Proton's whole concept is providing secure, private alternatives to common web services, and its cloud storage and file-sharing service Proton Drive is the latest example. Proton is better known for its email service, Proton Mail, which is fully encrypted and has no privacy-invading ads. Its VPN service, Proton VPN, has one of the strongest privacy stances on the market. Proton Drive promises to deliver the same privacy and security that Proton users have come to know in those other products. No one at Proton (the company) can access files you upload to Proton Drive—they're fully encrypted first. That comes at a cost, both in terms of price and upload speeds. Still, if privacy is what you value most, then Proton Drive should be the first service you try. If not, check out Editors' Choice winners IDrive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Google Drive.
How Much Does Proton Drive Cost?
Proton Drive's free account offers 500MB of storage with the chance to get 500MB more by doing a few simple tasks, such as uploading a file and creating a link to a shared file, for a total of 1GB. This is less generous than the free accounts offered by other cloud storage services. Microsoft OneDrive, IDrive, and Sync all offer 5GB for free, while Google Drive comes with 15GB of storage, though it's shared with Gmail and Google Photos.
Paid Proton Drive plans start at $4.99 per month or $47.88 per year for Drive Plus, which includes 200GB of storage space. The most storage you can get as an individual is 500GB as part of Proton Unlimited, which costs $11.99 per month or $119.88 per year. Proton Unlimited also includes access to Proton Mail, Proton Calendar, Proton VPN, the Proton Pass password manager, and the storage space is shared with Proton Mail. Proton Family offers 3TB of storage shared among five users—that plan costs $29.99 per month or $287.88 for a year.
These rates are considerably more expensive per GB than most of the competition. Google One, which adds storage space to Google Drive accounts, a VPN, discounts, and photo editing tools, starts at $1.99 per month for 100GB. You pay $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year for a Premium Google One subscription that gets you 2TB of storage. Apple iCloud charges $10.99 per month for 2TB of storage, but you can get 50GB for 99 cents and 200GB for $2.99; it includes a faux VPN called Private Relay that only works in Safari and a custom email domain.
Microsoft charges $69.99 per year for a Microsoft 365 Individual account with 1GB of OneDrive storage and $99.99 per year for Microsoft 365 Family, which extends that amount to 6 users—for a total of 6TB. Both levels also include installable productivity apps like Word, Excel, and Outlook. IDrive has one of the best deals around, at $79.50 per year for 5TB.
Proton Drive cannot even come close to competing with any of these companies in terms of price per GB. However, Proton's aim isn't to win on price. It's to provide an alternative to these other cloud storage services built around privacy and security first. And don't forget that it includes VPN service, which when purchased separately from a competitor runs between $5 and $10 per month.
How Secure Is Proton Drive?
Proton Drive's core feature is security. Files are encrypted before being uploaded to Proton Drive, and the encryption keys are generated on your device. This means the company itself doesn't have access to your files, which also means that any hacker who breaks into the Proton Drive server (or any individual who has access to the server in question) can't view your files or even see the filenames.
You can read more about Proton Drive's encryption procedures on its website, but the summary is that everything is truly locked down. Proton also likes to point out that the company is headquartered in Switzerland and therefore is protected by that country's strong privacy laws. Proton customers have legal protections in Switzerland that prevent law enforcement from requesting access to their data without going through the courts first. If security and privacy are your top priority, Proton Drive makes a compelling case. Most of the other services we've reviewed don't lock down information to this extent, SpiderOak One Backup being an exception. And IDrive and Sync have an option to enable private encryption keys.
If you want to keep your account as private as possible, you can pay for it in cash by sending dollars, euros, or Swiss francs to the company at a mailing address provided on the website. You can pay with Bitcoin if you like as well.
Which Platforms Is Proton Drive Available On?
Proton Drive primarily runs in the web browser. The company recommends using a privacy-centric browser such as Firefox, Brave, or Tor, though Proton Drive is also compatible with more mainstream browsers, including Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Opera.
Proton Drive offers mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android, and a desktop app for Windows. Versions for macOS and Linux are under active development, according to the company, but not available to the general public as of this writing.
(Credit: Proton)How Do I Get Started With Proton Drive?
Before you can use Proton Drive you must sign up for an account. If you're already a Proton Mail or Proton VPN user, you can use that account for Proton Drive. Otherwise, you need to sign up and choose your plan. Note that you do not need to enter payment details if you opt for the free version.
Next, you choose a username, which will double as your email address if you decide to use Proton Mail. Then you create a password and provide some recovery details. Finally, the app asks you to choose a color scheme for the web version of the app.
(Credit: Proton/Justin Pot)You can start uploading files immediately, either by dragging them to your browser or by clicking New Upload. You can upload individual files or an entire folder. Files you upload are encrypted in your browser before being uploaded to Proton's servers.
Windows users should also install the desktop application. Log in to your account and you will be asked which, if any, folders on your computer you'd like to back up to Proton Drive. You will also be able to browse your files from Windows Explorer, and optionally choose to sync certain files to your computer for offline access.
(Credit: Proton)No Online Editing and Limited Previews
Proton Drive has no support for editing files in the browser. If you want to edit anything, you have to download the file, edit it, and then re-upload it. It's a lot easier if you install the Windows application because you can open files and edit them using the appropriate desktop software, and your changes automatically sync. There aren't any collaboration features, however. You can't comment on a file or work on files in real time the way you can in Google Drive or OneDrive.
(Credit: Proton/Justin Pot)A limitation of the web version has to do with preview functionality. You get previews for images, videos, audio files, and PDFs, but not proprietary formats like Microsoft Office documents, as you do in Google Drive and of course OneDrive. From the web interface, you can play MP3s and even FLACs.
(Credit: Proton/Justin Pot)How Do I Share Files in Proton Drive?
Proton Drive's web version makes it easy to share files or even entire folders, all without decrypting the files. Right-click any file or folder and select Create link to get a link you can copy and paste to share the item. Optional settings allow you to add a password and set an expiration date. Note that the Windows version of Proton Drive does not offer sharing at this time. You will need to log into the web version to share a file.
(Credit: Proton)The recipient doesn't have to have a Proton account and can see the files right in the web browser.
Every major cloud storage service offers this kind of sharing functionality, where you can copy a link and give it to anyone. The setup is flexible because it doesn't require the recipient to have a Proton Drive account or use any other Proton products to get files.
(Credit: Proton)What you can't do is share folders with other Proton users in a way that puts a synced version of the folder directly in their Drive. This limitation is likely due to the encrypted nature of the service, but it's disappointing, nonetheless. Sharing folders directly on services like Google Drive and OneDrive is what makes them useful for collaborating. Proton Drive can't offer that kind of collaboration.
Proton Drive's Mobile App
Proton Drive has mobile apps for Android and iOS. I tested it on an iPad. It's useful for both browsing files you already uploaded and uploading files directly. You have the option to sync any files or folders to be available on your device offline. It's also possible to lock down access to the application using either a PIN or biometric tools like a fingerprint scanner or FaceID.
(Credit: Proton/Justin Pot)One big disappointment, however, is that you can't set the mobile apps to automatically back up photos you take to your Proton Drive, meaning you have to do it manually. OneDrive, IDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox, among others, all have an option to automatically back up photos and videos from your mobile devices. I hope Proton adds this eventually.
How Fast Is Uploading to Proton Drive?
Proton Drive encrypts all files before uploading them, which makes it slower than other cloud services. My testing bore this out.
I uploaded 463GB of data from the same Windows 10 computer I use to test other cloud storage services. The process took 2 days, 15 hours, and 47 min, which works out to 1GB every 8 minutes and 16 seconds. It was quite a bit slower than almost every other service I've tested. Dropbox, the fastest app I tested, uploaded 1GB in 2 minutes and 56 seconds on average. IDrive took an average of 3 minutes and 24 seconds. Even Sync, one of the slower apps I tested, took an average of 5 minutes and 31 seconds. So Proton Drive is not particularly speedy.
For context, the Windows 10 computer I use has a mechanical hard drive attached to my local network via Ethernet. My home internet upload speed is 50Mbps. The CPU is not particularly powerful, which may be why the uploads took so long. You may experience significantly faster uploads if you have a high-end processor. I also live outside Portland, Oregon, on the US west coast, quite far from Proton's servers in Europe, which is likely also a factor. Your speeds will vary.
Slow, Steady, and Safe
Proton has been deliberate about the rollout of its relatively new storage service, and we're optimistic that many of its shortcomings will eventually be addressed. If you prioritize security and privacy, these shortcomings are minor when weighed against Proton Drive's advantages. Privacy advocates and security professionals should be very excited that there's now a cloud storage option that shares their priorities. For everyone else, though, Proton Drive is harder to recommend. It costs a lot more than PCMag's Editors' Choice winners IDrive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Google Drive, while also offering a lot less functionality and storage space. For now, only those who prioritize security and privacy above all else should consider Proton Drive.
