ProtonMail is an ultra-secure email hosting provider based in Geneva, Switzerland. You might know the consumer version of this service, which offers free accounts with 500MB of storage and 150 messages per day, but there’s a business-oriented offering, too.
ProtonMail Professional doesn’t offer a free trial and doesn’t include the ProtonVPN service, but its security features are extraordinary. Still, its lack of domain hosting and other niceties keep it behind our Editors’ Choice winners in this category, Google Workspace Business Standard and Intermedia Hosted Exchange.
ProtonMail Professional Pricing and Plans
ProtonMail Professional has a very simple payment plan for small to midsized businesses (SMBs). You pay €6.25 ($7.37) per user per month on an annual basis; the company’s website has a simple slider bar you can ratchet up until you reach your user count and see your bottom line. For more than 100 users, you’ll need to contact ProtonMail directly for an accurate quote. This service level allows 5GB of mail storage and up to five email addresses per user. You can add custom domains, but you’ll need to get domain hosting elsewhere and then connect it to ProtonMail.
If you need better specs than these, the company bumps you up to the ProtonMail Enterprise plan. This is a customizable tier where you can mix and match additional storage, more addresses, a dedicated support plan, and other options. However, there’s no set pricing; every quote must be made with a ProtonMail sales rep. As mentioned, the basic ProtonMail Professional plan lacks ProtonVPN, but you can request it be added to your account, which will let you take advantage of additional discounts.
Compared to some of the lower-priced email hosts we’ve reviewed, $7.37 per user per month is relatively steep for these features, even when compared against big-name players like Google Workspace or another Editors’ Choice winner, Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Bargain contenders like Fastmail run around $3 per user per month and have better basic specs. Then again, no one beats the Swiss on security and privacy, so companies for whom that’s a primary consideration will tolerate the additional cost.
Getting Started
To get started, you’ll likely need to set up a custom domain unless you want your business email to come from “@protonmail.com.” A button at the top right of the screen brings you to an exceptionally easy-to-navigate settings page. After clicking the Domains link, you can click Add a Custom Domain and then walk through a simple wizard to set up each component, completing all of the typical steps such as adding a TXT record and setting up your MX records. Once everything is verified, you’re good to go and can start adding users.
While there isn’t a great way to import a bunch of users at once, it’s fairly easy to add one at a time. You’ll have the opportunity to set a signature as well. As an alternative, you can set up multiple addresses per user up to the number that your plan supports. The one irritating thing about this is that addresses can never be deleted, only disabled, and will count toward your address limit whether enabled or not. With that in mind, choose addresses very carefully, because you can never really get rid of them.
While the ProtonMail account gives you the most benefits with the least headache, others will want to use IMAP and SMTP. POP3 is not supported, though you can link up Outlook, Thunderbird, or another third-party mail client. You must, however, download ProtonMail Bridge, a Windows, macOS, or Linux app that adds an additional layer of encryption to your connection. While easy to set up (an online walkthrough is available for most clients), it’s a few extra steps that you might not be used to.
The other settings are standard fare. Filters allow you to automatically perform actions such as labeling or archiving messages based on custom criteria. There’s also an easy-to-use allow and block list, similar to other services like Zoho Mail. Once you have everything the way you want it, you can get started using the online web client.
ProtonMail’s interface is fairly streamlined, resembling your typical Gmail or Microsoft 365 inbox. There isn’t a lot of fluff, and it’s easy to navigate. One item of note is an expiration time that you can set so messages self-destruct after a certain period of time. In addition, clicking a lock button turns a message into an encrypted mail protected by a password. This is a cool feature that could be useful if you want to send information of a sensitive nature, but don’t want to risk it being compromised by prying eyes that weren’t your target. Assuming you deliver the password over the phone, that adds an additional level of assurance that your target recipient is the only one reading it.
Sadly lacking for now is a fully fleshed-out calendar. While a secure calendar is in the works with a beta available for ProtonMail 4.0 users, it’s not quite ready at the time of this writing. This is a significant drawback since other email services have had calendaring for years, and it’s a critical component in today’s work-from-home environment. Having seen the beta, however, this complaint will be short-lived.
ProtonMail Professional Security
There’s plenty to talk about here since privacy is ProtonMail’s claim to fame. Being located in Switzerland gives it some legal advantages over U.S.-based solutions, namely the Swiss Data Protection Act (DPA) and Swiss Federal Protection Ordinance (DPO) which guarantee that ProtonMail can only be forced to give up your data by a court order from the Cantonal Court of Geneva or Swiss Federal Supreme Court.
In addition, messages remain encrypted at all times, whether at rest or in transit. Because of this, not even ProtonMail employees could access your data even if they wanted to. This safeguards your information in case a data breach occurs, though it’s a bit of a devil’s bargain since losing your keys means not even the host company can restore access to your email.
As mentioned, emails can also be set to self-destruct a la Snapchat. While this certainly isn’t a foolproof method since screen capture is still a thing in 2021, it’s a pretty nifty method of communication. There are options for two-factor authentication and custom encryption, too.
Finally, ProtonMail complies with HIPAA and GDPR and its facilities have both PCI and ISO 27001 certification. While the company doesn’t have available SOC reports, that’s something that tends to be limited to U.S.-based services. That might turn some folks off, but there’s plenty of other good stuff here to garner trust.
Expensive But Great on Security
While ProtonMail’s price is a bit steep compared to similar offerings that include collaboration tools, you do get top-notch security and storage in one of the most privacy-conscious countries in the world. While it may not fit everyone’s profile, you’ll know if it fits that of your business. If you need more in the way of collaboration, Zoho Mail and Microsoft 365 Business Premium are worthy alternatives.
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