Proton Mail Reviews

Proton Mail's primary concern is providing the safest way to send and receive emails, as conveniently as possible. You can add folders, subfolders, and labels to arrange your inbox the way you see fit and create custom filters to automatically sort incoming emails. These options can be easily accessed in the app’s sidebar for quick organization.

This email software also provides an autoresponder, contact groups, and a search bar. However, you can only search for email addresses and words in subjects, since messages are encrypted. Admittedly, this isn’t ideal for those handling lots of emails. That also means that subjects aren’t encrypted, which might deter some users from considering Proton Mail a viable option.

Proton Mail has an expiration feature, which allows you to send emails that self-destruct after a set time. It works for end-to-end encrypted messages sent from your Proton Mail account, password-protected emails between Proton and non-Proton users, and even received messages.

You can choose an expiration period from one hour to 28 days. When the expiration date is met, messages are automatically deleted from both the sender’s outbox and the recipient’s inbox. Another feature we loved is Proton Mail's schedule send, which lets you set a specific date and time for emails to be sent.

Finally, there’s the option to request read receipts when sending an email. When you request a read receipt, the recipient can choose to accept or decline it. If they accept, you will receive a notification as soon as your email is opened. If you receive a read receipt request, you can accept, decline, or ignore it. If you choose to ignore it, no receipt will be sent.

The good news is that switching to Proton Mail is a piece of cake. You can easily migrate emails, contacts, and calendar from email providers like Yahoo, Gmail, and Outlook. The process is simple and you choose what to import, encrypting all data before making it available in Proton Mail.

Another great addition is the Proton Calendar, which is included with Proton Mail. It allows you to create, send, and modify encrypted event invites and set reminders without worrying about someone eavesdropping.

Proton Mail's main goal is to provide privacy and security, and this is evident in its different ways of sending emails. For starters, you can send emails without encryption, which works just like other regular email providers. Then, there’s the option to send encrypted emails, which is automatic when emailing another Proton user.

For emailing users outside of Proton, you can attach your public key, which is your unique identifier, to the email. In these cases, the recipient can save the key in their app if they use a PGP-compatible service and send an encrypted reply that only you can open and read.

For non-PGP and non-Proton users, you can send password-protected emails. When sent, the recipient receives an email with a link that gives them access to the encrypted message after entering a password. After successfully unlocking the message, they can reply using end-to-end encryption without registering an account with Proton Mail.

With all of this, you may already feel that your emails are entirely safe, but that’s not necessarily true. Hackers can access your information in many ways, such as stealing your email password or the devices where you access your email.

Proton Mail ensures that you have ways to secure your email inbox even when the worst happens. You can count on two-factor authentication, email aliases, phishing and spam protection, email track blocking, dark web monitoring, session management, and Proton Sentinel.

It should be mentioned that all this is in addition to Proton Mail's strict no-logs policy. Its servers are located in Switzerland, and in accordance with its policy, it does not share users’ private data with countries with less secure jurisdictions.

As well as its web app, Proton Mail has apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Proton Mail's interface across apps shares the same pleasing and intuitive design, making navigation effortless no matter your chosen platform.

There are many customization options, including inbox layout, message density, auto-unsubscribe, undo send, and email track block. This is especially important as it lets you completely tailor how you manage email communications to your needs.

Those loyal to another desktop email client, such as Outlook or Apple Mail, can always use Proton Mail Bridge for an added layer of protection. This app, available for Windows, Linux, and macOS, lets you integrate any email client that supports IMAP and SMTP with Proton Mail. It runs in the background and encrypts and decrypts messages as they come in and out, allowing you to use your Proton Mail address with those email clients.

Proton Mail offers a few different subscription options and even a free version. It includes 1GB of storage, one email address, and is limited to 150 emails per day, three folders, and three labels. It has its limitations and isn’t available for desktop apps, but it’s still an excellent option to start sending encrypted emails for free.

The cheapest option to get Proton Mail is the Plus plan, costing $3.99 per month billed annually, which includes 20% off. In this case, users get 15GB of storage, ten email addresses, unlimited messages, folders, labels, one custom email domain, and limited access to other Proton products. Additionally, subscribers to the Plus plan also get Proton’s AI writing assistant – Proton Scribe, but unfortunately, it’s limited to a 14-day free trial.

For a full Proton experience, users can opt for other plans, such as Unlimited, including a 23% discount. It offers 500GB of storage, 15 email addresses and aliases, three custom domains, and unlimited access to Proton Pass, Proton Drive, Proton VPN, and Proton Scribe.

While the cheapest option for individual use comes with the Plus plan, you can get even more for the same price if you subscribe to the Family plan, which includes a 20% discount. It offers the same functionality as Unlimited, with expanded options and support for up to six users. This allows you to split its $23.99 monthly cost to $3.99 per user.

Proton Mail offers a 30-day money-back guarantee and you can use debit cards, PayPal, Bitcoin, cash, and bank transfers to make payments.

We contacted Proton Mail as a free user and despite paid subscribers being given priority customer support, we got a reply within one hour. Nonetheless, this can easily vary, depending on the time of the day and the volume of inquiries they receive.

Regarding online presence, Proton has multiple accounts, including on Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as communities for Reddit and Discord.

The software is bursting with helpful features, including auto-reply, expirable and password-protected emails, custom email domains, dark web monitoring, and even a limited version of other Proton products. However, Proton Scribe is only available with high-tier plans, which means users on the Plus plan are limited to a 14-day trial.

Additionally, it’s important to note that subject lines are not encrypted and that its free version isn’t compatible with the desktop apps. Nonetheless, these won’t be dealbreakers for most users as the software still delivers a comprehensive and feature-rich email management service.

Finally, affordable plans with discounts of up to 23% are available, and if you’d like to test Proton Mail first, you can take advantage of either its free version or 30-day money-back guarantee.