How are protestants different?

Answer 1

Essentially, there is no difference because the non-denominational churches are also Protestant. There will be differences in that way they are governed and in some doctrinal areas, but that is also true between protestant churches and between non-denominational churches.

Answer 2

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Catholic AnswerProtestants are different in that they are the descendants of those who separated themselves from the Church that Our Blessed Lord founded to save all people and guaranteed would be the one, infallible Church that was His Mystical Body, until the end of the world. Personally, each individual raised in the protestant tradition may be considered Christian if they are validly baptized and believe in the Nicene Creed in its traditional interpretation, thus an invisible member of the Catholic Church, they remain formal heretics, if not material (they, themselves did not separate from Christ's Church, they were raised outside of it.) They are different in that they do not have access to the sacraments necessary for salvation, and have been raised with a set up prejudices against the Church of Christ (the Catholic Church) making their evangelization very difficult.

Protestant

from

A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957

An adherent of any one of the religious bodies detached from the Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation or of any sect deriving from them; one who professes the doctrines of those reformers. The name was first applied to and accepted by those Lutherans who protested against the decree of the second Diet of Speyer (1529) which ordained that in those states where the new religion had got a hold Catholic doctrine should not be attacked nor the celebration of Mass interfered with, pending the decisions of a council of the Empire.

Its use afterwards spread to all reformers and is now generally interpreted as a "protest against the errors of the Church of Rome." It is a gross and misleading mistake to apply the name to members of the dissident Eastern churches, or to "after-Christians" who repudiate Protestantism equally or (nearly equally) with Catholicism.

"After-Christian."

An inhabitant of Christendom and a descendant of Christian ancestors who, implicitly or explicitly, repudiates Christianity as a revealed religion. The term is specially used of such people in England and the United States where much contemporary educated public opinion regards religion in a merely humanitarian and pragmatic way.