A Swiss VPN that is jam-packed with cutting-edge privacy features, yet it is also blazingly fast. VPNs are services that shield your web traffic from being snooped on by your ISP (and others) and make it more difficult for advertisers to follow your online activities and movements. Even though ProtonVPN is not the largest, flashiest, or most inexpensive VPN available on the market, it is the most highly rated VPN we’ve tested. It places a great value on the privacy of its customers and has an amazing, user-friendly client interface. Aside from that, it has many advanced privacy features that are generally found only in more expensive goods. Because of all of this, as well as its great free version with no data cap, it has been named an Editors’ Choice and one of the finest free VPNs available. If you’re unfamiliar with virtual private networks, ProtonVPN is a risk-free method to get started.
What is the cost of using ProtonVPN?
We are opposed to tiered pricing techniques in VPNs because they are frequently used to disguise a product’s true cost and upsell existing customers. Thanks to the majority of VPN providers, this paradigm has been avoided in favor of advertising longer subscriptions that provide higher discounts. Even if ProtonVPN does hide advanced features behind different membership tiers, the company’s goal appears to be more about accessibility than upsells. With ProtonVPN, you can enjoy a superior VPN experience without having to upgrade to the most expensive service available.
ProtonVPN’s free VPN service is limited to only three VPN server locations (Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States), and it may only be used by one device at a time (see below). To be able to use ProtonVPN’s free tier, you must first create an account with the provider. Mullvad and IVPN do not request any information from you to become a paying member of their organizations.
Despite the fact that you must create an account in order to use it, the free version of ProtonVPN is unusual in that it allows you to use an infinite amount of data. User data transfer is limited to 500MB of encrypted traffic per month with TunnelBear VPN’s free edition; users transfer is limited to 500MB per day with Hotspot Shield’s free edition, and users transfer is not limited to a specific server with KeepSolid VPN Lite’s free edition. Other free VPN services impose further restrictions on their users. Consequently, ProtonVPN is our preferred free VPN over all other free VPNs that we’ve tested.
VPN for Windows is a service that allows you to connect to a virtual private network (VPN).
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OUR FINAL COMMENTARY
When you consider the accelerated performance, excellent unblocking results, the abundance of features, the unlimited bandwidth free plan, and the comfortable app security checks, ProtonVPN appears to be an incredible value.
FOR
Free plans feature unlimited bandwidth, which is included in the free plan.
Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Amazon, and Disney Plus are all available with the premium plan.
OpenVPN and WireGuard are lightning-fast protocols.
The highest-quality applications that are open-source, well-reviewed, and free to use
AGAINST
- Prices that are higher than the average
- Articles on help websites can be difficult to understand.
All virtual private network (VPN) services claim to be privacy experts, but there is little evidence to back up this claim. ProtonVPN, based in Switzerland, is unique in that the firm has a proven track record in security – it is also the founder of ProtonMail, a popular end-to-end encrypted email service that is used by millions of people.
With the addition of Cyprus, ProtonVPN’s network now includes 1,300 servers in 61 countries, an increase from 55 countries in our previous analysis. In common with most of its competitors, the majority of its servers are located in Europe and North America, although there are also servers in Australia, Brazil, Columbia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, and South Korea, among other places.
As a further security measure, ProtonVPN owns and maintains its own servers, which are connected to the internet through the company’s own unique network. ProtonVPN now has entire control over how the service is configured and handled, which proves that this company is not just a shell company profiting from the selling of other people’s equipment: there are real resources and experience at work here.
Would you be interested in giving ProtonVPN a try? To learn more about the website, please visit it by clicking here.
ProtonVPN offers a variety of subscription packages, including the following:
The plan for 24 months is $6.63 per month (for a total of $159.12).
The Secure Core of ProtonVPN exhibits the advantages of having that level of control by routing traffic via a large number of servers before it leaves the network (meaning that even high-tech snoopers watching one exit server will be unable to track individual users).
While the vast majority of customers do not require that level of security, ProtonVPN provides a great deal more. The service is peer-to-peer (P2P) compatible, supports up to ten devices (the industry standard is five), features a kill switch, DNS leak prevention, and built-in Tor capabilities for accessing Onion sites. The service is available in English and Spanish. Split tunneling is a versatile method of routing all internet traffic through a VPN, with the exception of traffic to and from specific apps and destination IP addresses that you select.
The DNS-based NetShield web filter, on the other hand, guards against the installation of malicious software, ads, and trackers. It is now possible to use ProtonVPN on practically any platform thanks to the availability of native apps for Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS. That’s not to mention the fact that they are all open-source and independently audited.
Although this is a large list, ProtonVPN has managed to cram in two key new features since our last evaluation. To begin, all of its apps now support the lightning-fast WireGuard protocol, which was previously unavailable. For the second time, paying customers can now (at least in some cases) contact Support immediately via live chat if they have any problems with the product.
Pricing for ProtonVPN is available upon request.
The ProtonVPN Plus package contains all of the capabilities listed above, as well as coverage for ten devices. It costs $10 per month, $8 per year, or $6.63 per year when paid over two years. That is above average, yet competent VPNs are available for far less money (Private Internet Access rates are as low as $3.33 per month on an annual contract, and VyprVPN charges as little as $1.81 per month over three years with a subscription).
The company provides a number of more economical alternatives. The Basic plan does not include access to premium servers, does not support Netflix streaming, does not allow traffic to be routed through multiple servers, and only supports two devices. However, it is only $4 per month on an annual subscription or $3.29 per month for two years, and it is the most affordable option. Even while some competitors offer an unrestricted service at a very similar price, this is the preferred option (and occasionally less).
Almost all payments are protected by a 30-day money-back guarantee (kind of). A caveat, however, is that you will only be reimbursed for time spent not participating in the program; for example, if you join up for a month and request a refund after 15 days, the company will reimburse you for half of your monthly fee.
In spite of the fact that this may appear to be a bit vengeful, ProtonVPN has a compelling argument in that it already gives consumers an unlimited amount of time to evaluate its service with its free subscription.
Having said that, there are some significant limits to this free plan. It is restricted to a single device and only supports medium speeds,’ while also providing access to 23 servers spread over three different locations (US, Netherlands, Japan).
Our experience with the service was positive, with an average of 65 to 70 megabits per second (Mbps) from our nearest Netherlands server, and most significantly, there were no capacity restrictions. The quantity of bandwidth you may use with ProtonVPN Free is completely unlimited: you can use it however much you want, at any time. The fact that this is a big issue makes ProtonVPN intriguing in and of itself.
Also included is a list of the finest free virtual private network (VPN) service providers.
You can protect your online privacy without having to pay a monthly fee if you use ProtonVPN’s complimentary service (Image credit: ProtonVPN)
Privacy
ProtonVPN’s Swiss location immediately gives it a competitive advantage in terms of privacy over the rest of its competitors. The country has tight privacy legislation, is outside the jurisdiction of the United States and the European Union, and is not a member of the NSA’s “14 eyes” monitoring network, among other things.
This is how the company describes its log policy on its website: “ProtonVPN is a VPN service that does not keep any records of your activities. The fact that we do not monitor or record your online actions means that we are unable to share this information with any third parties.”
Session logging is almost non-existent in this environment. The timestamp of the most recent successful login attempt is all that is retained by the organization. With each successive login, this information is erased, and the only information ProtonVPN retains about your account activity is the time at which your most recent session began.
The email address that you use to sign up for ProtonVPN is associated with your account; however, you can use any email address that you like. If you want to remain completely anonymous, ProtonMail is the service that the company advises you to use.
If you choose to sign up for the free plan, you will not be needed to provide any financial information. Choose something else, and you’ll be able to pay using Bitcoin. In the case of payments made using PayPal or credit card, the transaction is handled by a third party, and ProtonVPN does not have access to your billing information. Alternatively, if you want to remain completely anonymous, you might simply give money to the company. While this is not the most convenient technique, you will be confident in the fact that you have not left any electronic audit trail behind.
A Transparency Report, sometimes known as a “Warrant Canary,” is a report that outlines key legal demands and the outcomes of those requests. Despite the fact that this sounds informative, it only appears to have shown a single request (for which no data was delivered), and that request was made in January 2019.
With the release of independent audit reports on its apps, undertaken by security experts SEC Consult in January 2020, ProtonVPN made yet another step ahead in terms of privacy.
The findings were good, with just 11 vulnerabilities detected across desktop and mobile applications, all of which were rated as low or medium severity. The findings were published in a technical journal. ProtonVPN has already resolved all of the concerns that were brought to its attention.
While eleven may appear to be a large number, it is not. The entire goal of this type of audit is to be thorough, uncovering even the smallest flaws; nevertheless, none of ProtonVPN’s vulnerabilities came close to being show stoppers throughout the assessment.
For example, SEC Consult observed that the Windows client was temporarily keeping the current session’s login credentials in RAM in a single item while the session was running. Given that the data is wiped when the app is closed, this isn’t surprising.
An attacker would need to execute apps on your machine that has access to RAM while connected to ProtonVPN in order to capture the requisite memory block and understand how to extract it from ProtonVPN’s data structures before they could exploit the vulnerability. That is highly unlikely because, if malware is running on your computer, it may already be causing significant damage (for example, by utilizing keyloggers or screen captures to record everything you do).
When all of this is taken into consideration, ProtonVPN deserves huge respect for putting itself through such a rigorous testing process. The company’s infrastructure, backend and frontend systems, and even the website are all subjected to audits, which TunnelBear has re-run on a number of occasions over a period of several years. But ProtonVPN continues to trample on the bulk of its competitors, who are unwilling to submit to any kind of examination because they lack confidence.
The ProtonVPN Windows client displays information about your connection as well as the location of the current server on the network (Image credit: ProtonVPN)
App for the Windows operating system
Signing up for ProtonVPN is a straightforward process. The company supports payments via credit card, Bitcoin, or even cash if you want complete anonymity, but we chose PayPal because it was the most convenient. It took only a few seconds for ProtonVPN to complete the process and direct us to our account dashboard, a convenient web portal that includes login credentials, an OpenVPN configuration file generator, a download link for the Windows client, as well as links to instructions for configuring Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android devices.
The Windows client was downloaded and installed. It was downloaded and installed without any technical difficulties in a couple of seconds, and there were no technical challenges. We logged in with the username and password that had been supplied to us after completing the registration process, and the main console appeared.
The client appears to be of high quality, with a clean and professional interface. There is a large (and resizable) global map at the top of the screen that behaves as expected: use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out, left-click and drag to move around, hover the mouse cursor over a server icon to view its location, and click to connect.
If you are not a lover of map interfaces, there is no need to worry; the client may be collapsed to a more traditional list of places. P2P servers (12 as of this writing, up from five in our last evaluation) and Tor servers are denoted by the use of icons (just three: United States, Switzerland, and Hong Kong). When you expand a location, you will get a list of all available servers, along with a load indicator (green indicates low load, red indicates high load), and you will be able to connect to any of them with a single click.
In order to test P2P functionality, we downloaded torrents from five distinct specialist torrent servers and verified that they were all successful downloads.
As an added feature, ProtonVPN allows you to create custom profiles that are specific to specific workflows (Image credit: ProtonVPN)
Using the Profiles functionality, you may create a Favorites system that is extremely strong. This may be as simple as creating a profile that connects to a New York server, but there are a plethora of additional options available to you. There are other options available, including connecting to the fastest server in a particular nation or region, connecting to a random server to reduce your chances of being traced, connecting to the best P2P or Tor-friendly server, and connecting using OpenVPN TCP or UDP.
You can specify a kill switch, DNS leak protection, and other features via the client’s Settings menu. (Photo courtesy of ProtonVPN.)
Settings
Setting up the split tunneling system is done through the Settings dialog box, which allows you to enable or disable critical functionalities, select the Quick Connect action (connect to the fastest location, a random server, or a specific server of your choice), and set the Quick Connect action.
Despite the fact that the program now contains support for WireGuard, OpenVPN is still supported… When the ‘Smart Protocol’ function is used, OpenVPN will be automatically selected if it looks to be the most appropriate protocol for your situation; alternatively, you can manually select it as needed.
In most cases, the ‘VPN Accelerator’ option is activated by default, which optimizes performance by employing a variety of low-level strategies (threading, network optimizations). In addition, there is a fascinating and useful option in the Settings box to consider. ‘Auto Reconnection’ keeps track of the performance of your current server and connects you to a faster one in the vicinity if necessary. That does appear to be a promising approach.
The ProtonVPN website’s support area includes step-by-step instructions for setting up the VPN on a variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers (Image credit: ProtonVPN)
Upon further investigation of the logs, we determined that the client was connecting using industrial-strength AES-256-GCM encryption and HMAC-384 authentication to establish the connection. However, if you are not a crypto-geek, the website of ProtonVPN provides some good basic information.
With some in-depth kill switch testing, we came to the conclusion of our investigation into the Windows client, which indicated that it performed brilliantly. When the client performed typical tasks, such as connecting to a new server while still connected to the prior one, we were not compromised. When we manually ended a TCP connection or terminated a VPN process, the client displayed an alert and blocked all traffic until we reconnected to the network again.
And it is not confined to the kill switch, which is fantastic news all around. Extreme and unexpected scenarios are a good indicator of code quality, and ProtonVPN outperforms the vast majority of its competitors in this regard.
The Android application for the ProtonVPN user interface is available here (Image credit: ProtonVPN)
Apps for mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular.
The Android version of the ProtonVPN program is strikingly similar to the desktop version, with a map display, country list, and Profile system that is reminiscent of the Favorites feature of the desktop version.
The Settings panel provides settings and controls that are largely identical to those found in the Options panel: you may enable or disable the kill switch, configure split tunneling, and access NetShield’s malware-blocking features, to name a few. Custom DNS servers are not supported by the app, although they are supported by the desktop client. In addition to supporting the OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols, it also provides the IKEv2 protocol as an extra benefit.
Additionally, the iOS application has a user interface that is recognizable to users (Image credit: ProtonVPN)
It is a little more elegant than the Android version of ProtonVPN, with clever visual touches such as the use of colorful flag icons as map markers, but it adheres to the same fundamental design principles. In addition to the same basic configuration options and features as the desktop client, it contains the OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IKEv2 protocols, as well as NetShield ad and malware protection, DNS leak protection, split tunneling, and the ability to alter your MTU (a very technical but sometimes useful feature.)
Not only is it amazing to see mobile apps that preserve all of the most intriguing elements of their desktop counterparts, but there’s another plus to be found here as well: the fact that they are free. A large number of VPNs have drastically different feature sets across platforms, which might be confusing if you use the service on a number of different devices. Once you’ve mastered one platform, you’ll know exactly what to do with the others because ProtonVPN is visually and functionally identical across all of them.
Alternatively, if you want to use another OpenVPN-compatible program or device, there is even more good news: ProtonVPN has the best support we have discovered thus far. In contrast to other VPN services that force you to either deal with a single set of generic configuration files or create bespoke configuration files from scratch, ProtonVPN’s online panel allows you to have the best of both worlds.
You can customize your OpenVPN files to meet your platform and protocol needs, then browse files by country or individual server and download them one at a time or in a single ZIP file. Those of you who have ever had to manually download 120 OpenVPN configuration files one by one, before renaming them to anything useable, will appreciate how intelligent and efficient this is.
We run performance tests on each VPN we assess, utilizing third-party benchmarking websites to see how well it performs (Image credit: nPerf)
Performance
To begin, we connected to the fastest server from two different locations (a UK data center with a 1Gbps connection and a US data center with a 600Mbps line) and then monitored performance using benchmarking services such as SpeedTest.net (via the website and command-line app), nPerf, and SpeedOf.me to see how fast the connection was. In total, five tests were administered in each session, with the whole set being administered in both morning and evening sessions. After that, we looked at the data to see how the median speeds differed.
OpenVPN performance in the United Kingdom was superb, averaging 400-460Mbps, and even better in the United States, averaging 460-510Mbps. That is a huge improvement above what we have seen from the other main VPN service providers in the past. Even the closest competitors are well behind in terms of concealment. Me reaching speeds of 390Mbps, HideMyAss reaching speeds of 340-350Mbps, and ExpressVPN reaching speeds of 310Mbps.
ProtonVPN has introduced WireGuard, which boasts download speeds of 560-570Mbps in the United Kingdom and 720-740Mbps in the United States. While that is likewise a noteworthy attempt, it falls short of being a model for others to follow. In recent tests, we found that IPVanish (750-790Mbps), Mozilla (750-850Mbps), and NordVPN (760-880Mbps) all outperformed our expectations.
ProtonVPN was successful in unblocking Netflix in our tests (Image credit: Netflix)
Netflix and other on-demand services
While ProtonVPN’s key selling point is its privacy and security, the service also boasts some impressive unblocking skills.
Although the BBC iPlayer, for example, is well-defended against many smaller VPNs, ProtonVPN was able to effortlessly circumvent its defenses and allow us to stream whatever we wanted without issue. We returned and performed the tests with a few extra IP addresses to ensure that Proton’s unblocking dependability was not compromised, and they were successful as well.
We had the same level of success with Netflix in both the United Kingdom and the United States, with three out of three of our test connections proving to be successful in both countries.
ProtonVPN, on the other hand, has no issues with Amazon Prime Video, unlike other services. From each of our three test locations, we streamed content that was only available in the United States and no other countries.
With Disney Plus, the service maintained its faultless record, as we were once again able to stream the complete of the US library as if we were in the country.
However, keep in mind that this level of performance necessitates the purchase of a ProtonVPN Plus membership at the very least. It is not sufficient to have a free account or a Basic subscription.
In general, customer service is satisfactory, yet there are a few drawbacks (Image credit: ProtonVPN)
Support
While the ProtonVPN support site has a large number of comprehensive articles and instructions, they are not always organized and presented in the most user-friendly manner.
In our search for the term “speed,” the first result was titled “How latency, bandwidth, and throughput effect Internet speed,” and it featured the advice “To calculate the maximum throughput on a TCP connection, you can use the Mathis formula and this online calculator,” among other things.
The second essay featured more relevant information, while it was more challenging to write at times. After proposing that we change servers in order to improve speed, it went on to say: ‘In order to be effective, you need to switch to a server with an IP address range that is distinct from the one you now have.’ Instead of altering the IP address from 162.210.192.158 to 162.210.192.159, you should change it to 209.58.129.97,’ says the author. This level of technical understanding in the initial set of documentation is encouraging, but it is unlikely to be appreciated by those who have never worked with a supplier before.
In the event that you are unable to locate what you are searching for, ProtonVPN’s new live chat service is available to assist you immediately. This was our first effort on Sunday evening, but we were able to speak with an agent the following day, so we were hopeful.
Nothing could have gone better for us during our conversation. It was a lovely encounter; the individual listened attentively to our inquiry and our responses, then asked appropriate questions of their own, provided excellent advice, and pointed us to other areas where we could receive extra support.
If that advice were unsuccessful, they offered to convert our chat into a support request, which would allow us to resume the conversation later without having to re-describe our problem. Impressive.
Although we have found that submitting a ticket or sending an email is more effective, if live chat does not work for you, you can still expect to receive relevant responses within a few hours.
ProtonVPN receives a final verdict
Everything we attempted was unblocked by ProtonVPN, and its well-designed apps are now open source and independently inspected. Its speeds are also among the quickest we’ve seen, thanks to the addition of WireGuard. This is a fantastic VPN service that is always developing. Give it a shot and see how it goes.
Is ProtonVPN in the business of selling your data?
ProtonVPN adheres to a strong no-logs policy in order to protect the privacy of our subscribers. This means that we do not maintain any session usage logs of what you do online, and we do not log any metadata that could compromise your personal information.
Is ProtonVPN a better alternative to NordVPN?
NordVPN provides significantly faster performance than ProtonVPN. Both services are safe, but NordVPN uses the WireGuard protocol, which is the most up-to-date VPN encryption technology available. Both services guarantee your privacy, but NordVPN has greater privacy features, diskless servers, and has undergone two audits to prove that it does not log any data.
Is ProtonVPN truly a free service?
The ProtonVPN free plan is completely limitless and is designed for maximum safety. There are no catches or gimmicks. All that is required is internet privacy and freedom for those who require it. Our free VPN service is made possible by the contributions of our paying customers.
Is ProtonVPN a reliable service?
Is ProtonVPN a secure VPN service? ProtonVPN is one of the safest and most secure VPN services available. With AES military-grade encryption and tunneling protocols, it provides a high level of security. All of their programs are open-source, which means that anyone may review their code to ensure that it is safe to use before downloading it.
