Hello, I just wanted to share my story regarding having a domain with Njalla using ProtonMail/SimpleLogin’s services.
TLDR (full story below): You may not be able to send emails from your domain with ProtonMail/SimpleLogin if your domain is registered with Njalla (or any other “privacy-friendly” domain registrar).
Full-story:
I had a domain with Njalla (njal.la) for a couple of years, and at the same time, I was using this domain with ProtonMail (to send emails from my domain) and SimpleLogin (catch-all aliases with my domain). I never had any issues during the last few years until recently:
- A few months ago, beginning of 2025, I suddenly wasn’t able to send emails from my domains/aliases: They were rejected (“Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender”) because I was listed on Spamhaus (a service which lists domain reputation, check.spamhaus.org). I contacted Proton’s support, and they advised me to reach out Spamhaus directly to resolve this issue. I was able to request a delisting of my domain “automatically” (through a form), and a few days later, my domain had been “automatically” delisted and I was thus able to send emails again.
- A month ago, my domain has suddenly been re-listed on spamhaus, again. This time, I wasn’t prompted with the automatic delisting form like the first time. I had to contact through a form Spamhaus and I had to write a small text requesting to be delisted and explaining to them how I was not using my domain for spamming/scaming/bulk email sending/etc… This time, spamhaus refused to delist my domain because my domain was considered as an Internet neighbourhood with “poor reputation” that has shared (or inevitably will share) its negative reputation. (…) The domain is not eligible for removal while being associated with this neighbourhood. We recommend moving your domain to a hosting network with good reputation.. I was talking with Njalla’s support and ProtonMail’s support at the same time, and they basically both told me that there is nothing they could do. I was basically forced to transfer my domain to a new domain hoster provider. And not any other domain hoster, but one with a “good” reputation (when I asked if transfering to 1984 (https://1984.hosting/), a privacy-friendly domain provider, Spamhaus discouraged me to do so.
To sum it up, by having your domain with any privacy-friendly service (like Njalla, 1984, …), there is a chance that your domain will be listed on Spamhaus, preventing you from using your domain with ProtonMail/SimpleLogin.
I find it ironic from Proton, as they even encourage using Njalla/1984 in one of their blog article: https://proton.me/blog/professional-domain-and-email. At the end, I’m a bit pissed by Spamhaus’s behaviour and also ProtonMail for using such services.
Here are screenshots of my discussions with ProtonMail, Njalla and Spamhaus support if anyone is interested enough in reading the whole discussions: https://postimg.cc/gallery/phgVK4M
Just wanted to share my story to help other people know about this issue and the issues they might encounter with ProtonMail based on their DNS provider choice.
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Yeah these companies are notoriously hard to deal with. A lot of the time they’re also volunteer run. To be fair these are companies that deal with Spam providers every day bitching at them about how they can’t blast people with mail but they are less than friendly when you have to engage with them even from a professional standpoint. Even if you work with the company that has a large reputation and good professional behavior. These companies do not care.
A CTO I worked for accidentally said something that insulted one of these guys by implying that we “accidentally” got on the spam list. They responded by leaving us on the spam list for the entirety of the refresh period ( these lists will automatically refresh themselves to see if you’re still breaking their policies every so often). Turns out depending on the block list you can get locked out of services like LinkedIn so we lost access to our LinkedIn for like 14 days while we waited for the refresh period to run out.
In hindsight it’s pretty funny to be explained to the CTO that we accidentally insulted some dude in the Netherlands and now he’s punishing Us by making us stay on a block list
Yeah I find their behavior very unprofessional.
Talking with them was not pleasant from my point of view: I either got unclear/vague answers or automatic copy-pasta from them.
Well like I said a lot of the time it’s run by volunteers. Think like Reddit moderators and then their behavior makes a certain amount of sense. Not saying that is good but these companies typically open source volunteer driven companies and so sometimes Professional Standards are just not there.
Sucks but I don’t see anybody else trying to run a Spamhause you know what I mean
Is your SPF and DMARC set up properly
Yep, for a while. And I know that they have been set up properly because both ProtonMail and SimpleLogin allow to check if all’s set up properly.
What do they mean by “neighborhood”? The domain? Or the top level .LA?
Is your email something like [email protected]?
Seems harsh, but it’s hard to unblock a subdomain while blocking the rest of a domain.
They mean the domain (the dns provider of my domain).
My email is not a subdomain of nja.la. It’s @something.net.