Proton and Standard Notes are joining forces
proton.me
proton.me
To address your Proton Drive comment directly, they are a small team and they are rolling out Web, iOS, Android, Windows and Mac. The most common platforms today which is what they should focus on. Android already has photo backup, iOS it's in beta. They are continually having new releases for all of these products and you can see that on /r/ProtonDrive. Saying they have abandoned these products or don't care about them is hyperbole. Is it taking longer than I would like, sure, do I want them to release a Public API for Drive (for rclone) and a Linux client, absolutely but lets give teams the benefit of the doubt.
And was last updated 9 months ago. I'm still paying for it but have had to switch back to using Tresorit while I wait for them to update it.
* iOS has had some issues, I actually had to remove myself from the TestFlight due to a bug but it is actively being worked on (the beta version). I'm assuming they are waiting on the iOS beta to be stable before another release but I'm not part of the team.
* Proton Drive for Mac was last updated March 29th.
Just because a team is having an issue with one piece of their software doesn't mean it's abandoned or unsupported. Again, there is a lot of hyperbole here.
I didn't use those words though. I just stated that I have switched to a competing product which is more feature complete.
> Proton Drive for Mac was last updated March 29th.
I switched back to Tresorit due to the lack of comparable features on the Mac app too. And Tresorit is not exactly packed with features.
We can debate dates and details but there is a reason why the comment you originally responded to is the top voted comment for this article.
Do you work for Proton?
He doesn't think it just because of that, this is just an example. That they had spread too thin with different products is a fact.
I got interested in them for mail, and I could undertand them having a few more things, but the constant expansion worries me too. Even worse if they amass a portfolio just to look nice to get sold and folded into some monstrocity like Google.
>They have a few core key products such as Mail, Calendar, Drive, VPN and Pass
Even those, do these sound as "few core key products"? Those are already a lot for a company like that (as you said, " they are a small team"). Especially when they keep adding other stuff too, like Notes now.
You said it was a small team for Proton Drive. I also feel they are prioritizing more products instead of investing in improving their current offering
In any case:
1) They are a small team (some a little over 400 employees).
2) They have over 4 widely different products (web mail, vpn, cloud storage, password manager) - and now they're integrating Notes.
Those a hard facts.
Now, how does that employee count compare?
Fastmail has same number of employees to ONLY run a web mail offering.
Nord has 4 times the number of employees and has one less product category (vpm, cloud storage, and password manager but no web mail).
So, no: that they're spread too thin is a fact.
The more recently launched products are not really feature complete in many ways and some go months without updates.
Email is great, I'd still highly recommend it. But I wish they would restrict their WIP and focus on fewer things (for their own sake).
Edit: to balance out my negativity a bit - I REALLY recommend Proton for email, to home users and business users alike. It's rock solid and the iOS app is extremely good too. It's also very clear to me that the Proton team work extremely hard, and listen to feedback. But my concerns about a perceived lack of focus still stand!
I'm a active Protonmail subscriber too, who downgraded to the mail business plan, because I too want Proton to focus on their core business and not engage in becoming a clone of Microsoft 365.
There used to be a regular vote on what users are mainly interested in. Maybe I missed it, but I too think that the risk of engaging in too many ventures will be the ultimate downfall. One last argument is, that hosting files and text and whatever is planned in the future weakens the legal ground to protect user privacy, as the (legal and technical) attack surface of hosting services is greater than just end-to-end encrypted email.
That said, I think privacy oriented people are desperate for exactly what you said you don’t want - a Microsoft 365 equivalent that is privacy oriented. I’d be willing to pay for it personally, and don’t think it automatically follows that launching a new product makes existing ones worse. Maybe they’ll get a lot more users that purchase the overall bundle and help them fund all these ventures better than ever before.
You can also check out our feature request platform and change the category to planned or completed to see recent activity https://protonmail.uservoice.com
Your comments so far read as detached and impersonal, especially with the more than conspicuous usage of plural pronouns.
So I really hope you listen to us, the subscribers, and try to keep focus on improving the products that you have already launched and that we are paying for, before getting distracted on other projects.
Honestly the basic features that are still missing from Calendar are becoming a bit embarrassing. It's also embarrassing for me with my business clients when my calendar system is the only one that doesn't seem to function like a normal calendar does - and they see that too.
You've done an amazing job with product development so far - especially Email - but please don't squander that. Some of your products really really need basic missing features and bugs sorted - and quickly, because you've already sold them to customers. I get the sense that your customers are unusually loyal (which is to your credit) but goodwill won't last forever.
My solution for notes is Joplin (https://joplinapp.org/) + Fastmail's WebDev support.
Joplin is amazing, supports arbitrary file attachments of any size, optionally encrypts every thing. Has an iOS, Andriod, Linux, Mac, and Windows app. "Just works".
Proton started as mail only (ProtonMail, before the rebrand), not VPN.
Also, what was proven not reliable?
I emailed both Fastmail and Proton with the same question before giving them money.
For Proton, I sent the following message: Hello I am looking to move my self hosted email to a managed provider but I currently have 12 vanity domains. Even your most expensive plan doesn't allow for that many domains. Is there a way to get approved for more domains? I would like to do the Proton Unlimited plan and would be willing to prepay for two years of service.
For Fastmail is was similar but adjusted to account for their plans.
Proton took 7 days to respond, then, the response I got was just a hand-off to a different team. I never did get an actual answer.
Fastmail on the other hand responded in less than a day, and, had a trial period that let me verify everything I wanted would work.
They also don't have a limit on domains. I haven't seen any price gated functionality or any limits. I don't have 12 domains, but I do have a handful and it all works quite seamlessly.
I have been with Fastmail for probably a decade or more now. Worth it.
https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000277382-Ac...
Probably mostly there to prevent rampant abuse from spammers, scammers, or people just doing really weird shit creating millions of $thing where everyone else has a few dozen or hundred.
I love that I can have the same note open on both phone and computer and changes from either side will show up.
Setting up an app to connect to Fastmail's WebDav is super simple[1]
[1] https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000277882-Re...
Especially if Joplin files are anything like OneNote files and have the whole content of a workbook as a single file.
Will Standard Notes 'productivity' and/or 'professional' features (as listed on https://standardnotes.com/plans) be available for free to all paying Proton subscribers?
Most importantly: when will paying Proton users be able to start using the productivity/professional features via their Proton subscription? I can't wait, which is why I'm eager to know. :-)
I've waited for Proton to release a feature like this. Finally... I mean, I love Obsidian but it's not encrypted on my devices by default.
Thanks!
I left Standard Notes mainly because I wanted to use markdown files wherever/whenever I wanted versus being locked into something difficult to move from. Was good otherwise.
People like me don’t want to spread the butter over a dozen of different vendors, but at the same time paying for this type of service to a hardware or advertising firm doesn’t make sense. Neither I want my data to be managed by US-based company, so it’s quite a natural choice. That said, I hope Proton will find the right balance between cost of subscription and investment in R&D. Sometimes it feels like they are not moving fast enough - as much as I’d love to start using Calendar or Drive, they are just not usable yet.
After being burned by acquisitions in the past, I sincerely hope we see both products improve each other.
The floating "close keyboard" button creates situations on iOS that make it impossible to select particular bits of text sometimes. It makes me strongly suspect they aren't seriously dogfooding their own application.
They really try to hide the "just email" option these days and want everyone on the big full package. But nope, I just like my e-mail!
The world where everyone can easily have their own webpage without it being a Facebook or LinkedIn page
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/09/priva...
Their email is a scam, they own all the keys and software you use to access the email.
We also don't have access to your encryption keys - they are encrypted with your account password, which we don't have access to, and have no way to acquire.
First, enabling 2FA will take the risk of compromise down to almost zero (our data on compromised accounts supports this also).
Proton Sentinel also helps to protect against account takeovers even when an attacker has stolen your password: https://proton.me/blog/sentinel-high-security-program
I got the point of the proton account politely saying "we secure the account holistically and having an additional product is not an expansion of attack surface".