{"slug": "proton", "name": "Proton", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "Swiss provider of encrypted email and related privacy services such as VPN, Drive, and Pass.", "recommenders": 47, "commenters": 92, "warners": 24, "score": 24.967, "rising": 7.18, "first": "2025-11-01", "latest": "2026-10-30", "why": "HN commenters like Proton as a paid, privacy-focused alternative to Gmail and Google, and as an easy way to run email on your own domain without self-hosting a mail server.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 48, "neutral": 18, "compare": 4, "warn": 26}, "spark": [6, 2, 6, 2, 3, 2, 3, 1, 6, 7, 3, 7], "listed": true, "loved": ["Leaving Google", "Privacy focus"], "caveat": "Leadership trust", "short_quote": "ProtonMail. Then you can run ProtonMail Bridge to get a local IMAP and SMTP connection to your ProtonMail account.", "icon": true, "domain": "protondb.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://proton.me", "pricing": "freemium", "aliases": ["Proton", "Proton Mail", "ProtonMail"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like Proton as a paid, privacy-focused alternative to Gmail and Google,", "cites": [{"id": 764528880, "item_id": 47783055, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47783055", "by": "jfoworjf", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "paying proton mail for everything else", "excerpt": "This story is the one that finally pushed me to leave google. I moved off my ~20 year old Google account and deleted everything off their services including almost a decade of Google photos. I cancelled my Google one subscription for extra space. I'm now self hosting what I can and paying proton mail for everything else. I refuse to allow a company that will hand over data at the request of an administrative warrant ", "context": "left Google after ICE data story", "use_case": "replacing Google services", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data"}, {"id": 781155184, "item_id": 48822199, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48822199", "by": "meristohm", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have it automatically send any emails (very few these days) to my ProtonMail account, which I pay for.", "excerpt": "Fair question (I'm neither the blog author or the person who linked it here). I read the short blog entry and the why is not answered. My own reasons for de-Googling is that I'm uncomfortable with how I pay for Google's services (with my usage data, time, attention, media data, etc). I still have a gmail account because I'm skeptical it won't be reused in a potentially-harmful-to-me-or-others way and because I haven'", "context": "de-Googling user", "use_case": "personal email", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "Life Without Google"}, {"id": 796001952, "item_id": 49750122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49750122", "by": "Gengar", "date": "2026-09-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "so I switched to Proton and use YouTube with VPN only", "excerpt": "You are screwed. I lost access to my account, by trying to buy YouTube premium ironically. If Google even tried to help me I would still use them but they don't, so I switched to Proton and use YouTube with VPN only so they get zero ad revenue :)", "context": "", "use_case": "replacing Google account", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Ask HN: How to recover Google auth after phone stolen?"}, {"id": 759822784, "item_id": 47488924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488924", "by": "darthcloud", "date": "2026-03-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I do like Proton Mail.", "excerpt": "As a Canadian, I\u2019ve been thinking since last year about migrating to non-US services and applications. My main goal is simply to avoid giving money or data directly to US corporations. I have no illusions, these non-US services probably still benefit US companies in some ways. They\u2019re rare, but I\u2019ve consciously decided to stay away from some Canadian alternatives. The main customers of most Canadian tech companies ar", "context": "Canadian avoiding US services", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "Migrating to the EU"}, {"id": 800450160, "item_id": 50028135, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50028135", "by": "beilabs", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Proton is privacy first.  I use their tools for a reason", "excerpt": "Thanks for this. Been with Proton a while and they're not great at letting their customers know of new products. Either that or they are too successful at filtering their own marketing email. To the OP: Proton is privacy first. I use their tools for a reason, trusting file transfer to a third party would never happen even with an open code base. It's fine if the tool is for yourself, great for your CV and well done f", "context": "long-time Proton customer", "use_case": "privacy-first tools", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Proton Drive for Linux"}]}, {"text": " and as an easy way to run email on your own domain without self-hosting a mail server.", "cites": [{"id": 784660704, "item_id": 49041294, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041294", "by": "ktm5j", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Do what I do and pay for Proton and stick your domain on it.", "excerpt": "I used to run mail servers for a university and I also suggest that no one should do this. It's hard enough to get right when it's your full time job. No one wants that kind of headache just for an email address. Do what I do and pay for Proton and stick your domain on it.", "context": "used to run mail servers for a university", "use_case": "email with custom domain", "switched_from": "self-hosted mail server", "story": "Self-host your mail server"}, {"id": 784645169, "item_id": 49040323, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49040323", "by": "mmh0000", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Especially when Fastmail and Proton are so cheap.", "excerpt": "I ran my own self-hosted email server from 2008-ish to 2018, and I would highly recommend against doing it! Especially when Fastmail and Proton are so cheap. I was running Postfix+Dovecot+Seive+SpamAssassin+Fail2ban+certbot+spf+dkim+reverse-ip+<other random crap> It worked! Receiving email was overall pretty easy. I know I also did things the \"hard way\" by ad-hoccing all that together, and today there are a lot more ", "context": "ran own mail server 2008-2018", "use_case": "email hosting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-host your mail server"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is lost trust in its leadership over the CEO's comments and AI push,", "cites": [{"id": 804928128, "item_id": 50308008, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50308008", "by": "iAMkenough", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "corporate leadership at Proton can\u2019t be trusted", "excerpt": "Like I said earlier this week, this re-alignment of the people that built and maintained their products is also resulting in a re-alignment of their customer base. Hopefully we\u2019ll see those talented engineers leaving to build an alternative to Proton products now that we know corporate leadership at Proton can\u2019t be trusted. The board should really oust the \u201closer thinking\u201d CEO and CTO if they want to minimize the dam", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'"}, {"id": 804968592, "item_id": 50310537, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50310537", "by": "crnkofe", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Its just a matter of time now before I shutdown my Protonmail account.", "excerpt": "Just learned about his position on security today. Been a Protonmail user for a while now. Initially I switched to detach myself from the US corp monopolies. Its just a matter of time now before I shutdown my Protonmail account. CEOs should understand that company ethics and security are not just black pixels on a white background.", "context": "long-time Protonmail user", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI isn't replacing SREs, it's deskilling them"}, {"id": 804948736, "item_id": 50309296, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50309296", "by": "surgical_fire", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used to love Proton, but now I am looking for alternatives.", "excerpt": "I used to love Proton, but now I am looking for alternatives. With a moron like that at the helm, it is a matter of time for it to become shit. Any suggestions of a good email provider? Also, a VPN that plays nicely with port forwarding for torrents?", "context": "", "use_case": "email and VPN", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'"}, {"id": 804686320, "item_id": 50292895, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50292895", "by": "stego-tech", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Already looking for exit strategies. I don\u2019t want to give this prick one red cent of my money.", "excerpt": "Dude, all I want is a private and secure email provider. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s what I pay for. Everything else - and I mean everything else - is ancillary to that core function. Seeing a CEO openly throw security out the window in favor of Big Tech\u2019s latest drug addiction is bad enough, but the CEO of a company whose entire reputation is bucking Big Tech? Inexcusable. Already looking for exit strategies. I don\u2019t want to ", "context": "paying Proton customer", "use_case": "private email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Manifestos, Fear, and 'Loser Thinking': Inside Proton's AI Reckoning"}, {"id": 804642704, "item_id": 50290169, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50290169", "by": "Refreeze5224", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I no longer trust Proton after reading this.", "excerpt": "I no longer trust Proton after reading this. Chen seems like he has lost what the entire point of Protonmail was supposed to be, and now wants to become one of the Big Tech companies they were built to be an alternative to. He also seems like a two-faced bully. Email (and VPN, password manager, etc.) is far too sensitive to go as all-in as they want to do on AI. I've been using Tuta in parallel with Proton, and I wil", "context": "", "use_case": "email, VPN, password manager", "switched_from": "", "story": "Manifestos, Fear, and 'Loser Thinking': Inside Proton's AI Reckoning"}, {"id": 771743968, "item_id": 48233998, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48233998", "by": "h4kunamata", "date": "2026-05-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It looks like it is time to dump Proton.", "excerpt": "It looks like it is time to dump Proton. Somebody has to be insanely crazy to grant an Agentic AI access to a password manager. I have been using its paid services for some time now, they refuse to provide Linux client for its products, declining from their email service, and now this AI push. To make matters worse, Bitwarden is closing its Password Manager. We are so screwed.", "context": "Linux user, paying Proton customer", "use_case": "paid email and password manager", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton Pass for AI Agents"}]}, {"text": " with many long-time users saying they are leaving;", "cites": [{"id": 804817168, "item_id": 50301073, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50301073", "by": "drakonka", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "may be enough for me to start transitioning away after eight years", "excerpt": "> \u201cPerception is more important than truth, the truth doesn\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t win on perception.\u201d Seeing this sentiment expressed by Proton's leadership may be enough for me to start transitioning away after eight years. Is Tuta a reasonable alternative to investigate first?", "context": "Proton user for eight years", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Manifestos, Fear, and 'Loser Thinking': Inside Proton's AI Reckoning"}, {"id": 804933216, "item_id": 50308326, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50308326", "by": "aanet", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I\u2019m not supporting their products anymore. Cancelling my subscription", "excerpt": "100% this. Tech leaders have lost touch with people. And the top leaders \u2014 take your pick \u2014 have normalized shitty behavior. I used to think Proton was good. Not so, anymore. I\u2019m not supporting their products anymore. Cancelling my subscription", "context": "subscriber", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'"}, {"id": 804921472, "item_id": 50307592, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50307592", "by": "random_cat_8745", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I use Proton, time to move away.", "excerpt": "makes me sad, I use Proton, time to move away.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'"}, {"id": 804889280, "item_id": 50305580, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50305580", "by": "sassbadger", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "immediately moved away from Proton. Was a pain but I'm not regretting it.", "excerpt": "Honestly I felt this way when he commented on welcoming Trump's second term and immediately moved away from Proton. Was a pain but I'm not regretting it.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Binance-hacker-1029 \u2013 $5.6B stolen from Binance"}, {"id": 804927520, "item_id": 50307970, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50307970", "by": "Y-bar", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I moved to Proton half a year ago in an effort to de-Google (and de-US) myself. Now this.", "excerpt": "Aw schucks. I moved to Proton half a year ago in an effort to de-Google (and de-US) myself. Now this. Time to write a message to customer service explaining my concerns.", "context": "", "use_case": "de-Google email and services", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'"}]}, {"text": " others cite poor search, a clunky UI and outages.", "cites": [{"id": 790263200, "item_id": 49391450, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49391450", "by": "imzadi", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I use protonmail and the search is genuinely atrocious. Like the word can be in the title and it still won't find it.", "excerpt": "I use protonmail and the search is genuinely atrocious. Like the word can be in the title and it still won't find it.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Just Want to Search"}, {"id": 786710320, "item_id": 49169395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169395", "by": "mjpa86", "date": "2026-08-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Proton's performance is terrible, as is Outlook", "excerpt": "Is there a decent alternative to gmail that works seemlessly on android? Proton's performance is terrible, as is Outlook, not to mention it's search that just doesn't work. Unless I've misread it, this will stop people using their own domain on gmail and using an external mail server to send from gmail using their own domain right?", "context": "", "use_case": "email on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gmail will end send-as support from third-party email addresses"}, {"id": 769937232, "item_id": 48121077, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48121077", "by": "rc_kas", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It is patently inferior to gmail.", "excerpt": "I switched to Protonmail a month ago. It is patently inferior to gmail. Every day I get annoyed by some weakness in the UI that google had apparently just always solved without me ever having to think about it. For example, reading long email chains in the proton UI is horrific. I don't know what google did that made it natural to read and proton does so badly, but it is painful to read these long chains of emails. A", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "I Moved My Digital Stack to Europe"}, {"id": 792404257, "item_id": 49525266, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525266", "by": "alexjplant", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "multiple hour-plus downtimes in a week for e-mail is unacceptable", "excerpt": "I switched to Tuta this morning. I used to be a huge Proton advocate but multiple hour-plus downtimes in a week for e-mail is unacceptable. At this point I had better uptime running my own mail server on a VPS (or at least when the UI went down it was a simple `systemctl restart` away to fix it) and this was in the dark ages of having to manually rotate X.509 certs.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton Outage"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Leaving Google", "summary": "Used as a paid replacement for Gmail and Google services by people de-Googling or avoiding US companies.", "quotes": [{"id": 764528880, "item_id": 47783055, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47783055", "by": "jfoworjf", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "paying proton mail for everything else", "excerpt": "This story is the one that finally pushed me to leave google. I moved off my ~20 year old Google account and deleted everything off their services including almost a decade of Google photos. I cancelled my Google one subscription for extra space. I'm now self hosting what I can and paying proton mail for everything else. I refuse to allow a company that will hand over data at the request of an administrative warrant ", "context": "left Google after ICE data story", "use_case": "replacing Google services", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data"}, {"id": 796001952, "item_id": 49750122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49750122", "by": "Gengar", "date": "2026-09-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "so I switched to Proton and use YouTube with VPN only", "excerpt": "You are screwed. I lost access to my account, by trying to buy YouTube premium ironically. If Google even tried to help me I would still use them but they don't, so I switched to Proton and use YouTube with VPN only so they get zero ad revenue :)", "context": "", "use_case": "replacing Google account", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Ask HN: How to recover Google auth after phone stolen?"}, {"id": 759822784, "item_id": 47488924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488924", "by": "darthcloud", "date": "2026-03-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I do like Proton Mail.", "excerpt": "As a Canadian, I\u2019ve been thinking since last year about migrating to non-US services and applications. My main goal is simply to avoid giving money or data directly to US corporations. I have no illusions, these non-US services probably still benefit US companies in some ways. They\u2019re rare, but I\u2019ve consciously decided to stay away from some Canadian alternatives. The main customers of most Canadian tech companies ar", "context": "Canadian avoiding US services", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "Migrating to the EU"}]}, {"label": "Privacy focus", "summary": "Valued for a privacy-first approach and encryption at rest.", "quotes": [{"id": 800450160, "item_id": 50028135, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50028135", "by": "beilabs", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Proton is privacy first.  I use their tools for a reason", "excerpt": "Thanks for this. Been with Proton a while and they're not great at letting their customers know of new products. Either that or they are too successful at filtering their own marketing email. To the OP: Proton is privacy first. I use their tools for a reason, trusting file transfer to a third party would never happen even with an open code base. It's fine if the tool is for yourself, great for your CV and well done f", "context": "long-time Proton customer", "use_case": "privacy-first tools", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Proton Drive for Linux"}, {"id": 754296144, "item_id": 47143509, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47143509", "by": "firefax", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "any cloud service without strong encryption at rest ala Protonmail will have insider threat issues", "excerpt": "I suspect any cloud service without strong encryption at rest ala Protonmail will have insider threat issues. Hell there's an entire Wikipedia article entitled \"Saudi infiltration of Twitter\"[1] just to give one example. This is anecdotal, but once when I worked for a well known NGO as an experiment I created a document outlining what our positions would be for a meeting with representatives from a certain country[2]", "context": "", "use_case": "encrypted cloud storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "So Claude's stealing our business secrets, right?"}, {"id": 784114240, "item_id": 49007140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49007140", "by": "vijaydeep18", "date": "2026-07-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "now since proton is also creating its own ecosystem with privacy first principles. I think it will gain more traction.", "excerpt": "It's great to see these updates, I have been using proton for on/off but couldn't use it as primary option due to additional capabilities and convenience provided by Google. But now since proton is also creating its own ecosystem with privacy first principles. I think it will gain more traction.", "context": "", "use_case": "privacy-focused cloud services", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton drive updates (with Linux client in progress)"}]}, {"label": "Account safety", "summary": "Some use it because Proton won't lock them out of email over unrelated Google-style account actions.", "quotes": [{"id": 756305600, "item_id": 47269100, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47269100", "by": "laweijfmvo", "date": "2026-03-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Proton won\u2019t lock me out of my email because I accidentally sang a copyrighted song in a Youtube video. That\u2019s why I use it", "excerpt": "Proton won\u2019t lock me out of my email because I accidentally sang a copyrighted song in a Youtube video. That\u2019s why I use it, not because it\u2019s the pirate bay for email.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous 'Stop Cop City' Protester"}, {"id": 796001952, "item_id": 49750122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49750122", "by": "Gengar", "date": "2026-09-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "so I switched to Proton and use YouTube with VPN only", "excerpt": "You are screwed. I lost access to my account, by trying to buy YouTube premium ironically. If Google even tried to help me I would still use them but they don't, so I switched to Proton and use YouTube with VPN only so they get zero ad revenue :)", "context": "", "use_case": "replacing Google account", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Ask HN: How to recover Google auth after phone stolen?"}]}, {"label": "Replaces self-hosting", "summary": "Former mail admins recommend paying for Proton with a custom domain instead of running a server.", "quotes": [{"id": 784660704, "item_id": 49041294, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041294", "by": "ktm5j", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Do what I do and pay for Proton and stick your domain on it.", "excerpt": "I used to run mail servers for a university and I also suggest that no one should do this. It's hard enough to get right when it's your full time job. No one wants that kind of headache just for an email address. Do what I do and pay for Proton and stick your domain on it.", "context": "used to run mail servers for a university", "use_case": "email with custom domain", "switched_from": "self-hosted mail server", "story": "Self-host your mail server"}, {"id": 784645169, "item_id": 49040323, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49040323", "by": "mmh0000", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Especially when Fastmail and Proton are so cheap.", "excerpt": "I ran my own self-hosted email server from 2008-ish to 2018, and I would highly recommend against doing it! Especially when Fastmail and Proton are so cheap. I was running Postfix+Dovecot+Seive+SpamAssassin+Fail2ban+certbot+spf+dkim+reverse-ip+<other random crap> It worked! Receiving email was overall pretty easy. I know I also did things the \"hard way\" by ad-hoccing all that together, and today there are a lot more ", "context": "ran own mail server 2008-2018", "use_case": "email hosting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-host your mail server"}]}, {"label": "Broad ecosystem", "summary": "Seen as a one-stop shop of privacy tools with a growing ecosystem.", "quotes": [{"id": 795537536, "item_id": 49721096, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49721096", "by": "Grombobulous", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "They\u2019re pretty much a one-stop shop for everything you could want", "excerpt": "There are two themes in this article that end up both being flawed: - Proton\u2019s not an honest/forthright company in terms of open source and for-profit status - Proton is flawed technically and isn\u2019t really encrypting your data. Starting with the former, I think the author is letting perfect get in the way of good. Proton has a whole lot of open source going on with their products and that is a whole lot more than any", "context": "", "use_case": "privacy-focused email and cloud suite", "switched_from": "", "story": "Leaving Proton Mail"}, {"id": 784114240, "item_id": 49007140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49007140", "by": "vijaydeep18", "date": "2026-07-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "now since proton is also creating its own ecosystem with privacy first principles. I think it will gain more traction.", "excerpt": "It's great to see these updates, I have been using proton for on/off but couldn't use it as primary option due to additional capabilities and convenience provided by Google. But now since proton is also creating its own ecosystem with privacy first principles. I think it will gain more traction.", "context": "", "use_case": "privacy-focused cloud services", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton drive updates (with Linux client in progress)"}]}, {"label": "Bridge IMAP", "summary": "Proton Mail Bridge provides local IMAP and SMTP access.", "quotes": [{"id": 788188368, "item_id": 49261773, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49261773", "by": "krunck", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "ProtonMail. Then you can run ProtonMail Bridge to get a local IMAP and SMTP connection to your ProtonMail account.", "excerpt": "ProtonMail. Then you can run ProtonMail Bridge to get a local IMAP and SMTP connection to your ProtonMail account.", "context": "", "use_case": "personal email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Leadership trust", "summary": "Many users say they no longer trust Proton's leadership and its AI push, and plan to leave.", "quotes": [{"id": 804642704, "item_id": 50290169, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50290169", "by": "Refreeze5224", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I no longer trust Proton after reading this.", "excerpt": "I no longer trust Proton after reading this. Chen seems like he has lost what the entire point of Protonmail was supposed to be, and now wants to become one of the Big Tech companies they were built to be an alternative to. He also seems like a two-faced bully. Email (and VPN, password manager, etc.) is far too sensitive to go as all-in as they want to do on AI. I've been using Tuta in parallel with Proton, and I wil", "context": "", "use_case": "email, VPN, password manager", "switched_from": "", "story": "Manifestos, Fear, and 'Loser Thinking': Inside Proton's AI Reckoning"}, {"id": 804686320, "item_id": 50292895, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50292895", "by": "stego-tech", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Already looking for exit strategies. I don\u2019t want to give this prick one red cent of my money.", "excerpt": "Dude, all I want is a private and secure email provider. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s what I pay for. Everything else - and I mean everything else - is ancillary to that core function. Seeing a CEO openly throw security out the window in favor of Big Tech\u2019s latest drug addiction is bad enough, but the CEO of a company whose entire reputation is bucking Big Tech? Inexcusable. Already looking for exit strategies. I don\u2019t want to ", "context": "paying Proton customer", "use_case": "private email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Manifestos, Fear, and 'Loser Thinking': Inside Proton's AI Reckoning"}, {"id": 804928128, "item_id": 50308008, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50308008", "by": "iAMkenough", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "corporate leadership at Proton can\u2019t be trusted", "excerpt": "Like I said earlier this week, this re-alignment of the people that built and maintained their products is also resulting in a re-alignment of their customer base. Hopefully we\u2019ll see those talented engineers leaving to build an alternative to Proton products now that we know corporate leadership at Proton can\u2019t be trusted. The board should really oust the \u201closer thinking\u201d CEO and CTO if they want to minimize the dam", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'"}]}, {"label": "Privacy claims", "summary": "Some say its privacy and security are overhyped or its E2EE encourages vendor lock-in.", "quotes": [{"id": 804722209, "item_id": 50295138, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50295138", "by": "bhrlady", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Proton is completely overhyped in terms of the genuine privacy and security of their products", "excerpt": "\"Yen was not happy that Proton was drawing attention to this limitation.\" This has always been the case. Lack of transparency and dishonest, overzealous marketing. I use Fastmail because they are at least honest about their limitations and Proton is completely overhyped in terms of the genuine privacy and security of their products. Good to know that beyond being mediocre they've confirmed it's all increasingly AI sl", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Manifestos, Fear, and 'Loser Thinking': Inside Proton's AI Reckoning"}, {"id": 756393232, "item_id": 47274577, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274577", "by": "Haven880", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Using Proton for privacy and security is quite ignorant.", "excerpt": "Using Proton for privacy and security is quite ignorant. They are known to support legal requests without ever challenge that request. At least Yahoo has way better record than Proton. I use Proton, but never for privacy reason. It is as good as hotmail and yahoo mail. If you truly care privacy do it in another country. So qq mail and yandex mail have zero chance being look at by any western authorities. And the same", "context": "uses Proton, but not for privacy", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous 'Stop Cop City' Protester"}, {"id": 775655393, "item_id": 48478462, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48478462", "by": "tcyrus", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The vendor lock-in is so bad that some Proton Official Emails (specifically Zendesk Support and Standard Notes) still don't use any form of E2EE", "excerpt": "The E2EE behind Tuta Mail and Proton Mail are designed around vendor lock-in. While I understand the reasoning behind the decision, it shows the intent behind both products. Proton Mail supports PGP encryption for external communications, but I believe Proton Mail Bridge still blocks users from sending PGP encrypted emails. The vendor lock-in is so bad that some Proton Official Emails (specifically Zendesk Support an", "context": "", "use_case": "encrypted email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tuta and Proton: An Open Source Client Does Not Result in an Open Source Service"}]}, {"label": "Web client trust", "summary": "Web-app encryption means users must trust Proton not to serve a modified client.", "quotes": [{"id": 762625649, "item_id": 47664103, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47664103", "by": "palata", "date": "2026-04-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I need to trust that Proton doesn't inject a backdoor to extract my key", "excerpt": "Those are valid arguments but I like apps better, for other reasons. Mostly security. When I use, say, the Signal app: - I can audit it, download it or even compile it myself from sources - Once I have installed it, Signal doesn't get to change it \"in my back\" - As a result, I don't need to trust Signal for the end-to-end encryption, which is the whole point of end-to-end encryption. When I use a webapp, say ProtonMa", "context": "prefers native apps for security", "use_case": "webapp email", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Won't Download Your App. The Web Version Is A-OK"}, {"id": 749170963, "item_id": 46823185, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46823185", "by": "palata", "date": "2026-01-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "They could totally serve me a different client one day.", "excerpt": "Sounds pretty bad... I am a user a pCloud, but fortunately I use it as a backend for Restic, so I send encrypted stuff there :-). I believe it is better anyway. I have been a happy user of Mega for years, and I like the end-to-end encryption, but the fact remains that I need to trust Mega entirely because the encryption/decryption is made on their website/app. Similar to e.g. ProtonMail: they PGP-encrypt the email on", "context": "", "use_case": "encrypted email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Another user's pCloud setup is visible in my pcloud drive"}]}, {"label": "Search and UI", "summary": "Search, performance and reading long threads are described as poor compared with Gmail.", "quotes": [{"id": 790263200, "item_id": 49391450, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49391450", "by": "imzadi", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I use protonmail and the search is genuinely atrocious. Like the word can be in the title and it still won't find it.", "excerpt": "I use protonmail and the search is genuinely atrocious. Like the word can be in the title and it still won't find it.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Just Want to Search"}, {"id": 786710320, "item_id": 49169395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169395", "by": "mjpa86", "date": "2026-08-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Proton's performance is terrible, as is Outlook", "excerpt": "Is there a decent alternative to gmail that works seemlessly on android? Proton's performance is terrible, as is Outlook, not to mention it's search that just doesn't work. Unless I've misread it, this will stop people using their own domain on gmail and using an external mail server to send from gmail using their own domain right?", "context": "", "use_case": "email on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gmail will end send-as support from third-party email addresses"}, {"id": 769937232, "item_id": 48121077, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48121077", "by": "rc_kas", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It is patently inferior to gmail.", "excerpt": "I switched to Protonmail a month ago. It is patently inferior to gmail. Every day I get annoyed by some weakness in the UI that google had apparently just always solved without me ever having to think about it. For example, reading long email chains in the proton UI is horrific. I don't know what google did that made it natural to read and proton does so badly, but it is painful to read these long chains of emails. A", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "I Moved My Digital Stack to Europe"}]}, {"label": "Outages", "summary": "One former advocate left after multiple hour-plus email downtimes in a week.", "quotes": [{"id": 792404257, "item_id": 49525266, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525266", "by": "alexjplant", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "multiple hour-plus downtimes in a week for e-mail is unacceptable", "excerpt": "I switched to Tuta this morning. I used to be a huge Proton advocate but multiple hour-plus downtimes in a week for e-mail is unacceptable. At this point I had better uptime running my own mail server on a VPS (or at least when the UI went down it was a simple `systemctl restart` away to fix it) and this was in the dark ages of having to manually rotate X.509 certs.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton Outage"}]}, {"label": "Domain limits", "summary": "Limited addresses and only three custom domains kept one user on Fastmail.", "quotes": [{"id": 800666193, "item_id": 50041637, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50041637", "by": "28304283409234", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Proton only supports a very limited number of emailaddresses, and only 3(!) domains.", "excerpt": "I'm still on fastmail because I use *@domain.name and Proton only supports a very limited number of emailaddresses, and only 3(!) domains. Sadly.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "European Alternatives"}]}], "who": [{"by": "blablabla123", "context": "Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50157578", "date": "2026-10-19"}, {"by": "beilabs", "context": "long-time Proton customer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50028135", "date": "2026-10-10"}, {"by": "alexfortin", "context": "paying Proton customer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50017795", "date": "2026-10-09"}, {"by": "Cider9986", "context": "moved from iOS to GrapheneOS", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49373801", "date": "2026-08-20"}, {"by": "lone-cloud", "context": "privacy focused self hoster", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49299766", "date": "2026-08-14"}, {"by": "ColdStream", "context": "Linux user since 1998", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49191081", "date": "2026-08-05"}, {"by": "ktm5j", "context": "used to run mail servers for a university", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041294", "date": "2026-07-24"}, {"by": "mmh0000", "context": "ran own mail server 2008-2018", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49040323", "date": "2026-07-24"}, {"by": "meristohm", "context": "de-Googling user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48822199", "date": "2026-07-07"}, {"by": "giancarlostoro", "context": "daily Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48592147", "date": "2026-06-18"}, {"by": "cianmm", "context": "Proton user with own domain", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48503709", "date": "2026-06-12"}, {"by": "keithnz", "context": "recently moved to Linux for gaming", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48407583", "date": "2026-06-04"}], "tags": ["for de-Googling", "for avoiding US services", "for custom domains", "instead of self-hosting mail"], "use_cases": ["email", "running windows games on linux", "gaming on linux", "encrypted email", "personal email", "playing windows games on linux"], "compared": [{"slug": "gmail", "name": "Gmail", "co": 11, "switched_from": 5, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "fastmail", "name": "Fastmail", "co": 16, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "tuta", "name": "Tuta", "co": 8, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 3}, {"slug": "steam", "name": "Steam", "co": 9, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "wine", "name": "Wine", "co": 9, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "windows", "name": "Windows", "co": 3, "switched_from": 2, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "signal", "name": "Signal", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50307183", "title": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'", "mentions": 6}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50289692", "title": "Manifestos, Fear, and 'Loser Thinking': Inside Proton's AI Reckoning", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49261634", "title": "Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46729368", "title": "Proton Spam and the AI Consent Problem", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50039063", "title": "European Alternatives", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49716094", "title": "Leaving Proton Mail", "mentions": 2}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 4, "warn": 2}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 2, "warn": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 3, "warn": 1}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 2, "warn": 1, "neutral": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 3, "warn": 2}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 4, "warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 6}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 7, "warn": 3, "neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {"compare": 2, "warn": 2, "neutral": 2, "recommend": 3}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 7, "warn": 12, "neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804968592, "item_id": 50310537, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50310537", "by": "crnkofe", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Its just a matter of time now before I shutdown my Protonmail account.", "excerpt": "Just learned about his position on security today. Been a Protonmail user for a while now. Initially I switched to detach myself from the US corp monopolies. Its just a matter of time now before I shutdown my Protonmail account. CEOs should understand that company ethics and security are not just black pixels on a white background.", "context": "long-time Protonmail user", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI isn't replacing SREs, it's deskilling them"}, {"id": 804948736, "item_id": 50309296, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50309296", "by": "surgical_fire", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used to love Proton, but now I am looking for alternatives.", "excerpt": "I used to love Proton, but now I am looking for alternatives. With a moron like that at the helm, it is a matter of time for it to become shit. Any suggestions of a good email provider? Also, a VPN that plays nicely with port forwarding for torrents?", "context": "", "use_case": "email and VPN", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'"}, {"id": 804933216, "item_id": 50308326, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50308326", "by": "aanet", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I\u2019m not supporting their products anymore. Cancelling my subscription", "excerpt": "100% this. Tech leaders have lost touch with people. And the top leaders \u2014 take your pick \u2014 have normalized shitty behavior. I used to think Proton was good. Not so, anymore. I\u2019m not supporting their products anymore. Cancelling my subscription", "context": "subscriber", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'"}, {"id": 804931617, "item_id": 50308226, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50308226", "by": "Y-bar", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have already begun using my proton-domain email address with real people.", "excerpt": "I have already begun using my proton-domain email address with real people. They have just started learning it (or have finally updated my contact info). That\u2019s one hurdle. Another hurdle is I see no other good alternative. I used Fastmail for a while, but it was a bit laggy due to network requests across the Atlantic Ocean. Also it is under US jurisdiction. That company is no longer relevant to me. I still think it ", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'"}, {"id": 804928128, "item_id": 50308008, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50308008", "by": "iAMkenough", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "corporate leadership at Proton can\u2019t be trusted", "excerpt": "Like I said earlier this week, this re-alignment of the people that built and maintained their products is also resulting in a re-alignment of their customer base. Hopefully we\u2019ll see those talented engineers leaving to build an alternative to Proton products now that we know corporate leadership at Proton can\u2019t be trusted. The board should really oust the \u201closer thinking\u201d CEO and CTO if they want to minimize the dam", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'"}, {"id": 804927520, "item_id": 50307970, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50307970", "by": "Y-bar", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I moved to Proton half a year ago in an effort to de-Google (and de-US) myself. Now this.", "excerpt": "Aw schucks. I moved to Proton half a year ago in an effort to de-Google (and de-US) myself. Now this. Time to write a message to customer service explaining my concerns.", "context": "", "use_case": "de-Google email and services", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'"}, {"id": 804921472, "item_id": 50307592, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50307592", "by": "random_cat_8745", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I use Proton, time to move away.", "excerpt": "makes me sad, I use Proton, time to move away.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'"}, {"id": 804889280, "item_id": 50305580, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50305580", "by": "sassbadger", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "immediately moved away from Proton. Was a pain but I'm not regretting it.", "excerpt": "Honestly I felt this way when he commented on welcoming Trump's second term and immediately moved away from Proton. Was a pain but I'm not regretting it.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Binance-hacker-1029 \u2013 $5.6B stolen from Binance"}, {"id": 804817168, "item_id": 50301073, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50301073", "by": "drakonka", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "may be enough for me to start transitioning away after eight years", "excerpt": "> \u201cPerception is more important than truth, the truth doesn\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t win on perception.\u201d Seeing this sentiment expressed by Proton's leadership may be enough for me to start transitioning away after eight years. Is Tuta a reasonable alternative to investigate first?", "context": "Proton user for eight years", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Manifestos, Fear, and 'Loser Thinking': Inside Proton's AI Reckoning"}, {"id": 804722209, "item_id": 50295138, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50295138", "by": "bhrlady", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Proton is completely overhyped in terms of the genuine privacy and security of their products", "excerpt": "\"Yen was not happy that Proton was drawing attention to this limitation.\" This has always been the case. Lack of transparency and dishonest, overzealous marketing. I use Fastmail because they are at least honest about their limitations and Proton is completely overhyped in terms of the genuine privacy and security of their products. Good to know that beyond being mediocre they've confirmed it's all increasingly AI sl", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Manifestos, Fear, and 'Loser Thinking': Inside Proton's AI Reckoning"}, {"id": 804686320, "item_id": 50292895, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50292895", "by": "stego-tech", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Already looking for exit strategies. I don\u2019t want to give this prick one red cent of my money.", "excerpt": "Dude, all I want is a private and secure email provider. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s what I pay for. Everything else - and I mean everything else - is ancillary to that core function. Seeing a CEO openly throw security out the window in favor of Big Tech\u2019s latest drug addiction is bad enough, but the CEO of a company whose entire reputation is bucking Big Tech? Inexcusable. Already looking for exit strategies. I don\u2019t want to ", "context": "paying Proton customer", "use_case": "private email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Manifestos, Fear, and 'Loser Thinking': Inside Proton's AI Reckoning"}, {"id": 804642704, "item_id": 50290169, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50290169", "by": "Refreeze5224", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I no longer trust Proton after reading this.", "excerpt": "I no longer trust Proton after reading this. Chen seems like he has lost what the entire point of Protonmail was supposed to be, and now wants to become one of the Big Tech companies they were built to be an alternative to. He also seems like a two-faced bully. Email (and VPN, password manager, etc.) is far too sensitive to go as all-in as they want to do on AI. I've been using Tuta in parallel with Proton, and I wil", "context": "", "use_case": "email, VPN, password manager", "switched_from": "", "story": "Manifestos, Fear, and 'Loser Thinking': Inside Proton's AI Reckoning"}, {"id": 804275904, "item_id": 50267244, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50267244", "by": "bigyabai", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Proton could be optimized to fix games that were objectively broken on DirectX", "excerpt": "I agree with everything here. Apple has a perverse incentive to create support churn for games and blame developers, but overall the strategy doesn't work on Mac. It only really panned out on mobile, where gambling apps and gacha games take up Apple's mantle in exchange for access to a larger audience. Which is a rich parallel to Apple's story about the App Store \"protecting consumers\" and the other knee-jerk DSA/DMA", "context": "", "use_case": "running Windows games on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "New 14\u2011inch MacBook Pro with M6"}, {"id": 802521248, "item_id": 50157578, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50157578", "by": "blablabla123", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "With Proton which I use the configuration works by default though IIRC.", "excerpt": "I'm having a blast with AoE I on Linux, in this case the Definitive Edition. I don't think it looks like Office though ;) But what is true, it's tricky to get running on WINE. With Proton which I use the configuration works by default though IIRC.", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "running Windows games on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Wine ported to OpenBSD"}, {"id": 801782322, "item_id": 50111395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50111395", "by": "ebrahimh", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "If I use Gmail/proton etc, then I can be pretty sure that the other person got my email.", "excerpt": "I've never tried to set it up even though I know it can easily be done with things like mailcow. The downside is never really knowing if your email reached your recipient (maybe it got blocked by Gmail because of your IP, maybe some other reason). If I use Gmail/proton etc, then I can be pretty sure that the other person got my email.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "What I self-host"}, {"id": 801760146, "item_id": 50110009, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50110009", "by": "oger", "date": "2026-10-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "up to GPG Mail or Proton Mail I never encountered any significant difficulties", "excerpt": "To be honest: I keep hearing that PGP was / is difficult to use. That couldn\u2018t be further from the truth - but somehow it has become an urban myth. From the very first versions that I used on my first Mac up to GPG Mail or Proton Mail I never encountered any significant difficulties and could successfully exchange messages with my peers - both in business and private contexts.", "context": "", "use_case": "encrypted email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why I Wrote PGP (1991, revised 1999)"}, {"id": 800666193, "item_id": 50041637, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50041637", "by": "28304283409234", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Proton only supports a very limited number of emailaddresses, and only 3(!) domains.", "excerpt": "I'm still on fastmail because I use *@domain.name and Proton only supports a very limited number of emailaddresses, and only 3(!) domains. Sadly.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "European Alternatives"}, {"id": 800659121, "item_id": 50041195, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50041195", "by": "CodeCompost", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Canceled my account and moved to Proton.", "excerpt": "I used mailbox.org briefly but was very heavily disappointed in it. Canceled my account and moved to Proton.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "mailbox.org", "story": "European Alternatives"}, {"id": 800549650, "item_id": 50034353, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50034353", "by": "chausen", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the work Valve has done with KDE and Proton has really added a lot of polish", "excerpt": "I setup a new main PC (Nvidia GPU) with Arch and GNOME a couple of years ago and had quite a few problems. I switched to KDE and have had almost 0 problems for day-to-day work and gaming. Every once in a while I\u2019ll run into an issue with running a game that I can usually resolve pretty easily with AI. It seems the work Valve has done with KDE and Proton has really added a lot of polish to the experience; I\u2019ve always ", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux gaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 800450160, "item_id": 50028135, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50028135", "by": "beilabs", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Proton is privacy first.  I use their tools for a reason", "excerpt": "Thanks for this. Been with Proton a while and they're not great at letting their customers know of new products. Either that or they are too successful at filtering their own marketing email. To the OP: Proton is privacy first. I use their tools for a reason, trusting file transfer to a third party would never happen even with an open code base. It's fine if the tool is for yourself, great for your CV and well done f", "context": "long-time Proton customer", "use_case": "privacy-first tools", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Proton Drive for Linux"}, {"id": 800284720, "item_id": 50017795, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50017795", "by": "alexfortin", "date": "2026-10-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I guess I'm much less overthinking the whole issue than you are  All my switching feels organic in retrospective", "excerpt": "It's really interesting to hear other experiences, I see this really goes deep for you... I guess I'm much less overthinking the whole issue than you are All my switching feels organic in retrospective and creating a Proton mail account + GMail forward didn't seem like a big deal at the time, it's not like you have to self host your SMTP server or similar effort after all. I agree the \"e2e-encrypted email\" bit is mos", "context": "paying Proton customer", "use_case": "encrypted email", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "Stop complaining about enshittification. Use the alternatives"}, {"id": 797582064, "item_id": 49848879, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848879", "by": "handedness", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Anyone who cares about Windows->Linux compatibility layers, x86 emulation on ARM, or VR will benefit greatly from the Steam Deck/Machine/Frame ecosystem", "excerpt": "Even when the Steam Deck was $319, far more people still bought Switches, of course. Doesn't matter. Check out Proton's current stats, and see the Deck's impact on everyone who didn't buy one: https://www.protondb.com Anyone who cares about Windows->Linux compatibility layers, x86 emulation on ARM, or VR will benefit greatly from the Steam Deck/Machine/Frame ecosystem, due largely to Valve's reported 100+ developers ", "context": "", "use_case": "running Windows games on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Meta VR Glasses"}, {"id": 796001952, "item_id": 49750122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49750122", "by": "Gengar", "date": "2026-09-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "so I switched to Proton and use YouTube with VPN only", "excerpt": "You are screwed. I lost access to my account, by trying to buy YouTube premium ironically. If Google even tried to help me I would still use them but they don't, so I switched to Proton and use YouTube with VPN only so they get zero ad revenue :)", "context": "", "use_case": "replacing Google account", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Ask HN: How to recover Google auth after phone stolen?"}, {"id": 795665552, "item_id": 49729097, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49729097", "by": "sosodev", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I say that as somebody who switched to Proton for political reasons too", "excerpt": "Oh, I totally agree that it\u2019s a valid reason. I just don\u2019t find the authors gripe very meaningful. I say that as somebody who switched to Proton for political reasons too haha.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Leaving Proton Mail"}, {"id": 795537536, "item_id": 49721096, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49721096", "by": "Grombobulous", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "They\u2019re pretty much a one-stop shop for everything you could want", "excerpt": "There are two themes in this article that end up both being flawed: - Proton\u2019s not an honest/forthright company in terms of open source and for-profit status - Proton is flawed technically and isn\u2019t really encrypting your data. Starting with the former, I think the author is letting perfect get in the way of good. Proton has a whole lot of open source going on with their products and that is a whole lot more than any", "context": "", "use_case": "privacy-focused email and cloud suite", "switched_from": "", "story": "Leaving Proton Mail"}, {"id": 793611488, "item_id": 49600718, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49600718", "by": "Throwthrowbob", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Fonts are inconsistent, and can change and adjust on you when typing, or when opening drafts.", "excerpt": "- In their mobile application: - They decreased the number of visible digits of unread e-mails from four (untested past four) to three. This is one of the first things the user sees when opening the application. - After providing feedback, was told \"that exceeding the number of 1000 unread messages displays the number of the messages in the counter as 999+. This is expected behaviour.\" - Soon after, a further update ", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gmail to end support for \"Send as\" for third-party addresses, such as @yahoo.com"}, {"id": 793381024, "item_id": 49586314, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49586314", "by": "temp0826", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've been a proton user for a while", "excerpt": "I've been a proton user for a while but have always shied away from their other offerings...feels like too many eggs in one basket to use them for both email and password management (things I consider to be the most critical of all services I use). Vpn as well! Am I being paranoid? It would be nice to not pay for 3 separate services but I have kind of a blockage about it", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Don't Use a gmail.com Address"}, {"id": 792639394, "item_id": 49539962, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539962", "by": "4lx87", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "besides maybe the encrypted mail providers like ProtonMail", "excerpt": "iCloud. Great price. Great service. And Apple has better privacy safeguards and internal processes in place for protecting your email from their employees than FastMail or anyone besides maybe the encrypted mail providers like ProtonMail.", "context": "", "use_case": "email hosting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Alternative to Proton Mail?"}, {"id": 792404257, "item_id": 49525266, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525266", "by": "alexjplant", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "multiple hour-plus downtimes in a week for e-mail is unacceptable", "excerpt": "I switched to Tuta this morning. I used to be a huge Proton advocate but multiple hour-plus downtimes in a week for e-mail is unacceptable. At this point I had better uptime running my own mail server on a VPS (or at least when the UI went down it was a simple `systemctl restart` away to fix it) and this was in the dark ages of having to manually rotate X.509 certs.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton Outage"}, {"id": 792383552, "item_id": 49523972, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49523972", "by": "toomuchtodo", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "compare", "quote": "stick with Proton and eat the outages", "excerpt": "\"What is your threat model?\" If you want to stay entirely outside of the reach of the US gov, stick with Proton and eat the outages. If you are willing to take on some more risk, try Fastmail. Consider the subject comms and whether higher risk comms should instead be in something like Signal.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Alternative to Proton Mail?"}, {"id": 792247168, "item_id": 49515448, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49515448", "by": "zamalek", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Wine/proton as a gaming ABI/runtime is perfectly fine", "excerpt": "What benefit does a native build have over proton? I used to care more about it on Linux, until I realized that \"native build\" probably means \"doesn't work.\" I can only imagine this being much worse on a niche gaming target which there are extremely few users making (and voting for) bug reports. Tack on having to pay Apple to play in their shitty ecosystem and it makes complete sense. Wine/proton as a gaming ABI/runt", "context": "", "use_case": "running Windows games", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates"}, {"id": 790834544, "item_id": 49427159, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49427159", "by": "Quothling", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I pay for protonmail, so I wouldn't use gmail to begin with", "excerpt": "Maybe it's because I live in a country where e-mai isn't really used that much for personal communication, but wouldn't this mainly be a gmail issue? If mails I wanted ended up in the spam folder I'd not use gmail. I mean, I pay for protonmail, so I wouldn't use gmail to begin with, but if mails I wanted ended up in my protonmail spamfolder and I couldn't do anything about it, then I'd switch away from protonmail.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com"}, {"id": 790263200, "item_id": 49391450, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49391450", "by": "imzadi", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I use protonmail and the search is genuinely atrocious. Like the word can be in the title and it still won't find it.", "excerpt": "I use protonmail and the search is genuinely atrocious. Like the word can be in the title and it still won't find it.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Just Want to Search"}, {"id": 789980822, "item_id": 49373801, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49373801", "by": "Cider9986", "date": "2026-08-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Proton", "excerpt": "To get you started on switching the ecosystem, which is a pain. Here's some of what I landed on while moving from iOS to GrapheneOS. Ente Photos NotesNook Signal (I use Molly but it's only on Android) Bitwarden Proton", "context": "moved from iOS to GrapheneOS", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "GrapheneOS in 2027 available on high-end Motorola phones"}, {"id": 788796258, "item_id": 49299766, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49299766", "by": "lone-cloud", "date": "2026-08-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Proton Mail which doesn't really allow custom notification services.", "excerpt": "I'm a privacy focused self hoster and ntfy was not good enough for me so I created Prism with an optional Android app: https://git.lonecloud.dev/lone-cloud/prism The difference: Your phone doesn't get notifications from your notification service directly, but from Mozilla which helps to hide your digital fingerprint of you using a separate notification provider like ntfy. Prism also allows Telegram or Signal to act a", "context": "privacy focused self hoster", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ntfy \u2013 open-source Push to Mobile"}, {"id": 788192352, "item_id": 49262022, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49262022", "by": "shlomo_z", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "recently I've seen reports of Proton engaging in shady business practices recently", "excerpt": "Thank you for the suggestion and I will certainly consider it. That said, recently I've seen reports of Proton engaging in shady business practices recently, EG Price sensitivity testing[1]. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/1vjfiav/why_is_protonvpn_lying_about_running_price/", "context": "", "use_case": "personal email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?"}, {"id": 788190880, "item_id": 49261930, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49261930", "by": "shlomo_z", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've seen reports of Proton engaging in shady business practices recently, EG Price sensitivity testing.", "excerpt": "I look at both of these, thank you! However, I've seen reports of Proton engaging in shady business practices recently, EG Price sensitivity testing.", "context": "", "use_case": "personal email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?"}, {"id": 788189937, "item_id": 49261871, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49261871", "by": "dlcarrier", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Infomaniak or Proton.  They're both Swiss security-focused competitors", "excerpt": "Infomaniak or Proton. They're both Swiss security-focused competitors to the Google office ecosystem. I prefer Infomakiak, because their free tier includes IMAP, which is crucial for accessibility tools, but it is also useful for general API access such as automated tools.", "context": "", "use_case": "personal email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?"}, {"id": 788188368, "item_id": 49261773, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49261773", "by": "krunck", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "ProtonMail. Then you can run ProtonMail Bridge to get a local IMAP and SMTP connection to your ProtonMail account.", "excerpt": "ProtonMail. Then you can run ProtonMail Bridge to get a local IMAP and SMTP connection to your ProtonMail account.", "context": "", "use_case": "personal email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?"}, {"id": 787057296, "item_id": 49191081, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49191081", "by": "ColdStream", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Thanks to Proton and Steamdeck support, I don't even check compatibility any more on games.", "excerpt": "Pretty much. I have been using Linux since 1998 but it became my only system back in about 2009 I think. It just isn't that geeky blued together unix-y thing any more. So long as your hardware is supported, thats it. Yes, the games support was rough but that is almost a non issue nowadays. Thanks to Proton and Steamdeck support, I don't even check compatibility any more on games.", "context": "Linux user since 1998", "use_case": "playing Windows games on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2"}, {"id": 786710320, "item_id": 49169395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169395", "by": "mjpa86", "date": "2026-08-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Proton's performance is terrible, as is Outlook", "excerpt": "Is there a decent alternative to gmail that works seemlessly on android? Proton's performance is terrible, as is Outlook, not to mention it's search that just doesn't work. Unless I've misread it, this will stop people using their own domain on gmail and using an external mail server to send from gmail using their own domain right?", "context": "", "use_case": "email on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gmail will end send-as support from third-party email addresses"}, {"id": 784660704, "item_id": 49041294, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041294", "by": "ktm5j", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Do what I do and pay for Proton and stick your domain on it.", "excerpt": "I used to run mail servers for a university and I also suggest that no one should do this. It's hard enough to get right when it's your full time job. No one wants that kind of headache just for an email address. Do what I do and pay for Proton and stick your domain on it.", "context": "used to run mail servers for a university", "use_case": "email with custom domain", "switched_from": "self-hosted mail server", "story": "Self-host your mail server"}, {"id": 784645169, "item_id": 49040323, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49040323", "by": "mmh0000", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Especially when Fastmail and Proton are so cheap.", "excerpt": "I ran my own self-hosted email server from 2008-ish to 2018, and I would highly recommend against doing it! Especially when Fastmail and Proton are so cheap. I was running Postfix+Dovecot+Seive+SpamAssassin+Fail2ban+certbot+spf+dkim+reverse-ip+<other random crap> It worked! Receiving email was overall pretty easy. I know I also did things the \"hard way\" by ad-hoccing all that together, and today there are a lot more ", "context": "ran own mail server 2008-2018", "use_case": "email hosting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-host your mail server"}, {"id": 781155184, "item_id": 48822199, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48822199", "by": "meristohm", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have it automatically send any emails (very few these days) to my ProtonMail account, which I pay for.", "excerpt": "Fair question (I'm neither the blog author or the person who linked it here). I read the short blog entry and the why is not answered. My own reasons for de-Googling is that I'm uncomfortable with how I pay for Google's services (with my usage data, time, attention, media data, etc). I still have a gmail account because I'm skeptical it won't be reused in a potentially-harmful-to-me-or-others way and because I haven'", "context": "de-Googling user", "use_case": "personal email", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "Life Without Google"}, {"id": 771743968, "item_id": 48233998, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48233998", "by": "h4kunamata", "date": "2026-05-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It looks like it is time to dump Proton.", "excerpt": "It looks like it is time to dump Proton. Somebody has to be insanely crazy to grant an Agentic AI access to a password manager. I have been using its paid services for some time now, they refuse to provide Linux client for its products, declining from their email service, and now this AI push. To make matters worse, Bitwarden is closing its Password Manager. We are so screwed.", "context": "Linux user, paying Proton customer", "use_case": "paid email and password manager", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton Pass for AI Agents"}, {"id": 769937232, "item_id": 48121077, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48121077", "by": "rc_kas", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It is patently inferior to gmail.", "excerpt": "I switched to Protonmail a month ago. It is patently inferior to gmail. Every day I get annoyed by some weakness in the UI that google had apparently just always solved without me ever having to think about it. For example, reading long email chains in the proton UI is horrific. I don't know what google did that made it natural to read and proton does so badly, but it is painful to read these long chains of emails. A", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "I Moved My Digital Stack to Europe"}, {"id": 764528880, "item_id": 47783055, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47783055", "by": "jfoworjf", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "paying proton mail for everything else", "excerpt": "This story is the one that finally pushed me to leave google. I moved off my ~20 year old Google account and deleted everything off their services including almost a decade of Google photos. I cancelled my Google one subscription for extra space. I'm now self hosting what I can and paying proton mail for everything else. I refuse to allow a company that will hand over data at the request of an administrative warrant ", "context": "left Google after ICE data story", "use_case": "replacing Google services", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data"}, {"id": 759822784, "item_id": 47488924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488924", "by": "darthcloud", "date": "2026-03-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I do like Proton Mail.", "excerpt": "As a Canadian, I\u2019ve been thinking since last year about migrating to non-US services and applications. My main goal is simply to avoid giving money or data directly to US corporations. I have no illusions, these non-US services probably still benefit US companies in some ways. They\u2019re rare, but I\u2019ve consciously decided to stay away from some Canadian alternatives. The main customers of most Canadian tech companies ar", "context": "Canadian avoiding US services", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "Migrating to the EU"}]}