Proton Drive

Proton Drive is end-to-end encrypted cloud storage from the Swiss company behind Proton Mail, with desktop sync apps, mobile apps and an encrypted Docs and Sheets editor. Journalists, lawyers and privacy-minded individuals use it as a Google Drive replacement. Proton Free gives you up to 5 GB of storage at no cost.

What the free plan gives you

Proton's own plan page states Free includes "up to 5 GB total storage on Proton Drive", with the base 2 GB boosted to 5 GB once you complete the Drive get-started actions. Files, photos and documents are all end-to-end encrypted, and the online document and spreadsheet editor is included. You get the Windows and macOS sync clients, iOS and Android apps, encrypted link sharing, and the rest of the Proton Free bundle (a Mail address, Calendar, Pass and basic VPN).

Where the free plan stops

5 GB fills up fast with photos, and version history is limited. The Drive Plus plan gives 200 GB and 10 years of file version recovery; Proton's page renders the price dynamically by region, and third-party listings put it at about $4 a month billed annually. Proton Unlimited bundles 500 GB with Mail, Calendar, Pass and VPN at €9.99 a month billed annually (€12.99 monthly). Duo (2 TB, 2 users) and Family (3 TB, 6 users) sit above that.

Who it suits

Proton Drive Free is a good place to keep a few gigabytes of documents you want encrypted at rest and in transit, and it is enough to try the Docs editor. As a primary photo backup or a sync target for a whole home folder it is too small, and Drive Plus is the realistic plan.