Proton Docs vs Google Docs: Should you switch?

Proton launches Proton Docs, a cloud document editor that focuses on privacy.

Swiss privacy protection company Proton has turned its attention to cloud document editing after establishing email, VPN, cloud storage and password manager services. The newly launched Proton Docs may be enough to attract you to try in terms of functionality and privacy.

Proton Docs integrates with existing Proton Drive services to provide users with encrypted cloud storage for photos, videos and other file types. It has built-in sharing options and is accessible via a web browser or a dedicated mobile app.

The Advantages of Proton Docs

The main advantage of Proton Docs compared to Google Docs is privacy: your file content, even your keys and cursor movements are end-to-end encryption, which is accessible only to you (even Proton employees can’t). This undoubtedly makes your files safer and effectively resists hacker attacks and data breaches.

Of course, for balance, we should point out that Google has also taken very strong security measures to protect your data—although not as perfect as end-to-end encryption. Your Google Drive files are not used to train AI, and Google has a good track record of blocking hackers, but at the same time, it is a company that relies primarily on targeted advertising and user profiles to make money.

Google is headquartered in the United States, with surveillance regulations in the United States being looser than Switzerland where Proton’s headquarters and data centers are located. “Because of our open source end-to-end encryption, only you have the key to read and share documents,” Proton explained in a blog post. “Even Proton cannot access your document content or metadata (such as file names).”

In addition to privacy, Proton Docs also have a range of practical features. Collaboration and sharing tools (critical for online word processors) are up and running, and support for text formatting, image and table processing, as well as lists, code blocks and excerpts.

As an online application running in a browser tab, everything is saved immediately and provides good support for other file formats, including Word files and Markdown files. The interface is simple and clear, and easy to operate. After using Proton Docs for a while, you may find that the interface of Google Docs is too complicated.

The shortcomings of Proton Docs

There is no doubt that Google Docs outperform Proton Docs in terms of depth and breadth of features—as you would expect from an online word processor with nearly 20 years of leading edge. Currently, Proton Docs only offer basic features – as well as additional privacy protection.

For example, Google Docs has more font and layout options, as well as practical tools such as format pasting. Proton Docs currently does not have word counting, text translation, or spelling and grammar checking—or does not have the Gemini AI assistant to generate text or rewrite text you have written.

You cannot insert charts or digital signatures in Proton Docs, nor can you edit headers and footers. Unlike Google Docs, it has no choice between a print layout (you can see the page boundaries) and a pageless layout – you can only get the latter, which you might prefer if you don't plan to do any prints. . As far as Gmail, Google Drive and all other related applications are concerned, Proton's supporting ecosystem is not yet at Google.

If this sounds like we're too negative about Proton Docs, that's not the case: it's fast, simple-looking, and offers more security than Google Docs in terms of privacy and security. It may win the favor of many users and will undoubtedly update regularly, but you should understand the aspects of it lag behind Google Docs at the moment.

You can start using Proton Docs with a free Proton account, which provides you with 5GB of cloud storage for all your files. Upgrading to a paid plan (starting at $4.99 per month) gives you more space and additional benefits to other Proton products (including additional email addresses and email filters).

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