Proton Drive
Swiss zero-knowledge storage from the Proton Mail team: 5 GB free, open-source apps, from $3.99/mo.
About
Proton Drive is the encrypted drive from Proton AG, the Swiss company behind Proton Mail and Proton VPN. Every file — and even the metadata like filenames and folder structure — is end-to-end encrypted with zero-access architecture, covered by Swiss privacy law. Free accounts get 5 GB; Drive Plus (200 GB) starts at about $3.99/month on annual billing; Proton Unlimited ($9.99/month annual) adds 500 GB plus the full Proton suite (Mail, VPN, Pass, Calendar); Duo and Family scale to 2 TB and 3 TB for two to six people. Paid plans include up to 10 years of version history, password-protected share links, and Proton Docs/Sheets collaboration. The apps are open-source.
Honest limits: 5 GB free is small next to MEGA's 20 GB, and storage-per-dollar at the high tiers lags behind MEGA and pCloud. A native Linux client was still in development as of June 2026; until it ships, Linux users get the web app or the MIT-licensed Drive CLI released in July 2026. No published independent performance benchmarks found.
What it can do
- Zero-access end-to-end encryption including file metadata
- 5 GB free with photo auto-upload in original quality
- Drive Plus 200 GB and Unlimited 500 GB + full Proton suite
- Password-protected, expiring share links with malware checks
- Proton Docs and Sheets real-time collaboration
- Open-source apps; Drive CLI for Windows, macOS, Linux (2026)
- Extended version history up to 10 years on paid plans
Setup
Create a free Proton account, verify, and install the Drive app; complete the onboarding tasks to unlock the full 5 GB.
Prerequisites
A Proton account (free); paid tiers need a card or PayPal.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (VERIFIED tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: plan structure and pricing from cyberinsider's 2026 review and memeburn; Drive CLI release and MIT-licensed SDK from storagenewsletter (July 2026); Swiss zero-access model and open-source code across sources. Strengths: the strongest privacy ecosystem in mainstream storage, metadata encryption, open-source auditable apps. Docked for: (1) small 5 GB free tier and weaker storage-per-dollar than MEGA/pCloud at high tiers; (2) native Linux client still in development as of mid-2026. License: open-source apps; proprietary hosted service.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 8.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 9.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 8.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 8.0/10
- · Free 5 GB; Drive Plus 200 GB ~$3.99/mo annual; Unlimited 500 GB $9.99/mo; Family 3 TB.
- · Drive CLI released July 2026 (MIT-licensed SDK); native Linux client in development.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.