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Business Email & Office Suites

Proton for Business

UK / wider Europe Report an error

Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Proton AG · proton.me

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Proton for Business: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Proton for Business: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Proton for Business at a glance

Vendor
Proton AG
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Proton for Business 3.5/5, the mean of 6 judges. Proton for Business is the end-to-end encrypted mail, calendar, documents and storage suite from Proton AG in Geneva. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 5 Nov 2026; evaluated by the panel 6 Nov 2026. all sources

Proton for Business alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Public Sector IT Lead

Weighted verdict

Head of IT at a district administration in Bavaria with eleven hundred staff, told by the council to leave Microsoft within three years. Has read what Schleswig-Holstein did and what it cost. Needs mail, calendars and documents that a whole administration can work in, open formats and open source where possible, BSI C5 or ISO 27001 on paper, a provider whose owners answer to European law only, and an exit plan before the contract is signed.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Public Sector IT Lead

Panel median The Public Sector IT Lead This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Public Sector IT Lead
Mail, domains & deliverability 3 of 5 3 of 5
Calendar, contacts & office apps 3 of 5 3 of 5
Security, encryption & compliance archiving 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Administration, identity & partner management 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Migration, open standards & exit 3 of 5 3.5 of 5
European sovereignty 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Pricing transparency 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5

Mail, domains & deliverability

How this is scored

How well the mailbox itself works: custom domains and their DNS set-up, aliases, catch-all, shared and functional mailboxes, distribution lists, mailbox and attachment size limits, IMAP, POP3, SMTP and Exchange ActiveSync or MAPI for Outlook, web and mobile apps, spam and malware filtering, SPF, DKIM, DMARC and MTA-STS, out-of-office and server-side rules, send limits, and the delivery reputation of the sending infrastructure. A self-hosted groupware is judged on the mail server it ships; a suite whose mail app is only a client for another server scores at the level of that client.

0 — No mailbox at all; a product that only sends transactional mail or only reads another provider's mail without a server of its own or a documented one to pair it with.

3 — Mailboxes on a custom domain with IMAP and SMTP and a webmail; aliases, shared mailboxes, filtering and DKIM or DMARC are basic or not described.

5 — Several custom domains with a documented DNS set-up, aliases and distribution lists, shared or functional mailboxes, IMAP and SMTP plus mobile apps, spam and malware filtering, SPF and DKIM signing, mailbox size per plan stated, server-side rules and out-of-office replies.

8 — Exchange ActiveSync or native Outlook (MAPI) support, DMARC reporting and MTA-STS or DANE, catch-all and plus addressing, delegated access and send-as, quarantine an admin can review, send and attachment limits stated, and the deliverability of the outbound infrastructure documented.

10 — A mail platform a large organisation runs on: every protocol above with feature parity stated per client, inbound and outbound gateways configurable, journaling, DANE and MTA-STS enforced, delivery monitoring and bounce analysis for admins, and mail flow documented end to end.

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The Public Sector IT Lead

Mailboxes on custom domains with a documented DNS walk-through for SPF, DKIM (automatic 2048-bit key rotation every six months via CNAME records) and DMARC, plus catch-all, groups, aliases, unlimited filters and automatic forwarding on both plans; Outlook, Thunderbird and Apple Mail connect through the open-source Proton Mail Bridge over IMAP and SMTP, and storage per user is stated per tier. We found no public information on Exchange ActiveSync or native Outlook (MAPI), DMARC reporting, MTA-STS or DANE, an admin-reviewable quarantine, delegated send-as, plus addressing, or send and attachment limits — a protocol gap that would bite an administration whose staff live in Outlook. 14 15 10 2 23

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Calendar, contacts & office apps

How this is scored

What the office plans and writes with: shared and team calendars, free/busy lookup, meeting invitations across providers, room and resource booking, shared address books and a company directory, CalDAV and CardDAV or ActiveSync for phones, Outlook calendar sync, tasks, online office documents with co-editing, file storage that comes with the suite, video meetings and chat inside the bundle, and the desktop and mobile apps.

0 — Mail only, with no calendar or contacts of any kind.

3 — A personal calendar and address book in the webmail; sharing, resources, sync protocols and office apps are basic or not described.

5 — Shared calendars and address books, meeting invitations with free/busy lookup, CalDAV and CardDAV or ActiveSync sync to phones and desktop clients, a company-wide address book, tasks, and either online office documents or a documented integration with an office suite.

8 — Room and resource booking with approval, delegated calendar access, Outlook calendar and contacts sync documented, co-editing of documents and spreadsheets in the browser, file storage with sharing, video meetings in the bundle, and apps for desktop, iOS and Android.

10 — A full office suite that replaces Microsoft 365 for a whole organisation: every function above with Microsoft file formats edited without loss, scheduling across organisations, resource planning, offline editing, an accessible interface stated against a standard, and feature parity across web, desktop and mobile documented.

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The Public Sector IT Lead

The bundle is genuinely broad: shared calendars with a colleague-availability view, 25 calendars per user, invitations handled from the inbox, subscription to external calendars, encrypted Docs and Sheets with real-time co-editing even for outsiders without an account, Drive with password-protected expiring links, Meet with recording at 100 or 250 participants, offline file sync, and apps for web, desktop and mobile. We found no public information on CalDAV or CardDAV sync to phones and desktop clients, Outlook calendar sync, room and resource booking with approval, delegated calendar access, tasks, or a company-wide directory and address book — the calendar interoperability a district office runs on. Loss-free editing of Microsoft file formats is also not described, which matters for a Microsoft exit. 2 16 4 10 1

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Security, encryption & compliance archiving

How this is scored

How mail and documents are protected and kept: TLS enforced in transit, encryption at rest, end-to-end encryption or S/MIME and PGP, who at the provider can read a mailbox, two-factor authentication and passkeys, phishing, malware and account-takeover protection, audit-proof archiving that meets GoBD, retention policies and legal hold, eDiscovery, backups and restore of deleted mail, a transparency report on authority requests, and certifications (ISO 27001, BSI C5, SOC 2) with their scope.

0 — No security information of any kind; no encryption, two-factor sign-in or archiving stated.

3 — Encrypted connections and a password login; encryption at rest, two-factor sign-in, archiving and certifications are basic or not described.

5 — TLS in transit and encryption at rest stated, two-factor authentication, spam, phishing and malware protection, restore of deleted mail for a stated period, archiving offered (built in or as an add-on), and a certification such as ISO 27001 stated for the data centres or the service.

8 — End-to-end encryption, S/MIME or PGP supported, GoBD-compliant archiving documented, retention policies and legal hold, enforced two-factor or passkeys for all users, a transparency report on authority requests, and certifications such as ISO 27001 or BSI C5 published with their scope and auditor.

10 — Security that holds up in an audit of a regulated organisation: zero-access or customer-held keys where the provider cannot read mail, eDiscovery, tamper-proof archive with documented verification, every certification published with its report or attestation available, independent security audits or open-source code reviewed, and incident disclosure documented.

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The Public Sector IT Lead

End-to-end encryption with zero access to mail, calendar, files and documents, PGP working inside Outlook, Apple Mail and Thunderbird, enforced two-factor, Proton Sentinel account protection, open-source apps under independent audit, ISO 27001 (auditor type and ANAB accreditation named) and SOC 2 Type II published, and a transparency page stating only binding requests from Swiss authorities are honoured. Organization-wide retention rules with per-team configuration exist and are permission-gated. We found no public information on GoBD-compliant archiving, legal hold, eDiscovery, restore of deleted mail, or BSI C5 — the audit-proof archive a German administration is legally required to run is not documented, which for me is a blocker to check before any signature. 6 7 8 18 21 2

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Administration, identity & partner management

How this is scored

How an IT team or an IT service provider runs it: an admin console for users, groups, mailboxes and domains, admin roles, single sign-on (SAML or OpenID Connect), sync with Active Directory, Entra ID or LDAP, SCIM provisioning, mobile device policies and remote wipe, audit logs of admin and user actions, usage reports, a documented API for provisioning, multi-tenant or reseller accounts for partners managing several customers, and the support channels and response times per plan.

0 — No administration; one login per mailbox and nothing managed centrally.

3 — A web console to add mailboxes and aliases; roles, single sign-on, directory sync and audit logs are basic or not described.

5 — An admin console for users, groups, mailboxes and domains, admin roles, two-factor sign-in enforceable by the admin, password policies, a documented API or command line for provisioning, an activity or audit log, and business support by phone or ticket stated per plan.

8 — Single sign-on (SAML or OpenID Connect), Active Directory, Entra ID or LDAP sync, SCIM provisioning, mobile device policies with remote wipe, audit logs exportable, delegated administration, partner or reseller accounts that manage several customer organisations, and support response times stated.

10 — Administration that scales across many organisations: every setting reachable by API with parity stated, granular role scopes, policies by group, logs streamed to a SIEM, white-label partner offerings with separate billing, and an SLA with service credits published.

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The Public Sector IT Lead

SAML single sign-on with Okta and Microsoft Entra ID, a documented SCIM 2.0 provisioning API with operations, error codes and Bearer-token setup, three admin roles with a published permission matrix reaching down to SAML, SCIM, gateways, retention and billing, an activity monitor with export, phone support from six users, and a 99.95% uptime SLA with 10% and 30% service credits published. We found no public information on mobile device policies with remote wipe, partner or reseller accounts managing several customers, usage reports, or audit log streaming to a SIEM. For eleven hundred endpoints, absence of documented device management is the gap I would press hardest on. 20 21 6 11 5

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Migration, open standards & exit

How this is scored

How the organisation gets in and out: migration from Exchange, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or another IMAP provider with a documented tool or service, mail, calendars and contacts carried over, coexistence during a move, standard protocols (IMAP, CalDAV, CardDAV, JMAP, open document formats) rather than proprietary ones, export of a mailbox and of the whole organisation in standard formats (mbox, EML, PST, ICS, vCard), open-source code or a self-hosted edition, what happens to data when the contract ends, and how domains and DNS are handed back.

0 — No way to bring mail in or take it out; a proprietary store with no IMAP access or export.

3 — IMAP access to mail; a migration path, calendar and contacts export and the end-of-contract handling are basic or not described.

5 — A documented migration from Exchange, Microsoft 365 or Google (a tool, an import or a service), mail, calendars and contacts imported, IMAP, CalDAV and CardDAV or ActiveSync access, export of mail, calendars and contacts in standard formats, and the deletion of data after the contract ends stated.

8 — A migration service or tool that moves whole organisations with calendars and permissions, coexistence with free/busy during the move, open document formats supported natively, export of the whole organisation by the admin, an open-source code base or a self-hosted edition, and a data return period after cancellation stated.

10 — An exit that costs nothing but time: every record exportable in open formats with the method documented, a self-hosted open-source edition with feature parity stated, migration in and out documented with the same tools, and a contractual data return and deletion with confirmation.

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The Public Sector IT Lead

The way in is documented — Easy Switch for mail and contacts from a supported provider or IMAP, calendar import, recommended batches of 100 to 500 messages, and free guided live migration support — and so is the way out: EML and MBOX export via the open-source Bridge and Thunderbird, a command-line export tool for all mail as EML with JSON metadata on Windows, macOS and Linux, deletion of company personal data on cessation of service in the data processing agreement, and all apps open source with public repositories. We found no public information on CalDAV or CardDAV access, export of the whole organisation by an admin, coexistence with free/busy during a move, native open document formats, a self-hosted edition, or a stated data-return period after cancellation. MBOX files also cannot be imported directly and must detour through Thunderbird local folders — workable, but a project for a thousand mailboxes needs to plan for it. 22 23 13 6 1 16

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where mailboxes, calendars, contacts, documents and backups are stored and processed, who at the provider or its subprocessors can access them, and who the subprocessors are (data centres, spam filtering, support, payment, AI features). Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline. An EU data region offered by a non-EU parent is part of the chain, not the whole of it. A self-hosted or open-source edition the customer runs on its own European servers counts as the customer's chain, whatever the vendor's seat.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, subprocessors unnamed, and no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement exist, but hosting location is unstated or non-EU and the subprocessors are not listed.

5 — EU hosting available and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, but parts of the chain (spam filtering, support, backups, AI features) run through non-EU providers or a non-EU parent without a stated safeguard.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessors listed with their locations, a data processing agreement published, and security certifications (ISO 27001, BSI C5) stated — or a self-hosted edition documented that keeps every mailbox on the customer's own servers.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor, or a self-hosted open-source edition with no call home, data export and deletion documented, and certifications published with their scope rather than implied.

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The Public Sector IT Lead

Proton AG in Plan-les-Ouates under the non-profit Proton Foundation, Swiss governing law with Geneva courts, data centres exclusively in Europe, an EU representative (Proton Europe sàrl in Luxembourg), a published data processing agreement restricting transfers to Switzerland, the EU and adequacy countries with standard contractual clauses as fallback, ISO 27001 stated, and a named subprocessor list with locations and safeguards. The entity is Swiss rather than EU, the hosting infrastructure itself is not named, and support and payment run through processors in the United States (Zendesk, Atlassian, Stripe, Chargebee, PayPal) and North Macedonia and Taiwan. That no foreign authority request is binding without Swiss backing answers my ownership question better than most EU entities — but the chain is transparent rather than purely European, so it sits between the levels. 11 5 12 13 18 6

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Pricing transparency

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: price per user or mailbox per tier, storage per user, what shared mailboxes, aliases and extra domains cost, which features (archiving, office apps, SSO, advanced security, more storage) cost extra, the first-year discount and the regular price after it, minimum users and term, monthly versus annual billing, and VAT.

0 — No public prices at all; every customer is a sales call.

3 — A starting price per user exists, but how cost scales with storage, users, add-ons or after the first year is unclear.

5 — Tiers are public with their price per user and main inclusions, but at least one commonly needed piece (archiving, extra storage, shared mailboxes, SSO, the price after the introductory period) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every tier priced publicly per user with storage, add-ons priced, the regular price after any introductory discount stated, minimum users and term stated, monthly and annual billing compared, and VAT treatment stated.

10 — Complete price computability: annual cost derivable for a given number of users, storage and add-ons, with every support, migration and archive fee and the cancellation and data-return terms published.

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The Public Sector IT Lead

Both workspace tiers are public with per-user price, storage, domain count and annual total — Workspace Standard at €12.99 per user per month billed €155.88 every 12 months with 1 TB, Premium at €19.99 billed €239.88 with 3 TB — monthly and yearly prices compared (€14.99 and €24.99 monthly), VAT treatment for business reverse charge and VAT-ID validation explained, a 30-day money-back guarantee and a 14-day trial stated. The Proton Scribe add-on price, minimum users and contract term are not stated, and Enterprise is a custom quote. I can compute an annual seat cost from public pages alone, but not the full cost with add-ons and terms. 1 10 11 4

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about Proton for Business

Is Proton for Business European?

Yes, though not from the EU. whats-best.ai classifies Proton for Business as UK / wider Europe.

Where does Proton for Business store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026.

Does Proton for Business have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Proton for Business?

As of 6 Nov 2026, the panel rates grommunio (3.5/5), Infomaniak kSuite (3.5/5) and Nextcloud Hub (Groupware & Office) (3.5/5) highest among the other 14 Business Email & Office Suites products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is grommunio (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Proton for Business alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

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Sources (23)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage (business) proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Features page (mail) proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Features page (calendar) proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Features page (drive and documents) proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Features page (Microsoft 365 comparison) proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Security / trust page proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Security / trust page (ISO 27001) proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  8. 8 GDPR page proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Documentation (business help) proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Pricing page proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  11. 11 Terms of service (names the operating company) proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  12. 12 Privacy policy proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  13. 13 Data processing agreement (dpa) proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  14. 14 Mail, domains & deliverability — found from sitemap proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  15. 15 Mail, domains & deliverability — found from sitemap proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  16. 16 Calendar, contacts & office apps — found from sitemap proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  17. 17 Calendar, contacts & office apps — found from sitemap proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  18. 18 Security, encryption & compliance archiving — found from sitemap proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  19. 19 Security, encryption & compliance archiving — found from sitemap proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  20. 20 Administration, identity & partner management — found from sitemap proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  21. 21 Administration, identity & partner management — found from sitemap proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  22. 22 Migration, open standards & exit — found from sitemap proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  23. 23 Migration, open standards & exit — found from sitemap proton.me Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →