Proton Mail vs Standard Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Proton Mail
This encrypted email service from Switzerland prioritizes user privacy with end-to-end encryption. It offers robust security features to protect your communications from phishing, spam, and tracking, allowing you to manage your inbox with ease.
- End-to-end encryption
- Password-protected emails
- Multiple account support
- Inbox organization (folders, labels)
- Dark mode
- Phishing and spam protection
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Keep your conversations private. Proton Mail is encrypted email from Switzerland. Used by millions worldwide, our all-new email app protects your communications and has everything you need to easily manage your inbox. The Wall Street Journal says: “Proton Mail offers encrypted email, which makes it virtually impossible for anyone to read it except the sender and the recipient.” With the all-new Proton Mail app, you can: • Create a @proton.me or @protonmail.com email address • Send and receive encrypted emails and attachments with ease • Switch between multiple Proton Mail accounts • Easily manage your email with conversations • Keep your inbox tidy and clean with folders, labels and simple swipe-gestures • Receive new email notifications • Send Password-protected Emails to anyone • Keep important emails in focus with automatic, private categories • Enjoy your inbox in dark mode Why use Proton Mail? • Easy to use — Our all-new app has been redesigned to make it easier to read, organize, and write your emails. • Your inbox is yours — We don’t spy on your communications to show you targeted ads. Your inbox, your rules. • Rigorous encryption — Your entire inbox is secured, on all your devices. No one can read your emails but you. Proton is privacy, guaranteed by end-to-end and zero-access encryption. • Unmatched protection — We offer strong phishing, spam, and spying/tracking protection for all your communications. Industry Leading Security Features Messages are stored on Proton Mail servers using end-to-end encryption at all times and are transmitted securely between Proton servers and user devices. This largely eliminates the risk of message interception. Zero Access to Your Email Content Proton Mail's zero access architecture means that your data is encrypted in a way that makes it inaccessible to us. Data is encrypted on the client side using an encryption key that Proton does not have access to. This means we don't have the technical ability to decrypt your messages. Open-Source Cryptography Proton Mail's open-source software has been thoroughly vetted by security experts from around the world to ensure the highest levels of protection. Proton Mail only uses secure implementations of AES, RSA, along with OpenPGP, while all of the cryptographic libraries used are open source. By using open-source libraries, Proton Mail can guarantee that the encryption algorithms used do not have clandestinely built-in back doors. Proton Mail in the press: “Proton Mail is a Gmail-like email system which uses end-to-end encryption, making it impossible for outside parties to monitor.” Forbes “A new email service being developed by a group who met at MIT and CERN promises to bring secure, encrypted email to the masses and keep sensitive information away from prying eyes.” Huffington Post Follow Proton on social media for all the latest news and offers: Facebook: /proton Twitter: @protonprivacy Reddit: /protonmail Instagram: /protonprivacy Our open-source code base: https://github.com/ProtonMail EULA: http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/appstore/dev/stdeula
Standard Notes
Securely capture and sync your thoughts across all devices with end-to-end encryption. This app offers a simple, lasting place for all your notes, from personal thoughts to sensitive information, with robust privacy features.
- End-to-end encryption
- Cross-device syncing
- Offline access
- Passcode and biometric lock
- Tagging system
- Open-source code
- Optional productivity editors and themes
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Standard Notes is a private and secure end-to-end encrypted notes app. It allows you to write and sync your notes across all your devices, including your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and web browser. Private means your notes are end-to-end encrypted, so only you can read your notes. Even we can't read the contents of your notes. Simple means it does one job and does it well. Standard Notes is a safe and lasting place for your life's work. Our focus is making it easy to write notes wherever you are and syncing them with encryption to all your devices. Our users love us for: • Personal Notes • Tasks & Todos • Passwords & Keys • Code & Technical Procedures • Private Journal • Meeting Notes • Cross-platform Scratchpad • Books, Recipes, & Movies • Health & Fitness Log Standard Notes comes free with: • Seamless sync across all your devices, with easy to use applications on iPhone, iPad, Mac, web browsers, and other platforms. • Offline access, so you can access your downloaded notes even without a connection. • No limit on number of devices. • No limit on number of notes. • Passcode lock protection, along with Touch ID and Face ID protection. • A tagging system to organize your notes (like #work, #ideas, #passwords, #crypto). • The ability to pin, lock, protect, and move notes to trash, which allows you to recover deleted notes until the trash is emptied. Standard Notes is completely open-source, which means when we say your notes are encrypted with industry-leading XChaCha-20 encryption, and that only you can read your notes, you don't have to take our word for it. Our code is open to the world to audit. We made Standard Notes simple because longevity is important to us. We want to make sure we're here, protecting your notes, for the next hundred years. You shouldn't have to find a new notes app every year. To sustain our development, we offer optional paid subscriptions which give you access to powerful tools like: • Productivity editors (like Markdown, Code, Spreadsheets) • Beautiful themes (like Midnight, Focus, Solarized Dark) • Powerful cloud tools including daily backups of your encrypted data delivered to your email inbox every day, or backed up to your cloud provider (like Dropbox and Google Drive). We're always happy to talk, whether it be a question, thought, or issue. Please feel free to email us any time at help@standardnotes.com. When you take the time to send us a message, we'll be sure to do the same. EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Proton Mail at every 10 days against Standard Notes's every 5 weeks. Proton Mail also leads on ratings volume (48K vs 3.8K) and chart position (#62 vs unranked). Standard Notes's advantage is review sentiment (64% vs 47%) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.2). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Proton Mail sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month and Standard Notes sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $119.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Proton Mail against 4.7 for Standard Notes. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Proton Mail has 48K ratings behind it against 3.8K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 47% of Proton Mail's written reviews are positive against 64% of Standard Notes's.
Proton Mail ships an update every 10 days, Standard Notes every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Proton Mail | Standard Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (48K ratings) — better | 4.7 (3.8K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 46.5% of reviews | 64.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 48K — better | 3.8K |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #62 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.2 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 272 MB | 92 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Proton AG | Standard Notes Ltd. |
Customer experience
Proton Mail
Standard Notes
User reviews
Proton Mail
From 48K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Smooth performance
- 🔒 Excellent security and privacy
- 👍 Clean and intuitive interface
- 💡 Expanding ecosystem of Proton services
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
- ⏱️ Slow email loading times
- 📝 Lacking advanced email management features
- 💰 Expensive paid plans
Standard Notes
From 3.8K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast and reliable sync
- 🔒 Excellent privacy and security
- 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
- 📚 Great for organizing notes
- 💻 Cross-platform availability
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes
- 🔑 Frustrating login/authentication issues
- 💰 Expensive premium subscription
- 📱 Limited features in free version
- 🖍️ Lack of formatting options
Bugs and requests
Proton Mail
Reported bugs
3 issues- Login issues and lost email data
- Unreliable push notifications
- Inconsistent user experience between app and web
Requested features
4 requests- Conversation threading and email previews
- Customizable notification sounds
- Offline email access
- Improved syncing across devices
Standard Notes
Reported bugs
4 issues- Notes disappearing or getting deleted unexpectedly
- Sync issues between devices
- Keyboard and UI bugs on mobile
- Compatibility problems with older iOS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for images and attachments
- Implement a more robust search function
- Introduce a dark mode option
- Allow for better note organization (folders, nested tags)
- Add undo/redo functionality
In-app purchases
Proton Mail
- Mail Plus 1 month1 Month trial$5.991 Month
- Unlimited 1 month$14.991 Month
- Mail Plus 12 months$47.901 Year
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- Unlimited 1 year$119.001 Year
- Mail Plus (1 year)$59.99
- Proton Unlimited$149.99
Standard Notes
- Professional Plan7 Days trial$119.991 Year









