Proton VPN - Review
Proton VPN is one of the more expensive services you might come across, however, it has some arrows in its bow that could make it interesting, from fast speeds, to great geo-restricted content unblocking capabilities, not to mention a free plan that places no limits on bandwidth. To complete the picture, excellent security audits that confirm the quality of the service offered. Definitely a VPN to consider.
The company offers a network of 1,700+ servers in 63 countries, most of which are located in Europe and North America. The positive aspect is that Proton VPN manages its servers directly, through the company's proprietary network, which indicates a certain competence on the part of this provider.
Among the advantages of this situation, we certainly mention more Secure Core, a smart technology that routes traffic through different servers, to prevent snoopers from tracking users on exit servers.
In addition, the service supports P2P, offers up to 10 simultaneous connections, includes a kill switch, DNS leak protection and built-in Tor support for accessing onion sites. Split tunneling then allows you to choose which apps should connect to the VPN and which not, while performance is guaranteed by the WireGuard protocol.
Finally, the DNS-based NetShield web filter is able to block malware, advertisements and tracker, while Proton VPN is available as native apps on Windows, Android, Mac and iOS, all open source and validated by audit.
Proton VPN - Plans and prices
Compared to the past, Proton VPN now offers the Proton Free plan, which supports only one device and places some speed limits, offers access to 23 servers in three countries (USA, Netherlands and Japan), but does not place any restrictions on bandwidth. A great way to test the service before deciding whether to subscribe or not.Proton Plus, on the other hand, is the paid plan, which includes one month, one year or two year subscriptions, which can be purchased through PayPal, Bitcoin or in cash if you really want to be as anonymous as possible.
There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee, with the constraint, however, of a refund relating exclusively to the period of time in which you have not enjoyed the service. For example, if you buy a month of Proton Plus and request a refund after 10 days, you will only receive the amount equal to the remaining 20 days.
As you can see below, the prices are among the highest in the industry .
Proton Free | Free Proton Plus - 2 Year Plan | € 4.99 per month Proton Plus - 1 year plan | € 5.99 per month Proton Plus - 1 month plan | € 9.99 per month
» Click here to check all VPN offers
Privacy
Proton VPN's corporate headquarters is located in Switzerland, good news for those who primarily care about the protection of privacy, given that the country in question has very strict regulations in this area. Furthermore, Switzerland is outside the European and US jurisdiction, and is not part of the surveillance network known as 14 eyes.Proton VPN presents itself as a no-log VPN service, i.e. without tracking o the recording of user activity on the Internet, for this reason, is unable to provide any data to third parties.
The company merely records the date and time of the last successful access attempt , but they are overwritten the next time you log in, so Proton VPN will only know this, which is the date and time of your last session.
When you register, the company associates your account with an email address, which it can be any one, including ProtonMail, Proton's anonymous e-mail service.
If you choose the free plan, however, you will not have to provide any payment information, in other cases you can pay with BitCoin, PayPal or card of credit . In these cases, the transactions are handled externally and Proton will never have access to your billing details. There is another option though: in fact, you can send the company some cash in envelopes, which is not the most practical operation in the world, but you can be sure not to leave any electronic traces.
A January 2020, then, Proton VPN published the results of an independent audit carried out on its apps, by SEC Consult. The results are good: only 11 vulnerabilities found, all of low or medium severity. Proton has already resolved all those recognized as issues.
So transparency is one of Proton VPN's strengths.
Performance
Moving on to performance, we tested Proton VPN via several benchmark services, such as nPerf, SpeedOf.me and others. Here are the results of the tests (repeated five times):OpenVPN: average 440 Mbps Wireguard: 670 Mbps peak We are l above average, even if there are services that are better, in any case it is about respectable speeds, great for both streaming and browsing.
Streaming
Speaking of streaming, you'll be pleased to know that Proton VPN seamlessly unblocks all major paid services , such as US Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus, allowing you to access BBC iPlayer as well. We did not encounter any problems in our tests.Apps and other functions
From subscribing to downloading and using the apps, the procedure is simple and straightforward. Once logged into the account, we will find a control panel, in the form of a web portal, with all the most important tools at a glance, including links to instructions for setting up on other devices, such as Mac, Linux, iOS and Android .The Windows app is just as easy to install and, once opened, shows us a large map of the world, with the various Proton VPN locations. Ease of navigation distinguishes Proton from other services, plus you can opt for a classic server list.
The toolbar on the left allows you to control other functions, such as the kill switch, NetShield and Secure Core and in in general we have not encountered any usability problems, not even with peer-to-peer features.
The app supports OpenVPN (TCP and UDP) and Wireguard protocols and the kill switch does its duty, disconnecting the Internet connection in case of VPN failure. The client stops traffic even in unexpected situations, like closing a TCP connection or killing a VPN process, which is really great.
Moving on to other platforms, mobile and Mac apps are a lot similar to the Windows counterpart. Mac version supports kill switch, Secure Core and NetShield as well as Wireguard etc. Unfortunately, it is not possible to define split tunneling, but on the other hand here you can also choose the IKEv2 protocol, in general, it is one of the best VPN apps for Mac.
The Android app allows you to switch between portrait and the horizontal one and vice versa, with excellent results in terms of yield. The list of locations is better than the Windows client and here you can use the split tunneling feature.
The iOS version has a more pleasant interface, with colored flags, much more readable. It offers the quick connect button and, in general, offers all the features seen on the Android counterpart with some welcome extras such as information on battery usage and logs to analyze possible connection problems.
Finally, applause to the support site for the large number of guides and articles available. Too bad for a presentation not up to par, which gives a sense of disorder.
Fortunately, the new live chat support is excellent, with trained, friendly agents and always ready to help us. The support staff can then convert a chat into a support ticket, saving us time.
In any case, you can always manually open a ticket or send an email, to which you usually is answered within hours.
