I would downvote this if I could, I find the pricing quite reasonable and understandable for running everything and developing new features/products.

I think it would be interesting to have the opportunity to opt for a single payment for a life plan as they propose for example with pcloud

Let's take ProtonMail and compare it to a competitor (and there are quite a bunch). IMHO, I'd say Mailfence is a solid Protonmail competitor, one of the reason is because it is based in Belgium, which is not a very cheap country, and the prices are quite close to Switzerland.
Comparing the features (the different between the two):
* Mailfence - has full PGP inter interoperability, has calendar and storage, offers 20 aliases.
* Protonmail - e-mails are always encrypted on the server, has native Mobile app (for Android is based on Google Services Framework... pretty controversial if you are paranoid about privacy and do not have GSF installed, push notifications won't work), and offers only 5 aliases.

Speaking of the price:
* Mailfence - 2.5 euro per month
* Protonmail - 4 euro per month

Now before everyone gets critical, there is 1 important note to this, it's your geolocation. I'm coming from Eastern Europe country, where the average salary for 2018 is around 100 euro per month, and even though 1.5 euro might not be a big of a difference, it is 1.5% of the average salary and it can make a difference. To name a jew, 1.5 euro can get you one of the following:
* the home-work-home round-trip 10 days of the month (1 if you use the taxi)
* 1 lunch (or 2 if you are vegetarian)
* 1.5 kg of fruits (bananas, apples, etc.)
* 15-20 eggs
* 2l of milk

Moreover, we are not discussing the fact that PM is expensive in general, just that it might lack a special pack that might bring in more people.

As noted by on of the users, I'd propose some kind of "Economy pack" with the following features:
* 1-2 GB of e-mails
* 250-500 messages per day
* no custom domains
* 2-3 aliases (just for temporary mail, or even 0 aliases, though that would be harsh)
* IMAP/SMTP support
* 50-100 folders
* 50-100 labels
* filters enabled

Adding a cheaper plan between the free and the "Plus" makes sense.

Lets call it "Basic" plan. Should cost $1 per month, and features 1GB of storage, 3 aliases, no custom domain, 500 messages per day, 100 folder / 100 labels, custom filters, support, and no autoresponder.

There ain't no free lunches.

I wish I could downvote this ridiculous "suggestion".

4 EUROS a month is less than all the shitty fast food you buy every WEEK for a legit encrypted email service in Switzerland.

Why negative votes are not allowed?

There are expenses and salaries that have to be paid every single month to keep the service running so I doubt that they'd be able to stay in business at those prices. If they implemented a lifetime sub, it would have to be a LOT more expensive in order to be economically feasible.

IMHO, the price is just right. Compare to the 5 USD it cost for a Google G-Suite with all the "read your email" - ok it comes with a tons of app but hell, protonmail is all about secure, private email. I guess it is okay to pay a little extra. Just my two cents.

Hmm, I am on waitinglist and waiting...

I still like to change from free account to Life Time Account.

How can i speed up this.

Waiting for possible to pay.

250 € for Lifetime pro will be great.

Export/save MY emails = $
Make 5 lousy folders = $
Email client = $
But hey, you have 500mb for free! yeyyy

One time payment - non existent.

By the way, I pay for my services, I don't believe in free stuff anymore, but you people need to "step up".

PS: where is calendar and contacts sync by the way? Even my 5years old qnap nas has free carddav/caldav support.

to the dudes @protonmail: do you think how much money you can make even at 1$ if all gmail users come to you? It is a interesting service, but to grow and keep the fight up you need more, and for that users have to come to you.
4Euro/month for my mother, brother,sisters etc? they will newer switch. 1$ and maybe a family pack even cheaper - I will pay for them all!

Also - add the option for everyone to be able to download their mails!(bridge or whatever) This is like basic stuff! come on ....

I would not put any recovery/important stuff here without option to take-and-leave if you go away/shut down or I go someplace else!

In my country average income is 100$, that’s why 5$ for mailbox is expensive

There will be always people who look for everything so called "cheap or free" but require top level service. Would you work for free in the city like Geneva, N.Y. Tokyo, London etc? Would you have best native developers to do work for you for $5/month without outsource to unknown because of "cheap" and at the same time maybe risk security?. Do you ask at each shop to give you discount? Common, change your mind about money and the rest will follow. Happy New Year!

lifetime subscription is a great idea. I would not sign up for monthly/yearly payment even just because of the effort involved, even if it was $2 a month. I want low-maintenance email service.

great idea! I would not sign up for monthly/yearly payment even just because of the effort involved, even if it was $1 a month. I want low-maintenance email service.

I use GSuite which I`m going to switch to my PM Pro Account. GSuite charge me €5/month and only for one domain. The only good thing about it is that Google gives me 30GB (currently 8GB used) and PMPro just 5GB for the same amount. Anyway, I`m going to move after all and see how things goes. Right now with 1 domain set and a few emails I already use 25MB. When I move my biz domain than I will have to think how to manage without adding more GB for time being

At least having an option to pay for services once for two whole years, would be great.

Yep

Didn't this option get offered a while back for $1250 or something akin to this? So, I think the option was there for a limited time or number of people - can't remember which...