Proton Drive

It's end-to-end encrypted cloud storage from the Swiss team behind Proton Mail: store, sync and share files with zero-knowledge privacy, meaning not even Proton can read them. Files are encrypted on your device, share links can be password-protected and set to expire, and everything slots neatly into the wider Proton ecosystem — Mail, VPN and Pass under one account. Its natural audience is people who already trust Proton for private email and want the same guarantees for their files.

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They solve different problems. Syncthing is excellent free, open-source software that syncs devices directly, peer to peer, with no cloud in the middle — but that also means no offsite copy if your house floods, no easy sharing links, and you host and maintain it yourself. Proton Drive is a managed encrypted cloud: an offsite backup, proper sharing, mobile apps and zero maintenance, all end-to-end encrypted. So tinkerers with always-on hardware who want nothing stored off their own kit will love Syncthing; almost everyone else — wanting private storage that just works — is better served by Proton Drive.

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Yes. Proton AG is based in Geneva, was founded at CERN in 2014, and operates under Swiss privacy law and a non-profit foundation structure — an ownership model deliberately insulated from the pressure to monetise your data. Its apps are open source and independently audited, so the encryption claims can be checked rather than merely trusted. Above all, it has spent a decade running Proton Mail without a breach, and that track record is the real foundation of confidence behind the storage product.

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For privacy, it's better — Google can read your files; Proton can't. For features, not yet. Proton Drive still lacks true real-time document co-editing, its free tier is smaller (5 GB against Google's 15 GB), and it has fewer third-party integrations. Google wins on collaboration, search and sheer ecosystem depth. The sensible split most people land on: keep collaborative, non-sensitive documents in Google if you must, and put anything genuinely private — finances, IDs, medical records, contracts — in Proton Drive, where end-to-end encryption means only you can open them.

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It depends on the plan. The free tier gives you up to 5 GB. The entry paid plan, Drive Plus, provides 200 GB for US$3.99/mo. Above that, Proton Unlimited bundles far more storage together with premium Mail, VPN and Pass — the best deal if you use the wider ecosystem — and family plans pool up to 3 TB across several people. So there's no single figure: you pick the capacity that fits, from a few free gigabytes up to multi-terabyte family storage.

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