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Part 1
Proton referral code
Get $20 off your first paid Proton plan (encrypted Mail, VPN, Drive, Pass or the full suite) when you sign up with a referral link.
Proton is the Swiss privacy suite I have used for years: encrypted Mail as a day-to-day inbox, plus Drive, Calendar and the free VPN tier. I am a free-tier user, so I can vouch for the free products firsthand; the paid features below are described from Proton's own documentation, not from my own testing. Proton's refer-a-friend scheme gives a new customer $20 off their first paid plan and pays the referrer $20 in Proton credit, once the new customer has been on a paid plan for a full month.
Last tested on by Seb Place.
Part 1
The offer
Proton
Proton is a Swiss privacy company founded in 2014 by scientists who met at CERN. It offers an integrated suite of end-to-end encrypted services (Mail, Calendar, Drive, Pass, VPN and Wallet) under a single account. Proton's apps are open source and independently audited, and the company is funded by its users rather than by advertising.
Or copy the referral link below:
Reward
Get $20 off your first paid Proton plan when you sign up with a referral link, across encrypted Mail, VPN, Drive, Pass or the full suite.
How it works
- The free Proton tiers (Mail, Calendar, Drive and a limited VPN) need no code and cost nothing
- To claim the referral saving, click the referral link on this page and choose a paid Proton plan
- Sign up and stay on the paid plan
- You get $20 off as the new customer, and the referrer receives $20 in Proton credit once you have been subscribed for a full month
- The reward works across any paid Proton plan: Mail Plus, VPN Plus, Drive Plus, Pass Plus or Proton Unlimited
Part 2
Is it for you?
Proton referral summary
- Reward
- $20 off your first paid plan (Mail, VPN, Drive, Pass or the full suite)
- Reward type
- Money off a paid plan for the new customer; Proton credit for the referrer (not cashable)
- Requirement
- New customer subscribes to a qualifying paid Proton plan
- Time to receive
- After the new customer's first full month on a paid plan (two months on monthly plans)
Proton referral pros and cons
Pros
- Genuinely free tiers for Mail, Calendar, Drive and a limited VPN, with no code needed
- $20 off your first paid plan through the refer-a-friend scheme, across the whole suite
- Swiss-based and subject to strong Swiss privacy law, outside EU and US jurisdiction
- All apps are open source and have been independently audited
- One account covers encrypted email, calendar, storage, passwords and a VPN
- End-to-end encryption on Mail and Drive, so Proton cannot read your content
Cons
- Rewards are in USD and Proton credit, not cash: the $20 comes off a Proton plan and is not withdrawable
- The referral saving only applies to paid plans; if the free tier is enough, you will not need it
- Proton VPN Plus and Unlimited are excluded from the 14-day free trial
- As a VPN alone it has fewer servers and features than a dedicated VPN like Surfshark
- You need a paid plan to unlock the full VPN, extra storage and premium features
What is Proton?
Proton is a Swiss privacy company founded in 2014 by scientists who met at CERN. It offers an integrated suite of end-to-end encrypted services (Mail, Calendar, Drive, Pass, VPN and Wallet) under a single account, with genuinely free tiers and paid upgrades. Its apps are open source and independently audited.
Proton is a Swiss privacy company (opens in new tab) founded in 2014 by a group of scientists who met at CERN.
- The suite: encrypted Mail, Calendar, Drive (storage), Pass (passwords), VPN and Wallet, all under one account
- Free tiers: Mail, Calendar, Drive and a limited VPN are free and need no code
- Jurisdiction: Switzerland, outside the EU and US, under strong Swiss privacy law
- Open source: the apps are open source (opens in new tab) and have been independently audited
- Funding: paid by its users, not by advertising or selling data
Proton's pitch is that one trusted account can replace a patchwork of free services that monetise your data. The refer-a-friend scheme is a way to take $20 off the paid plans if you decide to upgrade.
How does the Proton referral scheme work?
Proton's refer-a-friend programme gives a new customer $20 off their first paid plan and pays the referrer $20 in Proton credit. The reward is account-wide across Mail, VPN, Drive, Pass and Proton Unlimited. It triggers once the new customer has been on a paid plan for a full month, and the referrer's credit is capped at $1,000 (about 50 referrals).
Proton runs a single refer-a-friend programme (opens in new tab) across its whole account, not a VPN-only scheme:
- Click a referral link (such as the one on this page)
- Choose a paid Proton plan and sign up
- Stay on the paid plan
- You get $20 off as the new customer; the referrer receives $20 in Proton credit once you have been subscribed for a full month (two months on monthly plans)
Honest disclosure on the referrer side: the referrer's $20 is Proton account credit, spendable only on Proton subscriptions and not withdrawable as cash. For a free-tier referrer it is only useful if they later upgrade. The referrer's credit is capped at $1,000 in total (about 50 referrals). The new customer's $20 off is the part that matters if you are the one signing up.
One VPN-specific caveat: Proton VPN Plus and Proton Unlimited are excluded from Proton's 14-day free trial, so a friend who specifically wants the paid VPN subscribes directly (both sides still get the reward). Rewards are denominated in USD and converted for GBP billing.
How to get and use a Proton referral code
The free Proton tiers need no code at all. The referral saving applies only when you take a paid plan: click a referral link, choose your paid plan, and $20 comes off. There is no separate code to type, the link carries the referral. Existing customers find their own referral link inside their Proton account.
If the free tier is all you need, you do not need a code or a link: sign up at proton.me and use Mail, Calendar, Drive and the limited VPN for free.
To claim the $20 referral saving on a paid plan:
- Click a referral link, such as the one on this page
- Choose your paid plan (Mail Plus, VPN Plus, Drive Plus, Pass Plus or Proton Unlimited)
- Complete sign-up: the $20 is applied to your first paid plan
There is no separate referral code to enter; the link carries the referral, similar to the way the Surfshark and Octopus Energy schemes work on this site.
Already a Proton customer? Your own referral link is inside your Proton account under "Refer a friend". Share that link: when someone signs up for a paid plan through it and stays subscribed for a month, you receive $20 in Proton credit.
My experience: years on Proton's free tier
I have used Proton for years, mostly Proton Mail as a day-to-day inbox, alongside Drive, Calendar and the free VPN tier. This section is a genuine free-tier user account, not a paid-plan review: I have not personally tested VPN Plus or the paid storage, so I describe those from Proton's documentation rather than firsthand.
I am not a paid reviewer, and I want to be precise about what I can and cannot vouch for.
What I use and can speak to firsthand: I have used Proton Mail as a real inbox for years, along with Drive and Calendar and the free VPN tier. The apps are stable, the encrypted inbox has been reliable, and having email, calendar and storage under one privacy-first account has been genuinely useful. I moved to it because I wanted an email provider that does not monetise the contents of my inbox.
What I have not tested: I am a free-tier user. I have not personally run Proton VPN Plus, the paid storage tiers, or Pass on a paid plan, so anything about those in this guide comes from Proton's own documentation and public terms, not from my own use.
Why I still recommend it: trust in a privacy provider comes down to jurisdiction, transparency and track record. Proton is Swiss, its apps are open source and independently audited, and it is funded by users rather than advertising. Those are the reasons I have stayed, and they hold whether you use the free tier or upgrade.
Who is Proton best for?
Proton suits people who want privacy-first email and storage, anyone trying to move off ad-funded free services, and travellers who want an encrypted account plus a VPN under one roof. If your only need is a fast, feature-rich VPN, a dedicated VPN will offer more; Proton's strength is the integrated, encrypted suite.
Proton is a broad fit, but particularly for:
- Privacy-conscious users who want email and files that the provider itself cannot read
- People de-Googling who want to replace free, ad-funded email, calendar and storage with one trusted account
- Travellers who want encrypted email plus a VPN for public Wi-Fi under a single subscription
- Households wanting simplicity: one Proton Unlimited plan covers Mail, Drive, Pass and VPN together
Proton is less of a fit if your only requirement is a VPN with the widest server network and the fastest streaming performance. In that case a dedicated VPN like Surfshark is the better single-purpose tool. Proton's advantage is breadth and trust across the whole suite, not VPN specs alone.
Is Proton trustworthy? Swiss jurisdiction, open source, audits
Proton is headquartered in Switzerland, outside the EU and US, under strong Swiss privacy law. Its applications are open source, meaning the code can be inspected, and they have been independently audited. The company is funded by its users rather than by advertising, which removes the incentive to monetise personal data.
Trust in a privacy provider rests on jurisdiction, transparency and funding model. Proton is unusually strong on all three:
- Jurisdiction: based in Switzerland (opens in new tab), outside the EU and US, under Swiss privacy law
- Open source: the apps are open source (opens in new tab), so the code is public and can be independently reviewed, and Proton commissions third-party security audits
- End-to-end encryption: Mail and Drive are end-to-end encrypted, so Proton cannot read your messages or files
- Funding: Proton is funded by paying users, not advertising, so its business does not depend on profiling you
No provider can prove perfect privacy, but an open-source, independently audited, Swiss, user-funded model is about as strong a set of signals as the consumer market offers.
Part 3
How it compares
Proton referral at a glance
| Your reward | $20 off your first paid plan (Mail, VPN, Drive, Pass or the full suite) |
| Friend's reward | $20 in Proton credit, usable on any Proton subscription |
| Reward type | Money off a paid plan for the new customer; Proton credit for the referrer (not cashable) |
| Requirement | New customer subscribes to a qualifying paid Proton plan |
| Time to receive | After the new customer's first full month on a paid plan (two months on monthly plans) |
| Referral limit | Referrer credit caps at $1,000 (about 50 referrals) |
Proton key facts
Jurisdiction
Switzerland (outside the EU and US, under strong Swiss privacy law)
What's included
Encrypted Mail, Calendar, Drive, Pass, VPN and Wallet under one account