Proton Mail Reviews 

How about a mail provider who blocks legitimate content from reaching you, and telling you that it is for your own protection, even after you whitelist the sender? Think the analogy of that in terms of governments? Do you want that? This is not a provider anyone should ever want to have.

While the support representatives were polite, the supercilious attitude was obvious in their communications (i.e., proton is always right). Support did nothing to resolve the issues with their email system, and denied any responsibility for what had occurred. Support missed the main point of my communications numerous times, and I had to clarify it for them. Even then, they denied that what I claimed happened had indeed happened. At they very least they should have thanked me for the information I provided, which demonstrated that their are some problems with their email system. I'm sure this review will receive a response from proton, asking me to contact them. I won't be doing that, as I've already wasted way too much time on this, and proton couldn't / wouldn't previously resolve the situation. In short: great product, if you don't need support.

I chose Proton Unlimited mainly because Proton is one of the very few providers whose technical architecture genuinely implement the level of security and privacy it publicly claims to provide. From that point of view, I still consider Proton one of the strongest services available.

Unfortunately, my experience with Proton Mail and Proton Drive has not been equally positive in terms of reliability and synchronization.

With Proton Mail, I found the folder hierarchy too limited for my needs. I also experienced inconsistencies between the mailbox structure shown on mobile, on the web interface, and in Thunderbird through Proton Mail Bridge. During migration from an old Gmail account, several messages ended up in a recovery folder and generated errors.

After resetting Proton Mail Bridge, some messages disappeared from the local folder structure, leaving me uncertain whether they were lost, still present on Proton’s servers, inaccessible from the client, or only available in the original Gmail account.

Bridge synchronization was also quite slow.

Proton Drive was more concerning for me. Normal synchronization was reasonably fast, but making files available offline could become extremely slow, sometimes around one file every 30 seconds for ordinary photos and documents. I also observed situations where the application reported that synchronization was complete while files still appeared to be waiting for upload or download, and in some cases newly created files did not appear online as expected.

I understand that end-to-end encryption requires additional processing, and I appreciate the security model. However, my archive contains thousands of files and my mailbox contains thousands of emails accumulated over many years. For this kind of use, I need to be able to trust the synchronization state without continuously checking whether every file and message has actually been transferred correctly.

I eventually decided to cancel Proton Unlimited and migrate my files and emails back to Dropbox and Gmail. I am now restoring recent backups and comparing folders and messages to make sure nothing has been lost, which is a substantial amount of additional work.

This is a real pity because Proton’s privacy and security model is one of the best reasons to choose the service. In my experience, however, the desktop applications, Proton Mail Bridge, and synchronization reliability are not yet at the same level as the underlying security architecture.

I hope Proton continues improving these areas, because if reliability and synchronization become as strong as the privacy model, the suite could be outstanding.

No refund for the "unlimited plan" after the legal period expiration.

20260907 : ticket 5127571

It's impossible to get any meaningful help or customer support for Proton mail. I just subscribed to their Proton Plus yearly plan, and, due to a trivial billing issue, my active account, with important, time-sensitive communications, has been locked out. There is NO WAY to actually interact with a living human being. Everything is run by Zendesk on the other end and a useless AI tool in the user interface, which I was only able to access because I have another free Proton account. There is a fillable form -which I've used multiple times- that only opens up yet another new ticket for the same problem- with no resolution. This is a circular nightmare from hell without resolution!

There is no such thing as 24/7 support as they claim! It's been 3 days, multiple email attempts, and escalations to get help at resolving a trivial billing issue, and we're still at square one. If they had even one live agent for basic customer support, it would solve everything. The "live agent" feature advertised as available with their Customer Support AI tool doesn't actually exist. When selecting that option, they default to an email contact - live agents for Proton mail customer support don't exist at all, in any form, contrary to their advertised hype.

Update (9/3/2026): Proton finally restored access and I am grateful for that. Considering that all other, major mail service platforms are now requiring 2FA, a veritable nightmare if you don't have another device with you, I am going to primarily use Proton and my Mailfence accounts because THEY DON'T USE IT!

Public service announcement: don't use any mail service platform that requires 2FA when traveling. If all you have with you is your laptop and no other device, you may be locked out and cannot access your mail. This is why, when access really matters, I will always use Proton or Mailfence from this day forward.

Signed up 2 years ago for a couple years of a package. After several months use, I get a notification that I somehow potentially violated Swiss law & they were closing my account. No info on what law I supposedly violated, and after repeated contact attempts, never a reply.

They robbed me of most of my funds spent, treated me as if I was a child trafficker, and left me with no remedy, so I deleted all their crap software and couldn't even completely rid of it after deep cleaning registry & other files.

Then, after nearly a year, they start trying to charge my card again, except I paid using a Privacy virtual card, and cancelled it once I realized I had been had. Starting Aug 6, and continuing on 7, 9, 13 & 20, they tried charging that now closed card $83.76.

Then today, I get a potential fraud notification via text asking if I had made a payment to Proton AG, this amount being 191.76, the 2 year Unlimited plan. WTF Proton? Of course I responded 'No', so that bank card is now locked. My question is how they got that debit card? I use the Privacy virtual cards for a reason (and this would be a great example of why), and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have used a bank card as a backup.

Anyway, I got screwed soon after initially paying 2 years ago, & they're still trying to screw me. But now they can't.

In response to Proton - There was no ticket number. My account was closed with no explanation, so thee was no where to tie a ticket to. This was 2 years ago, email long gone, but do have a pic stating I can reach you at abuse @proton.me, which is likely where I inquired further and failed to get a response, after telling me my account was under investigation for breach of Swiss criminal code... hence my review on this incident & recent attempted charge after knowing I got booted way back then.

I want to give proton 5 stars.
I want to support the movement and actively engage in it further.
I want to share the company with everyone and help others.
The reality…
Proton customer service is shocking, terrible at responding, mostly respond with unclear answers, vague words without any progress.
The business team is just as bad.
You ask clear questions and get no response.
Generally disinterest and dismissive nature.
In personal paid plan, have a technical issue, good luck!
They won’t reply, or guide you.
If they feel like it , you might get a link for some copy to read.
No active fix, and often the links provided , are things you read before reaching out to them.
Yet nothing from them to fix anything.
I can see why soo many businesses just find it easier to remain with other providers.
I also understand why soo many people make negative reviews are findable, even when most their products are so necessary and valuable in the privacy tech world.
Such as same.
They shoot themselves in the foot with their terrible communication and customer services.

Update 8/9/2026:
Continued to try and get basic support, and they continue being very odd and adding frictions.
So review score corrected to match this increased disparity with customer services and product.

The could storage can't show thumbnails of photos and its ridiculously slow. It's not a functional solution for regular use.

Absolutely horrible. Whenever I enter the settings or want to do anything, there's alot of stuff locked behind a paywall and it feels like I'm using a sketchy email client. Gmail is clean, no distractions. This is the complete opposite. Why's there diamond icons everywhere? Are you that desperate about making everyday consumers pay to use emails? And 500 megabytes of email storage? Really? What am I supposed to do with only 500 megabytes?

Had the misfortune to get involved with Proton VPN and email. I can't find strong enough words to describe HOW BAD THEY ARE. Customer Service is ignorant and arrogant and frankly bloody awkward. I cancelled within a month and am being harassed for $3.99 AFTER CANCELLATION. They have tried to take it several times so I keep that account at zero. The email structure is just a mess, the VPV was poor and often did not disguise my location the whole point of VPN. Have exchanged numerous emails with them and will admit used inappropriate language but they deserve it. They truly are either arrogant or stupid. They will never get a penny from me and told them at least a dozen times yet still they try and tell me I need to cancel which I have several times. Google them and see they have appalling reviews on here and on Google. I strongly warn anyone that reads this do NOT trust this company - go to Nord - Express - Total - any of the main VPN providers but AVOID. I promise you will regret getting involved with PROTON

I used to be a fan of Proton and paid for VPN etc. I'm increasingly disillusioned. Security is one thing but I've been locked out of my accounts, I'm told that codes have been sent to unlock them, and they aren't. I shall be letting my paid for services lapse at the end of my contract.

They promote privacy and anonymity, in fact it’s their whole business model: Meanwhile they happily will give your IP away like that famous case where they gave Swiss authorities a French climate activist IP address.

Whatever standard reply you have cooked up for this because I’m sure you’ve gotten a lot of negative talk about it already it will never justify it. You are scumbags. Period.

Best email provider by far. Been using the premium version since 2024 now for all Proton products

There is NO EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE / SUPPORT. There is NO WAY TO CONTACT PROTON HELP OTHER THAN EMAIL. You send an email and they reply to that email. That is the model and that model takes DAYS (not hours or minutes....DAYS) to resolve an issue. After 5 days of no meaningful help, I disputed the upgrade charge to a higher service tier after being on the platform for more than one year. Yes, they lock you out if they do not like the measures you take as a consumer. Be aware, there is a lock-in to an email service if you use it for financial account and/or 2FA account authentication. I think their products are good; however, I have changed my whole usage plan for their products because they have no meaningful support model.

I have only been using proton for less than a week, got it for my business mostly for the password protection. Trying to get ANY kind of human suport!!!!! FORGET IT!!!!! It does not exist so far!!! I bought what I thought was the ful on version only to find out that it wasn't, upgraded to the larger business one and that's when I found out that the only support is an AI computet. The AI computer told me that I can only get one refund, not a refund for both purchases. I will update this review if I ever have any contact with a real human.

They delete your account!

Review:
My account was automatically suspended after only a few manually written private emails. Proton later admitted that apparently even the username itself triggered their anti-spam system.

Despite explaining the legitimate purpose in detail, Proton now demands additional business documentation or an official business domain before correcting their own false positive.

For professional communication, this is completely unacceptable: false suspension, days without access, then the burden of proof is pushed onto the customer.

If an email provider can lock you out of your account without valid reason and then make you prove you are legitimate, it is not reliable enough for business use.

Great honestly, probably goated lol. Free vpn, free email, great service actually, almost lost my acc that one time when my old device got broken and my acc was logged in there. Props to the lads.

Do not subscribe to Protonmail service if you value your time and your files.

I have been completely blocked from downloading my files from Proton Drive for over a week across both the desktop app and the browser.
Instead of helping, customer support (handling my ticket under a repetitive loop) has dragged this out for over a week with basic, repetitive troubleshooting steps while refusing to actually escalate the issue to a senior engineer or management.
When a zero-access cloud service fails to let you access or download your own data, and support traps you in front-line loops with no backend resolution, it is completely unacceptable.

Proton, please escalate Ticket # 5039876 immediately and fix this data access failure.

I bought an annual subscription to Proton's password manager 4 years ago. The product worked well. This week, I decided to add ProtonVPN to my account, but I'd purchased the password manager again. About 30 minutes after my purchase and trying to use VPN app, I double checked, realized my mistake and contacted customer service via email, reddit, and then discord. I got re-directed to a zendesk human.
I described that I wanted to purchase 2 years of VPN service and I wanted to revert my password manager account. I got no response via email for about 20 hours.
It took 3 days to establish that I won't allow me to purchase the standard VPN, I would need to "upgrade" to Unlimited.
I did not want the unlimited service because it didn't offer value over what I desired, the password manager that I'd been paying for for a few years and the VPN service that I'd just tried to buy two years of service.
The customer service told me that they can't revert my old account.
So, now I plan to leave the Proton services completely. Mostly because it took 4 days and 8 emails to "resolve" this. When I pay for a service, I expect more responsiveness. When I want to purchase more from a company and have already paid them, I expect that they should attempt to retain me as a customer. This has not been worth my time. So, I plan to look for a new VPN service and a new password manager.
A service like this should not turn away a custom who has already paid them for out-of-the-box services.
I had service ticket 5058345.

great products, clean, user-friendly with powerful functions.
The privacy focus is amazing