ExpressVPN vs Proton Mail

ExpressVPN and Proton Mail both appear on the Smoower Developer Ecosystem Index.

Proton Mail (rank #401) holds a narrow lead over ExpressVPN (rank #569) on the overall Smoower ecosystem score (41 vs 35). The gap of 6 points reflects composite signals across code, docs, community and reach.

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

ExpressVPN carries 1,250 GitHub stars across 12 public repos, with 3 repositories active in the last 90 days and 7 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. The star gap on its own does not decide the comparison, but Proton Mail's footprint is roughly 13.0x larger, which usually shows up in downstream signals like inbound issues and third party integrations.

ExpressVPN is the stronger read for anyone weighting education. Proton Mail looks better where momentum is the deciding factor. The table below breaks the scores down pillar by pillar; the linked profiles cover the underlying repos, docs and community signals in full.