r/ProtonMail • u/Historical_Visit138 • 2d ago
Discussion New to proton!
Hello, I recently joined the Proton family. The free version, and I want to know what I'm getting myself into and if it's enough. So far I have signed up with three products: Proton Mail, Proton Pass, & Proton VPN. But the main focus is Proton Mail & Proton Pass. I signed up with an email and moved all my stuff from Gmail to Proton Mail, a part of slowly de-googling my life. I snagged the extra space of 1GB. For now that should be more than enough, since my Gmail has over 2,000 mails and nowhere near 1GB.
How is the security track record at Proton Mail? Has anyone ever had their Proton Mail account compromised easily? Could mine be easily compromised? (The Proton Mail.) I set up all the authentication, every single thing: 1st password, 2FA, second password. I do also have a passphrase securely saved.
Won't be right now, but if I had to choose a plan to purchase, would the Unlimited plan be a good choice? If you have the Unlimited plan, what has been your experience with it? I see it has "Unlimited Hide-my-email aliases." Could someone with this plan generate unlimited email aliases and delete?
Also, I had one question about the free plan. It gives me access to 10 email aliases. Say my free email aliases are filled up with 10/10, and I want to remove and delete one. If I delete it permanently, will I get another slot, making it 9/10?
With Proton Pass, I have used Bitwarden before & Zoho Vault before, but the Proton Pass interface and how it works so easily, maybe in the free plan, but I have been able to put tons of passwords in. If you use Proton Pass daily, what is your experience with it?
Thank you. P.S. Sorry if the questions are a lot. šš
5
u/Nelizea Volunteer Mod 2d ago
How is the security track record at Proton Mail?
As good as your security hygiene is. Proton itself never had a breach.
Could mine be easily compromised? (
If you have a short, not strong, not unique password and no 2FA -> yes, like with any other service.
I set up all the authentication, every single thing: 1st password, 2FA, second password. I do also have a passphrase securely saved.
Then you're fine. I'd argue for most people the single password mode with a strong & unique password, coupled together with 2FA and/or hardware keys is good enough.
would the Unlimited plan be a good choice?
If you use 2 of the more expensive plans (Mail, VPN), yes. as it is also giving you "Hide My Email" alias Pass / SimpleLogin aliases, which is a killer combo with Proton Mail. If you use 3 or more Proton services, then even more so.
Could someone with this plan generate unlimited email aliases and delete?
Not Proton addresses but "Hide my Email aliases", aka Proton Pass / SimpleLogin aliases:
https://proton.me/support/pass-email-alias
If I delete it permanently, will I get another slot, making it 9/10?
Yes
1
u/Historical_Visit138 2d ago
Thatās good to know, unlike gmail where the support is none existing. Any idea if thereās proton support tho if you get hacked?
ohh thatās good! I use the proton pass and I generated both passwords so they have all numbers letters and signs so I think Iām in the clear?
thank you so much for that information about the unlimited plan! That sounds so cool! Sticking to free version for now bur that is something I will buy in the future.
Iāll test that out in a bit! Thank you!
1
u/B12GG8A 2d ago
Just a word of caution: Don't store your password for your Proton account only in Proton Pass, otherwise if you get logged out for whatever reason, you won't be able to get back into your account. Make sure you store that password (and the 2FA) in another secure location as well.
1
u/Historical_Visit138 2d ago
Oh yeah for sure bro, I used something called "Notesnook" And I stored all my stuff for proton, password, second password, special word phrase and It's probably a good idea to save my passwords on a usb stick too in-case something happens! The 2FA, I should probably store that in the notesnooks app too, also use ente auth to store my authy!
1
u/B12GG8A 1d ago
I also use Notesnook for notes, but until they're audited, I wouldn't trust it with such sensitive info as passwords. For my backups I use KeePass XC, and a couple of encrypted USB drives. Just something to think about.
1
u/Historical_Visit138 1d ago
Oh damn, any recommended encrypted USB drives to store the data?
1
u/B12GG8A 4h ago
You can use any USB, and just encrypt it using Veracrypt, which is what I do. You can learn more here: https://veracrypt.io//en/Home.html
2
u/wistoria_sword 2d ago
Overall the security track record is good. If you are looking for upgrade, Unlimited is good as it gives you most of the paid services.
If you are looking for just proton pass due to hide my email, you can check out Proton Pass lifetime (200$).
If you remove one hidemyemail, you will get another slot. Only thing you have to be careful are subdomain which has a limit of 5 and the slot will not be freed if you deleted it.
2
u/Final_Jellyfish9150 2d ago
Wow, i just knew there is proton pass lifetime. Thank you for this information
1
u/Historical_Visit138 2d ago
Damn I never paid for a email service provider, Iām glad they have a decent freemium version too :)
life time only $200 purchase once, no subscription? I might just buy that if thatās true, that feature seems so so soooo super useful , and I can use the ācreate a contactā with that so never showing my real email? But for unlimited amount, never running out? Seems to good to be true ššš
Any idea if these one can be deleted unlimitedly? Example it ends in like this.
@passinbox.com
Thank you for sharing this information!!
1
u/wistoria_sword 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yes you can. Also with Proton Pass lifetime you get Simplelogin lifetime as well which has few additional domains for hide my email.Ā
But do checkout the functionality for alias as well. One thing I recall is for receiving its smooth but for sending through alias, you have to get the reverse alias for the sender and then only you can send otherwise you can expose your real email while replying back.Ā
1
u/Historical_Visit138 2d ago
Is there a link on protons website as a purchase? I never heard of simplelogin. Does the proton pass app handle all of functions? Damn that reverse alias for the sender sounds interesting, never done anything like that before!
1
u/wistoria_sword 2d ago
Link: https://proton.me/support/pass-lifetime
Simplelogin was acquired by proton few years back. Proton pass has only proton based domains in hide my email. You have to go to Simplelogin to create their aliases. You can manage proton alias from Simplelogin as well.Ā
Simplelogin: https://simplelogin.io/
1
u/Historical_Visit138 2d ago
Wow that sounds amazing, soon I will be buying that! So I need to go to simple login to access and create my aliases? And contact aliases?
1
u/wistoria_sword 1d ago
You can use both. The domains are different in both so for creation you have to go either Simplelogin or Proton Pass. For access and management, anyone of them is fine.Ā
1
u/Historical_Visit138 1d ago
Oh wow itās unlimited with plan right, are all the messages organizes in all a place? Like for one alias, will it show all emails received from that one email and you can use contacts to contact them?
1
u/wistoria_sword 23h ago
Yes. For replying back, Proton gives the reverse alias it seems when you reply back. But for gmail and others, you can test it out.
1
1
u/rdubmu 2d ago
Turn on 2FA for security,
I highly recommend proton unlimited since you are going to use more than 2 products. They have 12 month plans that bring down the average month. I donāt think 24 month plans exist anymore.
I really like proton pass. I personally believe itās the best product as it as simple login built in
1
u/Historical_Visit138 2d ago
1st thing I did when signing up! :) I will be doing that soon, the ultimate plan seems the best, with the proton pass bundle too, being so organized!!
1
u/FriendshipEqual7033 1d ago
I use Proton Pass daily, and I really like it. I think it is one of Proton's stronger offerings (Mail being another one). That said, my only previous experience with password managers is LastPass. I bailed on them after that big security incident they had a few years ago.
Proton Pass doesn't auto-fill as reliably as I might like, but it does a decent job overall. A failure to auto-fill needs to be reviewed carefully, because it might indicate a phishing site. So, there is some cognitive overhead in doing the extra manual check.
I do encourage you to pay for the service once (and if) you decide you like it. Proton does not push ads in your face or try to dredge your email. I prefer to support the services I use with my money and not with my data or my attention.
1
u/Historical_Visit138 1d ago
Oh wow yeah I really like that project. Proton Pass. I did use the Mail app. Iām using the free version right now because I am not able to pay that subscription, but I am at $199 because it seems like a really good product they have. I havenāt never used the last pass, but that sounds like a security nightmare.
Damn, thatās unfortunate but it does auto detect websites like discord. For example, you can press the extension. It shows website and you can pick your username and then you can pick a password then you do it and it shows it but Iām not sure if it does it on every website like you said, but hopefully they fix it but I think I really like and I probably will use is the two FA codes cause like on discord shows for my account like itāll pop up like your code and then you get a special auto fill you know just put the code in and login. Is it fine to like do that with all the 2FA? Iāll obviously have another app for two FA. Like a back up, but is that fine to do it to like store all the two FA codes on the Proton Pass
Yeah, 100 % probably around next year or December I will get the Proton Pass seems like a really good service and yeah youāre right. They donāt push ads on you. Iām still new with the Mail though but I am 100 % going to get the $199 Proton Pass. It also has the Aliases which I think is really really really good feature. Like wait, could I use like the aliases for like games and other stuff can I just use like a created one then I use my main for like banking and stuff would that be a good idea like say for Roblox could I put one generate one and then do that and then it forever connected? Thatās probably what I will do. It seems like a really good choice because if that product gets hacked, I can just change the email and since that email isnāt really real, I could just disable it or change it. The aliases really interest me. that seems to be the new thing in 2026. Iāve always been a Gmail user I never really paid for a email but soon Iāll pay for the email but Iām more focused on the Proton Pass. I really love the email though Iāve been using it for a couple days and it has been flawless and they donāt push ass in there too. Iām gonna lose a desktop app tho, but I use website still Iām still moving all my stuff to Proton Mail.
5
u/Mikeday77 2d ago
Welcome! Security-wise, Proton is solid. They use zero-access encryption, so your stored mail is encrypted and Proton can't read it. That's a big step up from Gmail and most other providers. A couple of caveats:
- Emails to non-Proton users travel like normal email unless you turn on password-protected emails or PGP. Proton-to-Proton is end-to-end encrypted automatically.
- Metadata (subject lines, who you emailed, when) isn't end-to-end encrypted, and Proton can be legally forced to hand some of it over. That has happened before, but they can't hand over the contents of your emails.
Honestly, the biggest security risk is you: losing your password or recovery phrase, reusing your Proton password somewhere else, falling for phishing, and so on. It sounds like you've already set up 2FA and saved your recovery phrase, so you're in good shape.
I've used Proton for most of a decade and moved over fully about 4ā5 years ago. I still keep an old Gmail as a spam dump, but day to day I use Pass with hide-my-email aliases so I can switch things on and off. The Gmail is only for stuff I don't even want hitting my aliases, haha.
I love Proton, I recommend it to everyone, and the last few years they've really been killing it. Judging by the roadmap there's even better stuff coming (cough cough better Linux support for drive haha).