When comparing ProtonMail vs Tutanota Mail, the Slant community recommends ProtonMail for most people. In the question“What are the best e-mail clients for Windows?” ProtonMail is ranked 10th while Tutanota Mail is ranked 14th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Built-in end-to-end encryption
Pro No personal information needed
To create an account you don't need to give any personal information, just choose username, domain, and password. Even the recovery email address is optional.
Pro Privacy respecting
User data is protected by strict privacy laws because all servers are located in Switzerland.
Pro Open Source
Pro Mobile apps
Apps for Android and iOS available.
Pro End to end encryption
End-to-end encrypted:
- internal emails (between Tutanota users)
- external emails: requires setting a password and sharing it separately to the recipient
- calendar
- contacts
- email storage
- email subject lines
Pro Open source
See here.
Pro Based in Germany
Tutanota's servers are located in Germany, which has strict privacy protection laws, even stronger than those of Switzerland.
Pro Anonymous: no personal information and no phone numbers are required to register
Pro F-Droid app
Pro No offices in the USA
Pro Free
A free account is available.
Pro Add free
Pro Desktop client
Pro U2F for second factor authentication
Pro Affordable price for paid plans
Cons
Con Javascript-intensive Webmail
Free accounts are required to use Javascript webmail and encryption is done in the browser. Javascript cryptography is harmful for security and should not be used.
Con Encryption Keys are stored server-side
The keys are generated during account creation. Using your existing keys is prohibited and ProtonMail must store and control the private keys. Encryption cannot be secure unless the user controls the private keys.
Con Still lacks some useful features
At the moment, there is no calendar feature and contact management is quite poor. They will, however, start to work on it.
Con Ties to US Investors
ProtonMail takes money from US Investors
Con No IMAP and SMTP support for basic accounts
Basic accounts are restricted to the Protonmail web client. Support for IMAP and SMTP is available with a paid subscription only, and as such with basic accounts it is not possible to send and receive email with external applications.
Con Overly expensive for desktop support
Con Requires phone number for login
If you sign up over Tor or a VPN, it will require email or phone number verification. Email verification is disabled if you use an email that isn't from Google or Outlook.
Con Not fully Open Source
Con No support for third-party clients (eg Thunderbird...)
Con Doesn't support PGP encryption
Con No support for IMAP and SMTP
You can't use your favorite email client.
