Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Are Protonmail.com Addresses Snubbed?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 53 posts

Ask HN: Are Protonmail.com Addresses Snubbed?

#1

Post by tunap »

I've sent emails to ~ 30 entities since July, and the only 3 respondents were: a 'test' reply from a friend, one business & one .gov.

I setup a PM mail for job applications & the local/name is not offensive or inappropriate. I am sending to businesses & agents with posted job openings, so, it's not unsolicited. I expected a high number of no responses, but > 90% is much higher than I expected(before the latest layoffs trend, anyway).

Is such an address likely to go straight to spam or is there a general dislike for Proton Mail I am not aware of? I understand 'free' emails are often abused by bad actors, but I presumed that Proton Mail would be less maligned than most. Is this an incorrect assumption?

Re: Ask HN: Are Protonmail.com Addresses Snubbed?

#2

Post by runnerup »

> I presumed that Proton Mail would be less maligned than most. Is this an incorrect assumption?

Proton Mail seems to be less blackballed than most. But still has massive deliverability issues. If you want reliable delivery, you really have to stick with Microsoft, Google, AWS SES, or mayyyyybe FastMail.

I hate this situation.

Re: Ask HN: Are Protonmail.com Addresses Snubbed?

#3

Post by tunap »

runnerup wrote: post #2

> I presumed that Proton Mail would be less maligned than most. Is this an incorrect assumption? Proton Mail seems to be less blackballed than most. But still has massive deliverability issues. If you want reliable delivery, you really have to stick with Microsoft, Google, AWS SES, or mayyyyybe FastMail. I hate this situation.

Thanks. I tried FastMail a few years back. I had delayed mail problems. Reached out to them. Their email, informing everything looked good on their end, had a 4 hour delay in the header. Heh.

Re: Ask HN: Are Protonmail.com Addresses Snubbed?

#4

Post by KomoD »

runnerup wrote: post #2

> I presumed that Proton Mail would be less maligned than most. Is this an incorrect assumption? Proton Mail seems to be less blackballed than most. But still has massive deliverability issues. If you want reliable delivery, you really have to stick with Microsoft, Google, AWS SES, or mayyyyybe FastMail. I hate this situation.

For those who care: FastMail servers are located in the US

Re: Ask HN: Are Protonmail.com Addresses Snubbed?

#5

Post by devmunchies »

runnerup wrote: post #2

> I presumed that Proton Mail would be less maligned than most. Is this an incorrect assumption? Proton Mail seems to be less blackballed than most. But still has massive deliverability issues. If you want reliable delivery, you really have to stick with Microsoft, Google, AWS SES, or mayyyyybe FastMail. I hate this situation.

> you really have to stick with Microsoft, Google, AWS SES, or mayyyyybe FastMail

The left-field approach would be to build your own client on top of an email API like mailgun or sendgrid (excluding the free tiers). But those are expensive for a personal use-case.

Re: Ask HN: Are Protonmail.com Addresses Snubbed?

#7

Post by Mistletoe »

I wanted to use Proton Mail and was very excited and made a fresh new account. Sent a test email to my old gmail and it went to spam immediately. That told me how feasible this was to use as my primary email.

Google has a stranglehold on what it considers "valid" and I don't know how we use other providers as long as they have it.

Re: Ask HN: Are Protonmail.com Addresses Snubbed?

#8

Post by sabellito »

runnerup wrote: post #2

> I presumed that Proton Mail would be less maligned than most. Is this an incorrect assumption? Proton Mail seems to be less blackballed than most. But still has massive deliverability issues. If you want reliable delivery, you really have to stick with Microsoft, Google, AWS SES, or mayyyyybe FastMail. I hate this situation.

Do you have any data on "massive deliverability issues"? I'm a customer and knowing this would of course be very relevant to me.

Re: Ask HN: Are Protonmail.com Addresses Snubbed?

#9

Post by dontbenebby »

Have you previously interacted w these folks?

A user might mark you as spam in their client if they perceive you as engaging in unwanted marketing especially if they’re unclear where you got their email.

And proton was one of two preferred clients the hurtcore folks liked back when I was learning about OSINT + favored by a few other really rude sets of people so it’s absolutely possible especially if you have one of the newer non dot ch addresses.

Do you have a trusted friend you can try emailing to test?

What exactly are you emailing about?

Re: Ask HN: Are Protonmail.com Addresses Snubbed?

#10

Post by mark700 »

have you tried the protonmail provided @pm.me extension? This has worked for me for getting past spam filters. the @protonmail.com extension almost always gets forwarded to spam. if you dig around in the settings of your email, you should find this option under Account Settings -> Addresses -> Default. i can't recall, but it may be part of the paid version of protonmail.
Post reply on HN