Stello

We do not recommend using ProtonMail

ProtonMail is a popular choice for those wanting extra security for their email account. It has a free tier and has a good reputation. However, we don't recommend it when using Stello.

The main issues are:

  1. It has very strict limits for bulk sending and most users will not be able to send their newsletter to every recipient in one go.
  2. It is unreliable in telling Stello whether a message was sent or not, resulting in many recipients receiving duplicate messages.

We don't provide support for these issues as they are an issue on ProtonMail's side.

Additional reasons include:

  1. You have to install their bridge software which is more complicated to set up than standard email accounts.
  2. You need a paid account to be able to connect to third-party apps like Stello.

ProtonMail provides little security benefit for newsletters

It may sound ironic that Stello doesn't work well with the popular choice for secure email. However, ProtonMail provides little security benefit over any other platform when it comes to sending newsletters.

ProtonMail only provides end-to-end encrypted email when sending to another ProtonMail user (without requiring a password to read). 99% of Stello users do not send exclusively to ProtonMail addresses and will have at least one Gmail recipient. Which means almost every newsletter will be passing through Google's servers whether someone is sending using a Gmail address or not.

So if your newsletter will technically be readable by Google anyway, you may as well use their free and more reliable service. Noting that you'll still get the benefits of Stello's security features like expiration, retraction, and encryption of responses.

Contrary to common misconceptions, emails are almost always encrypted when in transit these days. So if you send using Gmail then most users will enjoy 100% encryption when in transit to another person's mailbox.

In sum, there is little security benefit to using ProtonMail for newsletters. If you really need additional security, then you should be requiring all your recipients to install an end-to-end encrypted messaging app like Signal (and not use email or Stello).