ProtonMail has been created to bring encrypted email to everyone across the globe. With everyday threats to data, more and more people are opting for encrypted services. ProtonMail is high up the list for secure email services, and for good reason.
Secure servicesWhen you use ProtonMail, there are many layers of protection securing your data. First of all email is stored encrypted on servers. This means that ProtonMail staff have no access to the data. The servers themselves make use of fully encrypted hard disks with multiple password layers, so data security is preserved even if the hardware is seized or compromised.
Next, ProtonMail uses end-to-end encryption for encrypted messages, using secure implementations of the open source AES, RSA, and OpenPGP libraries including, TLS 1.0, AES-128 CBC, DHE RSA handshake, and SHA3 hash authentication. The SSL certificates are signed by SwissSign.
ProtonMail accounts are protected by two passwords. The first* is used to authenticate the user and to retrieve the correct account, and the second is kept only by the user, and is used to decrypt their mailbox. If you send an email to a non-ProtonMail user, you can choose a password that only the recipient will know.
PricingProtonMail provides a free plan, with paid for plans starting with ProtonMail Plus, priced at $5/month or $48/year, and ProtonMail Visionary, priced at $30/month or $288/year. The basic ProtonMail service is free, however, with users on the free plan receive a sending limit of 50 messages/hour and 150 messages/day, a labels limit of 20, 500 MB of storage. The basic plan does not support custom domains or additional email addresses, and it has limited customer support. The ProtonMail Plus and Proton Mail Visionary plans have increased storage capacity, support for custom domains, additional email addresses, increased label limits and better customer support.
Bottom LineOverall, ProtonMail, for the most part, provides a high level of privacy, and being based in Switzerland, it ‘should’ be resilient against most forms of attack. With ProtonMail’s physical infrastructure located in ‘Europe's most secure datacenter’ it only adds to another level of security, along with end to end encryption, SHA3 hash authentication and SwissSign signed SSL certificates.
*ProtonMail retains a copy of this information)
