Why I'm Almost Ready to Replace Google

The war between data-harvesters and privacy-rights is heating up, and Proton is holding its own.

As of 2020, Google controlled 92% of all Internet searching and dominated the world market in everything from browsers to video hosting and playback. And, for all its pretensions about keeping your data safe, Google doesn't do anything to keep you safe from... Google itself. But Proton is creating a suite of tools to rival Google, and give you back your peace of mind.

Proton now provides a private AI tool, a cloud Drive, online documents (a la Google Docs), a calendar, a VPN, and a password manager.

I've been on the search for a good Google alternative for years, and I think that Proton is nearly ready to make that dream a reality. With just a few problems that still need to be addressed.

What's up with Google?

Google profits from the data you provide it through a number of means, including building individual profiles that advertisers can target, and letting advertisers bid on you like one might bid on a prize cow.

Like all major tech companies, Google doesn't actually care about its users – it cares about the generation of profit for its shareholders. To further that goal, Google will lie, cheat, steal, and manipulate its way into your heart, mind, and personal data.

Alternatives to Google do exist–some, like Apple, are tech giants with nominally better privacy offerings. Others are often too small and niche to reach even a small percentage of Google's userbase. But by far the best of these competitors is Proton.

Once known solely as an encrypted email provider, Proton is finally doing the smart thing and diversifying their offerings. Proton now provides a private AI tool, a cloud Drive, online documents (a la Google Docs), a calendar, a VPN, and a password manager.

Proton Suite: Taking back the Internet

Proton has always been a good email provider, capable of matching the design and experience of top-providers like Google. Their free account is feature-light but more than powerful enough for casual email use, and their pro accounts give you access to all the goodies you'd expect, including custom domain support and email aliases. But now they're even better.

Proton Drive is their answer to cloud storage like Google Drive, and it comes with almost all the features you'd expect. Most importantly, it's now integrated with Proton Docs, a space to write and share documents online.

The biggest hurdle Proton has needed to overcome with its Proton Docs feature has been sharing editable documents with non-Proton users (view-only public sharing already exists). But in early 2025, Proton plans to finally solve this issue and make Proton Docs a new universal document option. As easy as Google Docs but safer in every way.

On top of this, Proton offers a first-rate free password manager that features some fantastic additional options when you upgrade to paid tiers. They also have a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, which allows you to hide your Internet use from your Internet Provider, and more safely access sensitive information (like bank accounts) while on public wireless networks.

What's perhaps most exciting for me is the Proton Duo paid plan, which gives a sizable discount for two-person accounts, fitting nicely into an affordability gap between the personal "Pro" account and the "Family" tier.

So, now for the big question: if I love Proton so much, why haven't I switched?

Proton drawbacks

There are a few remaining issues with Proton that make it inhospitable to my specific use-case (and maybe yours as well).

1. Lack of document sharing and editing with non-Proton users:
   1. Proton Docs is currently only accessible and editable by those with at least a free Proton account. This is a major drawback, as I'm not about to constantly send signup links to friends that force them to join Proton just to look at my documents. The good news, of course, is that they're going to have this fixed soon!
2. Proton lacks calendar integration:
   1. I have four different calendars that all need to be synced with one-another so I can get a full picture of my week. Proton doesn't integrate with other calendars... at least, not completely. You can import calendars from Google, Apple, or elsewhere as viewable, but you can't edit them directly within Proton. If Proton starts offering this feature, it could replace Morgen for me, making Proton the best choice financially as well as practically.
3. Proton lacks Linux functionality across all apps:
   1. I'm slowly replacing Windows in my life with Linux. (Windows keeps crashing, the software is increasingly riddled with spyware and ads, and it's expensive to purchase and maintain). Proton should have excellent Linux support, but they've been slow on the uptake. Proton mail works fine on Linux, but the VPN, password manager, and Drive all show consistent user complaints.
4. Proton has a small pool of streaming-capable VPN servers:
   1. VPNs are good for a great many things, one of which is bypassing the ridiculous location blocking that streaming services place on top of their media to assuage the demands of this or that studio or production company. Proton's VPN isn't as good at this as other VPNs.

Good news for Proton

The good news is that Proton is fixing the above problems. Their roadmap for early 2025 includes rolling out a feature that makes it possible for you to share Proton Docs with non-Proton users, who can then edit the document in real-time!

Proton is also hiring a new swath of Linux developers in order to raise the standard of quality for its apps on the world's #1 operating system. Given the speed we've seen them ramping up both fixes and new features to their other software, I think it's likely that we'll see a lot happening in a short amount of time.

Plenty of users have complained about the lack of more advanced calendar features, but at this time, I don't see anything on the horizon from Proton to fix this. That said, it might not be an issue for everyone. A lot of people only have one or two calendars, and might be able to live without edit access from inside Proton. That said, I would like to see this worked on.

Proton also has an awesome new AI feature built directly into their email. This is an obvious competitor to Google and other email providers that have begun building in AI. Proton's AI is built on a Mixtral model and offers pretty good bang for the buck in terms of providing editorial support while writing emails–plus, it's anonymous and isn't trained on your data, making it a better choice than any of the big-tech Ai offerings. I just hope they integrate AI with docs soon as well.

Next steps on the path of Proton

I'm not quite ready to make the switch to Proton, and it largely comes down to finances. Proton Duo is $14.99 per month. This, sadly, is an early bird promotional price. Join now, the price is fixed forever. Wait too long, and the price goes up to $19.99. What this fee gets you all the cool features of the whole Proton suite, plus a terabyte of cloud storage. Unfortunately, that's not quite enough.

Right now, I pay for Morgen – my calendar aggregation app, Zoho – my email provider, Bitwarden Pro, and Nord VPN. For Proton to become financial viable for me, it needs to totally replace the individual prices of all of those. Ideally, if their AI gets integrated with their Docs, Proton might replace my subscription to ChatGPT as well. Finally, Proton needs to improve its support on Linux asap.

That said: Proton is almost there. I'd be willing to shell out an extra $5/month for Proton over all my current subscriptions, if only their Linux experience was top-notch. But, if what they say in their blog is right, that could be the case within the next year.

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