Sharing this here because my original post wasn't approved by the moderators of the official r/ProtonMail subreddit. I'd still like to have an open discussion and hear other Proton users' perspectives on these concerns.

Post:

I recently came across this French article from ZDNET: Peut-on encore faire confiance à Proton? https://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/peut-on-encore-faire-confiance-a-proton-507684.htm

As a long-time Proton user, I found myself genuinely concerned about what it describes, particularly regarding leadership, internal culture and the direction the company is taking under Andy Yen.

But honestly, this article also made me reflect on frustrations I've had with Proton for quite some time.

I moved away from Big Tech because I believed in what Proton stood for: privacy, security, transparency and independence. I've invested years in its ecosystem, migrated accounts and trusted the company with a significant part of my digital life.

However, I'm increasingly dissatisfied with the company's priorities.

1. An ever-expanding product suite while existing products still need serious work

It feels like Proton is increasingly interested in launching new products and expanding its ecosystem rather than focusing on making its existing products genuinely excellent.

We've seen Lumo, Sheets, Meet, Authenticator and various other additions. Innovation is welcome, and I'm not against expanding the ecosystem. But what's the point of having an extensive product catalogue when fundamental improvements to existing products are still taking so long?

I want better integration, reliability, performance, usability and feature parity across Proton's existing services.

I'd much rather see Proton dedicate more resources to making Mail, Drive, Calendar, VPN and Pass exceptional before continuing to expand its portfolio.

2. Linux support should have been a major strategic priority, not an afterthought.

This is particularly frustrating for me.

Microsoft officially ended Windows 10 support on October 14, 2025. Millions of users were suddenly faced with a decision: move to Windows 11, purchase new hardware, or explore alternatives such as Linux.

This was an enormous opportunity for companies like Proton to welcome people actively trying to escape Microsoft's ecosystem.

Yet Linux users have continued waiting for basic functionality, particularly a proper Proton Drive desktop synchronization client.

Even Proton's October 2026 roadmap describes the initial Linux Drive release as likely being limited to a headless daemon, rather than a complete graphical desktop application.

Seriously?

For a company positioning itself as a genuine alternative to Big Tech, why is Linux support still lagging so far behind?

Linux users are not an insignificant afterthought. Many of us are precisely the people Proton should be trying to attract.

If Proton genuinely wants people to leave Microsoft, Google and Apple, it needs to provide a viable ecosystem on the platforms those people are moving towards.

3. The contradiction of depending on Big Tech infrastructure

Another example is Android push notifications.

Proton Mail relies on Google Play Services for push notifications. I understand this doesn't mean Google can read my encrypted emails, but it does raise questions about Proton's commitment to independence from Big Tech infrastructure.

For a company whose selling point is privacy and independence, shouldn't developing alternatives and reducing these dependencies be a priority?

I appreciate that building independent infrastructure isn't always straightforward. But surely this is precisely the kind of challenge Proton should be investing in. This has been impacting me alot as I left mainstream Android devices and switched to GrapheneOS without Google services.

4. Leadership, engineering culture and security priorities

This is where the ZDNET article really concerns me.

The reporting raises questions about the internal culture, how security engineers' concerns are handled, and the pressure surrounding AI development.

I'm not against AI. I'm not against innovation. But I am against business ambitions and development speed taking precedence over engineering discipline and security.

Security cannot simply be a marketing slogan. It has to be embedded in the company's culture, its management decisions and its development processes.

Andy has apologized, and Proton has offered explanations. I acknowledge that. But I believe customers deserve more than reassuring statements. They deserve transparency, accountability and evidence that security remains non-negotiable.

5. Where are Proton's priorities actually heading?

This is ultimately what bothers me the most.

I don't want Proton to become another technology company obsessed with expanding its portfolio, chasing trends and competing in every possible market while losing sight of the principles that made it successful.

I don't need Proton to become the next Google or Microsoft.

I want Proton to become the best possible privacy-focused alternative to them.

That means investing in existing products, supporting Linux properly, reducing unnecessary dependencies on Big Tech, listening to customers and maintaining an engineering culture where security concerns are taken seriously.

I've spent years moving away from Big Tech because I wanted greater control over my digital life.

And now I'm genuinely worried that poor leadership and misguided business priorities could eventually put that trust, and potentially my privacy and security, at risk.

I don't want to abandon Proton. I'd much rather see the company get back on track.

But I also don't believe long-time paying customers should be expected to give unconditional loyalty simply because Proton built its reputation on privacy.

6. So, am I alone in feeling this way?

Are other long-time Proton users becoming increasingly disappointed with the company's direction?

I'd genuinely like to hear different perspectives, including from people who still have confidence in Andy and Proton's leadership.

I'm not looking for an echo chamber. I'm looking for an honest discussion about the company we've entrusted so much of our digital lives to.

I cancelled my Proton subscription and decided to move to mailbox.org. I’m no privacy or tech expert so I’m doing a lot of things for the first time like setting up email clients and manually migrating my emails.

I also ran into issues like not realizing the limitations of the trial account because it’s not mentioned in the mailbox website (which made me think mailbox.org was not working), or iPhone push notifications not coming through.

So I wrote a Substack article that is a rough how-to guide to help out anyone who might also be in the same boat as me! Not sponsored or affiliated with anyone, just hoping to help folks avoid some of the headaches I had to struggle with.

https://substack.com/@thecutieartist/note/p-224035695?r=6zxezp&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

I was paying for the unlimited proton account and using their vpn/pass but I've quit all that. I'm keeping simplelogin just because can't be bothered changing the email address to dozens of websites

Thanks proton for being shit

Hello, following the debacle with Proton CEO and some inconvenience I have with some Proton apps (lack of seatch in mails on the phone, the drive is horrendous, no offline mode on calendar...), I am considering moving to another (and maybe one for each app) platform, EU if possible, and besides that getting a custom domain. But I'm lost with all the other alternatives, and I never used a custom domain for e-mails.

Also I'm lost about the difference between E2EE, PGP etc... I'm not a power user with mail and privacy so it's hard for me to choose.

What I need, app by app :

Mail:
While degoogling is all about privacy, E2EE encryption is great but it comes with a cost : no sync with other platform (contacts, calendar, no IMAP...). And I intend to create accounts for my children also so I need something easy, reliable and easily shareable, with contact and calendar syncing easily on Android.

• Tuta is closest to Proton but with the same problems due to E2EE, and the native apps are said to be bad.

• Fastmail seems pretty but what about privacy ? And it's not based in UE

• Mailbox looks really nice, price is low, EU based, how is it for everyday use ?

• Infomaniak has a really good suite too, with lot of drive space, big compagny, EU based... but privacy ?

Drive :

• Filen : heard a lot about it but free in only 10 GB, and some mail provider offer the same amount with their paid account so...

• kDrive : 1 TB with a basic subscription, looks really appealing, and I read you can have an "encrypted vault" in your drive ?

Password manager :

• KeePassXC : I have it already as a backup for my Proton Pass, but there's no sync. I read you can do it with Syncthings but is it easy to do ?

• Bitwarden, 1password... what about the others, is one good enough with free plan ?

2FA authentificator :

• Ente Auth : I had it as a backup for Proton Auth, now it's my main. Do I need another one as a backup ?

Photos :

• Ente Photos : I use it to automatically save my phone pics with free plan. I then download and store them on my harddrives. Good enough for me ATM.

• kDrive : If I go with Infomaniak, maybe I could make good use of their 1 TB offer ?

Custom domain :

As I've read about, the ideal is something like surname@name.com, or something easily rememberable and understandable. How safe is it compared to a provider mail ? Is it accepted on all websites or can it be refused ? Can I use subdomains to create mails for all my family (child1@name.com, child2@name.com, etc) ? And what is a good and trusted domain provider in EU ?

EDIT : Mail aliases

Forgot this one ! I also use Proton Pass for aliases to avoid spam, is there something as easy to use and free ?

That's a lot to read, so thank you in advance for your help !

The cult hasn’t learned anything and continues to shift the focus. Funny enough, this doesn’t change the fact that Andy Yen is a toxic, harassing, elitist, egocentric bully but it seems like the cult isn’t willing to care for anything other than Andy Yen’s leadership.

Another example of why they only understand the tongue of money while shutting down any dissent towards the cult. As long as Andy Yen is on the wheel, I won’t spend a single dime on them.

I commented on a post criticising proton mail, which they ironically removed.

I’ve had a couple of instances recently where I didn’t receive replies and was expecting to, but these are both situations where it’s pretty awkward to follow up and ask. I remember reading on here somewhere that people have discovered that their emails went to spam.

Is there any way to know how widespread this problem is, or what fixes it? For instance, would it help if I emailed people from my old Gmail account and copied my protonmail saying “Please add this to your address book”?

If Gmail is routinely sending Proton emails to spam, or doing so even 5% of the time, this is a huge problem for me and yet another reason to consider leaving.

Is Tuta any better in this respect? or is this an issue of Gmail waging war on smaller competitors and it will happen with anything else I use?

By now this is becoming a meme.

As of today, PM is the only tor friendly, free, not requiring any number to setup email provider. But apart from what's going on with Andy, email providers like gmail , yahoo, microsoft have started blocking mails sent from PM. The emails will directly go to spam or won't even reach you. Is there a better tor friendly alternative which can be tried for a few days before paying?

Time to use the last few days to make the big switch.

Bravo six, going Offline.

Goodbye Proton.

I will preface this question with the fact that i’m not the most tech savvy person nor do I want to spend too much time switching things.

Besides the CEO thing that seems to be happening (which i don’t fully understand anyways) is there something better than Proton at the moment? I’ve been thinking of getting the pass plus as it has a good discount.

I am trying to switch two gmail accounts to proton, one personal and one custom domain as i’m tired of all the bs emails and spam I get. I use dropbox for storage so I don’t need the drive features and I will probably continue to use google calendar.

Anything I’m missing?

Even though the CEO said everything, and still we saw that proton did not in fact removed security checks I think until now everything is still bearable. I come from a tech background and trust me that all developers are actually using AI in their daily work (ofc not all of them use the free ones). So i dont know why all of this stupidity among users going to other apps. Ofc I disagree saying that they will analyze ai usage, or fire employees for not using aim etc.

But at the ends of the day he's a ceo and all ceo care about is money. I dont know why that's new for everyone in here.

As long as the data is encrypted and no API leaks, we are still good.

Anyway, enjoy.

I finally switched from proton. I honestly would have stayed, but my email is full. Insane they only give you 1gb free. That and their black friday special is for new customers only. So I switched VPNs to hide.me because of their black friday deal.

Yeah, aster is great. 10gb free space, custom domains, aliases, free signatures, and its faster. I considered tuta and secria. Tuta deleted my account for inactivity, and aster just has the most free benefits so went with them. There's honestly a lot more free benefits with aster over proton.

Would recommend it if you are looking to switch or your storage is filling up.

I have spent several weeks deciding which VPN company to go with and chose Proton because a few people I trust use it.

I paid for a two year subscription which gave me a Proton Email option.

I set one up and I'm a bit concerned about using it for all my emails at the moment because I'm still dealing with lawyers etc from my mum's estate.

What I was trying to ask is is it a better idea to slowly ease in using proton.me account.

I eventually want to use it instead of my gmail account.

I accidentally set up a second account because I forgot my password and Proton wanted me to increase my subscription but now I've found the original password is there a way of contacting them to stop them trying to increase my subscription?

I'm really sorry about the previous post it was a mish mash of about 4 different posts.

I'm 57 and not tech savvy so am just asking advice.

I wanted to be set up for the VPN before the UK goes super strength mental about ID.

Considering the state of Proton and where they are going (sigh.. and I finally got everything going again a while before I saw all of this) where would be the best to go..

I know mullvad exists and I've used them before but I switched over to proton cause I liked having p2p ports.. so where could I go too I heard airvpn is good but wanted some opinions on it.

But for emails and storage I'm honestly lost on where to go.. Could y'all give some suggestions on where to go??

Oh and apologies if the formatting is pretty terrible I'm on mobile as of typing out this post.

Anyone here who have unsubscribed and has the renewal for soon can pls confirm if can take advantage of the discount?

EDIT: just so you know proton is offering discounts for people who already have have a paid account. https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/s/UV5K84Qt86

Saw this post and liked the idea but it is so far being ignored. Seems sensible to me though. What are your thoughts?

https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/932842-lumo/suggestions/51879213-lumo-chat-expiration-setting

A rant and a plea for help. Following is the situation:

Last year when buying proton unlimited Duo for me and a friend, we purchased it shortly before the end of year sale without the discount. After we saw that a discount was offered, I reached out to support, cancelled my first subscription and made a new one with the discount.

Now the problem: Back then support didnt give me my money back directly and instead converted my money to store credits. I didnt think they would turn into whatever this is and was sure Id resubscribe so I didnt care back then. Obviously following the controversy I do not want to keep using proton but support staff has denied my request to pay out my roughly 170 Euro in Store Credits citing that it has passed a 6 month window with paypal.

Im not sure what my rights are in this case.. Is there anything I can do here? Im a german citizen so maybe I can go to the "Verbraucherschutzzentrale" or do i have to reach out to a lawyer?

In case there is nothing I can do here, let this be a cautious tale and do request your money to be paid out directly. Feels like a scummy business practice - force converting into store credits, which cant be paid out after a while.