Proton started with just a VPN service and encrypted email hosting, but the company has slowly expanded into cloud storage, password managers, and other connected tools. Now, the company is pitching its services as a full Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 replacement for organizations and companies, which includes an alternative to Google Meet.
Everything you need
Proton Workspace is a fully functional collaboration suite that is basically everything you need to run a team, all wrapped with Proton’s signature end-to-end encryption. The company’s core pitch is quite straightforward—its robust privacy-first approach means that even the firm can’t access your data, and if an attacker compromises Proton’s servers, the encrypted information remains out of reach. Unlike Proton, companies like Microsoft and Google may harvest user data on their servers to power features and integrations.
Organizations can choose from two plans depending on their requirements. Workspace Standard costs $12.99 per month (billed annually) or $14.99 (month-to-month) for each person, bundling existing services, including Mail, Drive, Pass, Calendar with appointment scheduling, VPN, Docs and Sheets, and Meet. The Workspace Premium tier builds on everything in Standard, but comes with more business-focused features, including expanded storage, email data retention policies, and higher participant limits per Meet call. It is priced at $19.99 per month (billed annually) or $24.99 (month-to-month).
What’s notable here is that Proton isn’t just competing on privacy. The pricing of both standard and premium plans undercuts plans from Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace for business customers. Proton also throws in extras like VPN and a password manager that would incur additional costs.
If you’re an existing Proton Business Suite customer, you’re getting a free upgrade to Workspace Standard, including the new meet video conferencing tool.
Proton Brings More Heavily-Requested Features to Drive and Docs
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Beyond bundling its existing services, Workspace also includes Proton Meet, an alternative to MS Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet. It uses Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol and is end-to-end encrypted. This is in contrast to Proton’s rivals, which can access your meetings. You can generate a meeting link for participants, and you don’t need to have a Proton account to join the call.
Proton Meet is included in both Workspace plans, with the Premium tier getting higher participant limits per call. However, free Proton accounts can have meetings up to 60 minutes in length. There’s a ‘Meet Professional’ add-on for other Proton plans to unlock all functionality.
Proton is also introducing its first privacy-focused AI assistant called Lumo. Unlike most LLM models, Lumo AI uses zero-access encryption, which means that Proton does not have access to your AI conversations or use them to train future models. The AI assistant is only limited to the Premium subscription.
With Workspace, Proton is clearly aiming at businesses that handle sensitive data, intellectual property, or activities that require greater privacy. Whether that’s enough to convince businesses to switch from entrenched platforms remains to be seen.
Source: Proton
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