Is Proton Drive Safe and What Alternatives Are There?

Looking for an alternative to Google or other big tech companies?

What you need is a service with zero-knowledge encryption, and a mission to protect your data, not profit from it.

But what options do you have?

Two of the best alternatives to big tech you may consider for private cloud storage, plus email, VPN, and more, are Internxt and Proton Drive.

To learn more about these privacy-focused companies, we will examine the following:

• Is Proton safe?
• Features and pricing of Proton Drive
• Is Proton secure and private
• Internxt vs Proton

By the end of this article, you will know which service is best for full privacy of your files, data, and device, and finally be able to degoogle your life and take control of your data.

Table of contents

• What is Proton Drive?
• Is Proton Drive free?
• Is Proton Drive safe?
• Is Proton Drive secure?
• Is Proton Drive private?
• Proton Drive alternative
• Internxt vs Proton Drive
• Switch to Internxt for 85% off
• Related articles
• Frequently asked questions

What is Proton Drive?

Proton Drive is part of the Proton suite, offering cloud storage to securely store, access, and share files online.

Like Internxt, it focuses on a private alternative to big tech such as Google, OneDrive, or Dropbox by encrypting your files end-to-end, meaning only you can access the content.

Files can be organized, shared with others via secure links, and accessed from multiple devices while keeping your data private.

Is Proton Drive free?

Yes, when you sign up for a Proton Drive account, you get 2GB of free cloud storage, with the chance to unlock up to 5GB.

You can unlock the extra 3GB of free storage by following these steps, giving you an extra 1GB for each step completed.

1. Upload a file or folder to Proton Drive.
2. Create a shareable link for a file or folder.
3. Add a recovery method to your account (like setting up account recovery).

But is Proton Drive safe for free accounts? Unlike other providers such as pCloud Icedrive, Proton Drive doesn’t charge extra for its zero-knowledge encryption, so nobody but you can view your files.

For paid plans, details on pricing, storage, and features can be found below.

Pricing

Proton Drive paid plans offer the following storage plans for monthly and annual plans:

• Drive Plus: 200GB/€4.99 per month or €47.88 annually
• Proton Unlimited: 500GB/€12.99 per month or €119.88 annually
• Proton Duo: 2TB/€19.99 per month or €179.88 annually

No lifetime plans are available with Proton, so if you’re looking for a similar product suite of VPN, Meet, and Mail for plans up to 5TB, you may want to consider an Internxt lifetime plan.

Features

With a free Proton account, you get 5GB of encrypted cloud storage and an online document and spreadsheet editor. For extra features, you can upgrade to the following plans:

Unlimited

• Recover previous file versions
• Up to 15 custom email addresses
• Ultra-fast and private VPN
• Encrypted password manager
• Advanced account protection

Duo

Includes everything in the previous plans plus:

• 2TB of storage
• Can be shared with up to 2 users
• Up to 30 custom email addresses

If you want to know is Proton Drive safe for your files, we will investigate its safety, security, and privacy features next.

Is Proton Drive safe?

Yes, Proton Drive is safe for your files and has the following safety features to protect your accounts and cloud storage:

1. Malicious file detection: Scan shared files before downloading to check for malware that could harm your device.
2. File versioning: Older versions of edited files are saved, so if you overwrite something or make a mistake, you can restore a previous version so you don’t lose your work.
3. File sharing: add a password to a shared link, set an expiration date so access ends automatically, and disable the link at any time for full control over shared files.

Is Proton Drive secure?

Yes, Proton Drive is secure; it uses the OpenPGP standard with a combination of symmetric and asymmetric encryption.

File contents are encrypted with AES 256, and the encryption keys are protected using elliptic curve cryptography, such as Curve25519, along with Ed25519 for signatures and SHA 256 for hashing.

Other advanced security features are available for Proton Unlimited and Duo accounts, with advanced account protection. Aside from 2FA, this adds an extra layer of security to your account.

Advanced account protection, called Proton Sentinel, is designed to add more security to your accounts by protecting them against targeted account takeovers by:

• Monitoring login attempts using automated systems and human review
• Blocking or challenging suspicious logins, even if the correct password is used
• Providing a detailed tracking of account activity

Is Proton Drive private?

For privacy, Proton Drive follows Swiss privacy laws and offers zero-knowledge encryption for all accounts to ensure nobody but you can access your files. Proton cannot read your files as it uses zero-knowledge encryption, which uses a combination of:

• OpenPGP standards
• AES‑256 for symmetric encryption
• Curve25519 for public key encryption
• Ed25519 for digital signatures
• SHA‑256 for hashing

Proton follows the same zero-knowledge policies as Internxt, but does not have post-quantum encryption for its products, so this current encryption may soon become outdated unless it is updated.

Many people also wonder is Proton safe due to new reports about the data it can or cannot hand over to Swiss authorities, leading many people to wonder what data is private.

According to its website, law enforcement must contact Proton’s legal team when making a request. Proton has worked with law enforcement as recently as March 2026, when Proton Mail handed the FBI payment data that identified an anonymous protester.

While this leads to debates about privacy vs anonymity, if you want to keep your payments private when signing up for a cloud storage, then the best option is to pay with cryptocurrency, which you can use to pay for any Internxt lifetime plan.

So while Proton Drive is private, for true anonymity, you would have to take extra steps to ensure none of your data can be tracked.

Proton Drive alternative

If you are looking for end-to-end and zero-knowledge cloud storage, plus a wide range of products to improve your online privacy, Internxt Drive and its paid plans offer everything you need to stay safe online.

Internxt vs Proton Drive

Overview

Features

While Internxt and Proton Drive share similar features, Internxt is the first cloud storage with post-quantum encryption, ensuring your files are protected against future threats of quantum computers, which could break current encryption used by Proton and other cloud storage services.

Plus, Internxt has additional features in Drive not available with Proton, such as:

• Automatic trash deletion,
• Encrypted backups
• Device cleaner to remove junk files
• Antivirus to protect your device from malware

Other features include:

• VPN
• 2FA
• Password-protected file sharing
• Invite, share, and collaborate
• Meet
• Mail
• Automatic photo syncing and backups with Photos (Coming soon)

So if you want maximum protection online, plus features to maximize your device performance and protection from malware, Internxt offers a more fleshed-out product suite alongside Drive to meet your needs.

Lifetime vs subscription

Internxt offers 5TB of maximum storage compared with Proton’s 2TB. If you want even more storage, Internxt offers lifetime plans with a focus on cloud storage for up to 100TB with StackSocial, which you can upgrade to get all the features of Internxt for life.

Therefore, if you choose any Internxt plan, you can avoid recurring or increased subscription costs and make the following savings.

Plus, if you want true anonymity, you can keep your payment details private by purchasing an Internxt lifetime plan with any of our cryptocurrency payment options.

The full features and storage of Internxt plans can be viewed below.

Accessibility

One of the main restrictions of Proton Drive is that it is not available on Linux. Internxt, on the other hand, is available for Linux, Windows, Mac, and Mobile.

For advanced file management, Internxt also offers CLI, WebDAV, NAS, and native rclone support, so you can connect and manage your files from anywhere to sync and backup your files without restrictions.

Security and encryption

If you want cloud storage with zero-knowledge encryption, both Proton and Internxt offer this for all plans without paying extra for it, as is the case with Icedrive and pCloud.

For post-quantum encrypted storage and file sharing, Internxt is the only cloud storage so far to offer this advanced encryption to protect against future cybersecurity threats and hacking attacks.

Storage

As Internxt offers lifetime plans, you can stack your storage to ensure you never run out, and don’t have to worry about managing your files in different clouds. With a maximum limit of 100TB, Internxt offers you all the storage you need compared to Proton’s maximum of 2TB.

Compliance and auditing

Both Internxt and Proton have been audited by a leading security testing company, Securitum, ensuring that your files are secure, private, and protected from hackers.

Both are open source and comply with ISO 27001, SOC 2, and GDPR. Internxt is also HIPAA compliant, offering protection for healthcare providers against data breaches.

Industry trust

Internxt is trusted by thousands of user to protect the privacy of their files and digital lives. It is also the official cloud provider of Levante football club, and has been recognized by companies such as Deloitte as one of the top 50 fastest-growing companies.

By investing in an Internxt plan, you get full security, compliance, and privacy, and join a company with a mission to ensure a safer internet based on privacy and freedom from big tech companies profiting from your data.

Switch to Internxt for 85% off

For more information on the topic of is Proton safe, and for a comparison of Internxt vs Proton, visit our website below, where you can get a massive 85% discount on all plans.

Related articles

• Proton vs Google Drive
• Alternative to Proton Drive
• Cloud storage with zero-knowledge encryption

Frequently asked questions

Is Proton safe?

Yes, Proton Drive includes zero-knowledge encryption for your files to ensure only you can read them.

What encryption does Proton use?

Proton uses end-to-end encryption and zero-knowledge encryption. Emails are encrypted using the OpenPGP standard with elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) keys. Files are encrypted on your device before upload

What is the best Proton alternative?

Internxt is the best alternative to Proton Drive. It offers post-quantum encryption, Meet, Mail, and an extensive privacy suite to protect your privacy and device online, with additional cloud storage management features such as native rclone and NAS support.