Criticism of Proton's subscription options

[PurpleDime]

Thank you for your comment @olanography. I appreciate your understanding.

@olanography

I would not go so far as to assert this as confidently as you, because I do not know what their intentions are. […] I do not know the technical capabilities or limitations for bundling plans, though, as I am not familiar with e-commerce.

I’ve asked Proton multiple times why they don’t allow bundled subscriptions and they told me that it was a strategic marketing choice and that they could not discuss it any further beyond the fact that they have no plans to change their strategy.

That confirms my suspicion that it has nothing to do with technical hurdles preventing them from doing so.

@olanography

But if it’s true that it’s very technically possible to allow personalized bundling, I would also consider it a crappy business practice for not allowing me to do as such.

Yes. It’s crappy. Hence, my use of the terms enshittification and dark pattern to describe these practices.

@olanography

An additional question for @PurpleDime (since you seem to know a lot about it, but do correct me if I am wrong) or @Proton_Team:I have never tried this, but can we buy multiple offerings for a singular account? If I buy Mail Plus for one account, can I still buy VPN Plus or Pass Plus for that same account?

The answer to your question is no. This is what I’ve been complaining about since the beginning. It is also why I prefer to use the term multiple subscriptions under one account rather than bundled subscriptions, because the latter doesn’t necessarily imply the former, unless you specify it. I’ve made that differentiation various times:

@PurpleDime

I’m all for bundled subscriptions, but I also want to specify that when I advocate for Proton allowing multiple subscriptions under the same I account, it should be any combination of subscriptions in any number. Meaning that they shouldn’t force you to subscribe to Proton Mail Plus, Proton Pass, and Proton VPN (3 products), if you just want Proton Mail Plus and Proton Pass Plus (2 products). I am not even asking for a discount. I Just want to be able to pay for exactly what I want under the same account.

As it stands, if you have a Proton Mail Plus subscription and want to subscribe to Proton Pass Plus with the same account, Proton will not allow it. Your only options are to upgrade to Proton Unlimited or create a separate second Proton account for Proton Pass Plus, which is suboptimal.

Even if in both scenarios, Proton is getting your money, they won’t allow you to pay for multiple subscriptions under the same account. They would rather you have a subpar experience by managing 2 separate paid accounts or upgrade to Proton Unlimited, which is their most expensive plan for individuals. That is the exact situation I am in.

@olanography

If not, I would definitely consider it coercive if it’s technically possible for Proton to set it up that way.

I’m glad you agree. I’m not even asking for a discount. I just want to be able to pay for multiple products under the same account. I’m currently paying for 3 Proton products separately because of this situation.

Even if in the future I eventually complied to Proton’s wish by upgrading to Proton Unlimited, I still have to decide which account to upgrade. Some people might not know this, but merging accounts or migrating data from one Proton account to another is a messy, long-winded process. Aliases cannot be migrated in a single batch. The migration has to be done manually, one by one, via an indirect method, and you lose all your metadata. If you have 500+ aliases, it’s not ideal.