Filen vs Proton Drive: Which One Should You Choose?

Filen is a German company offering end-to-end encrypted cloud storage and notes. Proton Drive is also end-to-end encrypted and part of a wider online privacy suite of products, from VPN to Mail.

So which one should you choose?

Both offer the same encryption and are open source, so to help you compare both options, this article explains the features, privacy, and security of both to help you decide.

We will also offer Internxt as a solution to both if you want a lifetime plan that includes the rclone support of Filen and the privacy products of Proton.

Table of contents

• Filen vs Proton Drive overview
• Pros and cons of Filen and Proton Drive
• Filen vs Proton Drive pricing
• Features of Filen vs Proton Drive vs Internxt
• Filen vs Proton Drive: Which one should you choose?

Filen vs Proton Drive overview

Filen and Proton Drive both offer encrypted cloud storage, but what you get with each service overall is slightly different, so if you’re considering Filen vs Proton Drive, there are a few things to be aware of.

Filen is a European cloud storage provider with zero-knowledge encryption. It offers end-to-end encrypted storage, file sharing, desktop and mobile apps, synchronization, and lifetime storage plans. Filen is particularly attractive if your priority is private storage at a competitive price.

Proton Drive is part of the Proton ecosystem, alongside Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Pass, and other privacy services. It offers file synchronization, sharing, automatic photo backup, and integration with the broader Proton ecosystem.

It is a strong choice if you already use Proton services or want a more established all-in-one privacy platform.

If your main priority is cloud storage, then Filen offers 10GB free cloud storage for you to try out the service. If you want everything integrated under one privacy-focused account, Proton Drive is probably the better choice.

Pros and cons of Filen and Proton Drive

Filen pros and cons

Pros

• Client-side, zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption
• Open source
• Plans up to 10TB
• CLI and rclone support

Cons

• Limited to cloud storage
• Free accounts can be deleted for inactivity
• No lifetime plans

Proton Drive pros and cons

Pros

• Zero knowledge encryption
• Swiss privacy laws
• Drive is included in Proton’s privacy suite
• Encrypted file sharing

Cons

• No Linux support
• Maximum 2TB of storage
• CLI has fair-use limits
• No lifetime plans
• Platform is still undergoing development changes, so is less mature than other services

One thing Proton and Filen don’t offer is lifetime plans, so if you want to combine zero-knowledge encrypted cloud storage with a full privacy suite of VPN, Meet, Mail, and Photos, Internxt offers 85% off all lifetime plans, giving up to 5TB of cloud storage and a full privacy suite to protect you online.

Filen vs Proton Drive pricing

For free plans, Filen offers 10GB of free storage, but if you use a VPN or Tor proxy, you may be blocked, and your account may be deleted after three months of inactivity.

Proton offers 5GB of free storage, and like Filen, free plans include end-to-end encryption, which is different from other services, like pCloud, with pCloud pricing plans offering zero-knowledge encryption as a paid add-on.

Below you can find the pricing options for annual plans of Filen and Proton Drive.

Filen pricing

Filen pricing offers monthly and annual plans; you can also stack plans if you want more storage. Plans are not tiered, meaning you get all Filen’s features regardless of the plan you get.

Below are Filen’s annual pricing plans.

Filen used to offer lifetime plans, but they were discontinued in their last Black Friday deal, so you have to choose between a monthly or annual plan.

Proton pricing

Proton also offers monthly plans, with the option to choose from personal, business, or family plans, so if you need shared cloud storage, then Proton offers this, which Filen doesn’t.

For this Filen vs Proton Drive pricing comparison, below are the annual plans Proton Drive offers.

Filen vs Proton Drive: Which is cheaper?

As both Filen and Proton Drive offer 200GB and 2TB plans, Filen is up to 58% cheaper than Proton.

However, a 2TB Proton plan also includes Proton VPN, so if you want an encrypted VPN on top of your cloud storage, it may be worth paying the extra money.

Internxt vs Filen vs Proton Drive pricing

Below we compare Filen vs Proton Drive monthly plans against Internxt’s monthly plans, which are based on our special 85% offer, which you can get below on a monthly or lifetime cloud storage plan.

Internxt offers the most affordable cloud storage; therefore, with post-quantum encryption, which is not offered by Filen or Proton Drive.

You can also avoid subscriptions completely and get the same end-to-end encrypted cloud storage Filen offers, and the full privacy suite that Proton offers with an Internxt lifetime plan, with the plans and features shown below.

Features of Filen vs Proton Drive vs Internxt

Encryption

Filen, Proton, and Internxt all use zero knowledge and end-to-end encryption, so if your focus is privacy and you want a Google Drive alternative and other big tech companies, then all three offer the best encrypted cloud storage for free and paid plans.

Filen’s encryption uses AES-256-GCM, and Proton uses AES-GCM for file encryption with ECC Curve25519 for public-key cryptography.

Internxt is the first cloud storage with post-quantum encryption, so it uses Kyber-512 and AES-256 encryption to encrypt files directly on your device. This encryption protects your files against the future risks of quantum computers, which could break current data encryption technology, causing major data breaches.

Who wins? Internxt wins because of its post-quantum cryptography, future-proofing your files against future cyberattacks.

Open source and security audit

All three cloud providers are open source and can be verified by security experts as a secure and encrypted platform for your files.

Filen is not independently audited, but both Proton and Internxt successfully passed a security audit by Securitum, verifying that both have the necessary security to protect your data from hackers.

Who wins? All three are open source, but it's a draw between Proton and Internxt, as they have both been independently audited by a leading cybersecurity company.

File sharing

If you want to know how to send files securely, all three offer this option, and Internxt has an additional file sharing service, Internxt Send, which you can use for free, as many times as you like.

Filen lets you share files and folders that can be configured with view-only access, passwords, and expiration dates, and you can change or disable the sharing settings afterward.

Proton Drive offers public sharing links as well as direct sharing by email. You can give recipients viewer or editor permissions, protect links with passwords, set expiration dates, revoke access instantly, and monitor how many times a file has been downloaded.

Internxt Drive offers public and restricted file sharing links to share large files privately. You can protect files with passwords and restrict access to shared files at any time. There is also Internxt Send, a secure WeTransfer alternative for encrypted and secure file transfer.

Who wins? All three offer the same features, so it's a draw.

Platforms

For Proton vs Filen, Filen offers Linux support, so if you are a Linux user, then you should know that Proton doesn’t support Linux.

Both Filen and Internxt offer WebDAV, CLI, and Rclone support, as well as NAS support.

Who wins? Filen or Internxt are the better choice if you’re a Linux user, or want advanced cloud management with tools like CLI or NAS cloud backups.

Compliance

Filen is based in Germany, so follows GDPR compliance laws, the same as Internxt.

Proton is based in Switzerland, who claim to have the best privacy laws.

Both Proton and Internxt offer ISO 27001, HIPAA, and SOC 2 compliance, but Proton only offers these for businesses, whereas Internxt offers it for all users, including its S3 cloud object storage for enterprises.

Who wins? Proton if you want Swiss privacy laws, Internxt if you want European cloud storage with multiple compliance certifications.

Extra features

Filen mostly focuses on cloud storage, but it also offers Notes, an encrypted alternative to Google Docs Notes where documents can be shared and edited collaboratively with others.

Proton Drive offers a similar privacy-focused product bundle like Internxt Drive, which includes:

• VPN, Meet, Mail and Calendar
• Photos
• Docs and Sheets
• Sheets
• Pass

Internxt Drive plans include:

• Antivirus
• VPN
• Cleaner
• Meet
• Mail
• Photos

Who wins? It depends if you want just cloud storage or more products. But Internxt offers cheaper cloud storage with additional features.

Filen vs Proton Drive: Which one should you choose?

If you want the advanced cloud management features of Filen, such as rclone support, plus the privacy tools of Proton combined into one plan, then consider Internxt Drive, a Filen alternative and Proton alternative offering everything you need to protect your files and privacy online.

Between Filen and Proton Drive, Filen is better for cloud storage; Proton is better if you want extra features included in your plan.

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