Proton VPN – Review

Proton VPN is one of the more expensive services in the current VPN market, however, it does have a few strings to its bow that could make it attractive, from fast speeds to great capabilities for unblocking geo-restricted content , not to mention a free plan that places no limits on bandwidth. To complete the picture, the external 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 own servers directly, through the company's proprietary network, which denotes 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 multiple servers, to prevent snoopers from tracking users on outgoing 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, ads and trackers, while Proton VPN is available as native apps on Windows, Android, Mac and iOS , all open source and audit validated .

Proton VPN – Plans and prices

Compared to the past, Proton VPN now offers the Proton Free plan, which supports only one device and sets 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 subscriptions for one month, one year or two years, which can be purchased via PayPal, Bitcoin or in cash if you really value it as anonymously 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 enjoyed the service. If, for example, 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 | €4.99 per month (time-limited offer) » Click here to subscribe to Proton VPN

» Click here to check all VPN offers

Privacy

The company headquarters of Proton VPN is located in Switzerland , which is good news for those who mainly 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 jurisdictions, 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 or the registration of users' activities on the Internet, for this reason, it is not able to provide any data to third parties.

The company limits itself to recording the date and time of the last successful access attempt , but they are overwritten at the next login, so Proton VPN will only know this, i.e. 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, including ProtonMail, Proton's anonymous email service.

If you choose the free plan, however, you won't have to provide any payment information, in other cases you can pay with BitCoin, PayPal or card of credit . In these cases, 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 cash in an envelope, which is not the most practical operation in the world, but you will be sure not to leave any electronic trace.

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 taken steps to solve all those recognized as problems.

Therefore, transparency is one of the strengths of Proton VPN.

Performance

Moving on to performance, we tested Proton VPN through several benchmark services, such as nPerf, SpeedOf.me and others. Here are the test results (repeated five times):

OpenVPN : 440 Mbps average Wireguard : 670 Mbps peak We are above average , even if there are services that perform better, in any case it is respectable speeds, excellent for both streaming and browsing.

Streaming

Speaking of streaming, you will be pleased to know that Proton VPN unblocks all the main paid services without problems , such as Netflix US , Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus , also allowing access to BBC iPlayer . We didn't encounter any problems in our tests.

Apps and other functions

From signing up to downloading and using 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 other devices, such as Mac, Linux, iOS and Android .

The Windows app is just as easy to install, and once opened, it shows us a large world map, with the various Proton VPN locations. Ease of navigation distinguishes Proton from other services, plus you can opt for a classic server list.

The left toolbar lets you control other features, such as the kill switch, NetShield and Secure Core, and more overall we did not encounter any usability problems, not even with the peer-to-peer features.

The app supports OpenVPN (TCP and UDP) and Wireguard protocols and the kill switch does its job, disconnecting the Internet connection if the VPN drops. The client also stops traffic in unexpected situations, such as closing a TCP connection or killing a VPN process, which is really great.

Moving on to the other platforms, the mobile and Mac apps are very 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 in return you can also choose the IKEv2 protocol here, 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 location list is better than the Windows client and you can use the split tunneling feature here.

The iOS version has a nicer interface, with colored flags, much more readable. It offers the quick connect button and, in general, offers all the features seen on its Android counterpart with some welcome extras such as battery usage information and logs to analyze possible connection problems.

Finally, applause to the support site for the large number of guides and articles available. Too bad only for a presentation that is not up to par, which gives a sense of disorder .

Fortunately, the new assistance via live chat is excellent , with trained, friendly and always ready to help us agents. Support workers can then convert a chat into a support ticket, saving us time.

In any case, it is always possible to manually open a ticket or send an email, to which usually is answered within a few hours.

Bottom line

Proton VPN is great for unblocking streaming content, with really well thought out apps as well as open source and subject to audits. WireGuard performs very well, and the free plan places no limits on bandwidth. We can say that Proton VPN is really growing over time, and perhaps its price list is increasingly finding full justification. Absolutely to be taken into consideration.



» Click here to subscribe to Proton VPN