I’m getting ready to move off of Google (and Private Internet Access), and Proton is looking like the best option. But I’m nervous. Some of the things I worry about:
- Calendar support: I rely really heavily on Google Calendar. How will I share events with others? And what will I do without Google Tasks?
- VPN App Quality: Seeing some mixed reviews on Proton VPN Android app.
- Proton ethics & politics: Look, I really don’t want to open up the holy war here. My big stipulation is: I don’t want my money to go to a company that will donate its money or services to fascists. To my knowledge, Proton does not do that. I know they made a post that seemed to praise GOP antitrust efforts. I do not believe that that is the same thing as lending material support for fascists. (And, as someone who is very well read-in on antitrust issues, I’ll say that – for a lot of complicated reasons – there is some truth to Proton’s post, but I wish they had framed it as a critique of the corporate wing of the Democratic party and not praise of the GOP.)
- Anything else I haven’t thought to ask.
So, folks who have made the switch: What do you wish you had known? What do you wish you had done to make the move easier?
Thank you for your advice.
Went from google to proton, proton to tuta after the fascist supporting comments of the proton CEO. I wish I hadn’t gotten involved with proton. There are better options for everything proton does and it’s not a good idea to be tied to the same company for everything.
Proton works fine for me. Email client works as you’d expect in iOS and the webmail is the same as any other. I don’t use the calendar though so can’t comment there. I DO use the vpn heavily. I don’t understand the issues people have with it because it’s always been good for me. I use it on my phone and multiple computers - even Linux (the unofficial flatpak also works well).
The thing I wish I realized earlier (keep in mind that I started using it like 10 years ago) is that it’s impossible to degoogle your life. Yay I use proton - but everyone else still uses Gmail so google gets it all anyway. Not everything, but you get the idea.
Tbh i just don’t send email. All i use it for is accounts that don’t let you use a username, receiving shipping information, and sales ads for things I’m actually interested in.
Only time I might actually need to send and reapond to emails is if I’m job hunting.
Wow really? I’m fascinated :)
Generational thing maybe? I still communicate with doctors, family members, and like support for orders/inquiries via email. Not all the time, a lot with text too. But it’s still like 50/50 email / text.
Texting and chats are my preferred form of contact i guess; haven’t really been to a doctor in stares into the distance
Aaaanyway, yeah i suppose I do use it for support. I use my work email plenty, its just for personal email i dont really “use” like that.
Id say I’m amongst the oldest gen-Z or youngest millennials?
I went from Google to Proton and then switched out for another provider. No offline mode/IMAP support allowing me to use an email client on my phone was bothersome as I need to monitor multiple inboxes. Email was fine but sluggish (in part due to decryption so partially understandable I guess). Still use the VPN which I think is their most mature product. Drive is basic but I didn’t need much more.
I was willing to put up with the annoyances when I really believed in what they were doing. But after the GOP comments, the crypto/AI stuff, and leaving Mastodon it just all became a bit much. I like that they are nonprofit, FOSS, and independently audited of course, but their messaging/priorities have been mixed to say the least. Wouldn’t blame someone for staying, wouldn’t blame them for leaving at this point.
Get a custom domain so that your new email address isn’t tied to Proton. If Proton goes to shit it will be much easier to just take mail@mulcahey.com with you to your new email provider. I wish I had done this with Gmail so that it would’ve been easier to move to Proton.
Oof. Didn’t know that was the case. That’s rough.
100% this! Proton pass is convenient, but their email forwarding locks you into their ecosystem, and they limit your aliasing for your own custom domain. I started using it, and its nice, but I wish I knew about annonaddy before. I’d prefer making aliases using a custom domain so if i have to respond with a forwarded alias I can manage a way to reply from it, plus if I ever decide to leave proton, its not a road block. Sure you can usually change email addresses on sites, but may end up being a ton of work depending how many aliases you have, and how annoying the site makes it.
Apparently proton pass has a custom domain function I was unaware of until now. Looks like you have to go into settings > aliases. There is an ‘add custom domain’ button, assuming you need the domain added to your proton account with a catchall address maybe?
For me its not realizing that my email aliases will stop working if I stop paying. Wish I would have just went with simplelogin
It kind of makes sense that a paid service stops working when you stop paying though…
Existing aliases continue to work on Simplelogin. And I wish I would have known that beforehand.
Duckduckgo has 1 alias for each device
Just pay for SimpleLogin no? Proton owns SimpleLogin now.
I purchased SimpleLogin before Proton purchased them. I have my own domain configured with all my aliases which all point to a proton email address which I do not give to anyone.
I purposely created my own domain just so I could be flexible in the future and move to another provider if needed.
To add on, if you have Proton Unlimited, then SimpleLogin is free
If you can only get Service B by paying for Service A, then Service B isn’t really free; it’s just added value.
A nitpick, yes, but I feel it’s an important one.
I guess you’re right. I should’ve said that SimpleLogin Premium is included.
No worries. Like I said, I recognize it’s a nitpick so not a huge deal. I just thought I’d mention it. It doesn’t invalidate your original comment or anything. :)
I feel like the Android client for ProtonMail is really slow. Switching folders is painful.
I also tried sharing calendars with my wife who is still on Gmail and didn’t have great luck there. I decided I’ll just forward invites to events to her, though I haven’t had a chance to test that.
I wanted to test sharing my calendar with my wife (we use Google which is currently how we share) but you have to have a paid account to share your proton calendar. I’m happy to pay but want to make sure it works before I do!
It does. I use Proton (paid) and she uses Google. Guide here
Thanks for the confirmation! I did a search after posting and found that article.
Do you have any downsides to Proton Calendar? So for your wife’s calendar have you added that into Proton and you can add/modify events?
That I don’t know.
I subscribe to hers and she to mine, but we just made them the same color so the one who ads stuff first is the one that stays, if that makes sense.
No downsides for me, really. It does what it’s supposed to do and it’s not Google.
If your still on the fence, then I can test editing both ways tomorow. Just let me know. Had a busy day today.
We have different colours to help differentiate. For example if I have a dentist appointment I know it’s mine as it’s in my colour.
In regards to modifying each other’s calendar. If she has a car service booked in but then needs me to move it, I have the ability to modify her calendar to move it to another date.
I’d like to retain the same ability.
Not sure about the Mail app, but the Calendar app was definitely slow, though I believe that’s because it didn’t have offline caching and just fetched from the site every time you opened it up. Terrible, lazy design IMO.
Can we for all that is good get more Linux support? there isn’t any proton drive application for Linux. The excuse? Not enough available linux devs.
I dont have the numbers but who does proton think a good chunk of their customer base is or can be? People who use Linux because they value their privacy.
Its mind boggling.
Its 'coming, ’ whatever that means.
Mail search is SO BAD - on EVERY DEVICE I make a database on.
I really wish I’d known that before I moved like 15 years of Gmail (and other accounts) over!
SO BAD. smh.
I’m in the process of switching to Proton too. I just opened the account; haven’t taken additional steps of switching login emails associated with all of my other accounts, yet. I’ll probably start with giving the new account to local grassroots organizations, first.
I’d like to learn more about what people have to say too!
I looked to see if I could get by replacing Photos with Drive in Proton. Whilst I can upload stuff. Videos greater than 100mb need to be downloaded to be watched. I guess because Google process videos to allow them to be streamed. Sadly a deal breaker for me :(
I can’t remember the video info for ente, but you might check that out for photo and video backup.
Yeah. I have a free account I used for testing. I need to give it another go really. I liked it but it is still not a patch on Google Photos in terms of usability for viewing or finding photos.
They’ve added some functionality for findability that might be more useful now!
Might want to look into Immich or PeerTube.
I’ve looked at Immich a few times. I don’t really like self hosting important data as I don’t trust myself to not lose anything!
I can’t vouch for them but there are managed solutions for Immich, e.g. https://elest.io/open-source/immich
For me it is nothing. I don’t use the VPN and I own my domain, so I keep that if I ever change providers. The calendar works fine.
Ethically I have accepted that a comment was made by someone that should not have been shared, but I also accept that there is not a single company in the world where there are zero people with whom I agree 100%. The only difference is they don’t tweet about it. I am only fooling myself if I think changing providers will make any difference. Maybe the CEO of the next provider is a racist wifebeater…
Their service has been excellent, it’s European which I aim to support and their security is heavily scriutinzed as it’s open source. I sleep well giving them money for an great service.
it’s European which I aim to support
Indeed, to be clear it’s in Europe but not in a EU country “Proton services are operated by Proton AG, a Swiss corporation whose primary shareholder is the non-profit Proton Foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland.” but they are still GDPR (data protection law from the EU) compliant, cf https://proton.me/support/is-proton-mail-gdpr-compliant
Yeah I’m Norwegian so only an EEA member as well. I consider Europe as one, regardless of EU membership.
We’re still brothers even though we haven’t joined yet.
Let us keep some control over our coastline to avoid over fishing and I would strugle to find good arguments not to join in the future. We already follow most directives anyways.
Proton bridge is scam - it only pretends that it works. I have been trying to get a support that it doesn’t sync & delete e-mails correctly for 2 years and the only “help” was to clean the cache and wait 2 hours for resyncing…
It’s not a scam. It worked perfectly first try for me back when I tried it out like a year ago.
I used it for 2 years…
Okay. I don’t understand your point. It may be broken. It may suck ass. But it’s certainly not a scam.
On desktop skip the ProtonVPN app and just use the official WireGuard app with the ProtonVPN config files which you can easily download from proton’s website. If you’re on Linux with gnome you don’t even need the wireguard app. You can just use the GUI network manager app to connect with the config files.
Edit: stupid autocorrect
Especially skip the ProtonVPN app if you’re on Linux.
To steal a line from LGR’s video on Redguard, it’s just so B A L L S.
- The Android widget (not app just the widget) does not have a monthly view.
- There is no office suite (I don’t know why this surprised me but it did).
Generally it’s been an overall positive experience.
I only ever used Proton for a few secondary email accounts (compartmentalizing between personal and online) and I started transitioning shortly before they got in the news for statements.
My main problem was that I realized that I couldn’t use email forwarding (or at least without paying for a plan, I forget), and I couldn’t manually handle it with a third-party client without paying for their bridge, so unless I wanted to have to open and log in to an old email address for the rest of my life, I basically had to pay to deprecate an email address or move to another provider without risking any future emails to the protonmail address being lost, and I wasn’t in a position where paying was an option for those addresses. Now I only register single-use throwaways on Protonmail (despite their efforts to detect and stop it).
Now I only register single-use throwaways on Protonmail (despite their efforts to detect and stop it).
That kinda sux. There are plenty of other, more suitable, services for that. I would recommend not wasting this great service for such purposes.
The more suitable ones are often blocked, unfortunately.
