ProtonMail vs Tuta Comparison

Internet privacy has increasingly become a significant concern in the past few years and, even though instant messaging is the most popular way of communication, the good old-fashioned email isn’t going anywhere. However, created in the beginnings of the internet, email was not designed to be private and it’s tremendously difficult for regular internet users to encrypt their own emails. Luckily for us, two companies took a step forward and made exchanging emails with end-to-end encryption as easy as pressing the ‘send’ button. Those companies are ProtonMail and Tuta and, although the former is based in Switzerland and the latter in Germany, both seem to present a very similar email client. However, when examined carefully, both have fundamental differences, and only one will work best for you.

Due to ProtonMail’s focus on security, there are various features that modern email clients normally have that are currently absent from ProtonMail. The biggest omission is the lack of a built-in calendar and, although it does have an email filter, it isn’t able to find words within the body of your emails. On the other hand, even with a free account, you can create email rules, and it’s possible to have multiple accounts working in the same inbox.

ProtonMail is available on both iOS and Android but doesn’t have a desktop app. While free users are stuck with the web version, paid users can utilize the ProtonMail Bridge that allows full integration of its accounts with any program that supports IMAP and SMTP.

Though still a small company, Tuta is constantly improving and always tries to answer its users’ feature requests as fast as it can. However, it still lacks some significant features for frequent email users. Tuta provides a built-in encrypted calendar and a filter that finds emails through words within the body of the message. Paid users get even more useful features such as the creation of email rules and a unified inbox.

Tuta is available for both iOS and Android, and it has a beta version for desktop – Windows, macOS, and Linux. Moreover, it’s always possible to reach your Tuta inbox through any browser.

Conclusion

Security-wise, ProtonMail, and Tuta are very similar. Both offer end-to-end encryption for internal and external communications and inbox encryption. However, while Tuta hides the subject of emails, ProtonMail does not. The difference of features diminishes when comparing paid accounts, but Tuta offers a better search system and encrypted calendars, while ProtonMail provides a more conversational view.

Tuta’s price for a premium account is lower than ProtonMail’s – $1.10 vs $4 per month. Although the ProtonMail premium account gives more storage space than Tuta, you can add 10GB extra to Tuta’s Pro account, and it still works out cheaper at just $3.30 per month. In the end, the best email client will depend on what features are more relevant to you, and we invite you to read our reviews to get the full scope of what these two email services can do.