Mail + Essentials

Proton Mail and now Calendar, VPN, Drive and Pass was purchased in February 2020 as I wanted a system which offered privacy as its' mission, infrastructure and in a jurisdiction that has the world's strongest privacy laws. I started on the free plan and after a week subscribed to a 2 year plan, and kept it since. At the time De-Googling was my priority and have accomplished that goal. No longer was I willing to be given something free in exchange for my data being sold and used as a tool to manipulate other beings and cause the world harm.

I can't remember exactly what other companies I reviewed at the time. And sure enough there were several dozens, especially so even now, possibly 10x more. The ease of use and set-up was my deciding factor. The company has grown and developed useful apps that I now use daily.

Proton Mail

Proton VPN

Initially, when I started using Proton Mail (as it was called then), it came with VPN only.

Proton Drive

Eventually a beta launch of the Drive was announced and took part in that program. My first response wasn't as enthusiastic as there were glitches and the process was slow and appeared clunky. This was from my comparison of having a pCloud Account but I did store all of my pictures from the cycling journey on the drive