Proton VPN Review

All VPNs claim to be the safest, but a few can match the lengthy security feature list that the Swiss-based Proton VPN has. With an excellent feature pack, a huge server fleet, and great speeds Proton VPN is a legit VPN choice for those seeking top-notch cybersecurity protection. On top of that, it offers one of the best free versions in the industry.

Proton VPN overview

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Proton VPN pros and cons

To give you a truly detailed Proton VPN review, I purchased its Unlimited plan which has all the possible features that the service offers. Of course, I also checked the free version to see its capabilities. I compared both plans together and then with the other VPNs. I checked Proton VPN security features, server reliability, connection speeds, and the functionality of additional features such as the NetShield ad & malware blocker, VPN accelerator, and Quick Connect. So, here’s what I liked and disliked about Proton VPN:

Here are my key takeaways after testing both paid and free Proton VPN plans:

• Security. Proton VPN is a very safe and secure VPN, featuring bank-grade AES-256 and ChaCha20 encryption, advanced tunneling protocols like WireGuard and OpenVPN, and an ultra-reliable kill switch. On top of it, Proton VPN has a third-party audited no-logs policy and offers anonymous cryptocurrency payments.
• Price + free version. Proton VPN isn’t the cheapest VPN around with the Unlimited plan priced at $3.59/month, especially when you compare it to what the industry leader NordVPN offers with $2.99/month. However, if you’re looking for a security-oriented service, the price-to-feature ratio is quite a reasonable one. On the other hand, Proton VPN also has one of the best free versions around, with no daily data cap and all the key security features but a limited number of servers and no ad blocker.
• Speed. The paid Proton VPN version has an 86% initial speed retention rate on average with the WireGuard protocol. That is great news if you want your VPN to perform at streaming, downloading, and torrenting. However, other Proton VPN protocols like OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPsec, and Stealth aren’t as speedy, and you shouldn’t expect such great retention rates with them. Lastly, with the free version and the limited choice of servers, the speeds are yet slower, making it not really reliable for streaming, downloading, or torrenting tasks.
• Ease-of-use. While I can’t say that Proton VPN is not user-friendly, its interface is somewhat cluttered and not as intuitive as those of its competitors. For instance, Surfshark has probably the sleekest and most beginner-friendly apps from what I tried. With Proton VPN, I had to spend a bit of time trying to understand where features are located and how to manipulate them. That’s why I think it might not be the easiest to use if you’re just starting out with VPNs.

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Proton VPN price: one of the most expensive VPNs, but has a free version ⭐⭐⭐

Proton VPN services start from $3.59/month, and you can choose between two plans called Plus and Unlimited. I tested the Unlimited plan which comes at $12.99/month and has all the available features, including Proton Mail Plus, Proton Drive Plus, and Proton Calendar with extra features. Proton VPN is definitely not the cheapest VPN around, especially when you compare it to the pricing of some of the other affordable VPNs, like Bitdefender, which comes at $2.92/month.

As any trustworthy VPN provider should, Proton VPN comes with an easy-to-implement 30-day money-back guarantee. However, its premium plans do not have a free trial.

Here’s how the pricing and features of available Proton VPN plans compare:

The free version of Proton VPN does not have an ad & malware blocker, offers fewer servers to choose from, can only be used with one device, and does not have premium features, such as Proton Mail. Plus and Ultimate both come with an ad and malware blocker, a way bigger server and country choice, and up to 10 simultaneous connections. However, you’ll only find the Proton Mail Plus, Proton Drive Plus, and Proton Calendar with its extra features on the Unlimited plan. And if you’re unsure if Proton VPN is worth it, there are lots of users who back the service pricing as being excellent for the features that you get.

Proton VPN accepts credit and debit cards, bank transfers, PayPal, and cash payments. If you want to purchase your VPN anonymously, you can also pay for your chosen plan with Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a trustworthy and completely free VPN service, Proton VPN has one of the best offerings in the industry.

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Free Proton VPN review: the best free VPN in the market ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Proton VPN has the best free VPN version in the market simply because it’s so trustworthy and comes with no data limit – a real rarity with free VPNs. Additionally, the free version comes with router support, a verified no-logs policy, DNS leak prevention, and a very reliable kill switch. And yes, you can trust the Proton VPN free version because the provider has a strict no-logs policy, is based in user-friendly Switzerland, and is regarded as a highly secure service.

Of course, the Proton VPN free version also has limitations. With it, you can only choose from servers located in 5 countries (the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, Poland, and the US), which severely limits geo-unblocking capabilities. It also lacks the NetShield ad & malware blocker and can only be used on 1 device.

With all that in mind, I experienced no trouble at all browsing safely while on the free plan. I also did not encounter any significant connection delays, but my streaming experience was a bit subpar, interrupted by lagging and buffering. So, to sum it all up, if you want a safe, secure, and trustworthy free VPN strictly for browsing, then Proton VPN is the best available choice out there.

Is Proton VPN safe?

Proton VPN uses WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPsec, and Stealth protocols at their highest encryption settings. These protocols are industry-standard and known for their safety, trustworthiness, and reliability.

Besides these reliable protocols, Proton VPN also uses the AES-256 and ChaCha20 for data encryption. You can be sure they’re pretty much impenetrable. However, Proton VPN couldn’t be called one of the safest around without an ultra-reliable kill switch, DNS leak protection, and the Tor over VPN anonymity network connection, which I found a particularly nice addition for security and anonymity. It also has a reliable IP masking feature and a Stealth mode capable of bypassing almost all VPN blocking methods.

As for Proton VPN legitimacy, it is a very trustworthy service created by a team of CERN (the European Center for Nuclear Research) scientists based in Geneva, Switzerland. To further suppot its claim of trustworthiness, it is a well-known fact that one of their advisory board memebers is none other than Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. Lastly, most Proton VPN users review the service in a very positive light.

Proton VPN privacy – does not log user activity or IP addresses ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Proton VPN has a third-party verified no-logs policy. Here’s what it means: a no-logs policy claims that a VPN does not log, use, or keep any of its users’ data for any purpose. However, without a third-party review, a claim is just a claim, and you can never be sure that the provider keeps it. Now, when it is verified, like in the Proton VPN case, you can rest assured your data won’t end up someplace you wouldn’t want.

Proton VPN does not keep or track and definitely does not sell or steal any of the user information as stated on its official website. This secure no-logs policy make the user’s traffic unkown and unobtainable by any third-party entities, the VPN provider itself, or the government.

On top of that, Proton VPN is a Swiss-based provider. That means, it falls under the EU laws of safe data management and is not in any of the Eyes Alliances. All in all, Proton VPN is regarded to be an extremely safe VPN choice.

Can Proton VPN be detected: hardly ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Proton VPN is hardly detectable to ISPs and is capable of bypassing almost all VPN blocking methods. But before I jump into technicalities, here’s how a VPN works in a nutshell:

1. When you connect to a VPN, it encrypts your data before it even leaves your device.
2. The encrypted data is then sent to a secure “tunnel” created by the VPN.
3. The VPN server you connected to assigns you a new IP address, masking your real location and identity.

Now, back to Proton VPN features which makes it undetectable. First, there’s the alternate routing feature. Simply put, if the software can’t connect to its own servers due to blocking, it routes your connection through third-party services that are unlikely to be blocked.

Second, Proton VPN has a Stealth protocol. This unique protocol allows users to bypass most firewalls and VPN blockers. It makes VPN traffic look like normal traffic, tricking otherwise restricted pages into letting you in.

With the paid Proton VPN plans, I had no issues whatsoever unblocking different Netflix libraries, such as Netflix Brazil, USA, Japan, and Germany. Plus, it was a breeze to stream on BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, to name a few. So, my testing proved that Proton VPN can hardly ever be detected.

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Proton VPN servers – has 9200 worldwide servers ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Proton VPN has 9200 servers spread out across 110 countries. Here’s where and how many of them are:

I should mention that this is one of the biggest server fleets around, surpassed only by NordVPN which has 7000.

Another cool thing is that Proton VPN has 107 Secure Core servers in 68 countries. These servers route all network traffic through privacy-friendly countries like Switzerland or Iceland for an additional layer of safety and security. Proton VPN also fully owns and operates these servers, which is one more step forward towards ultimate user safety. However, they’re only available with the Plus plan.

Proton VPN comparison with other VPNs

Compared to other services, Proton VPN has the most advanced free version with no data limits and some server choices. However, the paid plans are a bit steep compared to the industry average. Like all the top providers, Proton VPN has a 30-day money-back guarantee for a no-strings-attached experience.

Streaming with Proton VPN – perfect for unblocking regional content ⭐⭐⭐⭐

If your main use for VPN is to stream geo-blocked content, then I have good news to share: Proton VPN is great for streaming and accessing restricted content. With 9200 servers in 110 countries, an alternate routing feature, and a Stealth protocol, you can unlock all the most popular libraries of the biggest streaming platforms.

In addition to the most popular UK and US libraries, I also tried unlocking Netfilx Japan, Brazil, and Germany. To my delight, it was a huge success, and I streamed my movies without any interruptions, lag, or buffering.

A real deal sweetener is the VPN Accelerator feature, which adds a couple of percent more to the initial data retention score, upping it to a nice 88% on average. This feature is the key to a smooth streaming experience in the Proton VPN case.

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Torrenting with Proton VPN: works only with paid version ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Yes, Proton VPN supports torrenting. However, not on all servers and only with paid plans. Proton VPN does not have a lot of P2P dedicated servers, and the only ones optimized for such traffic are in:

Canada, Czechia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Singapore, Sweden, United States, and the United Kingdom.

The average download speed for Proton VPN is around 148 Mbps, with the faster server located in the UK coming in at 152 Mbps. Additionally, Proton VPN has nifty split tunelling feature for you to browse on your internet’s full power while downloading. Lastly, the port forwarding feature comes in very handy if you find yourself behind a firewall and need to seed for better download speeds. During my testing, I had no problem downloading torrents with Proton VPN, although it did seem to work a bit slower compared to NordVPN. Nonetheless, it proved to work just fine for the task.

Proton VPN speed – excellent speed test scores ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

For this Proton VPN review, I performed my speed tests on a Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen2 device (AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5650U processor, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD) with the Windows 11 Pro operating system installed. I checked the download and upload speeds and then the initial speed retention rates in Australia, the UK, the US, and Germany.

First off, the download and upload speed test results. My initial download speed at the time of the test was 193 Mbps download and 196 Mbps upload, and here are the numbers I got while with Proton VPN:

These numbers are excellent for any provider and are achieved by Proton VPN’s reliable server network, modern tunneling protocols, and unique features, such as the VPN Accelerator, for improving connectivity. I can safely say that these speeds are more than sufficient for streaming, downloading, and torrenting.

Next up were the initial speed retention rates, and here’s what I got:

Because Proton VPN operates on the proprietary WireGuard protocol, it was really no surprise it performed quite well on my speed tests. Keep in mind that switching to other protocols, especially Stealth, will lower all speeds accordingly and your own results might vary depending on your location, ISP, software, time of day, and other factors.

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Proton VPN features: has a great collection of advanced features ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Together with the expected security features such as a kill switch and ID protection, Proton VPN has a great collection of advanced features. Here are some that are truly useful and unique to the provider:

Secure Core servers. Secure Core servers route all network traffic via servers based in privacy-friendly countries like Iceland and Switzerland. This means, that if you connect to a Secure Core server, your data will be protected with another layer of privacy and security. Proton VPN has 107 of these servers spread across 68 countries. However, they are only available for users with paid plans.

Tor over VPN. Tor Browser, also known as The Onion Router, is an open-source web browser where users can browse completely anonymously. With Proton VPN, you don’t actually have to have the browser as the service itself has built-in Tor support. Meaning, if you want to, you can route your traffic through the Tor anonymity network and access Onion sites with one click.

VPN accelerator. This nifty feature increases VPN connection speeds by overcoming CPU limitations that affect how VPNs are processed. In fact, this accelerator allows VPNs to redesign themselves on the go, thus reducing any existing deficiencies. This is really a cool feature that adds a bit of speed to downloading and uploading operations, especially when connecting to further located servers.

Proton VPN Mobile app – works with both iOS and Android ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Both iOS and Android Proton VPN apps look the same, with the exact same functionalities inside. What surprised me a bit was that the mobile apps seemed to be more clear and more intuitive than the desktop ones, which is a rare thing indeed.

As for the iOS and Android app functionality, it is split evenly between the apps, which is not always the case. Users can choose between WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2 protocols, there’s a functioning kill switch (although Andoid users have to switch it manually), and thechoice to connect to Secure Core servers. Also, there’s a nice additional feature for iOS users, as Proton VPN app can be turned into a widget to make it readily available whenever you need it. All in all, you get almost everything as you would on a desktop app.

You can get the Android app from Google Play or directly from the provider’s website. For the iOS app, head to the Apple App Store and look for it there.

How to use Proton VPN on iPhone and Android

Here’s how to use Proton VPN on iPhone and Android:

1. Head to Google Play if you’re an Android user and to Apple App Store if you’re on iOS
2. Download the Proton VPN app
3. Register an account and choose your preferred plan
4. Log in into the app
5. Choose and connect to your preferred server
6. Enjoy enhanced security

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Proton VPN desktop app – some features differ between Windows and Mac ⭐⭐⭐⭐

All Proton VPN apps are open-source and audited for additional affirmation of their security. As for their looks, both Windows and Mac desktop apps look the same. However, to me, the design seemed a bit cluttered and the navigation somewhat lacked intuitivity. All that aside, they’re still very functional and get the job done.

Windows desktop app has the most advanced feature set, including alternate routing, split tunneling, and custom DNS servers. In this case, Windows users get the most features for their money.

MacOS app has all the core features, such as a kill switch, alternate routing, ad-blocker, Stealth protocol, and more. However, Ipv6 leak protection, split tunneling, and Custom DNS servers are unavailable to Mac users.

You can find both of the apps on Proton VPN official website and download them from there.

How to install Proton VPN on a computer?

Proton VPN is compatible with Windows, MacOS, and Linux computer operational systems, and the installation process is the same for each of them. Here’s what you should do:

1. Go to Proton VPN website and download the application
2. Install the application onto your device
3. Create an account and choose your preferred plan
4. Log in and connect to your chosen server
5. Browse securely and safely

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Extensions for Chrome and Firefox ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Proton VPN offers Chrome and Firefox browser extensions which are a great choice if you want a lighter solution or your operating system is a bit too old to support a full VPN app. Both of these extensions are available for the Plus and Ultimate plans, meaning you can’t get it with the free version.

Naturally, an extension offers slightly fewer features, but you still get all the essentials. You can choose the Secure Core servers with it, set up the Auto Connect feature, and Split Tunneling for more efficient internet speed division.

Proton VPN’s browser extension treats each browser instance as a separate connection, but that does not limit the number of tabs you can open. Sadly, though, there’s no extension for the Safari browser as it comes with major technical constraints.

Both of these extension are quite user-friendly and do not take an IT specialist to implement. While I prefer the full Proton VPN app for its enhanced security features, the extensions work excellently for casual activities, such as streaming.

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Proton VPN customer support: great email support, but lacks 24/7 live chat ⭐⭐⭐⭐

If you run into trouble while using Proton VPN, here are your options for contacting customer support:

The fastest way to get help is usually the live chat option. However, Proton VPN does not offer this service 24/7, so if you’re trying to contact them over the weekend or anytime other than 9-5 on a workday, then you won’t get a fast response. To supplement this limited-time live chat, Proton VPN also has email support, a knowledgebase, FAQs, and a dedicated subreddit. I tried contacting the service via email and was happy to get my answer within an hour. That said, the next time I tried it, I had to wait the whole day. Nonetheless, the customer service professional was very polite and knowledgeable, helping me with a complex situation effortlessly.

If you’d like, you can also look for an answer in the Proton VPN knowledgebase which is full of well-written explanatory articles, check out the FAQs, or scroll through the dedicated subreddit.

Either way, Proton VPN customer support, while not the fastest, is quite sufficient.

Proton VPN review summary

Proton VPN is an excellent VPN for users seeking a security-oriented service, as it comes with a third-party audited no-logs policy, operates on iron-strong AES-256 data encryption, and has extensive security features pack.

While Proton VPN paid plans are pricier than average, they are excellent for streaming, downloading, and torrenting, while also providing an advanced layer of security. The service also has a free version that comes without any data limits and has all the core security features, making it one of the best, if not the best, free VPN versions around.

There are a couple of areas where Proton VPN falls short, though. The customer service is not very fast, and in some cases, you might need to wait for quite a while until you’re provided with a solution. Lastly, the desktop app design is not the sleekest and the most intuitive and requires a bit of getting-used-to-time. Overall, Proton VPN is very user-friendly and provides robust security and excellent streaming options. It’s truly a great, trustworthy, and versatile VPN choice.

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You might also like to read:
NordVPN vs. Proton VPN
Proton VPN vs. ExpressVPN
Proton VPN for torrenting
Most secure VPNs
Best VPN for crypto trading

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FAQ

Can you trust Proton VPN?

Yes, you can trust Proton VPN. Proton VPN is a Swiss-based provider with a strict, third-party audited no-logs policy. With the AES-256 and ChaCha 20 encryption and Secure Core servers, you can be sure all your privacy and security needs are met.

Is Proton VPN legal?

Yes, Proton VPN is legal in most jurisdictions. However, there are several countries in the world where VPNs are banned: Belarus, Iran, Iraq, and Turkmenistan.

What are the disadvantages of Proton VPN?

Proton VPN is quite expensive compared to other services in the industry. Additionally, the customer service responses could be faster, so bear that in mind if you’re prone to running into trouble with your VPN.

Can I be tracked with Proton VPN?

No, your internet activity cannot be tracked while you’re on Proton VPN. A VPN masks your IP address and encrypts your network traffic, rendering it impossible to perceive to ISPs or any other entities if they should try to access it.

Can Netflix detect Proton VPN?

No, Netflix cannot detect Proton VPN. Proton VPN is very successful in unblocking geo-restricted content, additionally employing the Stealth mode that makes VPN traffic look like any other regular traffic. So, while some VPNs might struggle with being detected by VPN blocks, that is not the case with Proton VPN.

Is Proton VPN safe or not?

Yes, Proton VPN is safe. The service has a strict, third-party audited no-logs policy and is based in Switzerland, a privacy-friendly country that’s currently not in any Eye Alliance. So, you can rest assured that your data won’t be exploited in any way and that the service is completely legitimate.

Is Proton VPN really free?

Yes, Proton VPN has a completely free version. This version comes without any data limits and you can choose from 5 servers to connect to. However, if you’d like more server choices, including the Secure Core ones, a well-functioning ad & malware blocker, and better download speeds, you should try the Proton VPN Plus plan for $3.59/month and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

What are the cons of Proton free VPN?

Proton VPN free version cons are only 5 servers to choose from, slower connection and download speeds, less capable geo-unblocking, no ad & malware protection, and no P2P servers available for torrenting. That said, it’s still one of the best free VPN services you’ll find, as it is safe, trustworthy, and reliable.