Proton Drive vs MEGA: Which Encrypted Cloud Should You Pick?

The Short Answer

• 🔐 Choose Proton Drive if privacy of your metadata matters as much as your files, you already use Proton Mail or Proton Pass, or you want to share files with a password and an expiry date without paying.
• 📦 Choose MEGA if you need a lot of storage cheaply, use Linux on the desktop, or want to reach your files from scripts and tools such as rclone.

Prices and plans below were checked on each company's site in October 2026 and change often, especially promotions. Proton bills in US dollars (or CHF/EUR); MEGA bills in euros everywhere, even when it shows a local estimate.

Proton Drive and MEGA at a Glance

Encryption: Both Lock the Files, Proton Hides More Around Them

Both services encrypt each file on your device with keys only you hold, so neither can open your documents. The difference is in what's left around them.

🛡️ Proton Drive

Proton calls its model end-to-end and zero-access encryption. According to its Drive privacy policy, file contents, file and folder names and thumbnails are encrypted, and every item is cryptographically signed. Proton can still see when files and folders were created and modified, their permissions, who uploaded them, and the size of the encrypted file. Proton's apps are open source and have been independently audited, and the company holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications.

🗝️ MEGA

MEGA describes its model as zero-knowledge encryption: every file and folder gets its own random key on your device, and names are stored in encrypted attributes. Its privacy policy lists what it keeps in readable form, including file sizes, the parent-child structure of your folders, version order, event timestamps and the IP addresses used to log in, upload and access links. Share links keep the decryption key after the # in the URL, which browsers don't send to the server. MEGA publishes its client source code on GitHub. Researchers at ETH Zurich described attacks on MEGA's design in 2022 under a malicious-server threat model; according to press coverage at the time, MEGA patched some of the issues.

Two exceptions on MEGA's side: its S3-compatible object storage, MEGA S4, uses server-side encryption rather than zero-knowledge, and its built-in import from Google Drive, Dropbox and Box runs on MEGA's own servers, so that step isn't zero-knowledge either (MEGA says the keys are discarded once the import finishes).

Storage and Price: MEGA Wins on Space

If the question is how many terabytes your money buys, MEGA is ahead. Its Pro I plan gives 3 TB for €9.99 a month, after a 2025 upgrade that enlarged every Pro plan at the same price. Proton's Drive Plus gives 200 GB for $4.99 a month; past that, Proton's bigger tiers are bundles priced for Mail, VPN and Pass as well as storage, which is good value if you'd pay for those anyway and expensive if you only want storage.

• Free plans — MEGA's 20 GB is four times Proton's 5 GB. MEGA's extra achievement space expires after a year, and free MEGA accounts left inactive for a long time (at least about ten months) can have their data deleted.
• Downloads — MEGA limits transfer, not uploads. Free accounts are measured per IP address over six hours; paid plans include a monthly transfer allowance. Its help center, updated in 2026, says the quota only starts to count for a file after it has been downloaded in full more than ten times. Proton publishes no transfer quota.
• File size — Neither sets a per-file limit; Proton is bounded only by your free space, and MEGA recommends its desktop app over the browser for very large downloads.

Apps, Photos and Everyday Use

• 🐧 Linux — MEGA has official desktop apps for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, openSUSE and more, plus file-manager plugins and MEGA CMD. Proton offers a command-line tool for Linux (no background sync) and, as of its October 2026 roadmap, is working toward a Linux app beta.
• 🖥️ Mac and Windows — Both have desktop sync apps. Proton's roadmap notes that the Mac app can't yet sync arbitrary folders you choose; OurClone can run sync jobs for any folder you pick, on demand or on a Pro schedule.
• 📸 Phone photos — Both back up camera rolls on iOS and Android. Proton puts them in a separate Photos timeline with albums. MEGA uploads to a Camera Uploads folder; on iPhone it converts HEIC photos to JPG and HEVC videos to H.264 by default, and leaves location tags off by default, so check those settings if you want originals.
• 🔗 Sharing — Proton links can carry a password and an expiry date, and can be revoked. MEGA's basic links are free, and sending the key separately is free, but passwords and expiry dates on links need a paid plan.
• 🕰️ Undo — MEGA keeps 100 versions of every file on all plans, plus Rewind to restore a folder to an earlier date (view-only for 30 days on free, 60 days on Pro). Proton keeps 10 versions for 7 days on the free plan and up to 200 versions for up to 10 years on paid plans.

Reaching Your Files from Other Tools

If you want to back up, sync or mount your cloud with something other than the official apps, MEGA is the easier target today.

• MEGA — rclone's MEGA backend is rated stable, with caveats: no modification times or checksums, duplicate file names are allowed, and heavy use can get logins temporarily refused. MEGA also has its own command-line client, MEGA CMD, and S4 object storage that speaks the S3 protocol.
• Proton Drive — Proton has no public API yet. rclone's Proton Drive backend is community-built from Proton's open-source clients and labelled beta; it can't update modification times after upload. Proton released an official CLI in 2026 and a preview of its Drive SDK, which should make outside tools easier to build.

OurClone, a desktop app built on rclone, connects to both — MEGA with your email and password, Proton Drive with your email, password and an optional two-factor code — so you can browse, transfer, mount MEGA or mount Proton Drive in Finder, or back up a folder to either. Because Proton support goes through rclone's beta backend, expect Proton transfers to be slower than MEGA ones.

Switching Between Them

Neither service can import from the other. Proton's import tools cover Google Photos and manual Google Drive exports; MEGA's web import covers Google Drive, Dropbox and Box. Moving between Proton Drive and MEGA therefore means downloading and re-uploading, or letting a tool copy from one to the other.

With OurClone the copy runs on your own computer: connect both accounts, pick the source folder and the destination on the Migrate page, and choose Copy to keep the originals until you've checked the result. The step-by-step guide is Switching from MEGA to Proton Drive; the reverse direction works the same way with the source and destination swapped.

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