Proton’s new Family plan is tempting me to spend even more on encryption

I recently told you I was tempted to switch my password manager from 1Password to Proton Pass, a newly announced service from the Swiss software company Proton. Now, Proton has given me another reason to consider the switch. Enter the Proton Family Plan, which offers a suite of end-to-encrypted apps: Mail, Calendar, Drive, VPN, and Pass. It all starts at $19.99 per month if you get the two-year plan, and that’s a tremendous value for up to six family members.

You might be familiar with Proton for their end-to-end encrypted Mail app. But the company has launched several useful services over the years, with Proton Pass being the most recent.

Proton Mail, Calendar, Drive, VPN, and Pass are all end-to-end encrypted, which will ensure and protect your privacy. Moreover, since Proton is based in Switzerland, your data is safeguarded by local privacy laws.

The Proton Family Plan will extend that privacy protection to your family members, who might not be as tech-savvy as you. Still, access to end-to-end encrypted apps might help them better understand and appreciate strong privacy and security features.

The family plan is available right now, starting at $19.99 per month if you’re willing to pay for two years’ worth of access up front. Here’s what the plan has to offer:

• Up to six family members
• 3 TB of storage space to share to start and 20 GB of bonus storage every year
• Proton Mail, Proton Drive, Proton Calendar, and Proton VPN with all their premium features
• Coming soon: Proton Pass, our new password manager
• The paid versions of all new privacy services we release in the future

This is already amazing value right here, especially if you and your family have no problem starting from scratch. That is, ditch competing services to rely more on Proton’s suite of apps.

At $20/month, it’s a service worth considering even if you don’t plan on sharing it with others. The plan costs $23.99 per month if you pay for 12 months of access upfront or $29.99 monthly for month-to-month access.

But you can get a free account to test drive Proton services if you’ve never used Proton Mail before you ink a family deal.

If your attachment to Gmail is the main reason you’d avoid Proton, you should know that Proton Mail supports Gmail forwarding. You won’t have to ditch Gmail to get on the Proton Family Plan.

The only thing we don’t know is when Proton Pass will be available, the password manager that Proton announced recently. Like I said before, the upcoming password manager is a highlight, and the inclusion in the new Proton Family Plan is terrific news.

And yes, the fact that Proton will include future premium apps in the plan is another exciting promise.