Proton VPN Reviews

Proton VPN's main goal is to ensure its users’ safety and complete anonymity online. In fact, the company provides a handful of features just for that purpose, and when it comes to its privacy policy, this VPN has nothing hidden in the closet.

On top of offering 2FA, ad and malware protection, support for TOR and P2P, and designated servers for streaming, the service also provides a number of optional tools that can be customized according to each user’s taste.

Based in Switzerland, Proton VPN benefits from the country’s strong privacy laws, free from the influence of North American or European regulations. However, these laws don’t apply when connecting servers in regions with extensive surveillance measures.

To fight this, Proton VPN offers Secure Core. It essentially tunnels all traffic through multiple servers instead of directly sending it to its final destination. It works like the multihop feature but, in this case, it only channels traffic through servers located in highly secure, privacy-friendly countries. There are servers in Switzerland, Iceland, and Sweden, which are directly managed and controlled by Proton.

This ensures that even if your connection’s destination is in a less secure country, your data first passes through one of these strongly protected servers. Even if a server is being monitored, the attacker is only capable of following the intercepted traffic back to the edge of the Secure Core network.

This option can be easily toggled on or off in the app and when activated, it shows how your connection is being routed on the app’s world map view. From there, you can choose different routing alternatives according to your preferences.

On the left-hand side of the desktop client, there’s an interesting tab called Profiles, where users can get creative and customize their connections. It’s a simple tool but it’s great for making everything easier and faster the next time you open the app.

To start off, there are two preset profiles named ‘Fastest’ and ‘Random’, which will either connect to the fastest server or a random one. However, the software really comes into its own when creating a custom profile.

Proton VPN allows you to choose which type of server you want – Standard, Secure Core, P2P, or TOR – and from that moment on, the VPN is yours to build. Depending on your choice, other options become available, such as which protocol, country, and server to attribute to the connection profile. Once a profile is created, it will be placed in the Profiles tab alongside the default ones.

Proton VPN has over 8,500 servers in more than 100 countries, ensuring worldwide coverage. From the list of servers, each one is signaled with what it supports, like P2P, streaming, TOR over VPN, and smart routing. The latter gives you access to restricted locations by using secure Proton-owned remote servers.

We ran several tests on Proton VPN's servers from Europe, using WireGuard. It wasn’t surprising to see that the closest locations produced the best results. Still, it’s easy to obtain fast connections to other countries, even if they are geographically distant and suffering from high ping levels.

For example, when connecting to Los Angeles, which is over 5,000 miles away from our location, the performance was only hit by 25% with a ping of 166ms. Given how distant we were, we consider this an excellent result; all praise goes to Proton VPN's built-in VPN accelerator.

After conducting all the tests, Proton VPN got an average speed reduction of 19% for downloads and 44% for uploads. As usual, the performance drop for upload is much higher than for download, but it’s still within the expected results for a VPN.

It was a pleasant surprise to see that the VPN’s performance was not affected when using Secure Core. Since traffic is essentially routed through at least one more server, it would be expected for it not to perform as well, but our tests proved this to be wrong. In addition, the VPN features a handy kill switch and DNS leak prevention, which didn’t let through a single DNS or even webRTC leak during our testing sessions.

When it comes to VPN protocols, Proton VPN prefers to play it safe and only offers those whose security and reliability have already been proven, like WireGuard, IKEv2, and OpenVPN.

In addition to being completely open about its privacy policy, Proton VPN is also transparent about all things related to the company, making this information publicly available. Plus, Proton VPN is open source and independently audited with the results report available to everyone.

Proton VPN's desktop client is fully compatible with computers running Windows 7+ and macOS 10.12 and above. Alternatively, Linux fans can also install it on their systems via its official GUI client or manually via OpenVPN. Mobile customers aren’t left out either, as there are apps for Android and iOS devices running on at least versions 8.0 and 15.0, respectively.

Additionally, it’s compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromebook, and DD-WRT and Tomato routers, via the available configuration files. Since there’s extensive platform compatibility, the maximum number of simultaneous connections is a generous ten.

Proton VPN offers plans to suit every type of user. For starters, there’s the free version that allows you to browse anonymously without spending a dime. However, you don’t get access to the VPS’s full potential, with support for only one device and location and no option for manual protocol changes.

Those looking for Proton VPN's full scope of features can get the VPN for as little as $2.99 per month on a 2-year subscription that includes a 70% discount. It offers all the bells and whistles, such as over 110 locations, P2P and streaming servers, Secure Core, and custom connection profiles.

The other two options are for customers wanting short-term subscriptions with the same feature suite. Proton VPN has a 1-year plan, which includes a discount of 50%, totaling $4.99 per month, and a 1-month plan for $9.99.

Whichever subscription you go for, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee that you can fall back on if you’re not fully satisfied. For payments, Proton VPN accepts credit and debit cards, PayPal, Bitcoin, and cash.

If any questions arise, there are plenty of ways to get help. The site includes a blog, getting started and troubleshooting guides, and useful FAQs. Regarding customer support, there’s an email submission form and live chat, although the latter is exclusively for paying customers.

After contacting Proton VPN via the email submission as a non-paying user, we got a cordial and straightforward reply in less than one hour, which is an acceptable response time.

While its customer support might not be the best in class, Proton VPN has an impressive online presence across social media. It has accounts on most social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube, as well as communities for Discord and Reddit.

All connections are stable with no DNS leaks and an above-average performance no matter the server you choose. Functionalities like Secure Core and custom connection profiles make it even better, letting you personalize your experience without worrying about having your privacy compromised.

Despite its limited features, the free version is a great way to test the VPN without committing financially. Even if you subscribe, you’re always protected by the company’s 30-day money-back guarantee. Unfortunately, the live chat is only available for subscribers, which some of its competitors offer across all plans. However, this shouldn’t discourage you from trying Proton VPN, as it’s likely you’ll be impressed regardless.