Ditching Google Suite for Proton Was Easier and Better Than I Expected

Zachary McAuliffe

Sat, August 29, 2026 at 10:00 AM UTC

Ditching Google Suite for Proton Was Easier and Better Than I Expected Credit: CNET

Over the past year, I've been slowly detangling myself from big tech companies like Microsoft and Google because I want less of an online footprint following me around. I'm tired of my data being used for things like personalized ads or shopping and browsing recommendations. I replaced Microsoft 365 with LibreOffice , Google Chrome with DuckDuckGo's browser and now I've begun phasing out my Gmail and Google Drive account in favor of Proton's privacy-forward suite of tools.

Proton began as an open-source email client. Since then, the company expanded from an email client to include other privacy-forward digital services, such as a VPN and password manager , making it a compelling alternative to Google and Microsoft for a one-stop productivity app shop.

Proton's commitment to privacy and security is what initially drew me to Proton Mail. It's open-source to provide transparency, doesn't collect your data, like browsing and shopping information, for personalized experiences and it uses zero-access encryption to ensure that even Proton can't read your emails. But once I started migrating from Gmail, I realized Proton's privacy-centric suite had almost everything I needed to make a clean break from Google's own productivity tools.

Overall, I like Proton's extra privacy and ad-free experience, plus its trust and transparency made it easier to part with Google.

Proton has (almost) everything you need in a productivity suite

While Proton started as an email service, it now offers almost a dozen tools for a comprehensive privacy and productivity package. Some of these tools you can subscribe to independently, while others are part of a bundle.

I'd recommend the full suite for the wide range of tools it includes and its huge amount of digital storage. I also recommend it because bundling all these things is a better value than buying them piecemeal.

Proton offered most of what I needed to replace Google Suite, including an email client, password manager , word processor, spreadsheet software, video chat app, cloud storage and a VPN .

However, Proton doesn't offer a replacement for PowerPoint or Slides, nor does it offer an instant messaging tool. For a good, open-source alternative to PowerPoint or Slides, check out LibreOffice's Impress. If you want an encrypted messaging platform, I suggest Signal , which offers apps for Android, iOS, Windows and Mac .

Here are all the encrypted tools you get with Proton:

Proton Mail – An email client.
Proton Calendar – A digital calendar.
Proton Drive – A digital file storage system.
Proton VPN – A VPN.
Proton Pass – A password manager.
Proton Wallet – A self-custody Bitcoin wallet.
Proton Docs – An online word processor.
Proton Sheets – For all your spreadsheet needs.
Proton Authenticator – An open-source two-factor authenticator app.
Proton Meet – An encrypted video call app.
Lumo – An AI assistant that Proton writes doesn't exploit your data.

Proton prioritizes your privacy and security

Proton's commitment to privacy was its main selling point for me, and if you're concerned about privacy and security, I can't recommend it enough.

You'll get open-source apps that offer transparency, strong encryption and third-party audits to back up the company's claims. While suites offered by companies like Google and Microsoft let you alter your privacy settings to better suit your needs, Proton offers many privacy features by default.

Open-source apps foster trust and transparency

Proton's roster of apps is open-source, meaning anyone tech-savvy enough can inspect the source code to look for things like bugs, vulnerabilities and backdoors. It's an important trust signal that fosters transparency with existing and potential users. The open-source nature of the apps makes me confident that Proton isn't obfuscating an app's function or background processes.

Google and Microsoft's programs, by contrast, aren't open-source. Therefore, it might be more difficult for you to personally to verify a program is running as described. Proton and its Big Tech rivals undergo audits, but Proton's are easily available, more transparent and some provide more peace of mind.

Both Google and Microsoft undergo security audits, so your sensitive information – like your name and address – should be safe. However, I had to hunt around more for Google and Microsoft's audits, while Proton's were easily and conveniently available , as well as more reader-friendly.

A smaller online footprint means more privacy, but some minor downsides

Generally, Proton wants as little personal information from you as possible, sticking with necessary data for providing its services. Think things like info for account creation and what's required to communicate with Proton.

On the flip side, Google and Microsoft may collect more information about you to use for personalized experiences. Aggregated personal info like your identity, location and interests creates an online footprint that can provide personalized services, like recommending articles to click on (hopefully CNET articles), videos to watch or saving items in a shopping cart. While it can be useful, your online footprint could be a privacy and security issue .

You can toggle off some tracking, but maintaining privacy feels like more effort than it should be to me. Plus, that data collection still makes me uneasy. I don't want services to monitor my data by default.

Luckily, you won't see ads on Proton because the company doesn't aggregate your personal data to build a profile, and therefore it can't give that information to affiliates or other partners. Although Google doesn't sell your personal information, it can share that data among its fleet of apps, as well as use it to buy ads to serve you.

I don't miss the handful of ads that would show up in my Gmail inbox. Ads for Men's Wearhouse and Ugg were always marked as "Sponsored", and I always deleted them outright, even if I was in the market for new clothes. I still get spam emails periodically in Proton, but they go to my spam folder without issue.

Proton respects your inbox's privacy

A purple wastebasket with mail sticking out the top of it.

When it comes to my emails, I only want my eyes on my inbox, and thanks to Proton's categories — which don't come at the expense of privacy — I don't have to sacrifice usability.

Some of Proton's tools use zero-access encryption , meaning that even Proton can't access your content, and only its users can decrypt that data. Additionally, Proton's email categories are powered by on-device inbox processing, meaning that full-content search of your inbox happens on your phone or computer, not a Proton server.

By contrast, Google automatically processes some email info in order to block spam and phishing attempts, as well as to provide features like Smart Replies. Turning these features off may take away Smart Replies – which I don't care for – but it also removes more useful features, like tabbed email categories , such as Promotions and Social.

Google says that its public Gemini AI isn't trained on your personal data. But given the company's privacy history – including tracking and data collection – I don't trust that my privacy won't be violated and my info used for training AI, even if unintentionally. I don't want my AI assistant integrated with my email and cloud storage, even if that's in service of powering useful features. Since I never used features like Smart Replies, I didn't miss them. By contrast, Proton's Lumo AI assistant, unlike Gemini, can't access Proton Mail, Calendar, Drive and other apps.

Proton's free plans are highly capable options

Often, free software and services — especially privacy tools like VPNs — vary from unintuitive to downright dangerous. While somewhat limited, Proton's free apps are still usable, and don't cut corners on privacy and security or bombard you with ads. I had to put up with some restrictions, like less digital storage than on Google's free tier, but Proton's zero-dollar options are useful and were all I needed, all without sacrificing the privacy of data like my browsing activity.

Many of Proton's free plans have limited functionality, restricting things like storage space or how you connect to a VPN server. But I liked that even if I wasn't paying money, I wasn't paying with my data.

Google and Microsoft each give you more storage shared across various services than Proton when comparing free plans. Proton's free VPN only works on one device at a time, you can't manually select a server, it lacks features like split-tunneling and it doesn't officially support streaming or torrenting. However, Proton is the only free VPN we recommend , because it doesn't bombard you with ads or mine your data.

I was generally able to find workarounds to free tier limitations. For more storage space, you could save your files locally on your device, on an external hard drive or on a network-attached storage device for a personal cloud. I had files dating back over a decade on my Google Drive that I had to download to an external hard drive – but the hardest part was finding a dongle for my MacBook Neo and my hard drive's USB cable.

Despite limitations, Proton's free plans still feel like good, budget-friendly options. You aren't sacrificing privacy or security on the free plans, which is why I wanted to decouple from Google in the first place.

Proton Unlimited has many of your privacy needs covered

In addition to its free plans and standalone apps, Proton offers all its tools bundled in Proton Unlimited , which costs $13 a month, $119.88 for the first year or $191.76 total for the first two years (the one- and two-year plans renew at $119.88 a year). If you're concerned about your digital privacy, like I am, this is an excellent deal. In addition to Proton's privacy benefits, you get a lot of digital storage and you get a full-fledged VPN.

I did the math – if you were to choose yearly subscriptions for Proton's individual services, you'd spend about $300. That's much more than the bundled option, priced at $119.88 annually. Even if you don't end up using all of Proton's services, Proton Unlimited is still a great value. I don't plan on using Proton's AI Lumo regularly, but I'd still pay for the bundle.

You may get a better value and more perks with Proton Unlimited. For example, the paid standalone version of Proton Mail gives you 15 GB of storage and 10 email addresses, which is more than the free tier. But with Proton Unlimited, you get 500 GB of storage, 15 addresses and more for Proton Mail.

Paid standalone versions of Proton's apps, including Mail, give you free subscriptions to other apps under the Proton umbrella, but Unlimited provides benefits like the full-fledged VPN service and much more cloud drive storage. Thanks to this bundle, I now use a VPN, which I probably should have been doing before, but I didn't want another subscription to track .

You'll need antivirus protection separately

Proton Unlimited's bundle lacks a few essentials, such as antivirus protection , but there are plenty of free options you can choose from, including your operating system's built-in defense. We recommend most people stick with Microsoft Defender on Windows and XProtect on MacOS, both of which come preinstalled.

Proton Unlimited also doesn't include alternatives to PowerPoint or Sheets. I'd like to see that included in Proton Unlimited first before an antivirus program, since I'd get more utility out of that, and it would make Proton an even more complete Google suite alternative.

All tools in the Unlimited plan have the same high level of privacy and security as the free plans, but the additional features more than justify the price. I would have paid more for the additional storage for both Proton Mail and Drive alone, but the inclusion of a VPN and all the other tools makes Proton Unlimited an excellent value and worth it for me.

Switching to Proton is mostly easy

I used Gmail as my personal email for more than a decade, so switching to Proton felt daunting, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. It actually helped because it made me unsubscribe from different mailing lists I'd meant to for ages.

Proton uses Easy Switch to import all your existing calendar events, contacts and emails from another email service to Proton Mail. To do this, sign in to your Proton account, click the gear in the top-left corner of your screen and then click All settings. Next, click Import via Easy Switchin the left rail. Then you choose which service you want to import from.

The Easy Switch import tool used in Proton.

This also acts as a forwarding service, so every time an email is sent to a connected account, it also appears in your Proton inbox.

The hardest part of switching to Proton was just updating all my login credentials to match my new email address. This isn't unique to Proton, but it's still annoying. The good thing is that since you can use Easy Switch as a forwarding service to your Proton inbox, you don't have to change your past login credentials if you don't want to.

Eager to escape Google and Microsoft? Proton is a great privacy-forward alternative

Proton provides a highly capable suite of tools that is built around privacy and security. I'm happy I made the switch because I don't want other people, including the service I'm using, to have access to my online activity, even if it's in service of providing helpful features. I don't want to risk a malicious party getting hold of any of my information via a data breach, and the larger your online footprint, the greater security risk you may have. I appreciate the extra privacy and other protections it provides me.

For more on privacy, here are CNET's best VPNs and best data removal services .

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