Products · Cloud storage · by Proton
Proton Drive
End-to-end encrypted cloud storage with built-in Docs and Sheets editors, file sharing and desktop and mobile apps.
Alternative to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox
4 / 6 how we score
What it does
End-to-end encrypted cloud storage with built-in Docs and Sheets editors, file sharing and desktop and mobile apps.
Paraphrased from the Proton Drive product page.
Legal entity
Proton AG
Terms of Service: contracting party is Proton AG, Route de la Galaise 32, 1228 Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva. Proton Wallet is run by the subsidiary Proton Financial AG under separate terms.
Headquarters
CH
Swiss substantive law governs for business users and consumers outside the US; disputes go to the courts of the Canton of Geneva. US consumers: AAA arbitration clause (s.13.1) with opt-out.
Pricing from
Free 5 GB; Drive Plus from USD 4.99 per month (200 GB)
Price shown in USD on the fetched page; yearly price was not captured. Drive page lists Unlimited (500 GB with VPN) and Duo (2 TB with VPN).
Jurisdiction partial
Contracting entity
Proton AG (CH)
Swiss UID register: Proton AG (Aktiengesellschaft), seat Plan-les-Ouates, Canton GE, status active. The DPA gives the company ID CHE-354.686.492. Contracting entity.
Ultimate parent
Proton Foundation (CH)
Proton says its primary shareholder is the Proton Foundation, a Swiss non-profit in Geneva; employees hold most other shares. No percentages or register entry found, so this is the named main holder, not a verified ultimate parent.
Foreign-law exposure partial
Based on the same ownership chain as jurisdiction.
Data residency fail
EU storage by default
No
Servers are 'exclusively located in Switzerland, Germany or Norway', owned and operated by Proton or its subsidiaries. Norway is EEA, but Switzerland is not EU/EEA, and no EU/EEA-only option was found.
EU processing by default
Unknown
Looked at Drive privacy policy, group privacy policy and DPA. Servers are in CH, DE and NO; no page states where processing happens. The DPA allows transfers to CH, EU or adequate countries 'to the extent possible'.
Regions
Switzerland, Germany, Norway
Older Proton pages list only Switzerland and Germany.
Subprocessors pass
Public list
Yes
Group privacy policy s.4 lists processors with locations; the Drive policy names none. The text names Calendly and HubSpot, missing from the s.4 list. DPA: general authorisation, updates via the privacy policy.
Non-EU in core processing
No
Drive privacy policy names no subprocessors; only Proton employees access servers. The group list has non-EU processors (Zendesk, Stripe, PayPal, Chargebee, Atlassian; entities in North Macedonia, Taiwan) for support and payments, not Drive content.
DPA pass
GDPR Art. 28 available
Yes
Published DPA (last modified 2026-02-10), part of the Principal Agreement; Proton AG is processor. Covers instructions, confidentiality, subprocessors, deletion, audits. Art. 28 not cited by number; counted as an Art. 28 DPA.
Lock-in pass
Open source
Yes
Proton's GitHub org for Drive: Windows, macOS, Android and iOS apps (GPL-3.0) and SDKs (MIT). No server or back-end code seen. Proton says all its apps are open source and audited (proton.me/community/open-source).
Self hostable
Unknown
Looked at proton.me/community/open-source, the Drive GitHub org and the Drive page. No self-hosting option or server code mentioned either way.
Full data export
Yes
Select multiple files or folders in the web app and download as a ZIP. The Drive CLI downloads whole folders. No single 'export everything' button found. Files are decrypted on the user's device.
Features not scored
End-to-end encryption
Yes
Files are encrypted on the device before upload; the policy says Proton cannot decrypt content on production servers or in backups.
Document editor
Yes
Proton Docs: end-to-end encrypted editor inside Drive, with collaboration.
Spreadsheet editor
Yes
Proton Sheets: end-to-end encrypted spreadsheets; the Drive page mentions formulas and charts.
Shared links
Yes
Link for anyone, or invite people by email with view or edit access. Free accounts cannot share files over 5 GB (Drive page).
Password-protected links
Yes
Optional password and expiry date on a shared link; page names no plan restriction.
Version history
Yes
Free: 10 versions per file, up to 7 days. Paid plans: up to 200 versions, up to 10 years (adjustable).
Desktop sync
Yes
Windows app syncs automatically; the macOS app is listed for sync. CLI for Linux, macOS and Windows. Mobile apps upload manually.
Mobile apps
Yes
iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android, also as direct APK.
What changed
- 2026-10-17 Data residency: EU means EU/EEA; Switzerland and UK do not count
- 2026-10-17 Research: Proton Drive (#35) Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01HnbkNqEnWa32X1hpMjwYn5
Every change to these facts is kept in version history. Each one was reviewed before publishing.