# Proton Meet

17 Hacker News commenters recommended Proton Meet and 23 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for encrypted video calls that work in the browser without an account, though critics often doubt its privacy claims given US legal exposure.

## Why people recommend it

- Works well in practice (4 comments): "have hosted a few meetings now with this and now I am so relieved" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46057287)) "Works really well, clean interface, e2ee I can trust." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47621326)) "Proton Meet, which also proved to work pretty well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48041412))
- Trusted encryption and independent audits (2 comments): "Works really well, clean interface, e2ee I can trust." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47621326)) "that's why they have independent audits" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47637577))
- Works in the browser (2 comments): "the ones I use (mail, calendar and meet) definitely work on Firefox for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50017795)) "my customer was able to join without an account and it was all in browser" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46054691))

## What people warn about

- Doubts about US legal exposure (4 comments): "Proton including that part about geopolitical instability implies that Meet is does not fall under the USA's CLOUD Act - that would be wrong." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48048071)) "Proton Meet relying on a bunch of US infrastructure is something they should call out themselves loudly when they advertise it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47723451)) "LiveKit can respond to a US CLOUD Act request for those records without notifying Proton." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47782318))
- Privacy claims seen as misleading (4 comments): "the proton claim that their new service is private from the US government data acquisition, including inability to access call metadata, is a lie" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47624970)) ""Confidential" until the feds decide that your meeting is a threat to a wanna be dictator, then everyone is invited to the party." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47585980)) "they try to appear transparent but a lot of what they've done especially with proton meet seems to sometimes even be misleading" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47626903))
- Trust eroded by controversy (2 comments): "recently with Proton meet and its controversy, my trust on proton has shifted a bit too" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48041702)) "They also admit to scanning all mail to and from non-Proton accounts "for spam"." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47630963))
- Not self-hosted (2 comments): "those who do not own a domain name should buy one an run their own Matrix/XMPP server" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48040772)) "Especially questionable choice by Proton not to opt for the self-hosted option" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47624854))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Zoom](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zoom.md): 99 recommend
- [Jitsi Meet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jitsi.md): 42 recommend
- [Google Meet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-meet.md): 39 recommend
- [Galene](https://hackerapproved.com/p/galene.md): 6 recommend
- [Cisco Webex](https://hackerapproved.com/p/webex.md): 5 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://proton.me/meet)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Proton Meet", https://hackerapproved.com/p/proton-meet/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).