Proton AG is a Swiss company dedicated to expanding access to privacy, security, and freedom online. Today, we will look at one of the main results of this dedication, their high-quality open source VPN. This Proton VPN review will highlight the usability, functionality, and privacy-related capabilities of the service.
Proton VPN has established itself as a leader in the VPN industry, thanks to its commitment to user privacy and security. The company's foundation in Switzerland, known for its stringent privacy laws, provides an added layer of trust for users concerned about data protection. Proton VPN is not just about encrypting your online activity; it's about empowering users with tools to reclaim their digital freedom.
The answers (and test results) may surprise you. Before we get into the details, here is a table highlighting some key facts about Proton VPN:
| Website | ProtonVPN.com |
| Based in | Switzerland |
| Logs | No logs |
| Price | $3.59/mo. |
| Support | Email + Chat |
| Refund | 30 days |
| Deal | 64% Off Coupon |
Here are some of the questions that I will answer in this Proton VPN review:
- How fast is Proton VPN?
- What security and privacy features does Proton VPN offer, and do all features work correctly?
- Does Proton VPN have any problems with IP address leaks or DNS leaks?
- How responsive is the Proton VPN support staff?
- Does Proton VPN unblock Netflix and other streaming services?
- How does Proton VPN compare to other top-rated VPNs and is it worth it?
Overall, Proton VPN has made some major improvements in the last year or so, making it one of the top VPN services currently available.
Proton VPN overview
Here is a brief overview of my test results and research findings for this review of Proton VPN:
+ Pros
- Useful privacy features (no leaks)
- Secure server network
- Good privacy jurisdiction and data protection policies
- WireGuard VPN support (but not on Linux)
- Above-average speeds
- Transparent company with a good track record
– Cons
- Above-average monthly prices
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Proton VPN overview
Here is a brief overview of my test results and research findings for this review of Proton VPN:
User-friendly VPN applications
Proton VPN has a nice lineup of apps that are user-friendly and full of features.
The layout and design are great, and I also like the dark-mode theme. Below is the compact view of the Windows VPN app that I tested for this review:
Note: The light blue bag icon in the top left of this image indicates that a Proton VPN sale or discount is available.
In order to give you quick access to the major features, the designers came up with the tabbed interface you can see here.
The Countries tab lets you select a country and if desired a specific server in that country. This is also where you can turn on and off the four major features: Secure Core, NetShield, and Kill Switch.
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Note: There is also a Port Forwarding option, but it is only available in the Windows and Linux versions, and is only visible if you have selected a VPN server that supports P2P connections, and you have manually configured the app to use Port Forwarding. Check the Proton VPN support pages for more information if you intend to use Port Forwarding.
The Profiles tab is where you create, manage, and choose the specific profile you want to use.
The expanded view of the Proton VPN app gives you access to all the features and controls of the compact view, plus scrolling session statistics and a world map showing your current connection. You can also select one of the triangles on the map, each of which represents a server location. Doing so causes Proton VPN to connect to a server in that location.
Proton VPN offers dedicated apps for all major devices and operating systems, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Android TV, and Chromebook. They also have browser extensions for Firefox, Chrome, Android TV, Apple TV, and Chromebook. Their apps support the IKEv2, OpenVPN and WireGuard VPN protocols, depending on which operating system you are using.
Note: MacOS users can use the native IKEv2 protocol or WireGuard protocol. The fastest macOS VPNs use WireGuard.
The most recent addition to Proton VPN’s operating system support is a set of dedicated apps for major versions of Linux. This is a level of operating system support most VPN services can’t match. Linux support also appeared recently for Surfshark, as described in our Surfshark VPN review.
Below you can see what the Proton VPN Linux apps that we tested for this review looked like. It still lacks some of the features that the Windows app offers (no Port Forwarding or Profiles are shown) but it worked well for me during my testing.
Note: If you are primarily a Linux user, you can also check out our review of the best VPNs for Linux for other options.
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Useful privacy and security features
Proton VPN has several useful features that can boost your security and privacy. Here's a partial list:
- 3-state kill switch
- Protection against DNS leaks
- Split tunneling
- Custom and predefined profiles
- NetShield to block ads and malware
- Port forwarding
- Tor over VPN
- Worldwide streaming
- P2P/BitTorrent
3-state kill switch
A typical VPN kill switch can be either on or off. When on, it protects your privacy by blocking your traffic if the internet connection fails. This prevents your IP address from being exposed. But a typical kill switch only protects you when you are using the VPN.
Proton VPN has taken things one step further by adding a third state: Permanent Kill Switch. If you turn on the Permanent Kill Switch, your device can only connect to the internet through the VPN, even if the VPN is turned off.
The Proton VPN kill switch worked properly during our testing.
Protection against DNS leaks
Protection against DNS leaks
When you visit a website like CyberInsider.com, your browser uses a DNS service to convert the human-readable name into a 32-bit IP address, which computers use to identify the site. Entities like your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can potentially spy on your online activities by accessing these DNS queries. Top VPNs, including Proton VPN, encrypt these queries and send them to a private DNS system, preventing unauthorized access.
In our tests, Proton VPN successfully protected against DNS leaks. Its DNS leak protection feature is permanently active, ensuring your DNS queries remain secure at all times. This feature can be found in the Advanced Settings tab. By default it is always set to On.
Split tunneling
The Windows and Android apps also offer a Split Tunneling VPN feature, just like we saw in the ExpressVPN review. This allows you to route traffic for certain applications outside of the VPN tunnel. Split tunneling is popular with gamers who want the minimum latency and greatest speed of their internet connection.
Split tunneling can also make connecting to bank websites easier. Banks have their own security that may block VPNs, forcing you to disconnect the VPN to visit the bank. Split tunneling lets you avoid this. Unfortunately, if you use Split Tunneling, you need to disable the Kill Switch. This is really inconvenient.
Custom and predefined profiles
The Quick Connect button allows you to start using Proton VPN protection with just one click. The app automatically selects the optimal country, protocol, and server type for you.
For those who prefer manual control, you can choose your specific settings and connect. If you frequently use the same settings, Proton VPN's connection profiles feature is ideal. It lets you save your preferred settings as a named profile, making it easy to reconnect without setting up each time. Additionally, there are several predefined profiles available for convenience.
NetShield to block ads and malware
When you turn on NetShield, it automatically blocks advertisements and malicious software from reaching your computer or mobile device. This is basically a VPN ad-blocking feature that uses DNS filtering to prevent data downloads from websites known to host ads and malware.
NetShield works very much like the ad-blocking features we tested out in both Surfshark and NordVPN.
Port forwarding
Proton VPN includes a firewall that blocks all ports except those used by the VPN. Port forwarding routes the traffic you specify through the firewall, supporting uses like P2P file transfers (Bit Torrent) and online gaming.
It is easy to enable Port Forwarding from the Countries tab of the main Proton VPN window. You may want to refer to the Proton VPN support center to find specific instructions for forwarding popular apps.
Tor over VPN
The Tor network (Onion network) anonymizes your message traffic by passing it through a chain of three Tor servers. Normally you need to use the Tor browser to access the Tor network, but Proton VPN lets you do so directly. This is not only more convenient; it also gives you the security and privacy of Proton VPN along with Tor anonymity.
Not every country where the Proton VPN has servers also has Tor over VPN servers. The countries that do have Tor over VPN server locations are indicated by an icon that looks like an onion after their name. The Proton VPN servers in that country that do support Tor over VPN are indicated by the word TOR after their name.
There are a couple of other interesting features that you will see repeatedly when working with server lists. Proton VPN tells you how many of each type of server you have access to, and provides an information icon to the right of the type that tells you more about those particular servers.
To the left of each server's name is an icon that shows how heavily loaded that server is. Try to avoid servers that have red in their ring. Finally, if you hover the cursor over a server name, the Connect button for that server will appear.
Worldwide streaming
Many streaming media sites use geo-blocking software to control who has access to their content. Proton VPN's Worldwide Streaming can sometimes unblock these locations so you can view their content regardless of your geographic location.
To use Worldwide streaming, you need to find a country that has servers that can unblock the content you want to see. Country names have the icon of a globe next to them if they have Worldwide Streaming servers. Click the information icon for that country to learn about the special servers (including the streaming servers) in this country.
In the image below you can see that South Korea has dedicated servers that can unblock BBC iPlayer and Netflix. At least from this perspective, Proton VPN has potential as a VPN for Netflix.
There is a good bit more to understand if you want to use Proton VPN for streaming content from around the world. The Proton VPN support pages have extensive resources that should answer any questions you might have.
P2P/BitTorrent
If you download content from P2P services like BitTorrent, you really do need to use the best VPN for torrenting to protect yourself from legal action.
Proton VPN supports P2P downloads and torrenting, as long as you use one of their P2P-capable servers to do so. To make the connection, find the name of a country that is physically close to your current location and also has the P2P icon next to it (circled in red in the screen capture below).
Look for an individual server in that country that has that same icon next to its name. Hover the cursor over the icon to see that it is indeed a P2P server. Then click the Connect button which appears.
The circled icon identifies P2P (torrent) server locations.
Leak test results: all clear
I ran the Windows and macOS apps through some basic VPN tests to identify potential leaks or flaws. Everything checked out — no leaks were detected:
The screenshot above is with the Proton VPN Windows client. The macOS client also did not have any leaks that I could find.
Proton VPN Settings
The controls for the features we just discussed (and several others) are managed through the Settings window. This is a very short overview of what controls are to be found on one of the three tabbed pages.
The General Settings tab has some useful but less common options like selecting the language that the app will use, and Quick Connect, a control that lets you choose the profile you want the VPN to use when you hit the Quick Connect button.
The Connection Settings tab lets you control things like the protocol that will be used, triggers for the VPN to start running or not, as well as whether or not the VPN Accelerator will be used.
The Advanced Settings tab lets you control things like split tunneling, port forwarding, leak protection, and some more esoteric settings as well. Everything we tested across the various tabs worked well.
Large, fast, secure server network
The size and speed of a VPN's server network are the base on which its performance is built. Proton VPN has significantly increased both these measures recently. Its network currently has almost 8,800 servers spread across 112 countries. This gives it one of the largest,most geographically distributed server networks of any VPN service.
The speed of the network has greatly improved over time, with the addition of WireGuard protocol support. In our most recent speed tests, Proton VPN turned in a top speed of 698 Mbps, one of the best speeds we have seen in this round of testing.
Here are the results for our standard set of speed tests:
- Proton VPN connected to a server in Seattle, 698 Mbps:
- Proton VPN connected to a server in Los Angeles, 582 Mbps:
- Proton VPN connected to a server in New York, 524 Mbps:
- Finally, I tried an overseas connection which gave me a surprise, since the result was better than those for LA or NY. Proton VPN connected to a server in the UK, 614 Mbps:
These results are very good, bringing Proton VPN close to the speeds logged by the fastest VPNs. See the speed testing section of our NordVPN vs Proton VPN comparison.
Proton VPN has a “VPN Accelerator” feature, which should improve speeds under some circumstances. VPN Accelerator tries to improve speed through techniques like rewriting the code of various protocols to support multi-threading and using special TCP algorithms designed to recover faster from packet loss.
The network also includes over 100 Secure Core servers, which are a variant of the Double VPN (also known as MultiHop) servers we see deployed by competitors like NordVPN and Surfshark. It routes your traffic through SC servers in Switzerland, Sweden, or Iceland. Proton VPN ensures the security of these “core” servers by locating them in countries selected for their strong privacy laws, in high-security data centers with strong physical security.
The SC servers I tested for this review were not very fast and had relatively high pings. However, this is not surprising since traffic is getting routed and encrypted over two locations. These servers would not be the best VPN for gaming.
If you want the fastest VPN speeds with Double VPN servers, then I would recommend NordVPN. You can also find Double VPN servers with a few other VPNs, as we discuss in the Proton VPN vs Surfshark comparison.
Good privacy jurisdiction and data protection policies
Proton VPN is headquartered in Switzerland, a country famous for its strong data protection laws and strict privacy standards. Not part of any surveillance alliances, Switzerland is ideal for users prioritizing online security and anonymity. These robust privacy laws ensure Proton VPN operates securely, safeguarding user data.
Proton VPN is fully compliant with GDPR privacy protections. It is a no-logs VPN provider and has had its no-logs status confirmed in a third-party audit by Securitum. The one thing they store is a single timestamp of your account's most recent login. That timestamp gets overwritten each time you successfully log in.
Proton AG, the parent company of Proton VPN and Proton Mail, enjoys a solid reputation in the privacy sector, known for its transparency and credible leadership. Founded in 2014 by scientists from CERN and MIT, Proton Mail has been a pioneer in privacy-focused services..
Now we'll take a look at some of the cons of Proton VPN:
Customer Support
Proton VPN now provides live chat support during business hours in Switzerland. This is a good improvement. However, many of their leading competitors provide 24/7 live chat support. You can read more about this issue in our ExpressVPN vs Proton VPN comparison.
Proton VPN's website has various FAQ articles and guides, which can help you resolve most standard questions without contacting the Customer Support team.
I used the contact form on their website to submit various inquiries to test out support's response time.
Overall I was happy with the prompt replies. My inquiries were usually answered on the same day they were submitted. With previous reviews of Proton VPN, I was critical of their support due to delayed response times (several days). Support with Proton VPN has definitely improved over the past few years.
Hands-On Testing
Our hands-on testing of Proton VPN showed that it offers a user-friendly interface and fast connection speeds. Connecting to servers was quick and easy, with clear options and settings provided by the app. Once connected, our internet speeds remained stable, allowing for smooth browsing, streaming, and downloading.
We also tested Proton VPN’s kill switch, which worked effectively to protect data during connection drops. The kill switch immediately stopped all internet traffic when the VPN connection was interrupted, ensuring IP addresses and online activities remained secure. This feature is essential for maintaining privacy and preventing data leaks.
Proton VPN is well-regarded by users, with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot. Users often praise its fast speeds, intuitive interface, and strong security features, appreciating the peace of mind provided by Proton VPN’s robust privacy protections and no-logs policy.
However, some users have noted that Proton VPN’s customer support could be improved. While the support team is knowledgeable, response times can sometimes be slower than those of other top VPN services. Despite this, the overall user feedback is very positive, making Proton VPN a highly recommended choice in the VPN market.
Comparison to Other VPNs
Proton VPN is often compared to other top VPNs like NordVPN and ExpressVPN. While these services offer similar features and benefits, Proton VPN stands out for its strong focus on security and privacy. The inclusion of Secure Core servers and the VPN Accelerator feature make it a top choice for users seeking the fastest and most secure connections possible.
Secure Core servers provide an additional layer of protection by routing traffic through multiple servers, enhancing privacy and security. The VPN Accelerator feature improves connection speeds by optimizing the performance of VPN protocols. Additionally, Proton VPN’s free plan is one of the best in the industry, offering unlimited data and access to three VPN server locations, making it an attractive option for budget-conscious users.
In summary, Proton VPN excels in areas of security and privacy, making it a strong contender in the VPN market. While it may not always match the speeds of some competitors, its unique features and commitment to user privacy set it apart.
Pricing, payment options, and refunds
Proton VPN's pricing has improved greatly compared to a few years ago. Indeed, Proton VPN is now in our list of the best cheap VPNs! And right now is the ideal time to invest in Proton VPN. Why? Because the company has already started its Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale. In this deal, you can get Proton's 24-month, VPN Plus plan subscription for only $2.99/mo using the button below:
Proton VPN review conclusion
Proton VPN is definitely a VPN service on the rise. The company has improved virtually every aspect of the service, and Proton VPN is muscling its way into the top tier of more and more of our comparisons. Regardless of your use case, Proton VPN remains a solid choice, with excellent security from a very reputable company. So if you think it's up your alley, it doesn't hurt to give it a test drive using the coupon below.
Proton VPN's Holiday Deal is live:
Get 70% Off Proton VPN (drops the price to only $2.99/month) with the coupon below:
(Coupon is applied automatically; 30 day money-back guarantee)
Alternatives to Proton VPN
While Proton VPN is definitely a quality selection, we do recommend a few other top-notch VPN services. Click the VPN name below to read our full review – or grab the discount for the best savings. All of these VPNs have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
You can also check out our best VPNs list here for other recommendations.
Related Proton VPN articles:
Proton VPN FAQ
Here are the most frequently asked questions related to Proton VPN.
Does Proton VPN work for torrenting?
Many people are looking for the best VPN for torrenting due to the risks associated with copyright infringement. With paid plans, torrenting is allowed without restrictions.
Is Proton VPN good for Netflix?
Proton VPN currently works with Netflix. Right now, according to Proton VPN's website, it works with ten Netflix regional libraries.
If you want even more access, you could consider another VPN service that specializes in streaming. For example, both NordVPN and ExpressVPN offer access to 15+ Netflix regions.
I tested US Netflix with a Proton VPN server in New York and did not have any problems getting through. The speeds were adequate for the short tests that I ran.
To see other VPN services that unblock Netflix regions around the world, check out the best VPN for Netflix guide.
Does Proton VPN work for other streaming services?
Proton VPN does offer support for a few other streaming services, in addition to Netflix, but it's still pretty limited compared to our other top contenders. However, we do see that Proton VPN is a decent VPN for Firestick, with a dedicated app in the Amazon store.
Does Proton VPN work in China?
Unfortunately, it does not look like Proton VPN is working in China, according to the latest support update:
“As of Sept. 18, 2019, the Chinese government is blocking access to Proton VPN as part of a larger crackdown on Internet freedom.”
The Chinese government works hard to control its citizens' access to the Internet. The Great Firewall employs a vast system of technical tools, including DNS filtering, URL filtering, and deep packet inspection, that the Chinese government uses to prevent people in China from accessing foreign websites. The government also uses these tools to detect and block VPN servers.”
You can see these best VPNs for China here.
Does Proton VPN work well for gaming?
Gamers have unique needs for a VPN. An important factor includes a large network of servers that do not get blocked. In these areas, we find Proton VPN does not do well. For example:
* It has a smaller server network than other leading competitors
* It still gets blocked by most streaming services
Overall, Proton VPN is not the best VPN for gaming. Consider some alternatives.
Want to continue on the journey of restoring your online privacy? Check out these guides:
If you have used Proton VPN, please share your honest review (good or bad) below.
This Proton VPN review was last updated on December 9, 2024.
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