Private email providers compared: Proton Mail, Tuta, Fastmail and the big free inboxes

Email providers use the word private for three different things, and it helps to separate them before you compare anyone.

• The business model. A free inbox paid for by advertising has a reason to learn about you. A paid inbox has a customer instead of an audience. This is the difference between Gmail and Fastmail.
• End-to-end encryption. The message is encrypted on your device and can only be decrypted by the recipient. The provider stores scrambled data it cannot read. Proton Mail and Tuta work this way between their own users.
• Encryption at rest. The provider encrypts mail on its servers but holds the keys. That protects against a stolen hard drive. It does not stop the provider itself, or anyone who can compel it, from reading your mail. Almost every serious provider, Gmail included, does this.

Jurisdiction is the fourth factor. A provider has to answer legal demands in the country where it operates. Switzerland and Germany have strong privacy laws, but neither is a place where a court order cannot reach. Proton has said publicly that it complies with legally binding Swiss orders, and its transparency report lists them.

This table reflects each company's published documentation at the time of writing. Features on free tiers change often, so check the current plan pages before you commit.

A note on Gmail: Google stopped scanning the contents of personal Gmail to target ads years ago, and free Gmail ads appear mainly in the Promotions and Social tabs. The account is still tied to the rest of your Google profile, and Google can read your mail if it is legally required to hand it over. iCloud Mail is a similar case on the encryption side. Apple's optional Advanced Data Protection encrypts most iCloud data end to end, but Apple's own documentation lists iCloud Mail as one of the exceptions.

Encrypted email is a real improvement, but its limits come from how email itself works. Email was designed in an era before anyone encrypted anything, and every encrypted provider has to bolt protection onto that old plumbing.

The other person's inbox

When you write from Proton Mail to a friend on Gmail, the message arrives in Gmail as ordinary email. Google can read its copy, and so can anyone who gets into your friend's account. Proton and Tuta both offer a workaround: you can send a password-protected message, and the recipient opens it on a web page with a password you share separately. It works, but few people bother for everyday mail.

Subject lines and metadata

Proton Mail does not end-to-end encrypt subject lines, according to its own security documentation. Tuta does encrypt subjects between Tuta users. Neither can hide the basic envelope: who sent the message, who received it, and when. That metadata alone can say a lot. A string of emails to a divorce lawyer or an oncology clinic tells a story even when the bodies are unreadable.

Your own device

End-to-end encryption protects mail in transit and on the provider's servers. It does nothing if your laptop has malware, if someone knows your password, or if you get phished. A long unique password and two-factor authentication matter as much for a Proton account as for any other. Read our guide on spotting phishing emails too, because a fake login page works just as well against an encrypted inbox.

You want encryption and a free starting point: Proton Mail or Tuta. Proton has the broader suite (VPN, password manager, cloud drive, calendar) and works with desktop mail apps on paid plans through its Bridge app. Tuta encrypts more of each message, including subject lines and your calendar, and keeps its own apps rather than supporting standard mail clients.

You want a fast, ad-free inbox with your own domain: Fastmail or Mailbox.org. Fastmail has polished apps, strong search, standard IMAP support for any mail app, and built-in Masked Email addresses for signing up to websites. It is paid only, with a free trial, and the company can technically read stored mail because it is not end-to-end encrypted. Mailbox.org is a solid German alternative with PGP built in if you want to manage your own encryption.

You live in Apple's world: iCloud Mail with iCloud+ gets you no ads, a custom domain and Hide My Email aliases on a subscription many iPhone owners already pay for. It is a reasonable choice that costs nothing extra if you already have iCloud+.

You are staying on Gmail or Outlook: that is a defensible choice if you lock the account down. Turn on a passkey or an authenticator app, review connected apps, and use aliases so your main address is not on every marketing list. Our email aliases guide covers how.

Changing your main email address is tedious but not risky, as long as you do it slowly. The old address is the recovery email for dozens of accounts, so you cannot cut it off on day one.

1. Open the new account and secure it first. Strong password, two-factor authentication, recovery method saved offline.
2. Import old mail if you want it. Proton, Fastmail and Tuta all offer import tools for Gmail and Outlook. Many people skip this and keep the old account as an archive.
3. Set up forwarding from the old inbox. In Gmail, go to Settings, See all settings, Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Outlook.com has a similar option under Settings, Mail, Forwarding. Now new mail reaches you in one place.
4. Move accounts over as they come up. Each time a forwarded email arrives from your bank, your pharmacy or a shop, log in there and change the address. Start with the important ones: banks, your phone carrier, government accounts, your password manager and Apple or Google ID.
5. Tell people. A short note to contacts, and an updated signature, handles most of the rest.
6. Keep the old account alive. Leave it open, with forwarding on, for at least a year. Log in now and then so the provider does not close it for inactivity. Someone who registers a dead address could use it to reset your old accounts.

You do not need to run your own mail server. Self-hosting gives you control, but keeping mail out of spam folders and patched against attacks is close to a part-time job.

You do not need PGP for normal life. It is the original email encryption standard, and Proton uses it under the hood, but handling keys by hand is easy to get wrong and few of your contacts will use it.

And you do not need to delete your old Gmail out of principle. Moving your important accounts and new sign-ups to a better inbox gets most of the benefit. If your address has already turned up in a breach, the steps in what to do after a data breach matter more than which provider you pick. You can check at haveibeenpwned.com.

If you would rather pay for a straightforward, ad-free inbox and do not need end-to-end encryption, Fastmail is worth a look; competitors like Mailbox.org and iCloud+ cover similar ground.