I’m thinking on potentionally subscribing for an Unlimited with a student discount.

Are you satisfied with it’s current services? I’ve seen mixed reviews from ProtonVPN. Someone loves it, someone despises it. Also does Proton Pass offer any convenience benefits over Bitwarden?

  • cobysev
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    2725 days ago

    It’s totally worth it, in my experience. I’ve been using ProtonVPN on all my devices for years now, which was the main service that got me on Proton. Every year that I stick with them, they give me 10 GB of extra storage space in Proton Drive.

    I wasn’t sold on their mail, until I learned I can create unlimited aliases for websites. So for creating an Amazon account, it might generate an email like “amazon-vagueness438@passmail.net”, which will forward to my Proton inbox. Anytime I get an email sent to that address that’s NOT from Amazon, I know they sold my info, and I can close the alias anytime to end all junk mail going through it.

    I just retired from the US military a couple years ago, and it’s been rather nice because our govt computers are so locked down, we weren’t allowed to bring any electronic devices into our offices, for fear that someone might steal classified information. Also, our computers were locked down so you couldn’t just install anything on them. You had to go through the IT guys to install things. That was my job in the military; I was the IT guy.

    Now that I’m retired, I can actually use third party programs like Proton Pass to make complex passwords for everything. I couldn’t use it in the military. We had to use unique, complicated passwords for every individual account, and we couldn’t write them down. I’m super grateful for Proton Pass. It’s my first password manager, so I can’t compare it to others, like Bitwarden.

    I’m not a huge fan of their calendar yet. I’ve been using Google and Microsoft Outlook’s calendars for years now, and I like that I can make my calendar events different colors, so I can differentiate between types of events real quick. I just logged into Proton’s calendar and was met with a pop-up stating that I can now use colors. So maybe I’ll adjust to using it.

    I’m trying to de-Google myself right now, and Proton Unlimited is giving me the options I need to remove myself completely from Google’s stranglehold. So far, I’m proudly advocating it for all my friends and family, even if you just use the free account.

    • @fuzzzerd@programming.dev
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      1025 days ago

      Calendar colors just launched on proton calendar. Still not quite a full outlook calendar replacement, but the individual color choice for events is one step there.

    • PrivateNoobOP
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      323 days ago

      Yeah de-googling is a huge part of me considering Proton as an alternative. Wow I didn’t that you get loyalty extra drive spaces.

      Are there other Calendar annoyances for you? One time the free Proton Calendar just deleted all the synchronized events for me for some reason.

      • cobysev
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        223 days ago

        The only calendar annoyance I’ve found so far is that I can’t add attachments to my Proton calendar. Both Google and Microsoft Office calendars let me attach files. Sometimes, if I’m attending an event or something, I like to attach the flyer with details to my calendar event, so I don’t have to dig through my email for the details. Right now, I can only type in a description to Proton calendar events.

        • PrivateNoobOP
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          223 days ago

          Oof that should be a crucial feature to have.

  • єχтяαναgαηтєηzумє
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    1325 days ago

    I feel like its pretty great. The additional VPN connections are nice and you can set it up on your router too.

    SimpleLogin is the biggest benefit from the email options for sure. Unlimited aliases plus you can setup unique domains which then allow you to make email addresses up on the fly.

    Drive now syncing with photos on smart phones is super nice. Also awesome to be able to share files from Drive to anyone. You can set passwords and/or time frames for the link access too.

    I’m staying with Bitwarden + Aegis as it seems like too much of my data in one place using Pass for passwords and 2FA.

    Calendar is cool, nice knowing it’s setup with zero-knowledge encryption. You can also share events with folks that use any calendar.

    With the Standard Notes news, I’m hoping this will result in having some of the bells and whistles that Standard Notes gives paying customers. But I haven’t found anything regarding this so far.

    All in all, it’s worth the price for sure. All security focused with the ability to make it the backbone of your online privacy too.

    • PrivateNoobOP
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      323 days ago

      Ohh SimpleLogin seems like an OP perk ngl. Definitely tempting. Thank you!

  • @janNatan@lemmy.ml
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    1225 days ago

    I use Proton VPN (lowest paid tier) to stream German television. Works great for me. I get the occasional stutter, but my Internet isn’t the best. I also get that when viewing local content.

    • PrivateNoobOP
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      123 days ago

      Hmm apparently ProtonVPN is easily detected by some sites, ergo it’s blocked. I’m not a streamer guy, but what other useful site would require a vpn for secret content?

      • @janNatan@lemmy.ml
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        323 days ago

        Torrents, mostly. Torrents and pretending to be from another country/state are the top uses for a VPN. I guess VPNs can also help with “dark web things,” but I don’t know enough about those to offer any advice.

        • PrivateNoobOP
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          123 days ago

          Yeah that’s fair, but is there a vpn with port forwarding that has such bad detection rates that it’s not even good for torrenting? Curious question, I’m in a country where torrenting can be done legally without a VPN.

          • @janNatan@lemmy.ml
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            122 days ago

            I have no idea. I got a few emails from my Internet provider, warning me to stop pirating. I haven’t gotten any such emails since using Proton. I’ve never tried another service.

  • @cygnus@lemmy.ca
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    925 days ago

    I have the business plan, which is basically unlimited with more domains. Ask away if you have specific questions.

    • I don’t use the VPN often but it has been fine every time I used it
    • The greatly increased Drive storage was a must for me
    • I also needed extra domains
    • The Pass browser extension is nice because it can generate email aliases directly from any webpage
    • I’m not sure if the other plans have this, but I get SimpleLogin included for “free”
    • PrivateNoobOP
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      123 days ago

      If you used free Bitwarden, then does Pass have any possible advantages compared to it?

      • @cygnus@lemmy.ca
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        223 days ago

        The main advantage is generating SimpleLogin email aliases on the fly when clicking in any “email” field. Other than that it seems to work about as well as Bitwarden. I wouldn’t pay extra for Proton Pass but it’s a nice bonus.

  • @Jako301@feddit.de
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    825 days ago

    It works as advertised, I’d say. The Email service works fine, no issue to date.

    The VPN has the same issues as others, meaning some sites block some servers entirely, and others force captcha after captcha at you. There also was the problem with missing portforwarding options in the app (at least on Linux), but that is fixed now. Overall it works fine, never had too much of a problem with it, at most had to switch servers if my connection got blocked from the site.

    The calendar is a calendar, end of sentence.

    Proton pass is a bit weird. They don’t offer any desktop app, you can only use the website or the browser plugin. There is no benefit I could think of over bitwarden and I’d even recommend bitwarden more than proton for password management. But it does work without problems.

    No idea about proton drive. Last time I used it you had to manually upload each item into the online safe. But from a quick look it seems like there is a desktop app now that offers automatic backups/uploads.

    For me it’s worth it since even the recent news articles show that they keep their privacy promises. But I also got the money to spare for it. You could get all functionalities for less money and to about the same level of privacy, but it takes more effort and time. It’s for you to decide if the convenience is worth it.

  • @helenslunch@feddit.nl
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    24 days ago

    There are better products for every service they offer. Tutanota. Bitwarden. Mullvad.

    Only reason I use unlimited is because they have them all under one subscription for a reasonable price.

    • PrivateNoobOP
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      223 days ago

      Absolutely right, although the student discount might alleviate that. Thank you for your input!

      I imagine Bitwarden is most likely a better service, but who knows.

      • @helenslunch@feddit.nl
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        24 days ago

        Proton pass seems to be almost completely incapable of autofilling anything.

        Also it doesn’t give you the option of using both a username and an alias. So if it actually does manage to autofill, it does it with the wrong information. How it was launched this way, much less still this way many months (years?) later is unfathomable.

        Also it doesn’t allow you to change the default alias domain, and it’s always set to my personal domain, which I DO NOT want to use, EVER. So every time I use an alias I have to go in and change it.

        Plus it doesn’t seem to have any integration with ProtonMail, at all.

        • @lud@lemm.ee
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          123 days ago

          I have actually never seen bitwarden ever autofilling anything. I always have to do something to get it to input the credentials.

  • @airglow@lemmy.world
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    524 days ago

    Try out the free versions of the apps and decide whether you would pay for at least two of them.

    Since I already use other alternatives like Bitwarden for many of Proton’s services, I’m only using Proton Mail and I can’t justify subscribing to Proton Unlimited until they release a Linux desktop client for Proton Drive.

    • PrivateNoobOP
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      123 days ago

      Well I’m already using the mail, drive and the calendar. It’s just a pain, but understendable that the free option doesn’t support being logged in into multiple emails.

      • @airglow@lemmy.world
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        223 days ago

        Assuming that you’ll take advantage of the extra Drive space, that’s two services (since Calendar is part of Mail), so I think subscribing to Unlimited would be worth it for you.

  • @EmperorHenry@infosec.pub
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    24 days ago

    it is, but don’t use their VPN, it’s vulnerable to tunnelvision

    iVPN and Mullvad are the only two I’m aware of that are immune to tunnelvision

    • PrivateNoobOP
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      23 days ago

      What risks would I face by using a vpn without tunnelvision immunity?

    • @NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
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      24 days ago

      it should be noted that on a home network tunnelvision is not a real risk, only on e.g. restaurants and stuff like that

      • @EmperorHenry@infosec.pub
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        123 days ago

        depends on the password and encryption you use on your home router. If your router is a VPN router, then your risk is significantly less, but not zero

  • @BCsven@lemmy.ca
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    425 days ago

    I find it has been good, reliable and consistent. Apps are slow to release, but that is ok if that is whar they need to ensure it isn’t a buggy mess. Just hoping they will implement online account integration for GNOME desktop at some point, then it would be full google replacement for me

  • Inui [comrade/them]
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    423 days ago

    I think it’s overpriced and almost everything in it is a lesser version of other services. Like someone mentioned, unless you need port forwarding, there’s Mullvad VPN. There isn’t even folder sync for Proton Drive on Linux so you have to use third party tools and if I’m doing that anyway I’m using Backblaze. Bitwarden for password management. Addy.io with forward encryption turned on instead of Pass because the SimpleLogin interface and app runs like molasses for me and has a seizure if you have any dark mode extensions. And the integration is still not complete after all this time since Proton has ridiculously slow development times for what they actually produce.

    Its good if you want everything served in one place and don’t want multiple accounts and services.

    I pay for the email and use the calendar because I think the company is the most trustworthy out of a basket of bad options. If a better email came along, I’d be switching to them.