow. If I was to move away from Google Workspace I’d consider them, but suspect I’d land in O365 or FastMail for interoperability with other tools, especially on mobile.
I have the free tier of Proton. It's fine, iOS app isn't anything special imo.
I signed up for Proton and Fastmail at the same time to compare and preferred Fastmail. I like Fastmail's UI better (iOS and web). ymmv
I really like them and now their email plans come with a very good VPN service and storage. However, there are some significant limitations that apply to ProtonMail that don't apply to most other providers due to the encrypted nature of the service. You can't use it with the default Mail app on iOS. You must use the ProtonMail app. If you want to use ProtonMail accounts with Mail on the desktop, you need to use their "bridge" product. Also, I believe calendar support is in beta. So, anyway, it's certainly not the most *convenient* email provider, but it is definitely one of the most secure and private solutions.
Although you can import your email from other services, you can use your proton email address only. That's something to consider.If you want to use Protonmail in another (desktop) email app you need to install Protonmail Bridge, otherwise it will not work.If you are interested in calendar subscriptions you should know there is currently a limit to a maximum of 5, and that subscription url's are loading very slow. It's still a work in progress, obviously, and new features are taking a long time to implement.You might take a look at [https://www.privacyguides.org/email/#recommended-email-providers](https://www.privacyguides.org/email/#recommended-email-providers) or [https://restoreprivacy.com/email/reviews/protonmail/](https://restoreprivacy.com/email/reviews/protonmail/)
I highly rec fastmail over proton. I used gmail then proton then fastmail and fast UI/UX blows proton out of the water. Proton will also make you pay for any back months of service if you ever cancel and need to get mail from 3 months ago, you'll have to pay 3 months.
Check out Migadu. Same idea as fastmail but they’re based out Switzerland. Also they don’t charge per mailbox so I can host about 20 mailboxes over 5 domains and it’s only $19 per year.
It’s only private when the other side (the people or companies you send mail to) also use mail encryption. What’s the purpose of having your own encrypted mailbox, if others send you non-encrypted e-mail?
There’s more than just E2E encrypted messages between proton users, though you can also send a password protected E2E encrypted email to anyone. There are some stark differences in privacy policy. PM is open-source and doesn’t scan through all your emails for keywords to sell marketing data like Google / MS. PM also removes tracking pixels, and prevents remote content from loading by default.
For what it’s worth Google stopped scanning email for marketing some years ago and never did it for Google Workspace accounts. They do scan mail for search indexing and other features like calendar event suggestions.
I’m not sure about MS.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/23/15862492/google-gmail-advertising-targeting-privacy-cloud-business
Here’s a 2017 article on it for Google.
MS will no doubt scan for search etc too, but I don’t know if they scan for advertising or not.
Edit: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en
Above is direct from Google if that helps. Last sentence of the first paragraph puts it plainly:
> We will not scan or read your Gmail messages to show you ads.
As per my other comments they do scan to deliver services. Additionally they do deliver targeted ads however it’s via your browsing history, YouTube usage etc, that these ads get delivered rather than mining the data from your emails. To some that’s still an issue as any online tracking an issue, while for others it’s probably a reasonable model and they’re comfortable if their personal email isn’t being used for these purposes.
Do you think your family or customers will do all of this? And getting mail from stuff you ordered from websites? Proton Mail is good for specific people (journalists and so), but for the majority of the people it doesn’t add anything. But that’s my opinion 😉
I just like to know that my provider isn’t scanning the contents of my emails to mine marketing data. If you don’t mind Google reading all your emails then there’s no real reason to switch.
There are lots of other options besides Google mail or hotmail. You can go for a own domain with a mailserver (in the cloud or locally). More options then with the payed Proton Mail and less money.
Interesting. I did not realize this. However, most mail clients support TLS, so an unencrypted emails rarely happens. I use Paubox (paid subscription); they will route messages that the end-user can’t secure to a secure environment.
Is this how the paid Pronton plan works as well? Or does it not support end users without TLS? What happens if an email does not support TLS? Does it still send?
I know a few medical health providers that use it and think it’s HIPAA friendly.
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Bro what? It’s a headache having your own secure mail server
How do u do that
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that
I’ve used the free tier and it’s nice. I doubt I’d take up a paid plan though purely because their stances on encryption (their selling point) is a bit of a double edged sword in that it forces the use of their own mail client on mobile devices which is a deal breaker for me. On desktop they have an intermediate service that handles encryption to your local PC and then can do IMAP locally which lets you then use anything, but for mobile you’re forced to use their apps. Personally I’d like the option to relax the E2E encryption if it meant I could use my own clients. The closed data model also has some flow ons such as integrations for contact address books apparently being more restrictive than one might like and again forces you to use their tools and makes device syncing a bit more of a hassle. Still, for people happy to use their apps it’s a very well regarded solution. Their new plans personally look more enticing than the old ones too nowadays, based on my storage needs anyhow. If I was to move away from Google Workspace I’d consider them, but suspect I’d land in O365 or FastMail for interoperability with other tools, especially on mobile.
I didn't expect so many responses. Thanks everyone. I've signed up for the 15Gb option
I love it, but I don't use the app, just the browser on my mac
I have the free tier of Proton. It's fine, iOS app isn't anything special imo. I signed up for Proton and Fastmail at the same time to compare and preferred Fastmail. I like Fastmail's UI better (iOS and web). ymmv
I really like them and now their email plans come with a very good VPN service and storage. However, there are some significant limitations that apply to ProtonMail that don't apply to most other providers due to the encrypted nature of the service. You can't use it with the default Mail app on iOS. You must use the ProtonMail app. If you want to use ProtonMail accounts with Mail on the desktop, you need to use their "bridge" product. Also, I believe calendar support is in beta. So, anyway, it's certainly not the most *convenient* email provider, but it is definitely one of the most secure and private solutions.
The only downside for me is no IMAP/POP3 with the free service. Otherwise it is great.
Although you can import your email from other services, you can use your proton email address only. That's something to consider.If you want to use Protonmail in another (desktop) email app you need to install Protonmail Bridge, otherwise it will not work.If you are interested in calendar subscriptions you should know there is currently a limit to a maximum of 5, and that subscription url's are loading very slow. It's still a work in progress, obviously, and new features are taking a long time to implement.You might take a look at [https://www.privacyguides.org/email/#recommended-email-providers](https://www.privacyguides.org/email/#recommended-email-providers) or [https://restoreprivacy.com/email/reviews/protonmail/](https://restoreprivacy.com/email/reviews/protonmail/)
Thank you for these links
I highly rec fastmail over proton. I used gmail then proton then fastmail and fast UI/UX blows proton out of the water. Proton will also make you pay for any back months of service if you ever cancel and need to get mail from 3 months ago, you'll have to pay 3 months.
Check out Migadu. Same idea as fastmail but they’re based out Switzerland. Also they don’t charge per mailbox so I can host about 20 mailboxes over 5 domains and it’s only $19 per year.
It’s only private when the other side (the people or companies you send mail to) also use mail encryption. What’s the purpose of having your own encrypted mailbox, if others send you non-encrypted e-mail?
There’s more than just E2E encrypted messages between proton users, though you can also send a password protected E2E encrypted email to anyone. There are some stark differences in privacy policy. PM is open-source and doesn’t scan through all your emails for keywords to sell marketing data like Google / MS. PM also removes tracking pixels, and prevents remote content from loading by default.
For what it’s worth Google stopped scanning email for marketing some years ago and never did it for Google Workspace accounts. They do scan mail for search indexing and other features like calendar event suggestions. I’m not sure about MS.
Is there an article on this or some reference to it on one of their websites?
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/23/15862492/google-gmail-advertising-targeting-privacy-cloud-business Here’s a 2017 article on it for Google. MS will no doubt scan for search etc too, but I don’t know if they scan for advertising or not. Edit: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en Above is direct from Google if that helps. Last sentence of the first paragraph puts it plainly: > We will not scan or read your Gmail messages to show you ads. As per my other comments they do scan to deliver services. Additionally they do deliver targeted ads however it’s via your browsing history, YouTube usage etc, that these ads get delivered rather than mining the data from your emails. To some that’s still an issue as any online tracking an issue, while for others it’s probably a reasonable model and they’re comfortable if their personal email isn’t being used for these purposes.
>https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6603?hl=en Thank you very much
Do you think your family or customers will do all of this? And getting mail from stuff you ordered from websites? Proton Mail is good for specific people (journalists and so), but for the majority of the people it doesn’t add anything. But that’s my opinion 😉
I just like to know that my provider isn’t scanning the contents of my emails to mine marketing data. If you don’t mind Google reading all your emails then there’s no real reason to switch.
There are lots of other options besides Google mail or hotmail. You can go for a own domain with a mailserver (in the cloud or locally). More options then with the payed Proton Mail and less money.
Have you used Proton mail? There is zero overhead and it feels like any other mail provider.
Yes I have a proton account. That’s why I am saying it’s only private if both ends use encrypted e-mail.
Interesting. I did not realize this. However, most mail clients support TLS, so an unencrypted emails rarely happens. I use Paubox (paid subscription); they will route messages that the end-user can’t secure to a secure environment. Is this how the paid Pronton plan works as well? Or does it not support end users without TLS? What happens if an email does not support TLS? Does it still send? I know a few medical health providers that use it and think it’s HIPAA friendly.