Hi everyone,
Just curious if I could get some thoughts and maybe some guidance, please. I’m currently on a Microsoft Family subscription (AU$139/year), which five of us use for Microsoft 365 and OneDrive backups.
Proton Family costs AU$441/year, which is quite steep compared to Microsoft. I understand we pay a premium for privacy, and Microsoft’s size lets them offer lower prices. I’m interested in moving myself and my family to alternatives.
Is there a hybrid way to use Proton’s benefits while still using something like OneDrive for storage, or would it make more sense to fully commit to Proton (and pay the higher cost) to keep everything under Proton? (I also use Nord VPN and Nord Pass)
I think it depends on your use-case for each and any privacy concerns you might have.
M365 Family I don’t believe gives you email for a domain, instead you’re using their Outlook.com email without ads. Proton will let you use their domain or bring your own domain.
OneDrive and Office apps are waaay more convenient to use than ProtonDrive imo.
Proton is a lot better for privacy. Microsoft is secure depending on your password and MFA, but they’ll collect data on your usage.
Proton mail is good, simple login is fantastic. Everything else needs work IMO. I don’t use proton drive, and I’ve replaced it with next cloud. I also used filen as a backup. I heavily prefer bitwarden to proton pass.
Proton Drive is not ready to replace the big Cloud storage services like One Drive or GDrive. Same thing with document editing, MS Office and GDocs are way ahead of what Proton is currently offering. Proton Mail and VPN are great but the other products can’t they still have way to go.
It’s not as easy as one replacing the other. You don’t get the full privacy with MS 365, but you don’t get the full convenience of OneDrive with Proton, either. And in the Apple ecosystem, you kind of need iCloud+, and none of the three is great at email (well, Outlook is decent, but no longer supports custom domains unless you have a business subscription).
The three all have their use. Proton Drive is no replacement for OneDrive or iCloud Drive, but the VPN is better than Nord in my opinion. Proton doesn’t offer anything to replace the Office suite, which comes with 365.
So, here’s what I pay for:
MS365 so I have Office. OneDrive is convenient, but not e2ee. I use Cryptomator with OneDrive for that.
iCloud+ so I have storage for the whole family for iPhone/iPad backups. Also, decent e2ee drive.
Proton for VPN and Pass. Since the Family plan is cheaper than 6x Proton VPN, we’re subscribing to that (actually Visionary, because I’m a sucker and I want to be there when Proton Drive and Mail finally catch up :-)).
Fastmail for the ultimate email experience, using Proton Mail only when communicating with other Proton users (which is when the e2ee value kicks in).
The solution would depend on the following factors.
Are you happy and comfortable with Microsoft 365? If you are comfortable with the limited privacy or the lack of, then stick with 365.
If you feel that the relative lack of privacy and Microsoft 365 bothers you and makes you uncomfortable, then move completely to the proton ecosystem, as long as the price is affordable. In other words, if you’re concerned about privacy on Microsoft 365 and you can afford to pay the price of proton family, just blindly go for it. You can save some money by not subscribing to Nord VPN as you will get Proton VPN as a part of the package.
Proton is committed to protecting your data and, as a result, does not sell it. However, to sustain their privacy-focused services, they charge a higher subscription fee compared to other providers.
If privacy is not a primary concern for you, companies like Microsoft and Google offer superior functionality, feature sets, and relatively lower costs. The trade-off, though, is your data. These companies have more comprehensive services but often involve data sharing.
Once you begin to prioritize privacy and are concerned about potential risks like identity theft, Microsoft and similar companies may no longer be suitable choices due to how they handle your data.
Ultimately, the decision comes down to finding the right balance. You have the option to:
Use both privacy-conscious and traditional services, assigning specific data to each depending on your need for privacy versus functionality.
Choose one over the other based on your privacy priorities and what features are most important to you.
Your choice will depend on where your priorities lie regarding data privacy and functionality.
I am using Proton for 2.5 years but still keep my MS going as Onedrive and Onenote are quite simply a million miles ahead of anything on Proton ecosystem.
Not to mention the infamous lack of contacts synching with your devices despite it being a highly requested feature and being worked on and never coming multiple times.
Basically I moved 99% of my email to my own domain with Simplelogin and Proton and Onedrive is used for PCs and data needed on all devices.
Nothing comes close to Onenote for me in terms of layout and functionality and I’ve tried as many alternatives as possible including Standard Notes which is now Proton owned but not yet integrated.
I used 1password for Password management and other things as Proton Pass is still quite new and missing some features I use…it’s doing a lot of development quite fast so if it can catch up I would move to Pass.
It seems to have more investment that other Proton products like Calendar.
Let’s not forget Proton VPN…i cancelled my standalone vpn to help mentally justify the Proton price investment but it is very good and I have no issues with it…now it has an Apple TV app it’s even better.
It’s a tricky one. On the one hand, Microsoft is easy to use, on the other, they sell your Outlook data to over 700 third parties and will delete your entire online existence if you accidentally upload something they don’t like.
It depends Primarily what your use case is, and the age of your family members.
For email, calendar, and contacts you will experience minor annoyances. Drive has even more annoyances. Pass/Authenticator will work just fine.
You won’t have proper office apps (docs, sheets, presentations) with Proton. And this might be a killer criteria depending on the age and use case (as mentioned).
Personal recommendation would be, if you can afford the price and effort:
while still on M365 create a custom domain (for emails)
move the domain to Proton (so in case you switch back you don’t change the email addresses again)
move emails and files to Proton for all family members
if your family still nags you after 6-12 months switch back to MS365 (nothing in life is set in stone)
I think you will still need to use M365 for docs, sheets, etc. and OneDrive due to its integration.
But you can at least upload your family pictures to Proton Drive, instead of MS for AI training.
I have proton duo and office 365 family. Microsoft of course provided better value, more memory- 1 gig per person, and full office documents. Also no ads on outlook.com email
I am renewing both iCloud+, office 365 and proton duo
Primarily what your use case is, and the age of your family members.