Proton pricing system is pure shit, its like dynamic scam and changes based on your location and which app you use.
If you go through the website you get a different discount than the app market.
Proton needs transparency when it comes to pricing.
Note: hey proton stop shoving expensive bundles for apps i don’t use.
I’m mad because it used to be great years ago. You could pick a specific tier for each service, so you could get the top mail tier and the middle VPN one for example, plus some features were optional add-ons independent of the plan. It was really modular and transparent
You can still do that. When they released Unlimited some modular options became more expensive than Unlimited, but included the same thing, so those were removed (because at that point you should just use Unlimited). This was pro-consumer, and most companies do the opposite. As far as I’m aware they have never removed features that used to exist, and their plans have only gotten cheaper (when accounting for inflation, and comparing to all other tech corpos). You can’t expect to continue paying the $2 you were paying for mail in 2015 forever.
Well they are a for profit company
They are not. They transitioned to a non-profit foundation. https://proton.me/blog/proton-non-profit-foundation
You are incorrect. Proton is a for profit company with non-profit as the majority shareholder. From the article
As the largest voting shareholder of Proton, no change of control can occur without the consent of the foundation
Proton seems to be more than happy to let people think they are now a non-profit though, which is what bothers me.
You do know that transparent clear pricing is also a model for profit.
This happens when you bought through a sale a long term plan (maybe 12 or 24 months). During new sales they will offer you again the best price on a long term plan or a worse price on a shorter term plan. It’s not infuriating, it’s just the service offering you a better price if you purchase a longer term plan (probably similar to the one you already bought last time).
That or they’re on a legacy plan and the service wasn’t designed with legacy plans in mind. So when it says Save 50%, it’s 50% on the standard service, not 50% on your current plan.
Christ, they are IT company with my data, let’s hope not
It’s not. The user is clearly on “VPN Plus”. https://protonvpn.com/pricing
Happy cake day!
I have something similar with my phone plan
My current plan (that I’ve been on for about 7 years now) includes unlimited everything and global roaming across basically anywhere I’ve ever visited (only had to get a separate ESIM once)
I’m regularly getting offers from them to switch to a plan with limits and more restricted roaming for only an extra 25% more a month…!
That is not the same thing. If you took that offer you’d be worse off and couldn’t ever get it back. It’s an intentional dark pattern to screw the customer into a shittier offering.
This is just a web design fail. The “VPN Plus” plan they are on is probably an existing 12 or 24 month rate. The new offer is probably the same thing, or a special discount for 24 months of “Unlimited”, which includes like 5 extra services. They could always go back to “VPN Plus”. (I am seeing a cheaper rate of 3.99 EUR for 12m, or 2.99 for 24m https://protonvpn.com/pricing).
Proton really been enshittifying hard lately
They were rated highly among my options when I was choosing various services last year, and I ended up not picking them because it felt like they really want to be Google, and that at any moment they will pull the rug out from under their customers in a “remove ‘Don’t be evil’ from the charter” move. These stories seem to suggest I was right.
And then the co-owner of the VPN I chose funded far right politics in Germany. Whoops.
I mean, they’re all WireGuard. ProtonVPN is WireGuard. Mulvad VPN – what I assume you’re referencing — is WireGuard.
If you don’t like a given WireGuard VPN provider, then just switch to some other VPN provider that supports WireGuard and use that service instead.
Wireguard isn’t what matters. What matters is how much personal data the VPN company collects and how they handle that personal data. In Mullvad’s case, they don’t need any personal information to sign up (you just generate an account number and can then pay via cash/monero for anonymity), and they don’t get any personal information when you use the service either as their servers are RAM-only so they can’t log anything.
That is not good advice. Most VPN companies are not security or privacy companies. In fact, most appear to be surveillance capitalism companies who should never be trusted, and are likely to be worse than no VPN at all.
That last line especially. I have the unlimited plan but more and more i’m getting sold additional stuff for ‘only’ $$$ extra.
Get the deal a better service is offering you.
I don’t know what I’m missing here. The pricing looks fair. Longer term agreements usually mean cheaper per month pricing. It looks like OP is on a 24 month plan that I assume is expiring. What the infuriating part? It’s it that the ad popped up on the first place?
It looks like OP is on a 24 month plan that I assume is expiring.
That’s why it’s annoying, OP is most likely on a plain monthly plan, and to get the same price they need to pay for 2 years upfront. That’s 120€. And this amount is not written even in small print.
Also I looked it up and it’s 70% off for me, at “2.99€” (72€ for the first 24 months then 84€/12mo). So dynamic pricing bullshit.
It looks like the monthly price is 10€ per month. I just looked mine up and it’s $9.99. my 1 year option is $4.99 (50%) and the 2 year option is $2.99 (70%). So the percentages don’t line up with mine, but they are consistent in that 1 month is $10. If OP is paying monthly with no commitment, then I don’t find volume pricing infuriating, but I do find it odd that the percentages aren’t the same across the board. Of course if you’re already on a $2.99 plan and they’re grandfathering you into pricing, then I have no problems with any of it. That’s how every subscription like this works, discounts for longer commitment.
Also, the pricing is listed as per month with a month based commitment. That’s also standard practice. Yes, it’s all required up front, but they are more or less itemizing the fees. I agree that having the total listed would be an upgrade, but this is how all of my subscriptions operate.
but this is how all of my subscriptions operate.
Murderer is brought to court: “I don’t see the problem judge, i just do what every murderer does.”
Like I said, it would be better if they listed the full price. My only argument is that it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that’s had a subscription. Mildly irritating is a fair assessment, it just doesn’t bother me personally.
I’m just waiting for that $27 for 24 months deal again…or something close to it
