A cheaper alternative to Proton Mail for business

Proton sells business email per user, billed yearly. On proton.me/business/mail/pricing, checked 6 October 2026, Mail Essentials is $6.99 per user per month, billed at $83.88 per user every twelve months. It includes 15 GB per user, three custom domains, ten addresses per user, a catch-all, SMTP access for outside tools and a migration tool. Workspace Standard is $12.99 per user per month on the same terms, with 1 TB per user and fifteen domains. The page we fetched showed only the yearly figures, so we cannot tell you what the month-to-month price is.

For one person there is a cheaper door. Mail Plus on the personal page (proton.me/mail/pricing, checked the same day) is $3.99 a month on a twelve-month plan, $47.88 a year, with 15 GB, one custom domain, a catch-all, and IMAP through the Proton Bridge app. A solo consultant on their own domain can live on that and never touch a business plan.

Three things, and none of them is small. First, end-to-end encryption between Proton users: a message from one Proton account to another is encrypted on the sender's device and only the recipient can open it. Second, zero-access storage: Proton holds your mailbox in a form it cannot read itself. Third, Swiss jurisdiction and the privacy posture that comes with it. No ordinary email host, Faivelo included, offers those three. We encrypt in transit and at rest, which stops eavesdroppers and protects a stolen disk, but we can read mail when we have to, for example to run a spam filter or answer a support ticket you opened.

If your clients are lawyers, journalists or anyone whose threat model includes a subpoena, that difference is the whole decision. Pay the $6.99. This page is not for you.

Most of what Proton's encryption costs you is convenience, and a flat-rate host returns it. Apple Mail, Outlook and Thunderbird connect over plain IMAP and SMTP, no Bridge app to install on every laptop. Every address on the domain is a mailbox at no extra charge, so support@, billing@ and the new hire are not three more seats. The bill is $6 a month on Starter however many people join, with 10 GB of pooled storage and up to three domains; Growth is $12 with 200 GB and unlimited domains.

The other things are the ones Proton does not try to do. A REST API on every paid plan, so your app can send receipts from the same domain. Marketing email from the Growth plan, so a newsletter does not need a second vendor. An MCP server on Growth and up, so an AI assistant can work a mailbox. And the DNS records are written at your registrar for you at supported hosts, where Proton hands you a list to paste.

One person who wants privacy on a custom domain: Proton Mail Plus at $3.99 a month yearly. It is cheaper than any business plan and the Bridge is a one-time install.

A team whose work is confidential by nature: Proton Mail Essentials. The per-user price is the cost of the encryption, and it is worth it.

A team that chose Proton for the brand and uses it like any other inbox: a flat-rate host. Five people on Essentials is $419.40 a year; on Faivelo Starter it is $72, and the sixth person is free. The move is a copy over IMAP with a Proton app password, then an MX change; the Proton comparison page has the feature table side by side.