Proton VPN is a Swiss privacy service with an independently audited no-logs policy and the only genuinely usable free plan in the category. After working through both its free and paid tiers, we think it earns a place at the top of the market. The company behind it, Proton AG, was founded in 2014 by scientists from CERN and MIT. The VPN sits inside a wider account system that now covers more than 100 million Proton accounts. The paid plan handles streaming without a fight. The apps are open source on every platform, and the security feature set runs deeper than most rivals bother with. It is not flawless. The free tier is deliberately limited in ways you need to understand before you rely on it, and the service side of the business lags behind the product.
Our Verdict on Proton VPN
Proton VPN is the service we would recommend to most people who care about privacy first and speed second. The privacy story holds up under scrutiny in a way that marketing copy alone never would. The apps are open source, the no-logs claim has been audited every year since 2022, and the company is registered in Switzerland rather than in a jurisdiction with mandatory data-retention rules.
On the practical side, the paid apps did the everyday jobs without drama. Streaming worked on the first server we picked instead of the fourth. DNS leak tests came back clean on every server we checked. Nearby connections held enough throughput that video calls and 4K playback never wavered.
Where it slips is on the service side rather than the product side. Getting hold of a human takes longer than it should. That is the reason this is a very good VPN rather than a perfect one, and it is covered in full further down.
Proton VPN Pros and Cons
The short version of everything below. If you only read one block in this review, read this one.
Pros
- No-logs policy independently audited every year since 2022
- Free plan with unlimited data and no bandwidth cap
- Secure Core multi-hop routing through Switzerland, Sweden or Iceland
- Open-source apps on every platform, with published audit reports
- Reliable streaming access to Netflix, Disney+, BBC iPlayer and HBO Max on paid plans
- NetShield blocks ads, trackers and malware domains at the DNS level
- Port forwarding for P2P, which most privacy-first rivals refuse to offer
- 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans
Cons
- Support is business-hours live chat plus a three-day email queue, and refunds take persistence
- Kill switch behaviour is not consistent between desktop and mobile
- Secure Core costs a noticeable amount of throughput
- Free plan blocks streaming and assigns your country at random
- Customer sentiment on Trustpilot is far below what the product deserves
How We Tested Proton VPN
We score every VPN on the same five things. Those are measured speed against an unprotected baseline, leak behaviour, streaming access, the security feature set, and what happens when something goes wrong and you need support. Nothing here comes from a vendor briefing. We paid for the plans ourselves. We ran the free tier alongside them on the same machines so the comparison was fair.
Speed testing means connecting to a nearby server first, then a mid-distance European endpoint, then a long-haul route to Asia. We repeat each measurement several times across the day, so a single congested moment does not define the result. Leak testing means checking DNS, IPv6 and WebRTC on each connection rather than trusting the app's own status indicator.
We run the apps on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS rather than judging a service from one platform. Feature parity is uneven across the category, and the kill switch in particular does not behave identically everywhere. Every speed figure is taken as a proportion of the same connection measured with the VPN switched off. That keeps the comparison internally consistent even though absolute Mbps depends on the line underneath it. We do not publish a baseline throughput number here, because a figure from one broadband line tells you nothing useful about yours.
For the support test we opened tickets through both channels at different times of day, including outside European office hours. We timed the replies rather than judging the tone of the answers. For streaming we tried each service on the first server the app suggested rather than hunting through the list, because that is what a normal person actually does.
A VPN review that only reports peak download speed is measuring the tester's home broadband, not the VPN. What matters is the percentage of your unprotected line you keep, whether the connection holds that figure over an hour, and whether anything leaks while it does. We weight those three above raw Mbps every time.
Proton VPN Pricing and Plans
Proton VPN sells three tiers, and the gap between them is wider than the price list suggests. Free gets you the network with heavy restrictions. VPN Plus gets you the whole VPN. Proton Unlimited bundles the VPN with the rest of the Proton account family, including Mail Plus, Drive Plus, Pass Plus and Calendar Premium.
VPN Plus costs $9.99 per month if you pay monthly. Commit for a year and it works out to $3.49 per month. Commit for two years and it drops to $2.99 per month. That two-year rate is the number worth quoting, because it is where Proton VPN stops looking expensive next to the discount crowd.
| Plan | Best monthly rate | Devices | Countries | Streaming | Extras |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 device | 10 countries, assigned automatically | No | Unlimited data |
| VPN Plus | $2.99 on 2 years | 10 | 148 | Yes | Secure Core, NetShield, P2P, port forwarding |
| Proton Unlimited | $7.99 on 2 years | 10 | 148 | Yes | Everything in Plus, plus Mail, Drive, Pass and Calendar |
Proton Unlimited runs $12.99 per month billed monthly, $9.99 per month on the 1-year term, and $7.99 per month on the 2-year term. That two-year figure comes to about $191.76 up front. Proton's own pricing page localises the amount and hides the dollar equivalent behind a region selector, so the figure you see at checkout may be quoted in your own currency.
All paid plans carry a 30-day money-back guarantee. That window is generous on paper, and it matters. It means the honest way to evaluate this service is to buy a month, run it against your own connection and your own streaming services, and claim the refund if it disappoints.
Is the Free Plan Actually Any Good?
Yes, with a large asterisk. Proton VPN's free plan is the only one in the category we would let a family member use. It does the one thing free VPNs almost always get wrong: it does not cap your data. Bandwidth is unlimited, there is no monthly allowance to use up, and there are no ads injected into your browsing.
The limits sit elsewhere. You get one device at a time, and you get servers in ten countries drawn from a pool of roughly 340 machines. You do not choose which of those ten countries you land in. The app assigns one, and there is no way to pin a specific location. That rules out the single most common reason people install a VPN in the first place.
Streaming on the free tier is effectively off the table. When we tried, most services stayed blocked outright. The couple that did load only did so after a long wait in the connection queue. That is not a bug. Free users share a small pool of servers that streaming platforms have had years to identify, and Proton reserves its streaming-capable network for paying customers.
The free plan is best understood as a privacy tool, not an entertainment tool. It is genuinely good for shielding your traffic on hotel or airport connections, and it is a fair way to test whether the apps suit you. If you want to choose a country or watch anything, you need a paid plan.
Refunds and Payment Options
The 30-day guarantee is real, but claiming it takes more work than clicking a button. Subscriptions renew automatically unless you change the setting before the renewal date. Getting money back afterwards means opening a ticket and following it up rather than filling in a form. Set a calendar reminder a few days before your term ends if you are unsure about continuing.
Payment options are broad. Cards and PayPal are standard, Bitcoin is accepted for people who would rather not tie a subscription to a bank record, and the free plan needs nothing but an email address. If anonymity of payment is your priority above everything else, Mullvad still goes further by taking cash in an envelope. Proton covers the practical cases well enough for everyone else.
Security Features
The security list here is longer than most services offer, and more of it is switched on by default. Everything below is available on the paid plans, and the core encryption applies to the free tier too.
Encryption and VPN Protocols
Traffic runs over AES-256 encryption with WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2 available. There is also a Stealth protocol designed to disguise VPN traffic as ordinary HTTPS on networks that actively block VPNs. WireGuard is the default on modern apps and the right choice for almost everyone. It connects faster, holds speed better and reconnects more gracefully after a dropped signal.
OpenVPN remains the fallback worth knowing about. It is slower, but it is the most widely scrutinised protocol in the category. It also works on restrictive networks where WireGuard's traffic signature gets filtered. If you want the underlying concept rather than the acronyms, our explainer on what is a VPN tunnel covers how the encrypted path actually works.
DNS leak protection is built in and it held. Across every server we checked, leak tests returned the VPN's own resolver and nothing else, with no IPv6 or WebRTC exposure alongside it.
Kill Switch
Proton VPN's kill switch is not the usual single toggle. It has three states, and the Advanced setting is the one that catches people out. It blocks internet traffic even before the app is running. Launch your machine, open a browser before Proton VPN has connected, and nothing loads. That is the feature working exactly as designed, but the first time it happens it reads like a broken connection.
The one caveat we would flag is consistency. Kill switch behaviour is not identical across platforms, and what happens on desktop when a connection drops is not always what happens on mobile. If the kill switch is the reason you are buying a VPN, test it on your own phone before you trust it with anything sensitive.
Secure Core
Secure Core is Proton VPN's multi-hop feature and the single strongest reason to pick it over a cheaper rival. Instead of connecting straight to your chosen exit country, your traffic first enters a hardened server in Switzerland, Sweden or Iceland. It then travels on to the exit inside Proton's own encrypted network. An observer watching the exit server sees traffic arriving from Switzerland, not from your home connection.
There are 126 Secure Core servers in the network, all sited in countries with strong privacy law. In Proton's case they also sit in physically hardened locations. The protection is genuine, and so is the cost. The second hop adds distance and processing, and throughput drops noticeably against a direct connection to the same country.
That trade is the right one for a journalist, an activist or anyone whose threat model includes a network-level observer. It is the wrong one for streaming a film. We left Secure Core off for everyday browsing and switched it on deliberately when it mattered, which is how the feature is meant to be used.
NetShield Ad and Malware Blocking
NetShield filters at the DNS level, which means it works across every app on the device rather than only inside a browser. It has three settings: off, block malware only, and block malware plus ads and trackers. The middle setting is the safe default. Full ad blocking occasionally breaks sites that load their content through the same domains they serve advertising from.
It is a real convenience rather than a replacement for endpoint security. Blocking a malware domain before your device resolves it stops a whole class of drive-by problem. The tracker blocking also measurably reduces the number of third-party requests a page makes. It will not stop something you download and run yourself.
Split Tunneling and Tor over VPN
Split tunneling lets you route some apps through the VPN and leave others on your normal connection. That solves the two most common friction points at once: banking apps that lock you out when your IP moves country, and local network devices like printers or a NAS that vanish when everything is tunnelled.
Tor over VPN is the more unusual inclusion. Selecting a Tor-enabled server routes your traffic into the Tor network without needing the Tor Browser, so .onion addresses open in an ordinary browser. It is slow, as Tor always is, but having it one click away in a mainstream app is rare. Port forwarding rounds out the list and matters mainly for P2P, which we come to below.
Server Network and Locations
Proton VPN's network reaches 148 countries and 191 city-level locations. That is the widest country coverage of any major provider and a meaningful advantage if you need an exit point somewhere unglamorous. Plenty of services claim large networks concentrated in North America and Western Europe. This one has genuine reach into Africa, South America and Southeast Asia.
The raw server total sits above twenty thousand. Published counts move week to week as capacity is added and retired, so treat any exact figure as a snapshot rather than a specification. What matters more than the total is how it is distributed and how loaded it is. The apps show live load percentages per server, so you can pick an uncongested one rather than guessing.
City-level choice is the underrated part. Being able to select a specific US city rather than "United States" makes a practical difference for regional sports coverage, local search results and latency-sensitive work.
Speed and Performance
Speed is where VPN reviews go wrong most often, because the headline number tells you about the reviewer's broadband rather than the service. The useful measure is what proportion of your unprotected line survives the connection. On that measure Proton VPN performs at the top of the category, thanks to WireGuard and its VPN Accelerator layer.
Nearby Server Speeds
On nearby servers, throughput held comfortably above the level where anything you do online stops noticing the VPN. New York returned around 195 Mbps and Dallas around 160 Mbps on our measurements. Nearby US servers averaged above 130 Mbps across repeated runs.
| Route | Download | Practical effect |
|---|---|---|
| New York, nearby | around 195 Mbps | No perceptible change to browsing or 4K playback |
| Dallas, nearby | around 160 Mbps | Video calls held steady across an hour |
| Nearby US average | above 130 Mbps | Comfortable headroom for multiple devices |
| Singapore, long haul | around 94 Mbps | Streaming fine, large downloads slower |
Those absolute figures depend entirely on the underlying line and the time of day. Results on a faster host connection run several times higher, so read the pattern rather than the numbers. The pattern is what counts. Nearby connections cost you very little, and the loss is small enough that you can leave the VPN on permanently instead of toggling it for specific tasks.
Latency on nearby servers stays low enough that the connection does not get in the way of real-time use. Long-haul routes are a different matter, and no VPN fixes the physics of distance.
Long-Distance and Secure Core Speeds
Distance is the real cost. Connecting from the US to Singapore returned around 94 Mbps, roughly half the nearby figure. That is a good result for a route crossing the Pacific, and it is still far more than any streaming service needs. It is also the honest shape of long-distance VPN performance.
Secure Core takes a further bite. Routing through a second hop in Switzerland, Sweden or Iceland before reaching your exit adds real distance to every packet. The throughput drop against a direct connection to the same country is obvious rather than marginal. Use it when the threat model justifies it.
Leave VPN Accelerator on and use the fastest-connection button rather than choosing manually. The app reads live server load, so it will usually land on a less congested machine than an eyeball pick, and switching takes a couple of seconds if the first choice underperforms.
Streaming: Netflix, Disney+, and BBC iPlayer
On paid plans, streaming simply works, which is a lower bar than it sounds and one most VPNs fail. Netflix opened on US, UK and Canadian servers. Disney+, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max, ESPN+ and Amazon Prime Video all loaded without us hunting for a working server. That last detail is the one that separates good streaming support from bad. We connected to the first sensible server the app offered and the content played.
Playback quality held at the top tier on nearby servers, and the extra latency did not translate into buffering on any of the platforms we tried. The exception was long-haul routes, where the initial load takes longer. Playback settles once the buffer fills.
The free plan is the opposite experience, as covered above. If streaming is a reason you want a VPN, treat the paid tier as the only relevant option.
Torrenting and P2P Support
P2P traffic is allowed on designated servers rather than across the whole network, and the app flags which ones qualify with an icon in the server list. Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Kenya and Switzerland are among the locations that support it, so there is enough choice to find something near you.
Performance was solid. A 700MB torrent finished in about 14 minutes on a P2P server. Enabling port forwarding cut that to roughly 10 minutes by letting more peers connect directly. Port forwarding is the feature that makes the difference here. It is notable that a privacy-first provider offers it at all, since several competitors have removed it on abuse grounds.
The kill switch matters more for P2P than for anything else, because a torrent client keeps running long after you stop watching it. Turn it on before you start a long download, and pair it with a P2P-marked server rather than assuming any location will do.
Privacy: No-Logs Policy, Swiss Jurisdiction, and Audits
Privacy is the whole argument for this service, so it deserves more scrutiny than the marketing claims. The short answer is that Proton VPN's privacy position is better evidenced than almost anyone else's. A few real-world incidents complicate the picture without undermining it.
Proton VPN keeps no logs of your browsing, connection timestamps or IP addresses, and it does not sell or share user data. That claim is set out in Proton VPN's privacy policy. Unlike most such claims, it has been checked by someone other than the company making it. Proton also publishes a transparency report and a warrant canary. If you want the broader context on why any of this matters, the EFF's guide to how ISPs handle your browsing data explains what you are shielding yourself from in the first place.
What Swiss Law Means for Your Data
Proton AG is registered in Geneva, Switzerland, which places it outside both the EU and the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement. Switzerland has strong constitutional privacy protections. Crucially, it has no mandatory data-retention requirement for VPN providers. A Swiss company cannot be quietly compelled to start logging every customer the way providers in some jurisdictions can.
What Swiss jurisdiction does not mean is immunity. Swiss courts can compel a Swiss company to cooperate with a criminal investigation, and they have. The distinction that matters is between data a company already holds and data it does not. That is exactly why the no-logs audits carry weight.
Jurisdiction protects you from bulk, routine data collection. It does not protect you from a targeted court order in a serious criminal case. No VPN anywhere offers that, and any provider claiming otherwise is misleading you.
Independent Audits and Open-Source Code
Here is the part that separates Proton VPN from the field. Its no-logs policy has been independently audited by Securitum, with the most recent report published in 2026. Beyond that, its no-logs policy has been independently audited every year since 2022, making 2026 the fifth consecutive annual report. Because each report supersedes the last, the year attached to a finding matters as much as the finding itself.
Alongside that, all of its apps are open source and have been independently audited too, with the code published for anyone to inspect. Proton VPN's open-source commitment covers Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, which is broader than most rivals manage. Verifiable code plus a repeated third-party audit plus a jurisdiction without retention law is as strong a privacy position as the category currently offers.
On top of that, Proton publishes a transparency report covering the legal requests it receives and how it responded to them. Publishing the requests you were forced to comply with is a harder commitment than publishing a policy you wrote yourself.
The Proton Privacy Controversies, Explained
Two incidents come up whenever Proton's privacy record is discussed, and both deserve a straight account rather than either a dismissal or a scare.
The first is a 2021 Swiss court order that compelled Proton to log an activist's IP address. That order applied to Proton Mail, not Proton VPN. It required prospective logging of a specific named account following a Swiss legal process, not retrospective disclosure of stored records. Proton has since changed the wording on its site that had implied it never logged IP addresses under any circumstances.
The second is more recent. Proton was compelled to hand over payment data associated with an account, again through a legal process routed via Swiss authorities. Payment records are account metadata rather than browsing data. They can still deanonymise someone who assumed the service knew nothing about them.
Neither incident shows Proton VPN logging VPN traffic, and neither contradicts the audited no-logs finding. What they show is the boundary of what any provider can promise. If your threat model includes a state actor willing to go through a Swiss court, choose your payment method accordingly. Understand too that account metadata is a different category from traffic data. A separate practical wrinkle is worth knowing: requests to have account data deleted have not always been honoured on the first attempt, so do not assume erasure is automatic.
Apps and Ease of Use
Proton VPN's apps used to have a reputation for being built by engineers for engineers. That has changed. The current versions lead with a large connect button and a map, and they keep the advanced controls one layer down. They behave consistently enough across devices that you do not need to relearn the interface when you switch. If you have never set one up before, our walkthrough on how to set up and use a VPN covers the basics that apply to any provider.
Windows and macOS
The desktop apps are the fullest expression of the service. Everything is here: Secure Core, NetShield, split tunneling, the three-state kill switch, protocol selection and profiles that let you save a country and protocol combination to a single click. Server load percentages sit next to every entry so you can avoid a busy machine.
The map view is the part people either love or ignore. It is genuinely useful for picking an exit by geography rather than scrolling an alphabetical list. WireGuard is the default protocol on both desktop apps, and it is the one to leave selected unless a restrictive network forces a change.
Android and iOS
The mobile apps carry most of the desktop feature set, including Secure Core, NetShield and split tunneling on Android. The Android app in particular is close to feature parity, which is not something we can say about many providers. iOS is slightly more constrained by platform rules, as it is for everyone.
The one thing to verify yourself is kill switch behaviour, since it does not always match desktop. Turn on airplane mode mid-connection and watch what happens to your traffic before you rely on it in the field.
Routers, TVs, and Browser Extensions
Router support is available and worth considering if you want whole-home coverage. It also protects devices that cannot run a VPN client, such as smart TVs and consoles. Setting it up takes more patience than installing an app, and our guide to what a VPN router does explains the trade-offs before you start. One router connection also uses only one of your ten device slots, which is the efficient way to cover a household.
Browser extensions cover Chrome and Firefox for people who only want their browsing tunnelled. They are lighter than the full app and useful alongside split tunneling, but they protect only the browser. If you are wiring Proton VPN into existing network hardware, it is worth understanding what VPN passthrough means on your router first.
Customer Support
Support is the weakest part of the package and the main reason this review does not score higher. Live chat runs Monday to Friday, from 9am to midnight CEST. That sounds broad until you notice it is not 24/7 and it is anchored to Swiss time. An evening or weekend problem outside those hours does not reach a human. It goes into the email queue.
Email turnaround averaged about three days. That is tolerable for a billing question and genuinely frustrating when the VPN itself is the thing blocking your connection. The only channel that can help you is the one you cannot currently reach quickly.
The knowledge base is good, which softens the blow. Setup guides are detailed, the troubleshooting articles are written for people rather than engineers, and most first-time problems are solvable without contacting anyone. The r/ProtonVPN community is also unusually active and often faster than official channels for configuration questions.
Proton VPN's Stealth protocol is designed for restrictive networks, and connectivity inside mainland China is not something we can promise. One 2026 test round got roughly three successful connections out of ten attempts. The Great Firewall's blocking rules change without warning and differ by city and by week, so China connectivity is not a stable property of the app. Stealth is also a paid-tier feature, so the free app has no realistic path through. If you do try it, turn on Stealth and Alternative Routing, and pick a nearby endpoint such as Hong Kong, Japan or Singapore rather than trusting the defaults. Expect frequent drops, and keep a second VPN installed as a fallback.
Proton VPN vs the Alternatives
Proton VPN's competition splits into two camps. There are the mainstream all-rounders that beat it on support and price promotions, and the privacy purists that beat it on anonymity but not on usability.
| Product | Price per month | Server count | Streaming | No-logs audit | Devices | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
$2.99 on 2 years | 20,000+ in 148 countries | Netflix, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max | Securitum, 2026, fifth year | 10 | Check price → |
 |
around $3.39 on 2 years | 8,400+ in 137 countries | Strong | PwC and Deloitte, repeated | 10 | Check price |
 |
around $2.49 on longer plans | 4,500+ in 100+ countries | Strong | Deloitte, two reports | Unlimited | |
 |
EUR 5 flat | 650+ in 40+ countries | Limited | Ten-plus independent audits | 5 | Check price |
NordVPN is the closest direct rival and the one most people compare against. It matches Proton VPN on device count and beats it on 24/7 support. Its monthly rate is higher at $12.99, and its country coverage is narrower at 137. Our NordVPN review goes through its speed and streaming results in the same detail we have applied here.
Surfshark undercuts everyone on longer plans and allows unlimited simultaneous devices. That makes it the obvious pick for a large household on a budget. Its audit history is shorter than Proton VPN's, and its network is a third of the size.
Mullvad is the choice if payment anonymity is the point. It charges a flat EUR 5 per month with no discount for longer commitments, accepts cash and Monero, and requires no account details at all. It covers 5 devices, its 14-day refund window is shorter, and its network is small at 650-plus servers in 40-plus countries. It also does not try to unblock streaming. Proton VPN is the better everyday service. Mullvad is the better instrument.
If you are still deciding whether you need any of this, our primer on what a VPN is and who actually needs one is the place to start.
Proton VPN is the rare service where the privacy claims are checkable rather than asserted: audited code, an audited policy, a published transparency report and a jurisdiction without retention law.
— From our hands-on testing notes
Who Should Use Proton VPN?
Buy VPN Plus if privacy is your actual reason for wanting a VPN and you also want streaming to work. That combination is rarer than it sounds. Most services optimise for one and treat the other as marketing. The 10-device allowance covers a household, the 148-country network covers travel, and the audit record covers the question of whether any of the claims are true.
Buy Proton Unlimited if you already pay for a password manager, encrypted email or cloud storage separately. Folding Mail Plus, Drive Plus, Pass Plus and Calendar Premium into one subscription usually costs less than the parts. It also puts your whole privacy setup under one audited roof.
Use the free plan if you want protection on public networks and nothing more. It is the best free VPN available, and it is honest about being a limited version rather than a trap.
Look elsewhere if you need round-the-clock support, if you need a guaranteed working connection inside a heavily censored country, or if unlimited simultaneous devices matter more to you than an audit history.
