How and why I've migrated from from Google to Proton

After 11 years of using Google's suite of tools, my consultancy business moved to Proton last week. I've been a satisfied user of their services for many years now for personal email, calendar, and file storage.

The immediate reason for switching came when Google announced that GMail was entering the Gemini era. The announcement included this passage:

"With email volume at an all-time high, managing your inbox and the flow of information has become as important as the emails themselves. To help, we're bringing Gmail into the Gemini era and making it your personal, proactive inbox assistant."

No thanks.

Why this matters

I've written previously about the problems with getting off US tech and about how digital colonialism operates through jurisdiction rather than geography. This announcement helped me realise something that's been latent ever since I was a teenager getting into Open Source: using a tool on someone else's terms eventually means accepting their priorities, not yours.

Google's priority is feeding their AI models with the patterns found in my email. The Gmail blog explicitly frames this as something they're doing “to help,” but... I didn't ask for it. More importantly, I'm not sure I can use Gmail without participating in this system. I can opt out of data training, but doing so removes functionality. To be clear, I use AI tools every day, but I do so on my terms.

Also, Google operates under US jurisdiction. The CLOUD Act means that regardless of where Google's servers sit physically, US law enforcement can compel Google to hand over my data.

Proton exists in Switzerland. That difference might sound like it's geographical, but it's actually jurisdictional. Swiss law provides materially different protections. More importantly, Proton's zero-knowledge architecture means they physically cannot access my emails, even if a court ordered them to. Encryption happens on my device and Proton only holds encrypted data.

I'm not paranoid, and nor am I a privacy absolutist. Instead, it's about matching my tool choices to my actual requirements. I handle client data and can now say “my email, files, and calendar is encrypted end-to-end and the provider has zero access.” It's an easy, straightforward answer to data protection questions.

Switching was straightforward

Moving from Google to Proton took a couple of hours last Thursday. Proton's Easy Switch tool moved my email, calendar, contacts, and settings automatically and reliably. My only manual task was downloading files via Google Takeout and uploading them to Proton Drive.

DNS changes for my domain (MX records, etc.) were required, but any platform switch would require this.

I'd originally planned to use Proton for Business completely separately to my personal Proton account. However, I remembered that I'd already purchased Proton Unlimited on a Black Friday deal for two years. As my consultancy business is just me, I simply mapped an additional domain as a custom email address to my existing Proton account.

So now, although I hadn't intended to, I'm actually saving money thanks to the switch as I don't have to pay for Google Workspace. I just have a separate folder structure on Proton Drive, maintain a separate calendar, and auto-tag and file my consultancy emails in my existing Proton inbox.

Proton now offers Docs and Sheets, so I have equivalents for Google's productivity suite. The main gap is slides, although there are a million solutions for this.

Appointment scheduling

So far, so good. This is where things become interesting and illustrate a real trade-off with privacy-focused tools.

Proton Calendar works well for my own scheduling. It's fully encrypted, which means even Proton cannot see my events. Howver, this same encryption prevents integration with third-party appointment schedulers like Calendly. Proton Calendar has no API, so there's no way to expose free/busy information to external booking tools.

I do use appointment scheduling for consultancy work, so I need a solution that worked with Proton Calendar whilst maintaining privacy.

Although it still needs some work, I vibe coded a privacy-respecting appointment scheduler that works with any calendar supporting iCal format. The tool is available on GitHub as Scheduler.

Here's how it works:

1. You provide your calendar's free/busy link in iCal format
2. You fill in your details as the calendar owner
3. Scheduler generates a unique link you can share with others
4. When someone visits that link, they see your available slots and can select one
5. Once they book, an email confirmation is sent to both parties

I've deployed it at scheduler.dougbelshaw.com, though I'm still resolving some email delivery issues. I'm building it for my own use and hopefully, eventually, it will be useful for others.

It does illustrates something important about digital sovereignty, though. It's not enough to just switch providers. Sometimes you need workarounds and have to figure out (or build) supporting tools.

What have I gained?

Given that, right now, I do most of my work through my cooperative's infrastructure, the migration hasn't changed that much how I work day-to-day. However, I'm likely to be doing more work through my own consultancy in future.

I've gained:

• Certainty that my email remains encrypted even if legally compelled to be shared
• Jurisdiction over my data through Swiss law rather than US law
• Cost savings by consolidating my Proton Unlimited subscription across personal and business use

For this, I've traded:

• Deep integration with third-party tools, such as single sign-on
• Google Slides, which is useful for things beyond presentations
• API integrations for future tools

I recognise that making this move when it's a company of one through which I don't currently do most of my work, was simple. It's likely to need more planning and thinking through when multiple people are involved. I'll still have a Google account for my consultancy business, as I'm not planning to force clients to use Proton to work with me.

Next steps

The scheduler still needs work as it's not actually delivering emails at the moment! I'm hoping to get that fixed this month.

Beyond that, this migration is complete. I've moved my business email to a provider where I'm not the product, and I'm building a tool to fill a gap created by that choice. I've accepted the trade-offs that I've experienced so far.

I'm not suggesting that everyone should follow this path. Proton isn't perfect. I've tried other solutions, including Kolab and Nextcloud, and found them lacking. Proton is simply the best choice I've found that aligns with how I think about digital sovereignty and who I want controlling my data.