I know that opinions of Proton are split due to the company and CEO’s previous behaviour, but this post is purely about the products themselves. These are just my thoughts, which not everyone will agree with.

Appearance

It may just be because I have been using Proton longer, or it may just be my own personal taste, but when you access mail via the website, I find Proton’s nicer to look at.

Apps

Fastmail has a lot more options to choose from when it comes to how you want the layout to look in the app, but both seem easy to use.

Pricing

Free trial

Fastmail and Proton Mail both offer a 30-day free trial.

Fastmail’s free trial is easy to sign up for, which is great. However, from my experience, at least a few of the settings I tested out on Fastmail were not available during the free trial, meaning I would have to sign up for a paid subscription to test them.

Proton Mail’s free trial is a little harder to get, but you only really need it if you want to try Mail Plus, as basic accounts are free. You can only get a free 30-day trial of Proton Mail Plus if you know someone who already uses it.

Plans

Fastmail starts out at £2.70* a month for a basic plan, all the way up to £12.60* a month for the Family plan. You can choose between Basic, Individual, Duo and Family. The plans get cheaper if you pay in advance, and with Fastmail, you can choose between paying per month, per year, every 2 years or every 3 years.

Proton Mail starts with a free account, something which Fastmail do not offer. The paid plans then start at £4.09* a month for an individual plan, up to £24.49 a month for Proton Family. Proton Unlimited gives you all of its services (Mail, Calendar, VPN, Drive, Pass and Wallet) in one. You can choose between Free, Plus, Unlimited, Duo and Family. As with Fastmail, the plans get cheaper if you pay in advance, and you can choose between a month or a year. I do know, though, that with my Unlimited plan, I can pay for 2 years. They also often seem to do discounts so keep an eye out for them.

They both also offer business plans, but for this post, I am only looking at them for an individual.

Usability

Fastmail has a Notes feature, which seems a little basic, but it is nice if you just want to make quick notes, as it is built in and does not require a separate app. This is not an issue for me as I already use a separate app called Notesnook for my notes, as I did not like the one linked with Proton (that may be another post for another day!).

I have been told by someone that had a paid Fastmail subscription that you get 60GB storage. You can pay for more, but it is expensive.

With Proton Mail, the amount of storage you get depends on which plan you choose and starts from 1GB and goes up to 3TB if you choose the Family plan. If you are on a paid plan, they will give you a storage bonus (my last one was 10GB)

Pros and Cons

Fastmail

Pros

• 30-day trial
• Add up to 100 domains
• Cheaper

Cons

• Only email, contacts, files and calendar features
• The 30-day trial is very limited
• No free plan

Proton

Pros

• More features for your money
• Free basic account
• Looks nicer

Cons

• Limited to 3 accounts unless on a business plan, which allows up to 15
• A bit more expensive

* Prices are correct as of 01/09/25.

If there’s ever something that you would like to see me write about (gadgets, etc), then please feel free to contact me. I cannot guarantee I will be able to write about it due to my limited budget and my disability, but I will do my best.

I’m still getting used to trying to do these reviews but I will do my best to help you even a little.

Lately I have been using Crowdfire and Hello Woofy to post on my various Facebook pages and Twitter accounts but they both have their pros and cons.

Things to consider

Here is the various things I have reviewed and consider important.

Web Version

Hello Woofy is fairly easy to use now I have learnt how to add a single post but it is not as straight forward as doing it with Crowdfire. Crowdfire currently has a red Compose button in the top right corner onec you have logged in whereas Hello Woofy has a blue COMPOSE SINGLE TEXT button in the middle near the top.

The composers are very different too. Hello Woofy has a very thorough composer with seperate sections to add your text, any urls, hashtags, emojis, actions, videos and photos.

Hello Woofy’s composer

Crowdfire on the other hand have kept it simple and yet still gives you acesss to photos, locations, hashtags, GIFs and emojis. It has the bonus of adding a location (which Hello Woofy does not see to have) and makes it a lot easier to add GIFs, although they do not seem to work on every platform.

Crowdfire’s composer

Based on what I have said above I think Crowdfire wins in terms of usability with their web version.

App

Hello Woofy’s app feels very similar in terms of layout to the web version and still makes it harder to add GIFs.

When you open the Crowdfire app the Compose button is in the middle at the bottom. The layout is almost identical to the web version so the consistency makes it just as easy to use. They have however removed the GIF button on the app which is a drawback and makes it more like Hello Woofy’s.

I would still say Crowdfire’s app is easier to use but it is very close.

Cost

As I managed to get early access to Hello Woofy I have locked my Pro price in for lifetime at $69 a year and for that I get to connect 25 accounts. My Crowfire Plus account only allows me 5 for $89.76.

In terms of cost Hello Woofy wins hands down for value for money but Crowdfire still holds too many pros for me to ditch it completely at the moment.

Overall Opinion

If cost is an issue consider Hello Woofy but if cost is not an issue or you do not have many accounts I would say go for Crowdfire for now at least. I guess you get what you pay for. You may find in time Hello Woofy will change things and be easier to use.