Survey Shows Gmail Users Would Gladly Sacrifice Features For More Privacy

Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority

Privacy seems to become a bigger deal every year as an increasing number of people aren’t cool with their data becoming a commodity. Proton Mail purports to offer more privacy than Gmail — unlike Google, even the Proton team can’t take a look at your inbox. As such, privacy-conscious users should want to flock to Proton Mail, right? We were interested in finding out, so we polled our readers.

For Android Authority‘s Calvin Wankhede, it wasn’t that simple. He tried switching from Gmail to Proton Mail for better privacy but found the trade-offs too frustrating. Proton’s end-to-end encryption only works if both parties use it, which is still relatively uncommon. The Android app also lacks standard features like formatting and swipe navigation. With just 1GB of free storage and key features locked behind a paywall, Calvin decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. He’s now back to using Gmail.

Calvin included our poll in his article, so let’s find out if you agreed with him.

The chart above suggests that you’d be more accepting of the trade-offs than Calvin. Around 73% of you said you would use Proton Mail instead of Gmail, with more than half of those people saying that they’d even pay for it. Less than 27% of you said you were happy with Gmail.

One really interesting thing about these results is that when one of our team members offers their opinion on a product or service and then adds a poll, our readers rarely disagree in the overall response. It shows what a hot-button issue privacy is in 2025, and Google might want to take note.

Google might want to take note.

For complete context, we also included the poll in a more neutral article on the issue. However, in Calvin’s piece, several people pushed back in the comments section. One recurring theme was frustration with what readers saw as a misunderstanding of end-to-end encryption. Barry pointed out, “You complain that both parties need Proton… then say [you use] Signal or WhatsApp,” which also requires both parties to use the same app for encryption.

In Calvin’s defense, a significant difference is that you can’t send a Signal or WhatsApp message to another messaging service, so you know anything you send is to someone with the same encryption protocols. That’s not the case with email.

Other commenters highlighted practical reasons for sticking with Proton. One user said their $3.99/month Proton bundle over 30 months secured them for email, VPN, and cloud storage, which they felt was a “pretty competitive price.” Another described the Proton suite as a smart business investment, especially when consolidating multiple privacy services into one subscription. Still, a few agreed with the article’s conclusions, citing similar frustrations or limited use cases for encrypted email.