Proton has added a new privacy-focused spreadsheet app to its productivity suite to tempt users over from Google and Microsoft’s platforms. The new Proton Sheets tool provides real-time collaboration features and end-to-end encryption, according to Proton’s announcement, “ensuring that no one else, not even Proton, can access your spreadsheet and the information it contains.”
A Proton Drive account (which provides a free tier with 5GB of storage) is required to use Proton Sheets. The Sheets tool is supported across web browsers and the Proton Drive app, and can be accessed “securely on any device,” according to Proton.
The design for Proton Sheets looks similar to Excel or Google Sheets, including the white grid, toolbar locations, and overall user interface. The visual similarities were an intentional decision, according to Proton Drive product lead Anant Vijay, helping to make the interface “immediately familiar” to anyone who’s used a spreadsheet app before. The app also supports commonly-used formulas and the ability to import CSV and XLS files from other platforms
This latest release follows the launch of Proton Docs in July 2024, a word processor that similarly riffs on rival apps like Google Docs and Microsoft Word. Proton is launching the Sheets app in response to concerns around data harvesting practices used by Big Tech, especially regarding AI models like Gemini, which Google has now integrated into its own Sheets tool.
“No one should need to expose their data to use a service. After Proton Docs, a spreadsheet tool was the next piece of the puzzle for a secure workspace,” says Vijay. “You can now protect your entire workspace, from your email to your calendar, your documents to your spreadsheets. No surveillance. No data harvesting.”
