My grievances with Proton

Thanks for the great response. I accept the term “subscription lock-in” over “vendor lock-in” since that is more precise. You bring to attention that most of the paid plan features, like amount of labels/folders/filter, IMAP/SMTP, custom domain, cost nothing on top of the free plan. It’s true, and in my perspective, losing access to those things tends to be a minor inconvenience best. You can make-do without labels, filters, IMAP, or even redirect your custom domain to another provider. But losing access to a Proton alias is catastrophic. Take my case for example. I have established long-term use of my aliases, some of which are critical to my personal matters. I have government accounts, contact forms, all submitted with reply directions pointing to these aliases. I couldn’t possibly notify them all of a change in address in a timely manner that is guaranteed to maintain a stable communications channel with them, and I would end up missing critical correspondence because my aliases would have been disabled. In hindsight, building my online identity with Proton aliases was a huge mistake. Because now I’m locked into their subscription, and the cost of unsubscribing is too much to bear. This is exactly why I have a grievance with Proton, because this alias treatment is commercially unnecessary and somewhat cruel.