Poll: Would you use this privacy-focused Gmail alternative?

Gmail is king as far as email apps are concerned, but it’s not the most privacy-focused email platform out there. In fact, there are a variety of alternatives on the market.

Colleague Calvin Wankhede recently spent some time with Proton Mail, perhaps the most prominent email platform for people who value privacy. Would you this service instead of Gmail, though? That’s the topic of our featured poll, so let us know by voting below and leaving a comment!

We can understand if you’re on board with Proton Mail. Gmail can effectively sift through your inbox to serve personalized ads, while Gmail additions like Gemini can also hoover up your data. By contrast, Proton Mail promises end-to-end encryption (more on this in a bit) and zero-access encryption. The latter means even the company can’t read your emails. So it makes sense to switch if you really value your privacy or if your emails are sensitive.

Then again, Calvin felt that he couldn’t “wholeheartedly” recommend Proton Mail due to several limitations. For one, end-to-end encryption only applies when both the sender and recipient are using Proton Mail. He also criticized the Android app for its lack of sender images and text formatting. Then there’s the fact that you’re limited to 1GB of free storage, forcing you to splash out $5 a month to match Google’s 15GB of free storage.

Are these limitations and issues enough to dissuade you from using Proton Mail or are you still keen on a privacy-focused service like this? Give us your thoughts!