Comparison · 2026
Proton Business gives every team member their own inbox — it cannot give your team a shared one. At €3.99/user/month, a 5-person team pays €19.95/mo with zero routing, assignment, or coordination features. Smailor Pro is €9.99 flat for up to 15 people, and works on top of Proton Mail.
Last updated: June 2026 · Pricing sourced from proton.me and smailor.com
These are different tools
Proton Business is an email provider — it delivers and stores email for each person on your team. Smailor is a shared inbox — it coordinates customer-facing email across your whole team. Many teams use Proton for internal email and Smailor for customer support. They complement each other.
Pricing model gap
Flat rate vs per-seat
Proton Business: €3.99/user/mo. Smailor Pro: €9.99/mo for up to 15 people. Crossover at 3 users.
Proton strength
End-to-end encryption
Proton encrypts email at rest and between Proton users. Best-in-class privacy for internal email.
What Proton can't do
No shared inbox
No collision detection, routing rules, AI triage, assignment, or response-time analytics.
Proton Business charges per seat. The math tips in Smailor's favour at 3 team members — even before counting the missing features.
Smailor — flat workspace
All AI features included in Pro. No per-seat, no per-resolution billing.
Proton Business — per seat
Proton Unlimited (personal) starts at €7.99/mo. Business adds custom domain management.
Monthly cost by team size — coordination layer for support email
| Team size | Proton Business only | Smailor Pro (flat) | Smailor advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 person | €3.99/mo | €9.99/mo | Proton cheaper — Smailor Free covers this |
| 2 people | €7.98/mo | €9.99/mo | Proton slightly cheaper |
| 3 people | €11.97/mo | €9.99/mo | Smailor cheaper + shared inbox |
| 5 people | €19.95/mo | €9.99/mo | 2× cheaper + routing + AI |
| 10 people | €39.90/mo | €9.99/mo | 4× cheaper + full feature set |
| 15 people | €59.85/mo | €9.99/mo | 6× cheaper + unlimited coordination |
Smailor Pro is €9.99/mo. Proton Business is €3.99/user/mo. Crossover happens at 3 people.
As of June 2026. ✅ included · ⚠️ partial/add-on · ❌ not available.
| Feature | Smailor | Proton Business |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | ✅ Permanent (3 members) | ⚠️ Personal only, no custom domain |
| Custom email domain | ✅ All paid plans | ✅ Business plans |
| Pricing model | ✅ Flat per workspace | ❌ Per user / per seat |
| Send & receive email | ⚠️ Via your provider | ✅ Full email provider |
| End-to-end encryption | ❌ Not available | ✅ Between Proton users |
| Shared inbox (multiple agents) | ✅ Groups + assignment | ❌ Each member has own inbox |
| Collision detection | ✅ All plans | ❌ Not available |
| Ticket assignment & claiming | ✅ All plans | ❌ Not available |
| Routing rules | ✅ All plans | ❌ Not available |
| Email templates / canned replies | ✅ Starter+ | ❌ Not available |
| AI triage & priority scoring | ✅ Pro+ (self-hosted) | ❌ Not available |
| AI spam filtering | ✅ Pro+ (on-server) | ⚠️ Basic filter only |
| Response time analytics | ✅ All plans | ❌ Not available |
| Discord notifications | ✅ Native (Solo+) | ❌ Not available |
| REST API | ✅ All plans (incl. Free) | ❌ Not available |
| Audit log (who handled what) | ✅ All plans | ❌ Not available |
| EU data residency | ✅ Hetzner DE/FI | ✅ Switzerland / EU |
| GDPR / DPA | ✅ Available | ✅ Available |
| SSO / SAML | ✅ Business plan | ✅ Business plans |
| Proton Drive / VPN / Calendar | ❌ Not included | ✅ Full suite (Proton plans) |
| IMAP / SMTP bridge | ⚠️ Via your provider | ✅ Proton Mail Bridge |
| Setup time | ✅ < 10 minutes | ✅ < 10 minutes |
The honest differences between a privacy-first email provider and a lean shared inbox.
Email provider vs shared inbox — a fundamental category difference
Proton Business hosts your email and delivers a private mailbox to each person on your team. Smailor does not host email at all — it organises and coordinates the customer-facing email your team already receives. These tools solve different problems, which is why most teams that use Smailor keep their existing email provider (including Proton) for internal communication.
Proton's E2EE advantage is real — but limited for customer support
Proton's end-to-end encryption applies to communication between two Proton Mail accounts. When a customer emails your support@ from Gmail or Outlook, that email travels over standard SMTP — it is not E2EE regardless of your provider. For customer support email, the privacy questions that matter are: where is data stored, who can access it, and is AI processing it remotely? Smailor stores data in EU (Hetzner, Germany and Finland), runs AI on-server, and maintains a full audit log of every action on every ticket.
Proton has no concept of a shared inbox
Proton Business gives each team member their own inbox. If two people need to handle [email protected], one person checks it and manually forwards tickets — or both have access and risk double-replying. Smailor solves this directly: collision detection prevents duplicate replies, assignment shows who owns each ticket, and routing rules automatically direct email to the right person based on sender, content, or keyword.
Flat pricing vs per-seat pricing — the math after 2 people
Proton Business is €3.99/user/month. At 3 people it costs €11.97/month — more than Smailor Pro (€9.99 flat) — and still has no routing, AI triage, templates, or response-time analytics. At 10 people, Proton alone costs €39.90/month versus €9.99 for Smailor Pro with full coordination features. The gap widens as the team grows.
Many teams keep Proton for internal email and add Smailor for customer support. Here's how.
Keep Proton Mail for your team's internal email
Each team member keeps their Proton inbox ([email protected]) for internal communication, protected by Proton's E2EE.
Create a dedicated support address on your domain
Set up [email protected] (or hello@, info@) as a separate address. This is the address customers will contact.
Forward that address to your Smailor catch-all
In Proton Business, create a forwarding rule from [email protected] to your Smailor catch-all address. Smailor receives the ticket and routes it to your inbox.
Reply through Smailor
Your team responds from the Smailor dashboard. Replies go out from [email protected] via Smailor's send infrastructure, with routing rules, templates, and AI triage active.
Add Smailor if…
Proton Business alone is enough if…
Can I use Smailor with my Proton Mail account?
Yes. Smailor works with any email provider. You can forward your support@ address from Proton to your Smailor catch-all and manage all customer replies from Smailor's dashboard. Your Proton account stays intact for personal and internal email. See the full setup guide for step-by-step instructions.
Does Smailor replace my email provider?
No. Smailor is a shared inbox layer that organises and coordinates customer-facing email for your team. It does not host your email or replace Proton. Most teams keep their existing email provider and add Smailor specifically for their customer support address.
Does Smailor have end-to-end encryption like Proton?
Smailor does not offer E2EE. However, Proton's E2EE only applies between two Proton Mail accounts — customer email from Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail is not E2EE regardless of your provider. For customer support email, Smailor focuses on EU data residency (Hetzner, DE/FI), self-hosted AI triage that never sends content to third-party LLMs, and full audit logs of who handled each ticket.
Is Smailor GDPR-compliant like Proton?
Yes. All data is stored in EU (Hetzner datacenters in Germany and Finland). AI triage runs on-server — customer email content is never sent to OpenAI, Anthropic, or any external LLM provider. A Data Processing Agreement is available for Business plan customers.
Why is Smailor cheaper than Proton Business for teams of 3+?
Proton Business charges €3.99 per user per month. At 3 people that's €11.97/month. Smailor Pro is €9.99/month flat for up to 15 team members — and includes routing rules, AI triage, collision detection, Discord integration, templates, and a REST API that Proton Business cannot offer at any price tier.
Related comparisons
Works with Proton Mail
Keep Proton for your team's internal email. Add Smailor for customer support. Free tier, your domain, live in under 10 minutes.