Security and privacy decision
Proton Pass Plus
A competent developer can build a useful, self-hosted encrypted password vault and basic sync (open-source prior art exists), but matching Proton Pass Plus' cross-platform polish, audits, legal guarantees, and integrated Proton ecosystem features is expensive—so building a narrower replacement is realistic, but full parity is not.
Visit website↗$4.99/mo
$60/yr
Not verified against a pricing page.
$100one-off80 h to build
$20/mo8 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 6 seats.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All Proton Pass Plus alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- Store and retrieve end-to-end-encrypted credentials, generate strong passwords, detect breached credentials, and sync vault across devices.
What it still won’t have
- Polished cross-platform native apps and first-party browser extensions
- Enterprise-grade audits and bug-bounty ecosystem
- Swiss legal/hosting guarantees and Proton's brand trust
- Seamless integration with Proton Account ecosystem (single-account SSO across Proton services)
- Large user-focused features like built-in 2FA backup across devices and family/shared vault UX
What remains hard
- Brand trust
Trusted by over 100 million users and organizations
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 6 seats.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a minimal end-to-end encrypted password manager using React for the web UI, a browser extension scaffold (manifest v3), Node.js + Express for a JSON API, and PostgreSQL or S3 for encrypted blob storage. Implement: (1) account signup/login with email+password and client-side key derivation (Argon2/PBKDF2) that never sends plaintext keys to the server; (2) client-side vault encryption/decryption and a CRUD UI for entries; (3) secure upload/download of encrypted vault blobs and a simple sync protocol with conflict resolution; (4) a password generator and an automated breach-check that queries a k-anonymity breach API using hashed prefixes; (5) tests for encryption correctness and API auth, and error handling for network/storage failures. Out of scope: enterprise provisioning, paid billing/subscriptions, native mobile apps, and large-scale audited bug-bounty setup.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 4 cited sources+3
- 3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
- Evidence score64
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 4
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productProton homepage
- official pricingProton pricing
- official docsProton Drive docs
- open sourceRunaVault repository
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
