I joined Proton just a few days ago, and I’m paying for it so I can use my custom domain.
I watched this interview and it raises a huge question for me (link includes timestamp): https://tilvids.com/w/q1mZzv6eq3iULLmGdV6w6M?start=6m20s
In this interview, Andy Yen says about gmail et al “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”. Then, in nearly the same breath, he boasts that most Proton users don’t pay, they use the basic service for free because that’s all they need.
So my question is: if there’s no such thing as a free lunch (which there isn’t), how come Proton can offer it?
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Most software is built on free samples. Games, for example, very often have free demos…still…after decades. Free demos sold me on many games over the years. And one day, I’ll pay for Proton too.
Limited functions on free tier, and like me, after a year, I joined the paid tier
This is a great demonstration of what running a company for endless profit vs running it to provide a good service while covering costs looks like (as is the fediverse, btw).
“No such thing as a free lunch” is as much part of the capitalist indoctrination as “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” and the idea that we live in a meritocracy.
Truth is, just like with actual food, there is more than enough to go around, and when you don’t commodify everything in existence as a way to gain power and control over others, sharing is pretty easily done, natural even.
subsidized freemium is a standard practice. it cuts slightly into their profits maybe slightly, but turnover into paying customers is worth it.
Because the paying users subsidize the free product, they pay the free lunch. Meanwhile google, like most big platforms, is entirely without payment, instead subsidized by ads (and of course the sold data); with gmail you’re not paying with money, but with your attention (and your data).
Unlike many internet companies that depend on invading your privacy to sell ads, Proton is funded by revenue from paid plans. Because we rely on you for funding, and because you rely on Proton to protect your data, we’re always incentivized to keep your data secure and private.
Your subscription pays for the development of new features and services, as well as the cost of running Proton. By upgrading to a paid plan, not only will you get access to advanced features, you’ll support our mission to provide citizens around the world with an internet where privacy is the default.
Do I really need the paid tier? Not necessarily. Proton provides me with a viable privacy-first service. Like they say; vote with your wallet.
I’ve successfully de-googled myself after ~20 years. It feels good to be free of a corporation doing its best to spy on every aspect my life. If my subscription subsidizes the OP’s free lunch I say cheers mate 🍻, have some free privacy on me.
I’m also a free tier user so thanks!
I wish I could totally buy it, but I could never justify the price relative to current expenses especially now that drive has 5 gigs
Anyways thanks for letting me have privacy too :D
Edit: but proton pass has been in my radar since I got into proton and privacy a couple months ago and that reduction in price is making it look mighty fine tho
If you want an online service set to be big enough to be in common awareness, you need users.
Free users are the cheapest advertisements possible. You already have to have the infrastructure built to have the service in the first place, and people will jump at “free”. It’s already proven that you can attract users and convert enough of them to paying customers by offering a lesser service for free to lead to profitability. Now, the model proton uses is way less profitable than Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, or any of the other
ad serverssocial network/email services, but that’s a secondary issue, and not a negative one.My free proton account using ass is directly responsible for making 3 paying users aware it existed in the first place. And there’s a few more where people tried the service after I gave a good word when they asked about it after hearing of it in other ways. Every email I send to someone via that account is a form of advertising because non-gmail accounts that are also not isp accounts draw attention sometimes.
Now, at this point they could do fine without a free tier. If they phased it out correctly, they could probably do it without pissing enough paying people off to the extent of being an issue. But the fact that they haven’t is another point in their favor.
You guys, the paying customers? Thank you. Y’all are making sure my old, crippled ass has a good alternative to gmail without an extra expense that would be hard to afford.
We free tier users are not really free, we are still part of the product, just in a non invasive, non abusive way.
Proton has paid tiers covering their actual costs, and they aren’t out to kneel at the altar of capitalism, driving shareholder value, etc. Google literally sells you as their product, so Gmail is free that way.
They power their servers with starving hamsters.
