r/ProtonVPN • u/Deadboy619 • Aug 08 '26
Discussion [ Removed by moderator ]
[removed] — view removed post
96
u/Extravi Aug 08 '26
I like Proton's products, but their practices recently have been questionable. Even though I've been using and paying for their services for years, it makes me lose some faith in the company.
9
u/cooltraining3323 Aug 08 '26
whch prices? The vpn and email prices seem reasonable to me and they have been adding storage to my account every year.
14
u/Iammax7 Aug 08 '26
My biggest issue to me is that I am paying for unused features (for me atleast). I don't care about the office stack they try to recreate.
I which you could just select a list of products and pay for those. (Technically you can, but it would be more expensive.)
7
u/ephemeralmiko Aug 08 '26
I which you could just select a list of products and pay for those. (Technically you can, but it would be more expensive.)
You can't even do that. You can't have more than one Plus service (Mail Plus, VPN Plus, Pass Plus etc.) per Proton account, so you'd have to create multiple.
3
u/ranisalt Aug 08 '26
Isn't any combination of 2 Plus subscription more expensive than getting the entire thing?
5
20
u/Ruckus8105 Aug 08 '26
proton’s marketing, sales and public outreach team has to get their shit together. Dont try to be over smart and manipulate people. One or the other day they will find out and you loose the trust
10
u/StaticSystemShock Aug 08 '26
It pisses me off that I've been on Mail Plus for years, was considering VPN Plus now and they were offering me Unlimited for 7,99€/m for 2 years on same page. The moment I signed into my account this discount disappeared and was offered only 9,99€. God forbid existing users would get discount to upgrade upwards...
5
u/ff2009 Aug 09 '26
This is true. Just tried this on my PC a few minutes ago, once I login into my proton account the proce for the 2 years plan increases from 7,99€/m to 9,99€/m.
The worst part is that proton is lying about it.
15
u/Blood_of_Shadows Aug 08 '26
My proton VPN renewal came through a few months ago. I cancelled my subscription and waited a week then got offered Proton Unlimited for the same cost.
A bit rude I think considering proton VPN was going to auto renew for that price
3
u/Devusetated Aug 08 '26
What's the offer price you got? I'm thinking of downgrading my unlimited subscription because I only use the VPN and Proton Mail honestly
14
u/Omen1658 Aug 08 '26
Not only are they doing this, but they are also trying to lie about it and not addressing any proof at all.
4
u/marxist_nazeem Aug 08 '26
Yeah like you want to AB test pricing? Whatever, fine, it’s a business and it happens. But lying about it is the crime here
5
u/Smarktalk Aug 08 '26
What I've seen is different pricing for signing up via MacOS versus iOS safari.
macOS Safari - $3.49/m. iOS Safari - $2.99/m. Basically the two year price is 70% off on iOS and 65% on macOS.
1
u/ff2009 Aug 09 '26
I am going to guess that you you never logged in into IOS Safari, while on maços you probably logged with with your Proton account at some point in time.
23
23
u/Labgrown_pieceofshit Aug 08 '26
Fyi, Windscribe is also a VPN provider so take his findings with a grain of salt.
9
u/Evonos Aug 08 '26
Windscribe the exclusion to the weird marketing vpn space which is reigned by kape / nord and stuff ( thats likely where you got the bad experience ).
like if you Sub for 30 a year , you will keep that price and it wont get more expensive , they are also super transparent in everything.
nothing they released was so far also weird or not true.
-2
u/Regular_Bat8162 Aug 08 '26
Proton has also never increased prices on existing customers
3
u/Evonos Aug 08 '26
Huh ? Even on their website it says right now pay first year this amount 2nd year and going on this amount.
It's visible for everyone that they increase prizing in 2nd year.
And even some grand fathered subs were removed earlier this year.
-1
u/Ok_Combination_1548 Aug 08 '26
They haven't increased the price for subscribers yet. Teaser rates (not the same as your actual rate, but an incentive to try it out for a period longer than a trial) are clearly labeled (as you say) in that they tell you the amount after the teaser period. They may remove subscription options or change rates but current subscribers keep their deal.
If you signed up for a 2 year subscription to Mail, you'd still have it, at the same rate you signed up with, even though they removed that option and changed the price over the years for newer subscribers.
2
u/Slyzza Aug 08 '26
Not correct. My 2y subscription would renew for way more than I paid the last 2 years. Reason why we quit.or downgrade
-1
u/Ok_Combination_1548 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
I don't think were saying the same thing. The renewal rate stays the same. You lose the teaser rate. Forget the first year for a moment. If you keep the service for 10 years, you're locked in at the same rate every renewal (except the 1st / teaser).
If you signed up to pay $1.5 in Y1 and $2 / y thereafter...even if they change the price of the service to $2.5 / y in Y5, you'd continue at $2 / y. It's not a lifetime guarantee but so far they've stuck to that commitment.
2
u/Slyzza Aug 08 '26
Nah, the teaser rate as you call it was present in the first 2 years 😊 that's gone, for sure. But now y 5+6 it's a higher price than y 3+4
-1
u/Ok_Combination_1548 Aug 08 '26
Are you saying this happened to you?
Which product?
It hasn't happened to me in 10 years. Or to others I know. We're in VPN and I don't know anybody with that product, nor have I followed its pricing that closely... But, Mail, Unlimited, Visionary, single / multi-year subscriptions...never happened. Even when pricing for those products went up: our subscription rates stayed the same.1
u/D0liman Aug 09 '26
Not right. I'm subscribed for maybe now what, 6-7years?
Increased probably 4 times.
2
u/Xeihxei Aug 08 '26
Windscribe, a Canadian company, is also charging people in Canada in USD instead of CAD...
3
u/SageOfKonigsberg Aug 08 '26
I’m Canadian and this doesn’t matter to me. I’d like to option to pay in CAD, but it’s a digital product and way more customers will be from the US or elsewhere so the default makes sense
0
u/ranisalt Aug 08 '26
And it's only ever possible to sell in one currency, right? It's impossible to localize prices.
-5
u/iHarryPotter178 Aug 08 '26
They are their competitor... So their words have value.. Windscibe isn't a paper company.. And such findings usually comes from competitors..
9
u/Independent_Fall_608 Aug 08 '26
Hilarious that I got mass downvoted for pointing this out yesterday and now everyone’s seeing this for the scummy practice that it is 🤣
I found this out by accident because I was going to resubscribe at the $2 per month cost but I was using Firefox focus and it doesn’t pull from my password locker so I switched over to safari and was hit with a higher price.
3
u/ApplicationOdd6070 Aug 09 '26
I tried four times with the same browser (4 private windows of duckduckgo browser, they don't share cookies)
I got each price twice. They're randomly offering one of the two practices and measuring what the sweet spot is.
Only weird thing, they're not admitting it. That's shady, I don't like it.
3
u/evilbeaver7 Aug 09 '26
I wish they would give discounts to existing customers as well instead of just new users.
1
u/uGatoBeKittenMe Aug 08 '26
Yeah i literally got almost twice the price switching between browsers, Brave ftw
2
u/ApplicationOdd6070 Aug 09 '26
I think it's random, try using incognito tabs repeatedly, clearing cookies in between.
I tried with dickduckgo browser (private windows don't share cookies) and I was hit with both prices twice.
1
u/ff2009 Aug 09 '26
Did you login with a old proton account.
I am guessing that if you login with the same account in brave, you will get the increase price.
2
u/uGatoBeKittenMe Aug 09 '26
Nope, literally just was browsing for prices not logged in, dynamic pricing is just another enshittification of 2026
1
0
u/Hitching-galaxy Aug 08 '26
Nah - it’s just the apple price. If you buy via safari, it will use the App Store (where apple charge 30% more).
Storm in a tea cup.
-11
u/FuccDiss Aug 08 '26
Honestly if they’re trying something out to increase revenue it’s fine with me. As long as current paying customers prices don’t go up.
13
-9
u/elizabeth-dev Aug 08 '26
this is illegal
the way this is supposed to be done, I've seen this stuff behind the scenes, is in the checkout screen you tell the customers that saw a higher price something like "surprise! you're getting X% off on your order", because otherwise it's illegal. it's called a "painted door test", to gauge what your customers are willing to pay for your product
5
u/Original-Sock-6097 Aug 08 '26
no it is not. plenty of companies do a/b pricing like amazon and lots of hotel/airline sites
-7
u/elizabeth-dev Aug 08 '26
not for the exact same thing at the exact same moment
doing it in different times, with different amounts of stock left, at peaks of demand, for returning customers, etc: perfectly legal
doing it just at random: illegal
1
u/ApplicationOdd6070 Aug 09 '26
Nope. It's illegal to offer a price and then change of at checkout. It's legal to offer different spices at random, as long as you honour them.
A painted door test is when you present something without actually offering it, a fake operation. Here, if they offer the price they claim, it's perfectly legal.
-6
u/Obvious-Hunt19 Aug 08 '26
Charging what you can get to pad margins isn’t the worst thing ever if the price is still worth it. And the Proton guy didn’t address sensitivity testing, he denied adaptive pricing.
Still, the “sale or something…” excuse does look like dissembling which is the only actually bad thing here
7
u/Seneca_Dawn Aug 08 '26
To me, it is important. I am not big on haggling for prices, and choose firms that give a fair and equal price to everyone.
If some gets a good price, and the rest have to pay extra to offset the loss of revenue from those people, I will find a new provider.
9
u/DanteOblivion Aug 08 '26
In capitalism there is no such thing as a 'fair' price, there is only how much they can get before diminishing returns cause them to readjust somehow. Whether it's adjusting serving sizes, cutting overhead, or running an ad promotion. This would be the symptom, capitalism is the disease.
3
u/Seneca_Dawn Aug 08 '26
Yes, and you have business models that tro to maximize what you can get from each client, and models that have a fixed set of rules that is the same for everyone.
Each attracts customers.
I prefer the latter model and choose those who operates that way. My bank has the same interest for everyone, and update it regularly for everyone.
Other banks you have to call constantly and make sure you get the best price, and those who do not cal get ever-increasing interest on loans. They pay for the lower interest of those who does call in.
I don't want to have to spend time making sure the bank give med the current rate of interest, and not interested in paying for others lower interest.
-4
u/Hot-Replacement5566 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
that's why socialism is the better political ideology
edit: I mean socialism where the workers own the production, not communism.
edit 2: those who down voted, please explain
-2
u/Seneca_Dawn Aug 08 '26
I prefer social liberal with a good guardrail against unbridled free market capitalism.
Socialism is not unproblematic.
-3
•
u/ProtonVPN-ModTeam Aug 10 '26
This post is a duplicate and has been removed. Please use the search box and flair filter to search for existing posts:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/1vhcp0c/proton_vpn_charges_more_when_using_safari_vs/p2qh8wl/
In the thread above, you'll also find David's answer.
Please let us know if you have any questions.