Privacy-focused Swiss company Proton has launched its end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) cloud storage service. For Mac usersfour months after it arrived on Windows.
Founded about nine years ago, Proton originally focused on a pioneering Gmail alternative called Proton Mail, but the company has expanded its horizons In VPNspassword manager, calendar Indeed, cloud storage.
Proton has launched Proton Drive for the first time on the web Last Septemberwhich was followed by native mobile apps in December and Windows in July – so today’s news pretty much means that Proton Drive is now fully cross-platform, with users able to sync everything across all the devices they use.
![Proton Engine for Mac](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Proton-Drive-macOS-image-1.png)
Proton Engine for Mac Image credits: proton
Proton Drive forms part of Proton’s grand plan to bring secure, privacy-focused alternative Google products to market. Or perhaps more accurately in the case of most Mac users, an alternative to Apple’s iCloud.
In fact, Proton Drive promises end-to-end encryption of files and folders by default — although Apple recently introduced end-to-end encryption for some types of data on iCloud, it must be activated manually by users. On the other hand, Proton Drive says it uses end-to-end encryption across all data, including metadata and file names, by default.
Proton engine It comes with 1GB of free storagewith additional paid plans available starting at $4 per month with 200GB of storage plus additional features like the ability to automatically store previous versions of a file for up to 10 years.
Right now, Proton Drive for Mac will only sync files to the cloud stored in a Proton Drive folder, but Proton says it’s working on enabling sync to any local folder
Also, while Proton has open sourced most of its apps over the years, allowing third parties like security researchers to examine the underlying code, the Proton Drive Mac app isn’t open source yet — but the company says that will happen in due course.
And for Linux users, Proton has it He previously indicated that this would happen eventuallyBut it is part of the long-term road map.