All Proton apps scored by usability

VPN
1

I am a Proton visionary user with a heavy time investment attempting to transfer myself and my SO fully into the ecosystem. Scores are based on my own perception of usability, and the best possible score is (5/5).

Proton Drive app for iOS (0/5)
- UI is lagging and freezing when scrolling through a folder containing many items.
- The issue persists after re-installing the app.
- In the past, I’ve had items disappear after tapping to open. Advice from support was “try reinstalling the app”. I am honestly afraid to use this app due to data loss concerns.

Proton Drive app for Windows (2/5)
- Works reasonably well with Microsoft Office
- Lacks important features such as selected folder download, share from desktop, additional security layer, etc.
- Proton Docs is not useful to me yet
- Make backups regularly as this app does not feel stable.
- I experienced severe lag when using the app with all items available locally. Lag is not a problem when most items are set to cloud-only.

Proton Drive app for Linux (NA)
- WHEN?

Proton Drive in Firefox (1/5)
- Very slow
- This is the only way to share items. Sharing cannot be done from the desktop app.

Proton Calendar app for iOS (1/5)
- Works reasonably well for an individual user
- I cannot edit the calendar shared with me by my SO. I can only view it. Multi-account login is not possible and is not a workaround.

Proton Calendar app for PC (5/5)
- Works great in Firefox.
- I am able to edit the calendar shared with me by my SO.
- Search speed is limited due to local indexing (you won’t be able to easily search for keywords within your emails if you regularly clear your cookies/cache)

Proton VPN app for Windows (4/5)
- Occasionally glitchy UI but generally satisfactory
- Stealth mode was consistently performant in a high-censorship environment where most other VPNs were blocked!

Proton VPN for Linux (0/5)
- Attempted to use in Debian, lag is very bad, causes problems
- Stay far away from this app, I cannot believe it was released like this.

Proton Mail Bridge for Windows (4/5)
- Works consistently
- Complex. My SO would struggle to configure this if something were to happen to me.

Proton Mail for iOS (5/5)
- Works consistently
- Multi-account support

Proton Mail for Firefox (5/5)
- Works consistently
- Multi-account support
- Custom domain setup process was seamless for multiple domains.

Proton Mail app for Windows (4/5)
- Works consistently
- Offers little value over usage in a browser
- Feels like a cheap clone somehow

Standard Notes
- Login with Proton WHEN? My SO and I are still stuck using Google Keep.

Proton Pass iOS, Windows, Firefox (3/5)
- Works consistently but not intuitive enough
- Emergency access on a timer is needed, because all people carry some risk of being involved in a sudden accident, and not everyone wants to share their passwords ahead of time.
- Integration with SimpleLogin is lacking
- Recent prompts to sync a random number of out-of-sync aliases with SimpleLogin don’t make sense, and the number keeps changing. At first it was reporting 100+ aliases out of sync. Now it is saying 5 aliases are out of sync. I’m just ignoring for now, since everything seems to be working

Summary: I cannot generally recommend the Proton ecosystem. Too many of the apps lack essential features and feel unstable.

I am concerned about certain unusable apps getting pushed to production. Proton VPN for Linux is not at all acceptable.

Overall, the high price is barely justifiable… BUT I will keep my subscription active for now, because I support the fundamental mission of Proton. However, I’m only moderately satisfied with their services at this time, and I’m wondering when the philosophical equity will be outweighed by all the daily frustrations. Proton, we want to love you, please communicate with us better and release only stable software.

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Edit: I intended to title this post as “All Proton Apps *I’ve Tried*, Scored by Usability”. Please pardon the error. My goal was to share my personal experience diving into this ecosystem, not to comprehensively review every app currently available.

2

I’ve started moving my accounts that email to proton to iCloud. Some things will be stuck on proton some things will be stuck on Gmail, thank goodness for password managers.

I’m too in the iOS and Linux user space to really capitalize on proton. I want to live it but I just can’t buy in yet. The vpn is a great service but expensive but maybe worth it.

3

Great post. Also a visionary member here. I don’t use the apps and only use Android and Linux, but I will say the VPN app for Linux sucks. Really disappointing. Everything else I use is fine, but drive could be better. I’ve been contemplating switching but I’m not sure where I would go. The one thing I NEED is the drive photos backup for GrapheneOS. That’s a main reason why I stay. I also love SimpleLogin and I wouldn’t want to pay for it standalone.

4

I’ve used proton for 9 years and recently migrated away from it due to 1) I’m not a fan of them generating and controlling your PGP keys and 2) they quit caring about core products and started building an ecosystem to try an appear as the secure google instead of putting those hours into refining what still needs work

5

Proton Mail for iOS (5/5)? The thing can’t even search in the mail content.

6

My ratings based on my own experience (recently downgraded from Unlimited to Mail Plus):

Proton Calendar app for Web / MacOs: (3/5) - Good UI; no Agenda view, no offline support; slow to populate events; ICS sync cycle is too long.

Proton Calendar app for Android: (1/5) - Good UI; no offline support; no Search at all; no copy/duplicate event.

Proton Drive for MacOS: (1/5) - Slow; can not select folders to sync; Mac does not appear as computer on mobile app; can not see photos uploaded from mobile.

Proton Drive for Android: (1/5) - Slow; do not sync album structure; mix all photos from different devices; Docs is too slow with Dark Mode UI bug.

Proton Pass: (3/5) - Works quite well for my usage; can not be individually upgraded if you already pay for Mail Plus; using same login and other Proton products is a security flaw.

7

Odd you have so many issues with vpn in Linux. I am running ZorinOS and it works well.

8

I feel like Proton is continually disappointing users by releasing new products like Wallet, while their existing products remain underdeveloped and have many unresolved issues. They should really focus on stabilizing their core products first.

Additionally, new features aren’t always reliable. For example, the security key feature for mobile doesn’t work across all Proton apps, while it functions fine in other apps. The SL alias sync also displays random numbers, which seems absurd. This raises concerns about the overall stability of Proton’s products, as even smaller feature releases seem poorly managed.

9

Nice overview.

I have another twenty months on my Proton Visionary, and I’m staying in the ecosystem until then, but will have to reconsider if there’s not more value by that time.

I came for the VPN for a family of six, found that the Family plan was cheaper than 6x VPN, then got excited about Mail and Pass. I really love SimpleLogin, but I’m not at all convinced about the recent integration with Pass – email alias management belongs in Mail or a Contacts app, IMO.

10

After more contemplating overnight, today I’ve subscribed to Ente and downgraded my Proton subscription from Visionary to Unlimited. I think this is right where I need to be. ProtonDrive just wasn’t checking the box for me regarding photos.

11

Agree with all except maybe proton mail on iOS is not 5/5–still doesn’t support content search, which even on web is poor to say the least.

12

I had unlimited for a while because I wanted the vpn but it’s too expensive for me. Downgraded to mail plus.

13

Proton Calendar Android 0/5

14

makes me glad i only use proton mail and simplelogin

15

Thank you for your review.

16

I don’t use it too often, but I haven’t had any issues with the VPN on Linux. It sometimes loads a little slowly at first, but other than that it works well. The Calendar Android app I agree needs some work. I have switched over to it as my main Calendar just cause I wanted to get away from Google Calendar, but I’m really hoping they make it more usable in the future. Pretty big fan of proton pass especially with the email aliases. I’ve switched over from just self hosting keepassxc, which is trading a little bit of security for the extra convenience and added features.

17

I have to agree with this 98%, especially the iOS apps being atrocious. ( I tried them once, keyword, once) However I think simple login is well integrated with proton pass and am curious what you think is wrong with it.

18

Thank you. I use computers since 1975 and can deal with quite a few proton issues. I see improvements. But similar to you, I am concerned how my SO and/or family could manage the family account if I am not able to do that.

19

Yeah similar comments from me as well actually.

I believed in Proton have been paying for Proton - but just nothing works properly and if you ask a question about something or say something is not working – oh look at this page on our site to troubleshoot … well this is dumb because those do not solve the problems I am having

So not only are pretty much every product flawed - now the support is bad as well.

I got 6 months left and if they do not improve their performance then I am downgrading as well … honestly what is the point.

ignoring individual product performance - right now I rate Proton as a whole - which includes keeping in mind the price I pay - 1.5 stars out of 5

ProtonVPN as an example - exactly what I need - but just does not work - always problems … I take a trial of SmartDNS - it just works first time every time … there is no future for these products unless the performance and support get better – they are just going to get left behind.

20

Linux support is so disappointing… VPN was fine but now broken on Mint (due to gnome base), ProtonDrive non-existent and purposefully breaking rclone support. Pass has some benefits to my old app (bitwarden) but needs better offline support.