I’m getting ready to move off of Google (and Private Internet Access), and Proton is looking like the best option. But I’m nervous. Some of the things I worry about:
- Calendar support: I rely really heavily on Google Calendar. How will I share events with others? And what will I do without Google Tasks?
- VPN App Quality: Seeing some mixed reviews on Proton VPN Android app.
- Proton ethics & politics: Look, I really don’t want to open up the holy war here. My big stipulation is: I don’t want my money to go to a company that will donate its money or services to fascists. To my knowledge, Proton does not do that. I know they made a post that seemed to praise GOP antitrust efforts. I do not believe that that is the same thing as lending material support for fascists. (And, as someone who is very well read-in on antitrust issues, I’ll say that – for a lot of complicated reasons – there is some truth to Proton’s post, but I wish they had framed it as a critique of the corporate wing of the Democratic party and not praise of the GOP.)
- Anything else I haven’t thought to ask.
So, folks who have made the switch: What do you wish you had known? What do you wish you had done to make the move easier?
Thank you for your advice.
honestly i would recommend keeping google calendar. proton calendar just wasn’t cutting it for me so the only google app i still require is calendar
Went from google to proton, proton to tuta after the fascist supporting comments of the proton CEO. I wish I hadn’t gotten involved with proton. There are better options for everything proton does and it’s not a good idea to be tied to the same company for everything.
Dont delete the gmail. As much as I want to move on…i still remember the occassional account tied to my gmail, and Im so, so thankful I can still get whatever notification, reset password, etc. I dont know when I’ll feel comfortable deleting it. As long as Im getting emails, I can at least use it to reference what accounts still need to be moved over.
So despite “moving” emails I kind of just added one. But not a big deal, and the safety net is nice.
I use posteo.de/en for email and we use the calender as a shared family calender with my wife.
Works fine for me, but we don’t really use the calender to share events with others, so I am not sure how well that works.
The one thibg I’d wish I’d known when moving from google that self-hosting is bliss. For everything else there is tuta and nextcloud.
Switching to Proton from all the other shit accounts was one of the best online services thing I ever did in my life. I got a discount back then and to be honest, I would even pay double the price, if I had to. It’s just worth it.
As to what you need to know… There is not much to know, except, just do it. Do not hang onto the obsolete accounts. Migrate everything to Proton, then keep the old accounts for 6-12 months, just to make absolutely sure, you did not miss some rare account you barely ever use and is still connected to the old e-mail address. Finally, just never log into the old one ever again and stay with Proton. Proton is king.
If I remember correctly, Proton even offers migrations features, which let you migrate from Google to Proton in some mouse clicks.
I thought it was not Proton who praised the GOP, but their CEO on his personal social media. It sounds like you are saying there is truth to the post – is it wrong to praise one’s opponents for doing something right? Is it not our inability to agree with our opponents even in the instances where we’re aligned with their objective that causes so much political gridlock?
I’m not going to pretend Hitler was a bad painter just because he was fucking evil. I’ll admit though – I wouldn’t want to have anything he painted in my home, even if I liked it.
Andy Yen’s messages were echoed and doubled-down on by official Proton accounts.
The truth to the posts made are the critiques of the Democratic party, not their praise of the republican party. If their posts consisted only of the former, there would be nothing to argue with. But their statements included the unhinged notion that Republicans are somehow antitrust and will fight monopolies.
I would say it is wrong to praise an opponent for doing something right when the only basis for it is that one of their opponents is also fucking up. The fact that democrats are controlled by money has no bearing on whether or not Republicans are.
Thank you for explaining this. I didn’t know.
It costs money to be worth a darn.
Anything Proton costs money to be worth a darn.
I feel like the Android client for ProtonMail is really slow. Switching folders is painful.
I also tried sharing calendars with my wife who is still on Gmail and didn’t have great luck there. I decided I’ll just forward invites to events to her, though I haven’t had a chance to test that.
I wanted to test sharing my calendar with my wife (we use Google which is currently how we share) but you have to have a paid account to share your proton calendar. I’m happy to pay but want to make sure it works before I do!
It does. I use Proton (paid) and she uses Google. Guide here
Thanks for the confirmation! I did a search after posting and found that article.
Do you have any downsides to Proton Calendar? So for your wife’s calendar have you added that into Proton and you can add/modify events?
That I don’t know.
I subscribe to hers and she to mine, but we just made them the same color so the one who ads stuff first is the one that stays, if that makes sense.
No downsides for me, really. It does what it’s supposed to do and it’s not Google.
If your still on the fence, then I can test editing both ways tomorow. Just let me know. Had a busy day today.
We have different colours to help differentiate. For example if I have a dentist appointment I know it’s mine as it’s in my colour.
In regards to modifying each other’s calendar. If she has a car service booked in but then needs me to move it, I have the ability to modify her calendar to move it to another date.
I’d like to retain the same ability.
I wish I had know both how painless it was AND how happy (even proud) I’d be about it!
Honestly the 1 thing that matters is : having your data backed-up. Everything else is secondary. Sure, you will have some UX hiccups, the UI will be new, some tools won’t behave exactly like you are used to, so what? Live and learn the same way you did with Google products. We have been absolutely brainwashed (and I do mean “we”, I don’t mean “you”) to believe that whenever there is a big bright BigTech logo, it’s safe and easy. It’s not! We are just used to it and when we genuinely think back, we did learn where everything is. When things change we assume we’re at fault.
Anyway… if you are genuinely nervous, just try for a month and rollback or, IMHO better, switch to another provider. I’ve been a paying Proton customer for years (all services) and I like it but it’s not perfect either. If Proton goes to shit, I’ll switch.
You can always manually share .ics files in emails to share calendar events. I’ve never used Proton, but I’d be shocked if their calendar can’t ics export. I think that’s literally how Outlook actually implements that, so it should “just work.”
Having to manually share ICS was a bridge too far for me. Especially if event details get updated.
Went from Google to Proton and have since moved on from Proton. If there’s one thing I wish I would’ve thought of before switching it would’ve been not using a single provider for everything.
At the end of the day it got me off Google, but with more or less the same situation I started with. Everything I was using was housed by one company. If they go under or turn evil you’re scrambling to replace all your online services at once all over again. That isn’t something I’m comfortable with so I split my service selection up and moved to multiple companies for the services I actually use.
Having everything in one place is super convenient until something happens that makes you want or need to move again. I’m happier now and ended up paying a bit less overall which is cool.
I don’t know if that makes much sense. If you lose, for example, assuming you spread it over three providers, 1/3 of your accounts, wouldn’t this already be bad enough? I think, the overhead of using so many different services simultaneously is way bigger and more real, than something bad happening to the single service I settled with. Am also with Proton for many many years (back then, it was only “ProtonMail”…) and nothing bad happened. It only got better & better over the years. It’s amazing.
I’m not sure what you mean. The “overhead” is putting your different logins into a password manager, no?
You can just pay for and use single services with proton though so I don’t see this as an „I wish I knew this about Proton before“
This is good advice. Don’t use a single provider for everything. I use Tuta for mail, bitwarden for pw management, selfhosted WebDAV for calendar + contacts, and nextcloud for the rest for exactly this reason. It’s much easier to migrate one service at a time than everything at once.
Who are you with now?
For me its not realizing that my email aliases will stop working if I stop paying. Wish I would have just went with simplelogin
It kind of makes sense that a paid service stops working when you stop paying though…
Just pay for SimpleLogin no? Proton owns SimpleLogin now.
I purchased SimpleLogin before Proton purchased them. I have my own domain configured with all my aliases which all point to a proton email address which I do not give to anyone.
I purposely created my own domain just so I could be flexible in the future and move to another provider if needed.
To add on, if you have Proton Unlimited, then SimpleLogin is free
If you can only get Service B by paying for Service A, then Service B isn’t really free; it’s just added value.
A nitpick, yes, but I feel it’s an important one.
I guess you’re right. I should’ve said that SimpleLogin Premium is included.
No worries. Like I said, I recognize it’s a nitpick so not a huge deal. I just thought I’d mention it. It doesn’t invalidate your original comment or anything. :)
- The Android widget (not app just the widget) does not have a monthly view.
- There is no office suite (I don’t know why this surprised me but it did).
Generally it’s been an overall positive experience.
I’m in the process of switching to Proton too. I just opened the account; haven’t taken additional steps of switching login emails associated with all of my other accounts, yet. I’ll probably start with giving the new account to local grassroots organizations, first.
I’d like to learn more about what people have to say too!
