​
If it doesn’t look something like this: citizen@protonmail.com, you may have a problem.
​
​
​
They don’t care that you’ve worked or saved all your life with a financial goal in mind, they just want what’s yours.
​
They don’t care that you desperately need to hang on to every cent you have to help your ailing mother who is in the hospital, or that you almost have enough for that down payment on a new home, or that you can finally take that much needed vacation you’ve saved all year for, or that you need to pay bills and buy groceries with your hard-earned money. They just want to take it from you. Because they can.
​
That’s their job, and it pays very well. They wake up each day thinking of new ways to wrongfully abscond with what’s rightfully yours.
​
If you care about security, if you want to prevent digital thieves from causing turmoil in your life, you want to use Proton Mail. I do. Smartest digital decision I ever made.
​
I began looking around for alternatives to Gmail, which I once loved very much, when it became quite clear that my account was VERY vulnerable to people of ill intent. My e-mail address AND password were being found on the dark web 3-5 times per week! I had to constantly change my password. It happened with some alternate email accounts I used, too, not just Gmail. Since I signed up with Proton, my address has not popped up on the Dark Web. It's astounding!
​
My name is Jeff Young. If you sign up for PROTON MAIL via my links, I get a small commission. That's not why I promote PROTON MAIL. I promote PROTON MAIL because I believe in it whole heartedly. Since I signed up for PROTON MAIL, my email related security issues have virtually disappeared. I want that for you, too. For everyone. We all need to be more proactive when it comes to protecting ourselves from cyber criminals. Thanks to companies like PROTON MAIL, we're not helpless, but we do have to be proactive.
People say to me, "I like what I've seen of Proton Mail, but it's a hassle to switch email providers. I have had the same one for years. All my stuff is in there. "
What's more of a hassle is having your email security breached and discovering that bad guys, gals, or any gender in between have broken through your weak defenses and made off with your valuable intellectual property, leaving you in the lurch. Changing over is a process, but worth the effort. Here's how to approach it: Sign-up with Proton - choose a username and make that your new address for all transactions with friends, family, and businesses going forward. Keep your old address active as you begin changing over little-by-little. As I did that very same thing, I compiled a Word document listing all who have my new address. If I am unsure whether I have made the change for a particular contact, I simply double-check the list. If it's not there, I add it right away. I'm actually done with all my updates at this point. It was well-worth the effort, as my email related headaches are now all in the past. Questions? Email me at one of my Proton addresses:
​
​
​​
​
​​​​​I already had a free Proton Mail account I had been experimenting with, but once I became serious about completely abandoning insecure email apps, and when I saw all that Proton fee-based accounts offer at very reasonable rates, in my opinion, I knew it would be well worth it to finally pay a little for a lot of peace-of-mind.
​
My wife and I share the Proton Duo plan, which we pay $14.99/mo. for. I don't get it for free, even though I am a Proton Mail affiliate. It's well worth the fee.
​​​
Proton offers much more than just email service. Their free version is top shelf compared to what some others offer, and includes:
​
-
1 email address: You can create one email address with the free plan.
-
150 messages per day. All paid plans allow unlimited daily messages.
-
Up to 6 GB of total storage: This includes 1 GB of dedicated storage on Proton Mail and 5 GB on Proton Drive.
-
3 labels and 3 folders: Organize your emails with up to 3 labels and 3 folders.
-
1 active filter: Set up one active filter to manage your incoming emails.
-
Password-protected emails: Send emails that are protected with a password.
-
Proton Calendar: Access up to 3 personal calendars.
-
Proton Drive: Free access to Proton Drive for secure file storage.
-
Proton VPN: Free access to Proton VPN for secure internet browsing.
-
Proton Pass: Access to Proton Pass for secure password management.
features for your everyday communications.​​
​
​
-
15 GB storage for all Proton services. More than double what their free service offers. Storage space is shared across Proton Mail, Calendar, Drive, and Proton Pass
-
Priority support
-
Proton Sentinel program. Provides the highest level of account security protection and specialist support
-
10 email addresses/aliases. Create multiple email addresses for your online identities, e.g., JohnShopper@proton.me for shopping accounts, JohnNews@proton.me for news subscription
-
1 custom email domain. Use your own domain addresses, e.g., you@yourname.com. This feature is how I get mail delivered to jeff@nevadaplaersclub.com, rather than through my NVPC Gmail account, which I still have and am required to keep in order to have a YouTube channel - but I don't have to get mail at that Gmail address, and I discourage it's use. To use yourself, you will have to make changes to your domains DNS and MX records. Proton will walk you through it with easy-to-follow written instructions and emailed confirmation of success.
-
Unlimited messages per day. Bulk promotional or programmatic email sending is currently not supported. We recommend using a dedicated email service provider for this use case.
-
Unlimited folders. Keep your inbox organized with folders
-
Unlimited labels. Labels are simple tags you can add to messages to make them easier to find or to apply filters to
-
Unlimited filters. Set up filters to automatically reply to, sort, and/or label your emails
-
25 MB attachment size
-
HTML signatures. Personalize your email signature with logos, images, social media icons, links to your contact details, and more
-
End-to-end encryption. Prevents messages from being accessed by Proton or third parties. The only people who can read the messages are the sender and the intended recipient.
-
Password-protected Emails. When sending to other Proton Mail users, encryption is automatic. Sending to non-Proton Mail users requires setting a password prior to sending.
-
Encrypted contact details. Securely store your contacts’ details, such as phone number, address, birthday, and personal notes. Zero-access encryption ensures even Proton can't access them.
-
Contact groups. Send emails to large groups quickly and easily by creating as many contact groups as you need (up to 100 contacts per group)
-
Email client support (via IMAP/SMTP). IMAP support is limited to the use of desktop apps (e.g., Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird) via Proton Mail Bridge. Cloud-based IMAP integrations are currently not supported.
-
SMTP submission. SMTP allows 3rd-party services or devices to send email through Proton Mail.
-
Auto-reply. Allows you to set up automatic responses (auto-reply) for your incoming messages
-
Automatic email forwarding. Automatically forward emails sent to your Proton Mail account to any other email address.
-
Catch-all. Ensures you receive all emails sent to your domain, even if the email address doesn't exist, no longer exists, or has a typo
-
Auto-delete Spam and Trash. Automatically clear out messages older than 30 days from Trash and Spam
-
Schedule and snooze emails for any time. Choose custom times to be reminded about an email or for your message to arrive
-
Desktop app. Access Proton Mail and Proton Calendar from the convenience of your desktop
-
Easy Switch import assistant. Quickly transfer your emails, calendars or contacts from any provider
-
25 calendars. Create up to 25 calendars or add calendars from friends, family, colleagues, and organizations
-
End-to-end encryption
-
Calendar sharing. Easily share your calendars with your family, friends, or colleagues
-
Send & receive invitations
-
Recover previous file versions
-
End-to-end encryption
-
Share files with no size limit. Share your files or folders with anyone by using secure, shareable links
-
Sync and backup all your files across devices
-
1 VPN connection featuring 282 servers in 5 countries
-
Medium VPN speed
-
Ad-blocker and malware protection. Specially designed NetShield protects your device and speeds up your browsing by blocking ads, trackers, and malware
-
High-speed streaming. Access content on streaming services, including Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video, from anywhere
-
Fast P2P/BitTorrent downloads. Support for file-sharing protocols like BitTorrent
-
Double hop. Defends against the threat to VPN privacy by passing your internet traffic through multiple servers.
-
Secure Core servers. Defends against the threat to VPN privacy by passing your internet traffic through multiple servers
-
TOR over VPN. Route your internet traffic through the Tor network with a single click
-
Strict no-logs policy. Proton keeps no session usage logs of what you do online, and they do not log metadata that can compromise your privacy
-
Unlimited volume/bandwidth
-
DNS leak prevention. When connected to our VPN, your DNS queries through their encrypted VPN tunnel, adding to your online privacy and security
-
Kill switch/always-on VPN. Keeps you protected by blocking all network connections when you are unexpectedly disconnected from our VPN server.
-
Encrypted VPN servers. Their servers’ hard disks are fully encrypted with multiple password layers so your data is protected even if our hardware is compromised
-
Router support. Protect every device connected to your WiFi network. It’s also useful if you have devices that do not support VPN settings directly.
-
Split tunneling (Android and Windows). Allows you to access more than one network at the same time, e.g., stream a film from another country while still getting local search results
-
Unlimited logins and notes
-
Unlimited devices
-
2 vaults. Like a folder, a vault is a convenient way to organize your items
-
10 hide-my-email aliases. Protect your real email address from being disclosed or leaked with aliases (a randomly generated email address that forwards emails to your main inbox).
-
Vault sharing (up to 2 people)
-
Integrated 2FA authenticator
-
Custom fields
-
Data breach monitoring​
​