Proton Mail vs Zoho Mail

Proton Mail

• People who want an email provider that cannot read their messages
• Anyone moving off Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo who needs to import old mail
• Users who want email, VPN, passwords and storage from one vendor

Zoho Mail

• Small businesses that want low-cost email on their own domain
• Teams that already use other Zoho apps such as CRM or Projects
• Organizations that want to choose the country their mail is stored in

Proton Mail

• The free plan is limited to 1 address, up to 1 GB of mail storage and 150 sent messages a day.
• Custom domains and IMAP/SMTP access through Bridge need a paid plan.
• The desktop apps need a paid plan; free accounts get a 14-day trial of them, and the Linux app is labeled beta.
• Buying in the iOS app costs more: the US App Store lists Mail Plus at $5.99 monthly, against $4.99 on Proton's site.

Zoho Mail

• The free plan covers one domain and 5 users, has no IMAP, POP or ActiveSync access, and is offered only in select data centers.
• Mail Lite and Mail Premium are sold on yearly subscriptions only. Monthly billing exists only for the Workplace plans.
• Email retention, eDiscovery and S/MIME are limited to Mail Premium and Workplace Professional.
• Zoho states 24x7 support by email, phone and live chat for paid plans, and guided migration by a dedicated agent only for companies with more than 50 users.

Proton Mail

End-to-end and zero-access encryption

Messages are encrypted so that only you can read them. Proton states that not even it can read your email.

Tracker blocking and aliases

Blocks the email trackers that report what you open and click. Hide-my-email aliases keep your real address off sign-up forms: 10 on Free and Mail Plus, unlimited on Proton Unlimited.

Custom domains and extra addresses

Mail Plus supports 1 custom email domain and up to 10 addresses. Proton Unlimited raises that to 3 domains and 15 addresses.

Easy Switch import

Imports existing mail from Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or Apple accounts. The import assistant is included on the free plan.

Proton Mail Bridge

Paid accounts can use the Bridge app to read and send encrypted mail in Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird or Apple Mail over IMAP and SMTP.

Calendar and scheduling tools

Proton Calendar is included, with 3 personal calendars on Free and up to 25 on Mail Plus. Mail also supports scheduled sending, undo send and snooze.

Zoho Mail

Email on your own domain

Addresses at your company's domain with group addresses and email and domain aliases. SPF, DKIM, DMARC and BIMI are built in.

Calendar, tasks, notes and bookmarks

A calendar, contacts, ToDo, notes and bookmarks sit inside the mailbox, so events and tasks are handled in the same window as mail.

Streams and shared drafts

Streams lets a team comment, assign tasks and post announcements around email. Drafts, single emails and whole folders can be shared for review or delegation.

Zia AI assistant

Zia drafts replies and summarizes long threads, and Zoho Mail can be connected to AI apps through Zoho Mail MCP.

Admin console and compliance

Role-based access, security policies, audit logs and two-factor authentication for admins. Retention, eDiscovery and S/MIME come with Mail Premium and Workplace Professional.

Migration tools

A free automated tool moves email, contacts and calendars from Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or any IMAP provider, with migration specialists available at no extra charge.

Proton Mail

• Proton Free$0

  1 address, up to 1 GB of mail storage, 150 sent messages a day, the Easy Switch import tool and 3 calendars.

• Mail Plus$3.99

  per month, billed every 12 months ($47.88); $4.99 billed monthly

  1 user with 10 addresses, 15 GB of storage, 1 custom domain, unlimited folders, labels and filters, and Bridge for IMAP/SMTP clients.

• Proton Unlimited$9.99

  per month, billed every 12 months ($119.88)

  500 GB of storage, 15 addresses and 3 custom domains, bundled with Proton's VPN, password manager and cloud storage.

Zoho Mail

• Forever Free$0

  One domain and up to 5 users with 5 GB of mail storage each. No IMAP, POP or ActiveSync access; offered only in select data centers.

• Mail Lite$1

  per user / month, billed annually (no monthly plan)

  Custom-domain email with 5 GB of mail storage per user, or 10 GB for $1.25, plus calendar and tasks. No file storage.

• Workplace Standard$3

  per user / month, billed annually ($4 billed monthly)

  30 GB of mail storage per user plus WorkDrive, the office apps, Cliq, Meeting and Vault. File storage starts at 100 GB per team.

• Mail Premium$4

  per user / month, billed annually (no monthly plan)

  50 GB of mail storage and 50 GB of retention storage per user, with email retention and eDiscovery, S/MIME and mobile access management.

• Workplace Professional$6

  per user / month, billed annually ($7 billed monthly)

  100 GB of mail and 100 GB of retention storage per user, 1 TB of team file storage, the Premium compliance tools and Zoho Connect.

• Workplace EnterpriseCustom

  Custom limits across the Workplace products, with Active Directory cloud sync and endpoint controls. Priced through Zoho sales.

Proton Mail

• Annual discount

  20% off Mail Plus on the 12-month plan

  Proton's pricing page lists Mail Plus at $3.99 a month when billed every 12 months ($47.88), against $4.99 billed monthly.

Zoho Mail

• Annual discount

  About 20% off with annual billing

  Zoho's pricing FAQ cites a discount of roughly 20% for annual billing. Workplace Standard is $3 per user / month billed annually against $4 monthly, and Workplace Professional $6 against $7.

• Nonprofit

  Special pricing for nonprofits

  The pricing FAQ says non-profit and charitable organizations get special pricing, arranged by contacting Zoho sales.