Allow SimpleLogin Premium subscribers to use SimpleLogin API for unlimited aliases
Pass Plus (PP) comes with many extra features compared to Pass Free (PF). One of those features is using the SimpleLogin (SL) service for creating unlimited aliases. PP uses the SimpleLogin API under the hood, but utilizes its own pool of aliases; e.g. passmail.net. SimpleLogin Premium subscribers get e.g. slmail.me. When you link your SL Premium to your Proton account, you get both pools to choose from in PP.
You can connect your SimpleLogin Premium subscription to Mail Plus, Mail Free or VPN Plus (if I am not mistaken). If you don't subscribe to Pass Plus or Proton Unlimited, you're missing out on some Pass features, like credit cards, custom fields, 2FA, unlimited aliases, etc.
Without paying extra for Pass Plus or Proton Unlimited though, PF users are blocked (or limited to 10) from using their paid for SL Premium pool of unlimited aliases. Wouldn't it be fair if a SimpleLogin Premium subscription allowed you unlimited aliases from the slmail.me pool in Proton Pass Free? All other Pass Plus features could still be locked behind a paywall, but this alias limit even for paying users already in the Proton ecosystem seems a bit artificial. SimpleLogin users will switch back and forth between both apps and get the same result, but will notice the artificial limitation every time.
Some users reported getting "Pass Plus via SimpleLogin" for free, without asking for it. They were pleasantly surprised. After contacting support, I was informed this is no longer awarded to existing loyal SimpleLogin Premium subscribers, and if I wanted to use the SimpleLogin Premium service with Proton Pass, I should upgrade to Proton Unlimited. I'm unpleasantly surprised, because I'm already paying for Mail Plus and SimpleLogin Premium.
While I understand the need for business decisions, I believe that restricting the alias service already paid for by loyal customers, in the hopes that they will pay again for the same service, might not be the best approach for Proton. It could lead to customer dissatisfaction and might not align with Proton's values of providing excellent service to their existing paying customers.
I think Proton may be overplaying their hand when trying to charge users twice for the same service. I think they are pressuring users to get Proton Unlimited too hard. I think their price points are starting to focus too much on western privileged customers. I think Proton would benefit in the long term from nurturing their relationship with existing paying customers and focusing on customer satisfaction, by at least allowing access to the Premium services they pay for, even in the free version of a software product.
Competitor Bitwarden does support Proton's SimpleLogin service in their free version. It would be smart to support paying subscribers of your SimpleLogin Premium service in the free version of your Pass product, too, when linked to any account that has an active SimpleLogin Premium subscription. Currently, users that pay for Proton's alias service but don't yet want to pay for a password manager are more tempted to start using Bitwarden than Proton Pass because of this business decision, and I think a decision that pushes potentially future paying customers to a competitor product is not a good decision.
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Shieldroid commented
I keep hearing the argument that "SL is a different product from PP and that's why it makes sense to pay twice". But that is nonsense. The full paid PP product contains 50 vaults, integrated 2FA, share with 10 others, and other features that we do not want. We only want to use the SL premium API - for which we pay the same company (Proton) - with Proton Pass Free. This is what the API was designed for, and competitors support this the API integration, even in their free versions.
Proton is competing with itself by boycotting the user of their own product (SL API) inside their other product (PP).