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I have been a ProtonMail user for a long time but have yet to make it my default email provider. The main problem is that I keep an email archive of all my emails: all sent and most received since 1995. It is 17Gb. I've imported it into Gmail, and it is instantly searchable. With ProtonMail, such a search must happen on the client-side due to encryption. I suspect it will not work very well.

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The searching encrypted content problem goes away once you build an MS Outlook-ish standalone desktop (or otherwise offline-first, in the case of mobile) email client app which builds local-only indexes.

The real cost (or long-term benefit) is you'll need a bit more local storage to have your cake and eat it privately.

“have your cake and eat it privately” has now permanently entered my lexicon, thank you.

The most private option is to delete (most of) that email. Then no one has it and your secrets are safe forever.

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