Proton
Empowering you to choose a better internet where privacy is the default. Protect yourself online with Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Calendar, Proton Drive. Proton Pass and SimpleLogin.
Proton Mail is the world's largest secure email provider. Swiss, end-to-end encrypted, private, and free.
Proton VPN is the world’s only open-source, publicly audited, unlimited and free VPN. Swiss-based, no-ads, and no-logs.
Proton Calendar is the world's first end-to-end encrypted calendar that allows you to keep your life private.
Proton Drive is a free end-to-end encrypted cloud storage that allows you to securely backup and share your files. It's open source, publicly audited, and Swiss-based.
Proton Pass Proton Pass is a free and open-source password manager which brings a higher level of security with rigorous end-to-end encryption of all data (including usernames, URLs, notes, and more) and email alias support.
SimpleLogin lets you send and receive emails anonymously via easily-generated unique email aliases.
view the rest of the comments
Is that sustainable?
Why wouldn't out be? Proton has always had a free tier, this just makes it easier for free users to connect to a vpn
Because nothing is free.
Proton's free plan is supported by people with paid plans
Yes, but the root of the question is whether this is sustainable, or will it get shittified, when "too many" people jumps on the free tier.
Will it get more expensive for the paid tier?
Are they going to get rid of the free tier?
???
The free tier servers are finite resources and usually much more busy/ slow. Proton isn't guaranteeing fast speeds or availability, and all of their free offerings have always been done in a sustainable way.
They're transitioning to a non-profit organization now. While non-profits have their own problems, and it doesn't make them exempt from enshittifying, it removes the profit incentive to do so.
In other words: I'd give them a little more credibility when it comes to this sort of thing until they give us a reason not to. I'm hopeful that they can be a positive force in the industries that they are in.
Same. I'm really rooting for them to stick it to the big internet usurpers. And they are doing a stellar job so far.
I'm just really can't get excited about companies offering free stuff, that costs money to run. Stepped on that rake one too many times.
What they mean is normally when something isn't being paid for, you are the actual product. It's why people should never use free password managers, for instance.
Proton may be unique in that the free tier might actually be exactly what it says it is: A product for you. Not a product OF you.
I'm already interested. Anywhere I can get more information that is not on Proton's website?
X, Google, Amazon, you can pay for their services and still be the product. I am not sure if that rule is good in any direction anymore.
Proton has offered free plans for all its products for the last 10 years.
If it wasn't sustainable, I think we'd have noticed by now.
Well, userbases tend to grow.
Exactly the opposite.
Yes. Because they're either making a profit from your meta/data, or it's a promotion that ends as myriads of "free" services did before it
I pay for it so you can leach off of it. Go ahead. If you feel they did a good job, then consider subscribing.
Yes, but how many people can these contributors support?
7.5 billions. We are good for a few years unless somebody double dips.
Why does it matter?
Is this am honest question, or a drive-by downvote "get fucked" comment?
I mean, why do you care if it's a sustainable business practice or whatever? Unless you're a stake holder or something then how much money they're missing out on shouldn't even be your concern.
If I'm making an account and potentially moving to a whole new SaaS ecosystem, I might wanna know if what's going on.
Imagine moving to a new email address, informing every single person about your new email, and then the company goes under. Or starts displaying ads. Etc., etc.
There's no guarantee a paid service won't go under either, though.
Not moving is easier than moving.
They recently changed to a nonprofit, so that's not it
Proton has been offering free services for 10 years now. And they don't profit from your data, so your assertion is false.
Nah, i used free tier for a year, realized I liked it and wanted to support them so signed up to the unlimited plan. Their hope is to draw more people in that way, rather than a paywall that turns off potential users