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Proton, the company behind popular online privacy and security tools Proton VPN and Proton Mail, wants to make it more economical for you and a friend or loved one to stay safe online. The company this week introduced its Proton Duo package, which gives two individuals access to Proton’s full suite of services under a single subscription.
Proton Duo is essentially the same as the Proton Family plan that the company introduced last year, but cheaper and only for two people rather than up to six. As with the Family plan, Proton Duo subscribers get access to Proton VPN, Proton Mail, Proton Drive, Proton Calendar and Proton Pass. Additionally, you and your Duo partner get to share 1TB of cloud storage space and 15GB of bonus storage each year. Although the subscription is shared, you and your partner get separate logins and full personal access to each individual service.
Proton’s blog post introducing the Duo plan seems to be geared towards existing users who might want to bring a friend or a loved one into the Proton ecosystem and show them how to better protect their privacy in an online world dominated by data-hoarding, privacy-invading Big Tech companies.
“[Big Tech] companies exploit your friends and family’s most sensitive, valuable data to show them tracking-based advertising or expose them to unscrupulous, information-scraping AI tools,” Proton product lead Anant Vijay wrote in the blog post. “If a partner or family member is still using Google to send emails, store documents or offload photos, it’s likely they’re inadvertently exposing the sensitive, valuable information you took precautions to protect.”
Is Proton Duo worth it?
The Family plan costs $288 per year, while Proton is currently offering its Duo plan at a discounted rate of $180 per year for a limited time. Proton says that anyone who purchases the Duo plan at the discounted rate will lock that rate in for the lifetime of their subscription. A representative from Proton told me that there is currently no timetable for when the promotional period will end and the company hasn’t yet decided on what the regular annual price will be for the Duo plan.
I’ve been impressed with Proton’s individual services as well as the company’s overall commitment to privacy and transparency. Proton VPN is one of the best VPNs on the planet, and its suite of other privacy and security services are intuitive and truly useful. As a comparison, one individual Proton Unlimited subscription costs $120 per year and includes the same services as the Duo subscription. With the promo pricing, you’re saving $60 by going with Duo over getting two individual Unlimited accounts.
I’m guessing that the post-promotional pricing will be slightly under $240 per year, so folks will still have an incentive to go with the Duo plan, but we’ll have to wait and see what the regular price will amount to. Still, you’ll have to decide for yourself whether you and another friend or family member will realistically use all of the included services and if it’ll be worth it to shell out close to $200 per year for the subscription.
Notably, Proton doesn’t offer an antivirus solution. Even though Proton VPN’s NetShield ad-blocker feature offers basic surface-level malware protections, it doesn’t deliver the full slate of features and protections that an antivirus program can. So while Proton Duo is an attractive online privacy and security bundle, you’d still need a separate antivirus program if you want to achieve comprehensive protection.
That said, there still isn’t a VPN provider available that offers as broad a selection of services as Proton does. Considering that NordVPN’s Ultimate subscription plan costs $278 annually and includes only NordVPN, NordPass, Threat Protection Pro, ID theft recovery and 1TB of cloud storage for a single account, you’re getting an excellent deal with Proton’s Duo package, even if you need to get yourself a separate antivirus solution. Surfshark includes a full antivirus solution in addition to its VPN with its Surfshark One-Plus bundle for $100 annually for a single account, but doesn’t include a password manager, secure email or cloud storage like Proton Duo does.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether Proton Duo is a suitable solution for you and your partner’s needs. But in my opinion, with Proton Duo you’re getting a suite of excellent privacy and security tools from a reputable provider for a very reasonable price at $180 annually. If you’re leaning toward getting it, I’d jump on the promo price ASAP before it ends up spiking.