We need to talk about the structure of paying for Proton services

VPN
21

Well, I think the idea with only selling bundles of software is that it doesn’t cost Proton more when more users use it. So from a cost perspective, if Proton wants to keep its revenue constant, they would need to make the individual services more expensive so that on average users pay the same but receive much less services. I prefer them keeping the structure as it is.

This said, I personally don’t need more storage, so I am completely unbiased on this, but I think that storage should be treated different because there are real costs associated with it. I think ProtonDrive should allow to buy additional storage.

22

This is why I dropped Proton and instead signed up for separate email and VPN. I pay $8 and get exactly what I want, mail and VPN. I don’t need or want all of the bundled stuff that proton offers.

23

Really humble of you to come and post direct to us here, you must be really busy as the CEO.

24

I’m arguing about the lack of ability to increase storage and that my only options is to pay for a single service, multiple individual services or all service.

25

I don’t understand meaning of this post. Wallet is a separate application which is not under main proton plans. What’s wrong with having a separate app? It didn’t increase the price of Plus/Unlimited plans at all!

All I see is OP just needs more storage, which is a valid ask. 500GB in 2024 is too small storage in any paid plan.

26

What I’m arguing is although the price is fixed, I can’t get more of what I need. I’m essentially locked into either paying for an individual service, that has no path way of upgrades or paying all in with access to all services at their “premium” version, with the same limitations as the individual service.

Don’t think it’s ridiculous say there is an issue of that only having access to 500GB, regardless it’s enough, too much or not enough isn’t a great deal.

I would much rather have 2TB of storage, than have access to Wallet.

27

But they haven’t put the prices up because of the new services have they? If prices were rising because of these things then I would be bothered. As it is I keep being given additional services for ‘free’ which allows me to cancel payments with other companies.

For now. My concern is the low “all in” pricing is designed to get you entrenched in the ecosystem then start ratcheting up the “unlimited” price.

28

This! doing to SN what they did to Simple Login!!!

Also, are the two first “solutions” offered by the OP not what Proton does?

29

I bought a 5 year license with Standard Notes something like 3 years ago. It will be nice to not have to renew that.

30

Adding to your point, Tutanota previously had “build a plan” offering various customizations but it got very complicated and now its one structure. Build a plan really sounds good in theory but and will become complicated for the general audience. Privacy itself is a “niche” I would say and not much people are still aware of digital hygiene. Offering them with a complicated package would be losing them too.

Proton prices what I feel are somewhat comfortable and trustworthy to me knowing how they work via the policies and previous work. So to me and many others price works.

Although I do agree with the storage part. Additional storage addon per 100GB or 500GB should be an option and not warrant users to jump directly to Family or Visionary.

31

Ya, this is it. Let’s not make this more complicated than it should be. The price is already competitive, and more features that you may or may not use are being added on. I’m thankful that Proton continues to improve their products and add new ones.

32

Same. I’m paying the same price now that I started out paying 10 years ago for just email. Everything they have added is just a bonus. I use VPN and don’t currently have a use for any of the other products, but I’m happy.

33

“The top non-Visionary tier runs about $12 a month. For that price, you’re getting pretty close to what you’d pay for these services individually anyway in other places. Except for their password manager which in no way should be 12 bucks a month. Which, frankly, you shouldn’t be using. Stick with Bitwarden instead. It’s superior.”

The problem is that these services in other places are light years ahead of Proton. So I pay one, collective price for an ok VPN, a terrible disk, a mediocre password manager, an absolutely useless wallet, etc. As a result, I still pay separately for bitwarden/1password, mega/filen, obsidian/joplin… all that’s left is for me to open my email on tuta.

Let them finally get down to developing their services.

34

If you’re not using everything in the toolbox, that’s on you.

No, I would argue that’s on Proton. I would use a lot more of the tools in the toolbox if they were fully developed. Right now they’re giving me screwdrivers with no handles. My issue is with the repeated rollout of minimally-functional services that stay minimally-functional for entirely too long. It was a little bit insulting to a long-time Visionary customer who’s paying $240/year for email and a bunch of cool-but-not-quite-usable add-on services to see that Proton is distracting themselves with that stupid crypto wallet.

If they don’t re-evaluate their pricing models and give folks the opportunity to opt out of the broken/incomplete crap they don’t want, OR make some major progress on the missing features in their products, I’m afraid folks like me are going to start opting out of the service entirely.

35

Mail Plus ($50/y) and Pass Plus ($24/yr) are a worthwhile combo ($74yr), but I can’t get that unless I split it across multiple accounts. The only option is $120 Unlimited, even if I don’t have any need for much more storage or a VPN.

36

Yeah, I think that’s what the pricing discussion misses. You’re not going to pay less if the options are going to be broken up, because almost nobody uses all of them. So to retain the same revenue, Proton will increase prices on the individual options.

You will end up paying roughly the same amount you do now, for fewer things.

37

It is always surprising how many people don’t understand what upselling is and why companies use it.

Well, many people understand that. But upselling has to be tiered to work better. If you have all or nothing, then it will fail the purpose sooner than later.

Proton doesn’t have a tiered upselling. Either you have one premium plan or get all premium plan. What I see, is some people are asking, at least one more tier with two services combination as a middle tier.

38

I like this use of Proton as a verb. “To Proton”.

39

Imagine buying a car. The engine doesn’t work properly, it absorbs oil, the air conditioning doesn’t cool. The car drives, but not as it should. And instead of addressing the faults, the manufacturer adds heated seats to the car for free. It’s nice to get heated seats for free, but it’s summer and the air conditioning can only heat. This is a reason to complain, not that we have new features.

The Proton team keeps emphasizing that this has no impact on work on other services, but the effects are not visible. Only ProtonPass is developing efficiently. I don’t use most of the new features added by Proton this year, but from what I read here, each of it is basic at best.

Either their teams lack people (they emphasize on the website that they are looking for them), or management. There is also a lack of a clear development path, it is not known whether Proton has any plans (specific and when, not “maybe someday”) for specific changes. Will the calendar ever be able to display birthday information? Will the mail application ever come close to the functionality of a real email client (working offline, working minimized to the tray)? Will it ever be possible to save photos from your phone to a folder like a good cloud client should (I want to save photos from my phone to a Pictures folder that syncs with all my computers. I don’t want the Google mess of photos.)? Will we ever see a Linux disk client?

EDIT: Ok, it turns out that on uservoice there is information about changes that have been started, so you can actually see what they are working on and if they are working on it at all. At this point it looks like I was wrong.

The unlimited plan seems very good, but when it comes down to it… there are many cloud drives, but most of them don’t support or support Linux poorly, so I don’t use them.

And that makes me wonder if Proton is for me at all. I understand long-time Proton users, from what I understand, by maintaining a continuous subscription, they only pay a fraction of the subscription that I pay for the same services. Then it’s easier to turn a blind eye to the alpha/beta service and say how can you complain about adding more features for free.

I don’t know, I like that Proton is in Switzerland, that it’s non-profit (more or less), and that it’s not a startup where you never know what’s going to happen to it. But how else do you get Proton’s management to pay attention to the problems that are eating away at their service if not to voice your dissatisfaction?

40

Yes, you can. You will get prorated money back into your account.