Proton Pass is an open source, end-to-end encrypted password manager app. Create and store passwords, email aliases, 2FA codes, and notes on all your devices
IIRC it’s missing a number of features that ProtonVPN Windows has. I last checked into it a year or so ago and the attitude was that it was a very shoddy application missing most features. I found this github issue expressing this sentiment but I don’t see much in terms of specifics.
I don’t have a paid ProtonVPN but I just downloaded the VPN on a free account and it only has 3 options on it:
Secure Core on/off (only select servers in privacy-friendly countries)
Netshield (DNS adblocking etc)
Killswitch
I use Mullvad so I opened that up alongside and will list out the features it has on its Linux client in comparison:
The main ones for me are split tunneling and Wireguard. Using a VPN that doesn’t support these is a non-starter for me, unfortunately. If any of this is different when you have a paid ProtonVPN account let me know - I don’t have very much experience with it.
TBH, if protonVPN under linux was any good I would probably have Proton Unlimited. I can’t justify paying for Mullvad and Proton Unlimited, so I DIY my own collection of services to match functionality for about the same price.
I just had a look and as far as i can tell ProtonVPN suppports everything Mullvad does. On windows…
On linux you get fuckall settings. No split tunneling, no dns, no wireguard, no nothing. There seems to be no parity between linux and windows. That is less than poorly supported, it’s atrocious tbh.
On windows you even get a fancy map with triangles that shows server locations that can be used to quick connect.
And this is with an unlimited account so i don’t believe it’s an account level limit.
Edit: I just looked and to be fair they do state in the plan features that Split tunneling is only available on Android and Windows
At the very least it’s super weird.
I don’t get why they don’t focus on creating partity and add the bare minimum functions like sync for drive and split tunnel for vpn on all devices before spreading out to password managers and so on.
I’m slowly losing confidence in them.
Thanks for the in depth answer.
I think a paid account has more features, but i of course don’t know if they apply to the linux client.
I’ll check the features once i get on my pc and get back to you.
I might even spin up a windows VM to check the differences between the versions if i can find the time.
It’s horrible. I’ve had to hack together a shell script to switch between countries using a bunch of openvpn config files. The official app broke my Linux Mint network setup.
This is complained about over and over again, and the response is always the same: they have different teams working on different products. Just throwing more people and money at something doesn’t accelerate development.
But yeah, I’ll agree Proton development moves at a snail’s pace.
I agree. Especially since tons of password managers exist on the market and in many forms.
I would rather prefer that they improve Proton Drive and Proton Calendar, that are to me much more complementary to Proton Mail.
This is exactly my sentiment. I had an account with two mail users, custom domain, one VPN connection, etc. for a couple of years. It was nice but while ProtonMail is one of their most mature product, it still feels quite lacking compared to other offerings. And with every other product they have, things feel less and less thorough. I support their efforts, but don’t really want to pay for the way they’re doing it. I still keep an eye out though, because I think it has a lot of potential.
Unfortunately, I went back to less privacy-focused platforms. My wife and I rely heavily on shared calendars, reminders, tasks, desktop drive clients, and other groupware functionality. So we’re back with those Google bastards for now.
Like I said I really like the general concepts of Proton and was a paying user for over a year, but eventually we just had to move back to Google because of the lack of features.
If their offerings become more mature, then we’ll absolutely be looking at coming back!
I wish that proton would focus on the depth of their present stack, as opposed to breadth.
I’ve been begging for rclone support for proton drive for a long time now… without it, I basically have 1tb sitting there useless.
Same thoughts here. ProtonVPN under Linux is very poorly supported.
Just out of curiosity. How is it poorly supported?
I haven’t used it much yet, but the times i have it seems to have worked fine.
IIRC it’s missing a number of features that ProtonVPN Windows has. I last checked into it a year or so ago and the attitude was that it was a very shoddy application missing most features. I found this github issue expressing this sentiment but I don’t see much in terms of specifics.
I don’t have a paid ProtonVPN but I just downloaded the VPN on a free account and it only has 3 options on it:
I use Mullvad so I opened that up alongside and will list out the features it has on its Linux client in comparison:
The main ones for me are split tunneling and Wireguard. Using a VPN that doesn’t support these is a non-starter for me, unfortunately. If any of this is different when you have a paid ProtonVPN account let me know - I don’t have very much experience with it.
TBH, if protonVPN under linux was any good I would probably have Proton Unlimited. I can’t justify paying for Mullvad and Proton Unlimited, so I DIY my own collection of services to match functionality for about the same price.
I just had a look and as far as i can tell ProtonVPN suppports everything Mullvad does. On windows…
On linux you get fuckall settings. No split tunneling, no dns, no wireguard, no nothing. There seems to be no parity between linux and windows. That is less than poorly supported, it’s atrocious tbh.
On windows you even get a fancy map with triangles that shows server locations that can be used to quick connect.
And this is with an unlimited account so i don’t believe it’s an account level limit.
Edit: I just looked and to be fair they do state in the plan features that Split tunneling is only available on Android and Windows
That’s crazy. Proton just not giving a fuck about Linux is a red flag for a privacy company.
At the very least it’s super weird.
I don’t get why they don’t focus on creating partity and add the bare minimum functions like sync for drive and split tunnel for vpn on all devices before spreading out to password managers and so on.
I’m slowly losing confidence in them.
Thanks for the in depth answer.
I think a paid account has more features, but i of course don’t know if they apply to the linux client.
I’ll check the features once i get on my pc and get back to you.
I might even spin up a windows VM to check the differences between the versions if i can find the time.
Yeah its sucks. It is also based on Python and not stable as much as Mullvad.
Missing lots of features. Proton does not prioritize Linux at all
It’s horrible. I’ve had to hack together a shell script to switch between countries using a bunch of openvpn config files. The official app broke my Linux Mint network setup.
Wish I could up vote that 100 times!
I’d like separate address inbox support for my proton mail web client
This is complained about over and over again, and the response is always the same: they have different teams working on different products. Just throwing more people and money at something doesn’t accelerate development.
But yeah, I’ll agree Proton development moves at a snail’s pace.
This was an acquisition (SimpleLogin) then having the acquired developers work on Proton Pass.
It still took up some resources but it’s not like they took all their developers off the other projects.
I agree. Especially since tons of password managers exist on the market and in many forms. I would rather prefer that they improve Proton Drive and Proton Calendar, that are to me much more complementary to Proton Mail.
This is exactly my sentiment. I had an account with two mail users, custom domain, one VPN connection, etc. for a couple of years. It was nice but while ProtonMail is one of their most mature product, it still feels quite lacking compared to other offerings. And with every other product they have, things feel less and less thorough. I support their efforts, but don’t really want to pay for the way they’re doing it. I still keep an eye out though, because I think it has a lot of potential.
I’ll prob stay paying, as their integration with simplelogin is very convenient. What services do you use in place of proton that feels more mature?
Unfortunately, I went back to less privacy-focused platforms. My wife and I rely heavily on shared calendars, reminders, tasks, desktop drive clients, and other groupware functionality. So we’re back with those Google bastards for now.
Like I said I really like the general concepts of Proton and was a paying user for over a year, but eventually we just had to move back to Google because of the lack of features.
If their offerings become more mature, then we’ll absolutely be looking at coming back!
Have you tried Skiff? It will be listed on PG soon, and ticks all the boxes.
I have not, but I will! Thanks!
+1 for skiff