Proton Drive Review

You can preview .docx, .txt, PDF, JPG, PNG, MP3 and MP4 files with Proton Drive. I noticed that text documents are converted into a Proton Docs file when you make changes, which creates a new copy of the file alongside the original and generates a lot of clutter.

However, the photo and video viewer works well, and I had no noticeable lag while watching my uploaded clips. While there used to be a 100 MB size limit on the MP4 files you could watch, I was able to preview my 1 GB video with no issue.

Proton Drive includes document and spreadsheet software within its cloud storage. These services are almost on par with Google Drive’s Docs and Sheets or OneDrive’s Office 365. You can create documents and share and edit them in real time among a team of people.

While Proton Docs isn’t quite as sophisticated as Google, as it’s missing a few advanced document comparison tools or add-on compatibility, I found it to be a usable and clean text editor.

Proton Drive keeps 10 file versions for at least 7 days on all plans. Premium users of Drive can save up to 200 versions for up to 10 years, or you can turn off versioning completely. 

Your deleted files are saved in the trash until you remove them manually. Unfortunately, there’s no way of setting an automatic deletion, so you’ll have to remember to empty the trash if you’re running out of storage space.

There’s a separate storage section for photos, which makes organizing your photos a lot easier. It automatically scans the metadata to sort your photos by year. You can also manually sort your photos into albums, which can be shared with other Proton users.

While this is a good feature to have, it would be nice if photos and videos were automatically sorted into this storage, or at least movable between storage types. During my testing, I couldn’t transfer photos from my main storage to my new album.

If you subscribe to Proton Drive through the Proton Unlimited plan, you also gain access to Proton’s full suite of security and productivity tools. All of these apps are connected within the Proton ecosystem and share storage where applicable, though you will need to install the apps separately.

Here are the features available through Proton Unlimited:

• 500GB encrypted cloud storage shared across Proton Drive and Proton Mail.
• 15 email addresses, 3 custom domains, unlimited hide-my-email aliases and dark web monitoring with Proton Mail.
• Real-time document and spreadsheet editing with Proton Docs and Sheets.
• Password generator, safety alerts and unlimited saved logins with Proton Pass.
• A VPN connection on up to 10 devices simultaneously, high-speed servers in 120+ countries, streaming support and P2P compatibility. 
• Encrypted wallet and limited access to Lumo AI.

Installing Proton Drive is straightforward, as the installer will do everything for you.

1. Download the App

   Go to the “Download” tab on the Proton Drive website, and click “Download.”

   

2. Run the Install Wizard

   Once the file is downloaded, run the launcher and follow the steps given.

   

3. Log In to Proton

   After installation, log in to your Proton account.

   

Proton Drive doesn’t require much setup, but there are a few options you can change.

1. Customize Themes

   Open settings and pick between eight themes to choose how you want your storage to look.

   

2. Sync Your Files

   On the desktop or mobile apps, you can choose which folders you want to sync automatically to your storage.

   

3. Upload Photos

   Proton Drive has a dedicated storage section for photos, which automatically organizes them for you. Upload your photos on the browser, desktop or mobile apps.

   

The browser client of Proton Drive has a very clean interface and is easy to use. It looks similar to other cloud storage services, so it’s easy to switch to Proton from another provider. 

Unlike some other cloud storage services, Proton Drive’s desktop apps give you a dedicated interface to view your storage, instead of just a synced folder on your drive. I found the performance of the desktop app to be consistently fast, even during syncing.

Proton Drive’s mobile apps are very similar to the desktop ones. However, the mobile apps go a step further and allow you to set up an automatic sync from your gallery to your storage.

Proton Drive offers 5GB of storage for free, which is very generous if you only need to store documents or a few photos. It’s covered by the same client-side encryption security standard and offers the same privacy. You can also share files and collaborate as you could on a premium plan.

Proton Drive is available for $3.99 per month for a year for 200GB. However, it’s better to get Proton Unlimited for $9.99 per month for a year, which offers 500GB storage, Mail, Docs, Sheets, VPN and Pass. Compared to paying separately for cloud storage, secure email, a password manager and a VPN, the bundle is far more competitively priced.

Proton Mail is bundled with Drive in the Proton Unlimited, Duo, Family and Professional plans. While Mail is a decent price, it’s even better with Proton Unlimited. The bundle is worth it, as you get both Mail and Drive. 

To test speeds, we upload and download a 5GB file over a connection throttled to 100 Mbps. Proton Drive had very fast speeds for both upload and download. It also uses minimal CPU, so it should have minimal impact on your device. Proton also had very promising unthrottled speeds, at less than four minutes for both upload and download.

With these speeds, Proton is on par with pCloud and Google Drive, two of the consistently fastest cloud storage services.

Proton Drive has two file-sharing options: via public link or by adding people directly. While this latter option uses email, the recipient will have to create a Proton account before they can access the file, so it doesn’t technically have true email sharing.

On public links, you can set an expiry date, a link password and also choose between edit or view permissions. At any point you can disable the link and stop sharing. If you need to reshare the file at a later date, a new link will be created. 

Its collaboration features have improved, and you can now share Doc and Sheet files with other Proton users and collaborate on them in real-time.

The Proton Drive desktop and mobile apps use selective sync, which means you can choose which folders to automatically sync. You can choose between offline sync to keep files on your device or online-only sync to free up your local storage and store files on the cloud.

Proton Drive is one of the most secure cloud storage options available, due to its open-sourced client-side encrypted storage and two-factor authentication (2FA).

Proton Drive offers 2FA through an authenticator app or text. As Proton offers its own authenticator service, it does encourage you to use that; however, you can set up another if you prefer.

It also allows you to set up a security key to recover access to your account in case you forget your password. This offers a safer alternative to password reminders or changes, which can introduce security flaws.

Proton Drive uses elliptic cryptography (ECC Curve25519) and OpenPGP for its encryption standard. While these are very secure protocols, they can be slower than the industry standard AES encryption, which most cloud storage services use.

Proton’s location in Switzerland means it is required by the Swiss Federal Act on Data (FADP) to keep consumer data secure. This is on par with GDPR regulations, so your data will be kept private.

Proton Drive has client-side encryption across your entire storage, no matter which plan you have. This means that anything you upload is encrypted before it’s stored, so only you have full access to your files. The coding for this encryption is also entirely open-source, so anyone can verify these claims.

Proton’s privacy policy reiterates its company model of collecting as little of your data as possible. The policy also details all third-party providers that could interact with your data and why this is necessary for the Proton service.

Proton Drive provides a knowledge base that covers frequent problems or concerns with using the software. I appreciate how it organizes the articles into similar topics, as it makes it easier to find exactly what you’re looking for. These articles are supplemented with YouTube guides and update videos.

While Proton doesn’t have a dedicated forum page on its site, it does have individual Reddit forums for Mail, Drive, VPN, Pass and Wallet. On top of this, it has X (Twitter) and GitHub pages for its Drive apps.

Proton Drive has email support integrated into its apps. You can open a ticket at any point from the “Help” tab on the desktop or mobile app. There’s also an option to include your app logs, which is essential if you’re dealing with a more technical problem.

There isn’t an official time provided for how long the Proton team will take to get back to email queries. However, Proton states that emails sent directly to its support team will take longer than those sent via the form, which is run by Zendesk. While direct email may be slower, you do have the guarantee of an end-to-end encrypted connection.

I sent an email via the form, and within a few hours of opening a ticket, I got a response back.

4.3	4.2
Strong security & privacy Zero-knowledge encryption Secure file sharing	G Suite integration Plenty of third-party apps Excellent for collaboration
Visit Proton Drive $1 / month(save 87%)(All Plans)	Visit Google Drive $1.67 / month(save 16%)(All Plans)

Google Drive is similar to Proton Drive with its integrated productivity apps like Docs and Sheets, but it has better collaboration with more advanced role permissions. With its 15GB free storage or 2TB annual plan for $9.99 monthly, Google Drive is better value, but it does suffer from a lack of privacy features. 

Read our Google Drive review for more information.

4.3	4.15
Strong security & privacy Zero-knowledge encryption Secure file sharing	Office 365 & Google Workspace integration Smart storage usage with “Smart Sync” Block-level transfer
Visit Proton Drive $1 / month(save 87%)(All Plans)	Visit Dropbox $9.99 / month(save 16%)(All Plans)

Dropbox comes with its own Docs, Slides and Sheets, along with compatibility with both Office 365 and Google Workspace. However, Dropbox does not come with client-side encryption. 

See our Dropbox review to learn more.