Filen vs Proton Drive: Wider Encryption or Outside Checks
Published October 19, 2026· By Juan Martinez
Filen encrypts file names and metadata and costs less per GB. Proton Drive has published audits, a nonprofit owner and encrypted document editing. How to choose.
Filen vs Proton Drive is a comparison of two services that start from the same place. Both encrypt your files on your own device before upload, and in both you hold the keys, not the company. Both publish the code of their apps and keep the code of their servers closed. They differ in what sits on top of that base.
Filen goes further on what it encrypts: file names, folder names and file metadata, not only the content. It also costs far less per gigabyte. But no outside party has checked it. Proton Drive encrypts less, and its own privacy policy lists timestamps, permissions and the uploader’s username as visible to Proton. It has published audits, a nonprofit as its main shareholder and encrypted editing of shared documents.
Proton Drive is rated 7.7 and Filen 7.0. Proton Drive is ahead in four categories out of five, with the widest gap in Trust & Transparency (7.5 against 5.0). Filen is ahead in Price & Value, 9.0 against 6.5.
| Filen | Proton Drive | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 7.0 | 7.7 |
| Who Holds the Keys | You hold the keys | You hold the keys |
| Also Encrypted | File names and metadata | File names only |
| Security Audit | None found | Company-paid audit (Securitum, 2022) |
| If You Lose the Password | Recovery key you keep | Recovery key you keep |
| Client Code | Open source | Open source |
| Server Code | Closed | Closed |
| Collaborative Editing | End-to-end encrypted | End-to-end encrypted |
| File Versions | Up to 100 per file, kept as long as the file exists | Paid: up to 200 per file for 10 years. Free: 10 for 7 days |
| Linux Desktop Sync | ✅ | ❌ (command-line tool only) |
| Free Storage | 10 GB | 5 GB |
| From (per month) | €1.00 (100 GiB) | $3.99 (200 GB) |
| Jurisdiction | Germany | Switzerland |
| Owner | Filen Cloud Dienste UG (haftungsbeschränkt) | Proton Foundation |
| Telemetry | None | Opt-out |
Want to compare every field side by side? Open the full comparison table.
What each one encrypts
In both services the keys are created on your device and the company never receives them in a usable form. Both describe the result as “zero-knowledge” storage, and in both cases that is the company’s own description, not a finding by anyone outside it.
The scope differs. Filen says it encrypts the file content, the file name, the folder name and the file metadata, which the whitepaper lists as the file’s size and type among other things. It still sees your email address, your IP address, how much storage you use and payment references, and its privacy policy adds that it keeps “a small amount of metadata about the file type”. Its documents do not say whether it can see when you upload or open a file.
Proton Drive encrypts file contents, file and folder names and thumbnail previews. The rest of the metadata it can see: when each file was created and modified, who has which permissions and which username uploaded each file. It stores the size of the encrypted file, not of the original. Each sharing link shows Proton when it was created, when it was last opened and how many times. If hiding the shape of your folders and the dates you work matters, Filen encrypts more of it.
Two weaker spots on Filen’s side. It derives your master key from the password with PBKDF2 at 200,000 iterations, a key derivation method that Filen’s own whitepaper calls “not the latest, best or state of the art”. With Filen a long, unique password matters more. And its web app keeps your keys in the browser’s local storage.
Both web apps load their encryption code from the company’s servers on every visit, so a browser user trusts that the published code is what arrives. The desktop and phone apps of both change only when you install an update.
Who has checked Filen and Proton Drive
This is the widest gap between the two. Proton Drive has three public security audits by Securitum, a Polish security firm: the web app (September to October 2021, five issues, two low severity and three informational) and the Android and iOS apps (2022). Proton reports that Securitum found no outstanding vulnerabilities in either mobile app. All three were arranged by Proton itself, the newest is from 2022, and no published audit covers the Windows or macOS apps.
Filen has no independent audit. Its knowledge base says an external company will test it “in the future” with no date set, and its roadmap puts the next larger audit after a backend rewrite, API v4, which is itself only planned. Its technical whitepaper dates from August 2021, and Filen says it is slightly outdated. It ended its public bug bounty; serious reports are still reviewed, but any reward is at its discretion.
Both publish the code of their apps under open licences (Filen under AGPL-3.0, Proton’s desktop and mobile apps under GPL-3.0 and its SDK under MIT) and keep the server code closed, so what runs on the servers cannot be inspected in either case. Neither has a known data breach.
An audit paid for by the company is weaker evidence than an independent one, and a four-year-old audit says nothing about code written since. Filen has no audit at all, paid or independent.
If you lose the password
Both services are built so that the company cannot reset your access to encrypted files. Both offer a recovery key.
Filen’s only account recovery is exporting your master keys (“Export master keys” in the settings) before you need them. Resetting the password without that export creates new keys that cannot open anything uploaded earlier. Store the exported file somewhere other than the Filen account itself.
Proton splits the problem in two: getting back into the account and decrypting the data in it. A 12-word recovery phrase covers both. Email or SMS recovery resets only the password; without a separate data recovery method (a recovery file, a browser backup or trusted contacts who confirm your request), every file uploaded before the reset stays locked. If you set up nothing, nobody can recover them. Proton gives you more ways to set up a safety net, and you still have to set one up before you need it.
Sharing
In both, sharing keeps the encryption. A public link keeps part of its secret in a section of the address that is not sent to the server, and you can add a password and an expiry date. Filen encrypts a file shared with another Filen user with that person’s public key.
The conditions differ. Filen’s free plan allows sharing only with other Filen users; public links need a paid plan. Proton’s free plan allows up to three links with edit rights, and a recipient needs no Proton account to open a link, download a file or edit a document. Someone you invite by email who is not on Proton must create a free Proton account first.
Features and sync
Filen is the more technical tool. The desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux syncs folders in five modes, including one-way backup, and can mount your storage as a network drive. Its command-line tool can run a local WebDAV or S3 server for other software, and Filen is a built-in backend in rclone. Proton has desktop sync apps for Windows and macOS only; on Linux there is a command-line tool and no sync app. Neither limits file size.
File versioning favours Proton on paid plans: up to 200 versions per file for up to 10 years, against Filen’s 100 versions kept as long as the file exists. On Proton’s free plan versions last 7 days (up to 10 per file), and Filen’s versions count toward your storage.
Collaborative editing is where Proton is clearly ahead. Drive includes a document and spreadsheet editor with end-to-end encryption and live cursors. Filen’s only shared editing is in its encrypted notes; it has no editor for office documents, lists one as planned, and has no family or business plans yet.
Filen’s published app packages include no analytics or crash-reporting library, so its apps carry no telemetry. Proton Drive sends anonymous usage statistics by default, which Proton says contain no personal information and are deleted after 30 days; they can be switched off in the privacy settings.
Price
This is Filen’s strongest category and Proton’s weakest. The prices are in different currencies (Filen in euros, Proton in US dollars) and are shown as listed, not converted. Filen sells storage in GiB and TiB (about 7% larger than a GB and about 10% larger than a TB), Proton in GB and TB.
For 200 GB, Filen’s Pro I costs €19.99 a year for 200 GiB and Proton’s Drive Plus $47.88 a year. At 500 GB, Filen’s Pro II costs €39.99 a year for 500 GiB and Proton Unlimited, the lowest personal plan above 200 GB, $119.88 a year, bundled with the rest of Proton’s services. At 2 TB, Filen’s Pro III is €89.99 a year for 2 TiB; Proton’s 2 TB plan is Proton Duo at $179.88 a year, bundled and shared by up to two people. Proton’s 1 TB per user plan is the business plan Drive Professional, which starts at two users.
The free plans: Filen gives 10 GiB, but an account created from a VPN, Tor or a proxy gets no free storage, and free accounts are deleted after 3 months without a login. Proton starts at 2 GB and grows to 5 GB after a few setup tasks. Filen refunds within 14 days of the first purchase only; Proton offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Filen no longer sells lifetime plans.
Who runs each service
Filen is run by Filen Cloud Dienste UG, a small company in Recklinghausen, Germany, which says it has no outside investors and keeps all of its servers as its own hardware in German data centers. It publishes a PGP-signed warrant canary every week; the version of 14 October 2026 states it has received no warrants, court orders or gag orders. Germany is among the fourteen agencies named in the 2013 documents behind the Fourteen Eyes label, which Switzerland is not; whether that matters to you depends on who you worry about, since both services say they hold nothing readable.
Proton AG is a Swiss company whose primary shareholder is the non-profit Proton Foundation in Geneva; it says it has no venture capital investors. It discloses user data only on a binding order from Swiss authorities, and for Drive that data excludes file contents, names and thumbnails. Switzerland is not part of the Fourteen Eyes. Proton does not say which of its two server countries, Switzerland or Germany, holds Drive files.
A small independent company can disappear or change course faster than a foundation-backed one. Filen has funded itself so far through sales of its earlier lifetime plans, and its roadmap includes a change of legal form from UG to GmbH.
What we didn’t compare, and why
Speed and reliability of sync. Neither review includes transfer-speed or reliability tests, so no winner is named. If you sync large libraries, try the free plans first.
Business use. Proton has a business plan, Drive Professional. Filen lists business plans as planned. This article covers personal use.
Which one to pick
Read the full Filen review if you want the widest encryption and the lowest price per gigabyte, you use Linux or want WebDAV, S3 or rclone, and you can live with an unaudited service from a small company. Use a long, unique password, export your master keys on day one, and know that the planned audit has no date.
Read the full Proton Drive review if published audits, a nonprofit owner and encrypted document editing outweigh paying more. You accept that Proton sees timestamps and permissions, that there is no Linux sync app, and that anything above 200 GB for one person means a bundle. Set up a recovery phrase and a data recovery method before you upload anything you cannot afford to lose.