Clarifying the relationship between Proton's ecosystem and their acquired products

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This wiki is made in an attempt to prevent confusion about the relationship between Proton’s ecosystem and the various products they have gained through acquisition. Please feel free to edit it as you see fit based on what you know or have tested. Everything is up-to-date only as of the last date of edit.

SimpleLogin

This section pertains to SimpleLogin (SL), which was acquired by Proton some time in April of 2022 or earlier.^[1][2]

Some SimpleLogin features are absent in Proton Pass

There have been previous attempts by Proton to integrate SL and Proton Pass (PP).^[3][4][5] PP seems to act as a frontend UI for SL’s features. Although some features which are present in SL have successfully been integrated into PP, there are still other features which are absent/non-integrated in virtue of there being no UI for. Since PP is a frontend of sorts for SL, it’s likely implausible to assume that PP can have access to SL’s full set of features. However, Proton customers, specifically PP customers, may not be aware of that. This subsection aims to clearly list features that are present in SL yet absent in PP.

Feature	Important Notes
Alias transferring	If you want to transfer an alias generated in PP, you will likely fall into one of three scenarios below: 1. You have PP but not SL. 2. You have both PP and SL, but they are not connected to each other. 3. You have both PP and SL, and they are connected to each other. In scenario 1, all you have to do is go to SL’s login page and click “Log in with Proton”. Although you did not sign up for one, you automatically have one in virtue of using PP. In scenario 2, you will have to sync PP and SL aliases together. If the sync option is not popping up in PP, you will likely have to connect the two by following the steps. (I not tested this portion, someone else should confirm.) In scenario 3, you do not have to do anything. Just log into SL and use the transfer feature.
Random alias generation	Random aliases can be generated in SL with (1) random words or (2) a random UUID. Both are absent in PP, and only custom aliases seem to be able to be generated. To have random aliases, you would have to generate them in SL and sync them to PP.
30-day trash bin	PP’s “trash bin” is different from SL’s “trash bin”. They are not symmetrical features: deleting an alias in PP does not functionally equate to deleting that alias in SL. SL has a “two-tier” trash system,[6] similar to operating systems: 1. There is a 30-day trash bin which functions as a temporary trash bin (or recycle bin). Aliases in this trash bin are restorable up until 30 days. Anything not restored within that time frame is sent to what they call the “global trash”. This trash bin is the default preference for deleting aliases. 2. The global trash acts as permanent deletion, making aliases absolutely unrecoverable. You have the option to set this as the default preference. Moving an alias to the trash bin in PP has no effect in SL. Aliases will not be put in either trash bins in SL and will continue to forward emails normally. Only when you clear the trash in PP will it move those trashed aliases into SL’s 30-day trash bin. Using SL, you can restore these aliases. This is noteworthy because clearing the trash bin in PP notifies users of this: “You’re about to permanently delete n aliases. Please note that once once deleted, the aliases can’t be restored.” However, they can clearly be restored via SL’s 30-day trash bin, as long as it is the set preference for deleted aliases (which it is by default).
PGP encryption

Standard Notes

This section pertains to Standard Notes (SN), which was acquired by Proton some time in April of 2024 or earlier.^[7][8]

Standard Notes does not seem “more easily accessible to the Proton community”

Proton stated that they intend to make SN “more easily accessible to the Proton community,”^[9] but whether SN features will be added into the Proton ecosystem remains unclear. The only thing which reflects Proton’s intentions of making SN more easily accessible is the following:

@randombyte

I’m not sure whether you know about it, but as a Visionary Proton subscriber they may offer 70+% off the price if you email them. It costs me under $2 a month for the SN “Professional” plan; Notesnook is definitely more expensive.

… which is corroborated by this:

@anon82422799

Update: I followed your advice and it worked. I agree with some others that it would have been nice to have it just bundled into Visionary, but I am both grateful and happy to get the discount at least.

However, this is not stated officially anywhere, like, e.g., Proton’s explanation of the Visionary plan or SN’s pricing page. You have to be in-the-know like @randombyte and manually email them to get a discount. Furthermore, SN said that they intend to remain independent and have their own “brand, subscription, roadmap, and community.”^[10] Subscriptions, as SN has asserted, will remain independent from Proton, unlike how PP’s subscription pairs with SL’s. It is possible that although SN intends to be independent from Proton, their features may still make it into Proton’s ecosystem, as speculated below:

@jonah

What they’ve always said is that Standard Notes will remain a standalone project. It’s extremely implausible that Standard Notes features won’t also make it into Proton’s workspace services, while Standard Notes exists standalone.

… but nothing is confirmed as of the date of edit. We will have to wait and see.

Some Proton Drive products are jointly developed by the Standard Notes team

As discussed in the previous subsection, SN asserts that they intend to remain independent from Proton.^[10:1] The only concrete benefit that Proton customers are reaping currently seems to be the addition of the SN development team in creating Proton Docs, a feature in Proton Drive. Proton has explicitly stated that Proton Docs was/is a joint project between them and SN.^[11]

It’s possible that Proton Sheets is also a collaboration involving the SN team, but it is not explicitly stated by either parties officially. We have yet to see any other benefit to the Proton ecosystem aside from collaborative support, of which even then is very vague at the moment.

---

1. Proton and SimpleLogin are joining forces | Proton Mail | Proton ↩︎

2. SimpleLogin joins the Proton family ↩︎

3. Proton Pass Plus now includes SimpleLogin premium features | Proton ↩︎

4. Proton Pass premium features are now included in SimpleLogin premium plan ↩︎

5. Proton Pass Plus now includes SimpleLogin premium features | Proton ↩︎

6. Delete an alias - SimpleLogin Docs ↩︎

7. Proton and Standard Notes are joining forces | Proton ↩︎

8. Standard Notes and Proton are joining forces — Decrypted | Standard Notes ↩︎

9. Proton and Standard Notes are joining forces | Proton ↩︎

10. 2025 update: What’s new and what's next — Decrypted | Standard Notes ↩︎ ↩︎

11. Introducing Docs in Proton Drive – Collaborative document editing that’s actually private | Proton. ↩︎

Last edited by @ManicMastery 2026-01-10T09:05:35Z