Proton Mail or Tuta: which should you choose?

You’ve decided to get your emails out of Gmail. But who should encrypt them? Proton Mail is the recommendation of the book, and the most used encrypted email service in the world. Tuta, the former Tutanota renamed in late 2023, is its German challenger: less known, cheaper, and even more radical on encryption. Two serious options, two different settings on the dial between comfort and purity.

The match in one table

Criterion	Proton Mail	Tuta
Price	Free (1 GB). Mail Plus at €3.99/month (billed annually)	Free (1 GB). Revolutionary at €3/month, Legend at €8/month
Encryption	End-to-end (message content)	End-to-end, subject lines, attachments and address book included
Jurisdiction	Switzerland	Germany (GDPR)
Source code	Open	Fully open source
Import from Gmail	Automatic import tool	More manual migration
Ecosystem	Mail, Calendar, Drive, VPN, Pass	Built-in encrypted calendar and contacts

What Proton Mail does better

The path from Gmail. The automatic import tool brings over your messages and contacts in a few clicks, and the interface feels familiar. It’s the most clearly marked migration on the market, the one I detail in the comparison with Gmail. My own emails went to Proton, out of conviction.

The lineup, next. One Proton account opens the calendar, encrypted storage, the VPN and the password manager. To de-Google brick by brick without multiplying providers, it’s a precious shortcut. Tuta offers an encrypted calendar and contacts, but not the equivalent of a full suite.

What Tuta does better

The depth of encryption. Proton locks the content of your messages end to end; Tuta also locks subject lines, attachments and even the address book. Who writes to whom, about what: those traces sometimes say more than the message itself. On that specific criterion, Tuta goes further than anyone.

Price too. Revolutionary costs €3/month, under Proton’s Mail Plus, and Legend stays at €8/month. On a tight budget, it’s the most affordable serious encrypted inbox. And all of it is fully open source.

The real cost of switching

At Proton, the automatic import does most of the work. At Tuta, expect one extra step: fewer third-party integrations, a slightly more demanding migration, a more minimalist ecosystem. Nothing insurmountable, but I’d rather warn you. In both cases, the real work stays the same: updating your address on your important accounts, bit by bit. The complete method is in the guide to leaving Gmail.

Verdict

Choose Proton Mail if you want the simplest path from Gmail and a lineup that will cover your next steps. It’s the recommendation of the book, and it holds for most people.

Choose Tuta if your priority is the most complete encryption possible, or the lowest price for a serious email service. You’re not sacrificing anything essential, you’re choosing minimalism.

And if end-to-end encryption is not your first criterion, Infomaniak Mail plays a different match, the comfort one. The detailed profiles: Proton Mail and Tuta, with the full tour on the page of encrypted email services. Still unsure about the order of the steps? The diagnostic will tell you.