Google Calendar isn't your only option. I use this privacy-first alternative instead

Keeping your schedule organized is important for everyone. You can’t remember everything by scribbling it on your hand or jotting it down in a notebook. If you want to stay on top of things, take advantage of the free tools available, like Google Calendar or Proton Calendar.

Your email provider might influence your preference one way or the other. Both suites offer a variety of apps — Google Mail or Proton Mail, Google Drive or Proton Drive, and more. You can use either for writing documents or storing credit cards virtually, but both are great for keeping your events organized and easy to follow.

Seeing as Gmail is the most popular email provider in the world, it’s reasonable to assume many people use Google Calendar as well. There are some reasons why you might want to consider using Proton Calendar over Google Calendar, though. As is the case with all Proton applications, it starts with security.

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  Proton Calendar

  Proton Calendar is the calendar application used by Proton’s suite of apps. It is an open-source application that takes privacy seriously.

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  Google Calendar

  Google Calendar is a scheduling tool that helps you organize events, set reminders, and sync across devices for efficient time management.

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1 The protections are built in

The Swiss privacy laws help big time

Proton is lauded for its security features because of its open source coding. This means that you can go in yourself and make sure that things are working as they should, and you can see who has access to your information. Proton provides end-to-end encryption of everything that goes on inside its Proton apps, which also includes Proton Calendar. If you’re logging a meeting or creating an appointment on your calendar, only you and the people that you share your calendar with will know that it exists.

Events are protected as soon as you input them into your calendar, as Proton has zero-knowledge encryption. Proton is also headquartered in Switzerland, which has strict Swiss privacy laws. It also has Swiss neutrality laws, meaning that what is protected by the privacy laws is not the government’s concern.

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2 It has even more advanced security features than Google

Once you actually use them, the result is impressive

Proton’s open-source coding is independently audited, which means that the company itself isn’t the one checking what’s saved in your calendars. Instead, a third-party auditor makes sure the program runs as it should. None of your data is stored on Proton’s servers, unlike Google, which keeps calendar events on its servers and can access the data if needed — which definitely isn’t private.

If you invite or share an event with another person who has a Proton account, this won’t even be known to Proton. This information stays between you and the person on the invite. If you want to use a shared Proton calendar, you can do so using a secure protocol. It will verify the person’s identity through a cryptographic verification process, so both parties involved know who sent the invite and that it’s legitimate.

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3 Integrate multiple email accounts

This doesn’t only work with Proton Mail

Get the most out of your email accounts by incorporating multiple into Proton Calendar. You might think it only works with Proton Mail, but you can integrate other email accounts, too, and make it your all-in-one calendar. It’s an easy way to make sure all of your personal and professional events are in one place.

You can choose Google, Outlook, or Yahoo accounts to sync up with your Proton Calendar. So, you can actually link your Google Calendar to your Proton Calendar, allowing you to combine the two. To do this, you need to:

1. Open up the browser version of Proton Calendar.
2. At the top right of the calendar, click on Settings.
3. Click on All Settings at the top.
4. On the left-hand menu, click Import via Easy Switch.
5. Choose a service to import messages from.
6. You can choose to import calendars, emails, or contacts. You can only do one of these at a time.

You’ll then be asked to log into your other accounts to okay the importation.

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4 You get a free email address with Proton Calendar

You don’t need to sign up with an email

Google Calendar does offer you a lot of great features, such as overlaying multiple calendars, sharing calendars, and adding attachments to calendar invites. You can sign up with any email and use it as is, but many features work best with a Gmail account — just like Proton Calendar pairs well with Proton Mail. The difference? When you create a Proton Calendar account, you automatically get a Proton Mail account, too.

You don’t need to sign up for Proton Mail separately — creating a Proton Calendar account automatically gives you one. This lets you send invites, updates, and meeting requests from a legitimate email address. Plus, you can easily add events to Proton Calendar directly from your Proton Mail inbox.

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5 Control what level of access others have

The sharing makes it easier to coordinate

You can add events easily with Proton Calendar by just clicking into the calendar and filling out the form that pops up. This will input your information and make the appointment known on the calendar. If you want to share your calendar with someone else, you can do so, but you can also limit what that person sees in your calendar — you don’t have to share your entire calendar with them.

If you want to share a work calendar with someone at work, but you also have your personal calendar integrated with yours, you can opt to only share your work calendar with that person. A step even further is that, if you only want to share a few meetings with that person, you can block portions of your calendar from their view. It lets you get more granular and provides people with just a brief overview of your day.

You can do a lot more with a paid Proton Mail account — the free version gives you just 1GB of storage and limits you to one user, while a paid plan offers more storage and the ability to add multiple calendars. If you’re sticking with the free account, you can only add one additional calendar. But even if you don’t need to juggle multiple overlapping schedules, Proton Calendar could still be a great fit.

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