This comparison pits convenience against confidentiality, forcing a choice between two excellent options. Google Calendar offers world-class integration and smart features for organizational productivity. Proton Calendar provides unmatched encryption and rigorous data protection under Swiss law. Your decision depends on whether you prioritize ecosystem efficiency or absolute data privacy.
Essential, integrated scheduling for everyone.
We found Google Calendar to be an extremely accessible scheduling tool, offering powerful features like automatic event creation and deep task integration, even at the individual free tier. Paid access, obtained through a Google Workspace subscription, unlocks powerful collaboration tools and useful analytics (Time Insights) for organizations. Overall, it's the standard-setter for essential personal and team scheduling.
Top-tier privacy meets patchy service.
Proton Calendar offers world-class, end-to-end event encryption protected by strict Swiss privacy laws. We respect the focus on security and the free availability of basic tools for all users. Overall, we rate this product highly for privacy, but urge caution due to widespread user reports of poor customer service and slow responsiveness within the larger Proton ecosystem.
Google Calendar is a shareable online calendar designed to keep your plans right at your fingertips. It brings together personal, professional, and organizational schedules in one centralized view. This tool works seamlessly across your Google Workspace to organize tasks and appointments, ensuring your day flows smoothly. 💡
Proton Calendar is designed to keep your personal scheduling private and secure. It offers the full functionality you expect from a modern digital calendar combined with robust protections. Proton is incorporated and based in Switzerland.
This means strict Swiss privacy laws protect all user data, backed by Swiss neutrality. 💡 Proton offers an easy-to-use alternative to Big Tech services, ensuring your data is protected, not exploited.
We highlight the main differences and pick a winner for each feature.
Proton Calendar uses end-to-end encryption for true data confidentiality. Google Calendar uses standard server security.
Google Calendar protects data using robust security features in world-class data centers. It automatically blocks common threats like phishing and malware attempts. Proton Calendar secures every event using mandatory end-to-end encryption and zero-knowledge principles. This ensures event titles and contents are completely hidden, even from Proton staff. The crucial difference is confidentiality protection versus basic system security provided by Google Calendar built into its platform. Proton Calendar is designed to keep event details totally private from everyone. If you schedule highly sensitive or confidential events, the superior encryption of Proton Calendar ensures essential peace of mind.
Google Calendar is deeply embedded in its vast platform. Proton Calendar integrates only within the Proton ecosystem.
Google Calendar unifies scheduling with Gmail, Tasks, Drive, and Meet for a streamlined workflow experience. It acts as the central hub of the entire Google environment. Proton Calendar integrates strongly with Proton Mail, allowing users to efficiently convert secure emails into secured calendar events. Integration with third-party applications is intentionally very limited. Google Calendar provides superior, expansive connection to third-party apps and business services needed by large organizations. Proton Calendar limits external integration for improved data security. For users seeking one platform to handle email, tasks, storage, and scheduling, Google Calendar offers unparalleled convenience and connectivity.
Google Calendar dominates team collaboration with analytics and resource booking. Proton Calendar lacks dedicated organizational tools.
Google Calendar (via Workspace) provides Time Insights to analyze how individuals and teams spend their time. It also supports sharing specific working locations and hours with colleagues. Proton Calendar focuses mainly on individual and duo user security, lacking features like time analytics or resource booking management. Its operational features are rudimentary. Teams needing centralized calendar layering, resource booking, and team efficiency metrics should choose Google Calendar. Proton Calendar is not designed for large-scale team logistics. Large organizations utilize Google Calendar’s resource management to book meeting rooms and specialized equipment directly from event invitations.
Google Calendar offers Appointment Schedules for client-facing booking pages. Proton Calendar relies on manual sharing only.
Google Calendar offers robust Appointment Schedules, giving external parties a shareable, customizable link to book time easily. Workspace users get unlimited booking pages. Proton Calendar does not include any native feature for creating professional booking pages. Users must share availability manually or rely on inconvenient external scheduling services. Premium Google Calendar users can even collect payments through Stripe integration during the booking process. This professionalizes the entire client scheduling experience. If you frequently manage external client consultations or meetings, the professional booking feature in Google Calendar is absolutely essential for your workflow.
Google Calendar auto-imports events like flights from email. Proton Calendar requires manual entry steps.
Google Calendar automatically reads confirmations for flights, restaurant reservations, and tickets from your Gmail account. Events are inserted instantly onto your schedule without any effort. Proton Calendar, prioritizing confidentiality, does not feature automatic event parsing and insertion from email contents. Manual event entry or conversion is consistently required. This is a key convenience trade-off: Google Calendar removes friction for managing dynamic travel and personal plans. Proton Calendar requires more user attention. For frequent travelers or those who easily forget things, Google Calendar saves substantial time and prevents missed reservations automatically.
Proton Calendar is protected by concrete Swiss privacy law. Google Calendar is secured by US law and corporate policy.
Proton Calendar is protected by strict Swiss privacy laws, offering a strong legal shield for user data compliance. This provides one of the strongest frameworks globally. Google Calendar is governed by US laws and corporate policies, meaning data may be subject to legal subpoenas and requests. Security is technical but legally different. Proton Calendar is built specifically to protect user data from the company itself or external governments. Google Calendar uses your data to enhance integration performance. For users handling highly sensitive political or commercial information, Proton Calendar's legal location offers significant peace of mind.
Google Calendar supports Workspace users with expert teams. Proton Calendar receives low marks for responsiveness.
Google Calendar offers robust support channels, including reliable help guides and expert teams for Google Workspace subscribers. Support is standard corporate quality. Proton Calendar reviews frequently cite slow, unresponsive, and sometimes useless customer support when issues arise. Billing and subscription problems are often mentioned. If business continuity depends on swift issue resolution, Google Calendar is the safer choice due to reported service reliability for paid users. The low reported customer support quality for Proton Calendar is a serious risk factor despite its otherwise strong security foundations.
Your decision hinges on whether you value seamless integration or absolute encryption. Google Calendar is the productivity powerhouse that works for most teams and individuals. Proton Calendar is the superior choice if data sovereignty and encrypted event confidentiality are your driving concerns. Google Calendar’s superpower is its deep integration and automated convenience across the Google ecosystem. It effortlessly imports flight details, hotel reservations, and calendar events directly from your Gmail inbox. For large teams, Google Calendar allows advanced features like resource booking and Time Insights analytics. Proton Calendar’s immense strength is its commitment to absolute user privacy backed by strict Swiss law. Every event is protected by end-to-end, zero-knowledge encryption, secured from external viewing. Proton Calendar is specifically designed to keep your schedule private, not exploit it for marketing or internal processes. Ultimately, the choice is between maximum friction-free connection and maximum security assurance. If you run a fast-paced business requiring client booking, choose Google Calendar for its robust tools. If you frequently schedule sensitive, confidential events, the encryption provided by Proton Calendar is the necessary safeguard. Choose Google Calendar if you operate in a high-volume team environment and prioritize efficiency. Select Proton Calendar if anonymity and digital security are paramount to you, especially if you already use Proton Mail services.
Google Calendar is better for small teams requiring collaboration and resource management solutions. Premium Google Calendar access includes features like Time Insights and shared working locations. Proton Calendar is only built for up to two users with its specific Proton Duo plan.
No, Proton Calendar prioritizes user privacy and requires manual event entry or conversion from Proton Mail. Google Calendar automatically extracts travel and reservation details from your emails. This is a significant difference in daily user convenience and time savings.
Yes, technically. Proton Calendar uses end-to-end encryption for event details, meaning the data is hidden even from Proton staff. Google Calendar uses standard security layers but does not encrypt data from its own staff or servers.
Yes, Google Calendar offers Appointment Schedules for professional client booking and availability sharing. Even the free tier grants you one booking page to share with external parties. Proton Calendar does not include this native booking feature.
Google Calendar offers reliable live customer support for Google Workspace users and teams. Users frequently report that Proton Calendar support is slow, unresponsive, and sometimes challenging to resolve billing issues.
Yes. Google Calendar allows for the creation of unlimited shared and personal calendars within your account. Proton Calendar limits users to 1 calendar on the free plan, but up to 25 highly organized calendars on paid plans.
Both tools have their strengths. Choose based on your specific needs.