Proton Mail Reviews 

'better than gmail' turns out to be such a low bar that they should not be touting that as something to be proud of. Not only do you have to 'earn' the promised features by completing certain overhauls within a certain amount of time (redirecting all your gmail mail is one- I mean what if you don't even have gmail??) but the advertising for paid plans is all up in your face all the time, and they use scummy advertising tactics like when you click the pop-up away they bring it back with an 'even better' 'temporary' offer... ugh. Do not sign up for this insulting service.

It also didn't let me log in on mobile (another required action to get the promised features) with the password I signed up with on my desktop. When I gave up and reset my password via mobile, not only did it still not let me log in on mobile, it also logged me out on desktop and wouldn't let me log back in with the password I just set. Absolute waste of time. I can't even delete my account now.

I transistioned to Proton two months ago and soon bought a paid subscription. Their suite of tools works quite well as drop-in for less privacy safe alternatives like Google, Dropbox etc. Very intuitive to use and with familiar user interfaces. The support has been very responsive (maybe because its a paid subscription?).

Features are still being added, and in particular Proton Drive and Pass appear to recieve new features regularly.

If you are aware to follow the advice saving recovery codes for emergencies and other recovery options, I am convinced your data (and your future access to them) is safe very at Proton.

Proton Mail is no long a valid company or email provider; don't trust it. The email account normal password stopped working, upon prompt, there is a 'forgot password (reset) link' that instantly sends useless garbled support emails - AND No Real Way To Reset Your Password instantly, or within 48 hours. Waited three weeks, sent 5 support messages and zero response besides the same useless robot version of email response from Proton. Since Proton has scooped personal information and emails, my next line of defense is to contact the FCC. Do not use this Euro company, your privacy is being stolen; and not protected.

Absolutely Useless
I registered an account and tried to use it as an email on one single site, because today all of them require email. There is no any other reason to use email service.
What did proton do in response?
They blocked my account.
Complete useless garbage.

Take a look at their response. They admit that they are complete garbage.

Terrible user interface and I'm a software designer. I signed up with Protonmail in 2014 and found the UI acceptable and easy to follow. I liked how the buttons were labelled as text, so there was no mistaking them.

Progressively they've turned it into one of the worst UIs around. Take two simple examples :

I add a series of attachments to send with my e-mail and when I look closely, it has rearranged them in reverse of the order in which I've added them. I don't want this because I intend for the recipient to see the most relevant attachment first.

I then click the bin icon right next to the attachments, to delete the attachments and try again, but no, the bin attachment deleted my entire e-mail draft, even though it was adjacent to the files. I have to start again.

I add the attachments in reverse order, thinking I'm being smart and then send the e-mail. When I check it afterwards, I find that it actually sent them in the sequence I added them, but showed me a different sequence while composing the message. It turns out that it sorts the attachment file names alphanumerically, yet sends them chronologically. This is par for the course with Protonmail now — the UI is illogical and poorly planned. All the historic concepts and principles which we came to recognise with leading desktop-application-email programmes and found reasonable design choices — such as showing attachment files in the sequence in which they will be sent — are ignored with Proton.

The worst thing for me is the mistakes I make easily, because the buttons are just icons and not text. I don't want to waste my time hovering over every icon before clicking it. On top of this, support from Protonmail has often been a drain on my time — for small observances and bugs, support staff frequently disputed the bug and asked me to spend time creating videos of the problem. It is clear that many of the support staff have a very incomplete understanding of their own technology and can't even be bothered to verify the customer's simple example steps. Don’t waste your time with Protonmail, just use conventional e-mail applications and popular encryption standards and manage it yourself.

Absolutely useless. Do not use this scam.

Used it for several months until suddenly it randomly signed me out. Now my login isn't working and password reset simply DOES NOT WORK!!!!! Its 2026 and these chimps STILL haven't implemented a simple password reset protocol.

I get two options;
Enter your recovery phrase. What on earth is this? You never told me to set one up? What sort of weird company introduces something like this but doesn't let the user actually set their own phrase? Madness. I've had hundreds accounts with all sorts of websites and I've never once been asked to "enter a phrase" as a way to reset my password.

The second option is to enter my recovery email address. I only have one other email address so I entered that and it's not recognising it.

Absolutely useless, amateur operation. Why there is no phone verification nor any other way to recover a password, such as a simple 6 digit pin etc.

Do not trust this company. Absolutely useless.

Great products, with functionality and privacy. Minus one star due to the poor costumer service.

Paid long time account disabled for unstated reason. Very frustrating dealing with automatic responses to try to “reinstate”.
Consumer account, paid, email & vpn.

Absolutely do not use the proton email app as it has locked all saved email data.

Terrible customer service regarding this issue.

the email works great but the passwords don't save! I have them saved on a piece of paper with the exact password and it says I cant login.

Suddenly mine domein is gone.
Cant log in (username not exist) can,t create(username in use.
So losing all my mail.
Need to id every where to change my email.
Lost all my data.
So private you can,t even get to your own data.

Absolutely shocking service. It is supposed to be secure. I have had my account accessed, my password, recovery phrase and recovery email address CHANGED to an address is not mine, and all I ever receive back is one generic response after another advising me to take steps I CANNOT take and have email I need to access for a court case. Shocking. This has to be the least secure AND the least recoverable email address. It fails on BOTH counts

I moved to a paid "unlimited" account for greater security and as a paid user I am disappointed to date. I had issues with 2FA and when I reached out to a Customer representatives they take 2/3 days to respond. They suggested the synching of my computer/phone could be at fault (not that you can change the the clocks on them) as I was using the Proton authenticator app, yet the delay in changing time was 4 seconds between them. No solution offered. Using the Pass function on my computer asks me to re-set my preferred theme every morning I log in. You don't expect these issues when using a paid service. After taking 2/3 days to respond, they then send an automated message after 48hrs to see that they have answered your query! Really poor PR. No personal response and they chase you for a response after taking 2/3 days to respond. To cap it all, I received an email from Proton saying I could earn up to $1,000 by referring other users ($20 a referral). What an insult. Save the referral money and hire more computer engineers to resolve the glitches in your software! A good service will sell itself, you don't have to pay users for additional customers. Sort your issues out before I refer anyone.
To be balanced, the basic email service works well but you would expect all aspects of a service to work well for a paid service. #4328062

I’ve been using Proton Mail for about 8 years as a paying user, and I’m really very satisfied. The only issue is that after the latest Android update, it sometimes doesn’t send email notifications, but I’m sure they’ll fix it soon.

Emails aren't arriving. What's the point of an email service if it's not receiving emails? All incoming emails turn into emails from Proton - Automated Abuse Detection. They let you create an account for free and don't ask for a phone number or other information. But the email doesn't work properly. Maybe if I start paying them, everything will be fine, but why should I pay for features that are supposed to be free? I'll never use any Proton product again. Update: I was told here that I need to confirm something. Sorry, but I registered my email elsewhere and there are no complications like you have. So I wouldn't recommend Proton to anyone

Worst experience ever.
My account has been banned without any warning or without any explanation.
All my business documents and all my bank account are linked to this e-mail and i can't login.
The support team reply every 3/4 days with "Please be advised that your account was reported and suspended due to a series of violations done against our terms of service. We cannot allow our service to be misused, therefore we will be unable to assist with your request, meaning that the account will remain permanently disabled."

Never had any such bad experience. No-one is helpful to even allow me a temporary access to recover all my documents.
Ticked id 4416645

I’m very disappointed with Proton’s billing support.

For the second time, Lumo for two users has been added to my account without my consent. I have this option turned OFF and neither I nor my partner use Lumo at all. I already contacted support about this earlier. The issue was not resolved, and I ended up paying the incorrect invoice just to avoid further hassle.

Now it has happened again.

I expect to be billed correctly for Proton Duo only, not for services I never ordered or used. I have provided screenshots as proof, yet this keeps recurring. This is frustrating and undermines trust in what should be a reliable, privacy-focused service.

I hope Proton finally fixes this structurally instead of pushing customers to chase billing errors themselves.

Been paying for this VPN the last year, but for some reason I am still classified as a free user and can only use the unpaid functions. I don't know how long this has been going on cause I usually just connect to random servers anyways, but from what I can recall when there was a change it would be at least 6 months. I can't even cancel the subscribtion I am paying for in their dashboard, because there is nothing there, yet they take my money each month and send me an email.
What a load of rubbish, I have contacted support, and hopefully they are not a bunch of shitty ai, so might update this depending on how it goes.

On the whole it’s a good product and you kind of rely on the privacy aspect. The apps are slick and work well. The one big thing that lets them down is their support and upselling - often led by poorly informed technical so so’s!

I have for the last 6 months been hitting that button ‘don’t show me again’ and trimmed the notification buttons to no avail. As a result I keep getting the ads at the top. I’m a fully paid user and don’t need to upgrade - a clear breach of GDPR which puts the privacy on shaky ground particularly as they keep sending me emails for that Luma AI despite opting out!

I wanted a shared inbox to handle some specific affairs that my wife could access and others, and to be able to respond from on a specific email. 10 days to get a response, 10 days in and still they’re not sure how to do it. When I told them you need a Business account to setup a shared inbox - no response!

This company (Proton)is nothing more than a thief, I Paid for two different email addresses, total of $95 dollars and some change. Wrote down the important pass codes to both addresses, just in case you’re locked out! I was locked out,I tried to use them both, could not, typed in the special codes, didn’t work! Wouldn’t you know it, a company based outside of the U.S. can’t figure out how to reimburse me! It’s been over three months and yet still no reimbursement! The funny thing is, they sent me an email recognizing the two paid accounts, a month ago and still haven’t reimbursed me! So I’m doing this review to inform everyone across the world…..Do Not Even Attempt To Become A Paid Member With This Company, You Will Find Yourself In The Same Situation! Proton Mail Is Horrible And Must Be Ran By The Switzerland Mafia…..
Ticket Number 4331897 These People Are Con Artist , Liars and Thieves! Do not trust a damn thing they say! I just received an email from these a-holes stating my refunds were sent! They were never sent, just got of the phone with my bank! It doesn’t take 4 months to reimburse funds, this is 2026 Not 1526! I have already resigned myself to the fact that these thieves are who they showed they were! DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY AT ANY LEVEL! You Will Regret It

My email account with Proton Mail was terminated without warning, quote: "This account has been suspended due to a possible violation of the guidelines.". I didn't violate any guidelines. All I wanted is stay anonymous.
Now I can no longer access services that were tied to that email address.
I sent an appeal to Proton Mail which was rejected:
"in order to protect our interests, we will be unable to assist you in reinstating your account."

STAY AWAY!