Element vs Proton Mail

Element (Founded by the creators of Matrix, we build digitally sovereign, secure and interoperable real-time communication solutions for large organisations.) and Proton Mail both appear on the Smoower Developer Ecosystem Index.

Element (rank #190) holds a modest lead over Proton Mail (rank #401) on the overall Smoower ecosystem score (50 vs 41). The gap of 9 points reflects composite signals across code, docs, community and reach.

On code quality (the state of repositories, tests, releases and polish), Element is ahead of Proton Mail. On education (docs, guides and learning material for developers), Element is ahead of Proton Mail. On community (issue response, PR reviews and discussion health), Element is slightly ahead of Proton Mail. On reach (how visible the ecosystem is beyond its own repos), Element is slightly ahead of Proton Mail. On momentum (release cadence and how fast the ecosystem moves), Element is slightly ahead of Proton Mail.

Element carries 34,608 GitHub stars across 137 public repos, with 33 repositories active in the last 90 days and 97 external contributors on record. Proton Mail shows 16,265 stars across 186 public repos, 19 active in the last 90 days and 20 external contributors.

Element is the stronger read for anyone weighting education. Proton Mail makes more sense for teams already using its adjacent tools. The table below breaks the scores down pillar by pillar; the linked profiles cover the underlying repos, docs and community signals in full.