I decided to try Proton, and so far I like it. Here is my experience/review/thoughts:
Proton Mail
Because I chose the Free plan when first creating my account, I was offered Mail Plus for $1 for the first month.
Proton sends a number of welcome emails (advertisements for their other apps) spread out over the first month; this can be easily disabled.
It is easy to import emails, calendars, and contacts from other services through Easy Switch. Proton has native integration with Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook, which imported all emails in those accounts and applied a label to them; Proton’s account access needed to be manually removed on the Google side but for Microsoft it seemed to disconnect itself automatically. They also have manual support for other services through IMAP (email), ICS (calendar), and CSV or vCard (contacts).
Email forwarding is easy enough to do with any provider. With Outlook it is important to note that there are 3 different types of forwarding, which each have limitations (for example native Forwarding does not work properly in some organizations, and Redirects rewrite some headers which makes SimpleLogin see it as spam). With Gmail, you have the option to connect your Proton account to Google to capture all incoming email (as an alternative to native Forwarding, which also works well).
The iOS apps are easy to use. Unlike with Google, you need to sign into each app separately, as it does not store your login details outside the app.
Instead of providing an outside email or phone number, it is possible to save a recovery phrase and/or a PGP key to unlock the account without a password.
Setting up my custom domain was slightly confusing because I was able to send and receive mail almost immediately after adding the records, but Proton did not acknowledge the records were there until a few hours later.
DANE is fully supported for both Proton addresses and custom domains, but MTA-STS is only available for Proton addresses, so you need to add it to your domain yourself (or just don’t, that works too).
Proton Mail has zero support for IPv6. From what I’ve read, this also includes their support lines - they will not receive anything from an IPv6-only mail server.
A few random things I don’t like:
- Proton uses a different icon for “Move to trash” (the normal trash symbol) and “Delete permanently” (an X in a circle).
- They use a different keyboard shortcut (“T” instead of “Delete”) for “Move to trash,” and there is no way to change this.
- Many settings require you to enter your password if you want to change them.
Addresses
Here’s where things get complicated.
Proton Mail domain
When you create your account, you have a choice of starting with a @proton.me address or a @protonmail.com address. On the free plan, you can only use this “Free personal address” [1], except that Proton Mail does support Plus addressing [2].
After creating your account, if you have the Mail Plus plan, you can have up to 10 Proton Mail domain addresses. This includes your Free personal address and any other addresses you create - you can choose from @proton.me, @protonmail.com, @protonmail.ch, and @pm.me.
All Proton Mail users on paid plans can have a Short domain email address [3], which is the same as your Free personal address but @pm.me instead of @proton.me or @protonmail.com. This does NOT count towards your 10 addresses.
Note that you are only allowed to delete 1 alias per year. (This only applies to Proton Mail domain addresses.) Any address can be disabled at any time, but it will still count towards your 10 addresses.
Custom domain
All Proton Mail users on paid plans can attach a custom email domain and create additional addresses using that domain. Catch-all is supported, so custom addresses are only required for sending mail.
Custom addresses do NOT count towards your 10 addresses. (The support article [4] is incorrect.)
If you disable a custom address, but catch-all is enabled, you WILL still receive mail to that address. If you delete a custom address, but catch-all is enabled, you WILL still receive mail to that address. Custom addresses are only required for sending mail.
Note that addresses can’t be deleted while messages associated with them exist. Everything sent from that address must be moved to the trash and then permanently deleted.
SimpleLogin and Hide-my-email
All Proton Mail users automatically get an account at SimpleLogin, and can use it to create up to 10 SL aliases (@aleeas.com, @slmails.com, @silomails.com, @slmail.me).
Note that SimpleLogin aliases (unlike hide-my-email aliases) have no connection to Proton Mail or Proton Pass, except that you use Proton to log in and it uses Proton Mail as your mailbox.
Separately, you can also use Proton Pass or the Security Center in Proton Mail to create up to 10 Hide-my-email aliases (@passmail.net, @passinbox.com), in addition to any SimpleLogin aliases (20 total). Hide-my-email aliases sync with SimpleLogin, but only partially:
- All hide-my-email aliases are shown in Proton Pass, in the Security Center of Proton Mail, and in SimpleLogin, while SimpleLogin aliases are only shown in SimpleLogin.
- In SimpleLogin, hide-my-email aliases are no different from SL aliases, and you can use all the features of SimpleLogin with them.
- Proton Pass and Proton Mail do not check the number of SimpleLogin aliases you have, but SimpleLogin includes all hide-my-email aliases in the total number of SimpleLogin aliases. This means you can have up to 20 total aliases, but only if you already have 10 SimpleLogin aliases before creating any hide-my-email aliases.
- Sending an alias to trash in Proton Pass disables the alias in SimpleLogin, so all mail to it will be rejected. However, you can re-enable the alias in SimpleLogin and it will receive mail while still in trash in Proton Pass.
- Disabling an alias in SimpleLogin means all mail to it will be rejected, but the alias will still be listed in Proton Pass.
- Permanently deleting an alias in Proton Pass (after sending to trash) deletes the alias in SimpleLogin. All mail to it will be rejected, and the alias can’t be recovered.
- Deleting an alias in SimpleLogin removes the alias in Proton Pass, but only after a delay. This is the only thing that has a delay; all other actions have an immediate effect.
Summary
On Proton Free, you can have:
- 1 @proton.me or @protonmail.com address.
- 10 SimpleLogin aliases.
- 10 additional Hide-my-email aliases (SimpleLogin aliases must be created first).
On Mail Plus, you can also have:
- 1 @pm.me address.
- 9 additional @proton.me, @protonmail.com, @protonmail.ch, or @pm.me addresses (11 total).
- Catch-all receiving and unlimited sending aliases for 1 custom domain.
On Proton Unlimited, you can also have:
- Unlimited SimpleLogin and Hide-my-email aliases.
- 5 additional @proton.me, @protonmail.com, @protonmail.ch, or @pm.me addresses (16 total).
- Catch-all receiving and unlimited sending aliases for 2 additional custom domains (3 total).
Proton Calendar
I like it. It doesn’t have all the features of Google Calendar, but it’s (mostly) good enough for me.
Proton Drive
Ehh. It works. It looks similar to, but is nowhere near as smooth as, Google Drive. I don’t like how there are no keyboard shortcuts and I can’t click and drag to select multiple items. I really don’t like how there isn’t an API (which means I can’t sync, for example, a Strongbox database through it (the native iOS Files app doesn’t work properly with Proton Drive for me)).
Proton Pass
I didn’t like how hide-my-email aliases are shown in Proton Pass alongside passwords, but that can be mostly hidden by creating a second vault (2 allowed on the free plan).
Otherwise, I find the free plan much too limiting. It allows unlimited entries within your 2 vaults, but you can only have a basic title, email, and password. Almost everything else requires a paid plan.
Proton VPN
I don’t use it because I don’t like the Windows app or the harsh limitations of the free plan.