Is Proton Unlimited Worth It?

As an individual who values privacy and security, I have migrated away from mainstream email platforms and have adopted lesser-known, privacy-focused email services. I have been actively using Proton Mail for a while now and have been quite the experience. However, I wanted to take it a step further and upgrade to Proton Unlimited. This article will discuss the features that come with Proton Unlimited and why I think it is a subscription worth having.

Let me start here by saying that this article is not sponsored by Proton. I am a paying customer of Proton and have been for a while now. I’m writing this article because I genuinely believe that Proton is a great service and that it offers a lot of value for what it provides. That aside, let’s get into the article.

Why Proton?

There are a ton of privacy-focused email services out there, why Proton? I’ll list a few reasons why I chose Proton:

• The company is based in Switzerland, which a country with strong privacy laws.
• For what’s offered, the price is beyond reasonable for my use case.
• They offer multiple services under an ecosystem, which centralizes everything and reduces the need for multiple subscriptions.
• They have a decent track record of protecting user data (We’ll talk about this later).
• They offer a very generous free tier, which allows you to test the services (or even use them for free) before committing to a subscription.

But, we do have alternatives like Tutanota or even self-hosting email services. You might be asking, why not use those? Well, I’ve tried Tutanota, and while they do not offer a bad service, I found Proton to be more feature-rich and reliable. The most off-putting thing about Tutanota is their webmail client, which I find unappealing.

Plan Overview

Proton offers a free tier which is extremely generous and is great for some users who just need to get by. However, if you’re like me and need more features, you can upgrade to Proton Unlimited. As of writing this article, the pricing for Proton Unlimited is as follows:

• 12.99 USD/month if billed monthly.
• 9.99 USD/month if billed annually. (Payment of 119.88 USD)

You save about 23% if you pay annually, so it may be something to consider if you’re looking to save some more money. Proton also offers plans for families and couples, but they will not be covered here.

Being a Proton Unlimited subscriber, you get access to the Proton’s entire ecosystem, which includes Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Drive, and Proton Pass. We’ll go over these features in detail later on, but for now, let’s talk about the email service.

Email Comparison

Email freedom is going to be the biggest win for most people. With the free plan, you get 500 megabytes of storage, where you unlock more storage along the way, up to 1 GB. Going strong, the Unlimited plan gives you 500 GB of total storage, which is quite a lot for most users.

The ability to have five email addresses is great for people who use multiple email addresses for different purposes. For example, I have different email addresses for different aspects of my life, such as personal, professional, and business. Segmenting emails like this helps me stay organized, and I can use the custom domains feature to have vanity addresses that I require for my communications.

This feature simplifies my previous email setup, where I used Cloudflare’s email forwarding to receive emails. The problem with Cloudflare’s email forwarding is that you can’t send emails, you can only receive them. So, I had to use an SMTP relay to send emails from my domains. That got pretty clunky, and I’m glad that I can now use Proton as a replacement for that.

SimpleLogin and Easy Switch

A great feature included with Proton Unlimited is the ability to create unlimited Hide-My-Email aliases. This uses the simplelogin.io service, which is owned by Proton and open-source. The great thing about this is that Proton Unlimited subscribers will get SimpleLogin Premium for free, which is valued at 4.00 USD per month. This feature is a no-brainer for those who are privacy-conscious and want to avoid receiving pesky spam emails or protect their accounts from being linked together in data breaches.

Now, the really cool thing about Proton Mail is that they have the ability to migrate from your other email services to Proton using their Easy Switch feature. This feature allows you to import your emails, contacts, and calendar events from your other email services to Proton. I initially didn’t know about this feature, but I found it while digging through the settings. I can’t believe they don’t advertise this more, as it’s a great feature that makes it easy to switch to Proton. They can even set up auto forwarding from your old Gmail account to your new Proton account, which is a benefit if you have so many accounts that you can’t remember them all.

Easy Switch supports importing information from Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, IMAP, contact files, and calendar files.

Thoughts on Self-Hosting Email

As for self-hosting, just don’t do it. There’s a reason that these services exist, and that’s to take the burden off of you. For example, you’ll have to deal with the headache of maintaining an email server. Here are the top three things you’ll have to deal with to even get your emails delivered:

• Infrastructure limits. If you are hosting at home, you’re going to have to deal with your ISP blocking port 25 and 587, which are used for sending emails. Many ISPs assume that most residential users are sending spam.
• IP reputation. If you’re hosting on a residential IP address, many spam filters will just assume you’re sending spam. If you don’t have a static IP address, you’re not going to have fun getting whitelisted.
• PTR records. They’re used to authenticate the source of an email, and if you can’t manage yours, your emails can end up in someone’s spam folder. From my experience, typically cloud providers will allow you to set these records, but residential ISPs will not.

It’s safe to say that if you aren’t a business, you probably shouldn’t be self-hosting email unless you have a very specific use case and have the technical knowledge to do so. For most people, a privacy-focused email service is the way to go. I’ve tried it and gave up within a few days because I realized it’s just not worth the dedication. For others, it may be a fun project, but it’s not for me, even though I manage my own servers for other services.

VPN Comparison

I was introduced to Proton when I was looking for a VPN service. This was quite a while ago, and I just wanted something free and reliable. ProtonVPN was the answer, and I used their free plan for years. Sure, the free plan is limited, but it worked for light browsing and tasks that didn’t require much bandwidth.

As we see, there are bandwidth limitations and server limitations with the free plan. The Unlimited plan removes these restrictions, allowing you to connect to any server and utilize their high-speed network. The selection of over 7,000 servers is quite impressive, and I personally never had any issues with speed or reliability.

Before I was using Proton VPN for free, I was using Mullvad, which is another privacy-focused VPN service. I was paying for Mullvad at the price of 5.44 USD per month, which is quite reasonable for what they offer. However, their server selection is limited compared to Proton, only being at roughly 650 servers. Proton Unlimited offers a more rich server variety, which is great for people who need to connect to specific regions.

If you pay for Proton VPN Plus as a standalone service, you are looking at 9.99 USD per month, and 4.49 per month if billed annually (48.00 USD per year). If you’re a Proton Unlimited subscriber, the Proton VPN Plus service is included in your subscription, potentially saving you money if you were already paying for a VPN service.

The Android application is phenomenal, and I have had no issues with it. It took a second to get used to the UI, but after that, it was smooth sailing. The application lets you jump between servers with ease, and it even has a feature that allows you to connect to the fastest server available. This is great for people who just want to connect to a server and forget about it. I use this daily as an always-on VPN, and other than the occasional CAPTCHA, which is inevitable with VPNs, I have had no issues with it. It masks my IP address on the go. That’s all I need it to do.

I have a limitation with Linux, where the GUI is just not very “good.” It’s laggy and clunky on my machine, and they do not directly support distributions like Arch Linux. However, they do offer a CLI client, which is what I use. That works just fine, although it’s not always fun to connect to a VPN through the terminal. I hope they improve the Linux client in the future, but it’s not a dealbreaker for me. You also have the choice of connecting to their OpenVPN or WireGuard servers, which can be done through Linux without any Proton software.

Honorable Mention

As I said previously, Mullvad is a great VPN service, and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for just a VPN. They support payment by cash or Monero, which are great privacy features. At just 5.44 USD per month, it’s a great deal for what they offer. And, they don’t log any data, just like Proton. (This is also not sponsored, I just like Mullvad.)

Proton Pass

Alright, if you’re a security-conscious person, you’re probably using a password manager. Guess what? Proton offers a password manager called Proton Pass, which is included with Proton Unlimited. This is a great password manager, and I have been using it for a little while now. It’s ingrained into the Proton ecosystem, and it supports multiple OSes, including Linux. It also works in the browser, so you can use it on any device with a browser such as Firefox or Chrome.

With the free plan, you are limited to one vault, which can limit you if you want to separate entities, such as personal and business. That might not matter for everyone, but with the Unlimited plan, you get up to 50 vaults, which is more lenient and gives you the freedom to segment your passwords as you see fit.

Proton Pass offers a very nice UI which is easy to use and navigate. It’s not extremely feature-rich, but it gets the job done. It’s a password manager, not a Swiss Army knife. Everything works as expected, and I haven’t had any issues with it.

Vault sharing is something that I haven’t used, but it may be useful for people who share passwords in a family or organization. The free plan limits you to sharing with two users, which might be enough for some people, where they can share their password with their spouse or a trusted family member. The Unlimited plan allows you to share with up to 10 users, which may be more useful for larger families or organizations.

We also have TOTP support. This is a nice premium feature that does what an authenticator application does, like Authy or Google Authenticator. However, instead of being a separate application, it’s integrated into Proton Pass, which makes signing in much more convenient. However, it’s worth noting that if you are not properly securing your TOTP private keys, you are exposing your 2FA codes to potential compromise. I personally use a separate authenticator application for more sensitive accounts, but Proton Pass may be useful for less sensitive accounts. Just make sure your Proton account is secure, set up with 2FA, and your Proton Pass PIN is not easily guessable.

As a standalone subscription, Proton Pass Plus goes for 1.99 USD per month, which offers the same features as Proton Unlimited does. If you have Proton Unlimited, you don’t have to bother about paying for a separate password manager, since you get Proton Pass included in your subscription!

Security Concerns

An offline password manager is going to be your most secure option. If you’re looking for security, I would recommend something like KeePassXC, which stores your passwords offline and encrypts them with a master password and even a YubiKey if you want to go that far. However, the security of your database and your backups will be your responsibility.

If you’re looking for a cloud-based password manager, Bitwarden is a great option since you can self-host it. They also offer a cloud-based service that’s cheap, but I haven’t looked into it much. Bitwarden is also open-source, so they are open to criticism and contributions from the community.

Stay far away from LastPass. They ruined their reputation with multiple data breaches, where one was because because a system administrator couldn’t bother to update their own personal Plex server, which gave an attacker access to LastPass through the use of keyloggers. (see: LastPass Data Breach, Failure to Update Plex Server Led to LastPass Data Breach)

Come on, this guy couldn’t even segment his network, let alone use a VM or dedicated machine for servers! The irony for a security-oriented company. Anyways, my advice is to not even touch LastPass with a ten-foot pole. At this point, using LastPass could be equivalent to putting your password on a billboard in Times Square! (Clearly sarcasm, but you get the point.)

Proton Drive

Being less competitive in the cloud storage market, Proton Drive is a great addition to the Proton ecosystem. It’s not the best value cloud storage provider, but it’s privacy-focused, which is something that competitors like Google Drive cannot offer. (see: Google CSAM scanning led to false accusations)

The free plan offers 500 MB of storage, which is limited, but it’s enough for some people who just need to store a few files. The Unlimited plan offers 500 GB of storage, which was able to fit about a few years of pictures and videos that I took. Of course, your mileage may vary, but it’s a good amount of storage for what I needed, only taking up about 10% of the total storage.

File versioning could be useful for people who need to revert to an older version of a file. I don’t use it, so I can’t speak to how well it works, but it’s a nice feature to have. I would recommend using a dedicated backup service if you’re really concerned about losing data, but that little quirk exists if you need it.

I don’t have much to say about Proton Drive. It’s just a cloud storage service, and it works as expected. It is privacy-focused, so you can forget about companies trying to read through your files for god knows what reason. It’s great for people who are privacy-conscious. I store a couple of files on there along with my pictures and videos, but that’s about it. It’s all encrypted using my password, so even Proton can’t read the contents of my files.

Proton Incidents

I won’t shy away from the problems that Proton has faced. They do comply with Swiss law, which means that they have to provide data to the government if a crime is committed. This is a problem that all companies face, and it’s not unique to Proton. It is a legal requirement that they are forced to comply with.

However, they are transparent about these requests, and the information they do give out is quite limited. They have a transparency report that shows the number of requests they have received and how many they have complied with. Let’s take a glance at their Privacy Policy to see what they do have access to:

• Proton is unable to read the contents of your encrypted emails, files, calendar events, passwords, or notes.
• Visiting their website: They do not log your IP address. Analytics are anonymized for privacy
• Creating an account: No personal information required to sign up. IP addresses are sometimes logged if you are required to verify you are not a robot, but typically temporarily, depending on their discretion.
• Permanently saved logged data is stored as a cryptographic hash. The algorithm is not disclosed, but most hash algorithms are virtually impossible to reverse, especially if a lot of information is hashed.
• IP addresses may be logged to prevent abuse and may be stored permanently if they are associated with abuse.
• If you use authentication logging for your Account, your IP address will be logged for security logs on your account. This feature is off by default, and the data is only retained until the feature is disabled or the account is deactivated.
• Authentication Logging does not track service usage, but only authentication events on your Proton account.
• Payments done by card are processed by a third party. Proton only stores your name and the last four digits of your card number. Bitcoin and cash payments do not require any personal information.
• Analytics are used on their native applications for app statistics and crash reports. Only one service is explicitly mentioned: fabric.io, which redirects to Google Firebase. This is a bit concerning, but it’s probably not a big deal.
• Applications do not access or track any location data on your device.
• Proton is legally obligated to comply with their local laws, which means they may have to provide limited data to authorities if a crime is committed. They can’t read your encrypted data and can typically only provide metadata. Requests for data are often legally challenged.

I’m no lawyer, but that’s what I got from their privacy policy. If you want to read it yourself, you can find it here. Don’t rely on my interpretation, and read it yourself if you want to make an informed decision. I would conider talking to a lawyer if you’re really concerned about your privacy.

While it might be a little scary, just compare Proton’s privacy policy to a Big Tech company like Google or Microsoft. You’ll see that when you compare privacy, it’s a night and day difference. Basically, if you make an account and you’re taking precautions, Proton won’t have much data to give out.

Other Services

Proton offers a calendar and Bitcoin wallet, but I haven’t used them enough to make a judgement. Proton Wallet is still in its early stages and is not available to everyone. It is a self-custody wallet, however, so you know that your wallet is in your control, not a third party’s. I’m on the waitlist to check it out, but I haven’t been able to use it yet. I would recommend a self-custody wallet like Trust Wallet if you’re looking for a wallet that’s in your control.For the calendar, it’s just a calendar. I don’t really know what else to say about it. Just your typical cloud-based calendar. It does let you notify via email though, which is kind of cool.

Theoretical Savings

Alright, let’s say that, hypothetically, you were already paying for other services that Proton Unlimited offers. We’ll calculate the potential savings you could get if you were to switch to Proton Unlimited and canceled your other services. We start at 12.99 USD per month for Proton Unlimited, and we’ll deduct the cost of the services you’re already paying for.

If you are a SimpleLogin subscriber, you’ll be paying 4.00 USD per month. Let’s say you unsubscribe from SimpleLogin and switch to Proton Unlimited. You’ve deducted 4.00 USD from the cost of Proton Unlimited, which brings you to 8.99 USD per month for the remaining features that you’re paying for. You’re getting Email, VPN, Drive, and Pass for 8.99 USD per month here.

If you are a Mullvad subscriber, you’ll be paying 5.44 USD per month. Deducting that from our previous cost, you’re now at 3.55 USD per month for the remaining features: Email, Drive, and Pass. At this point, we’re below the cost of a single typical standalone Proton Plus subscription, except you’re getting 3 services for the price of one. You are also getting a larger server selection!

Proton lacks a competitive price in the cloud storage market, but it offers privacy-focused cloud storage, which is something that competitors like Google cannot cover, as shown from that external article I linked to. If you are a Google Drive subscriber, you’ll be paying about 1.99 USD per month for 100 GB of storage. We’ll just stick with that even though it’s not a direct comparison. Deducting that from our previous cost, you’re now at 1.56 USD per month for the remaining features: Email and Pass. You’re getting a privacy-focused email service and a password manager for 1.56 USD per month if you quit Google Drive.

If you are a LastPass subscriber (you should unsubscribe because of their terrible security practices), you’ll be paying 3.00 USD for their premium subscription. Deducting that from our previous cost, you’re now at -1.44 USD per month for the remaining features: Email. You’re getting a privacy-focused email service for free if you quit LastPass, with enough money left over to buy a small coffee.

We all know that most email services are free, but if you’re paying for a privacy-focused email service, you could also deduct that from the cost of Proton Unlimited. If you’re paying for a service like Tutanota, you could potentially save by replacing it with Proton Unlimited along with replacing other services.

From this breakdown, you can see that you could potentially save money by switching to Proton Unlimited and cancelling your other services. You also may not save money, but you’ll be getting a privacy-focused ecosystem that is comparable to something like Google, but with a legitimate focus on privacy and security, not some vague marketing term that Big Tech likes to throw around to make you feel good about using their services.

Conclusion

Proton Unlimited is a great subscription for those who are privacy-conscious and want to centralize their services under a privacy-focused ecosystem. The features that come with Proton Free are already great, but Proton Unlimited takes it a step further by offering more storage, email addresses, and more overall freedom with their services. The ability to centralize your services under one subscription is a great feature, and it’s something that I’ve been enjoying since I upgraded to Proton Unlimited.

I developed a list of common pros and cons that I’ve seen with Proton that may help you make a decision:

If I sold you on Proton, you can get a free month of Proton Mail Plus by using my referral:
https://pr.tn/ref/W4EFM7GYKSPG

It just helps me out a little bit, and you get a free month of Proton Mail Plus. I won’t be offended if you choose not to use the referral link. I want you to make an informed decision, not get baited into something you don’t want.

Here’s Proton’s pricing page if you want to sign up without a referral:
https://proton.me/pricing

I hope this article was helpful to you, and I hope you have a great day. Stay educated, stay safe, and stay private.