Proton VPN Free & Premium Review | Is It Still Safe in 2024? (2024)

Our Verdict

Proton VPN is a well-rounded VPN service that’s highly-secure, pleasant to use, and delivers excellent connection speeds. Proton VPN’s greatest strength is privacy: it’s proven to keep no logs, independently-audited, and its apps are open-source. While the premium version is expensive, Proton VPN Free is the best free VPN available in 2024: it’s safe to use, extremely fast, and you can use it without data limits — although it doesn’t work with Netflix or torrenting.

Ranked #9 out of 65 VPNs

Proton VPN Category Ratings

• Streaming

  9.5/10

• Torrenting

  9.2/10

• Privacy & Logging

  9.5/10

• Speed

  8.6/10

• Server Locations

  9.7/10

• Bypassing Censorship

  6.5/10

• Security & Features

  9.0/10

• Ease of Use

  9.1/10

• Customer Support

  8.6/10

• Price & Value

  7.5/10

Proton VPN Pros & Cons

Ranked #3 out of 65 VPNs for Privacy & Logging Policy

Proton VPN is one of precious few VPNs that actually has a truly zero-logs policy — almost no information about you is stored whatsoever. This policy is exactly the same whether you use the free or premium version of the app.

The only thing that Proton VPN stores is the email you give when you create an account. You can easily distance yourself from this by using a brand new, anonymous email address.

All profile data is encrypted and stored locally on its servers and is immediately deleted when you terminate your account.

This is one of the best VPN logging policies we’ve ever seen — especially as it’s been proven to be true.

Proton VPN was put to the test in January 2019, when a Swiss court approved a request asking for information about a Proton VPN user. Proton VPN was unable to provide any user data, as it simply hadn’t stored any.

This means Proton VPN is part of a small number of VPN services to have had their logging policies verified by a real-world test — we believe this to be the ultimate test of a VPN’s privacy policy.

Proton VPN has also had its logging policy audited by a third party. Published in April 2022 by Securitum, the audit confirmed that Proton VPN doesn’t retain any user data.

Proton VPN is Based in Switzerland

Proton VPN operates under the jurisdiction of Switzerland, which is a good base for a VPN service provider.

All of Switzerland’s privacy-hostile laws, like BÜPF and NDG, do not apply to Proton VPN since the company isn’t considered a “major telecommunication operator” nor a “major internet service provider.”

This means Proton VPN benefits from all the advantages of its Swiss base, while also not having to abide by the drawbacks.

How Private Is Proton VPN Compared to Other VPNs?

The table below compares Proton VPN to five other private VPN services based on jurisdiction, data collection, and logging policy audits.

Ranked #14 out of 65 VPNs for Speed

Oddly, despite testing from New York, US, Proton VPN actually produced faster download speeds on several other test servers located farther from us than its New York server.

There’s a chance that its New York servers may just be slower or more congested than others, and that the download speeds you get on a server near you will be faster.

Proton VPN did struggle with download speeds on servers located extremely far away, though: 64Mbps in South Africa and 76Mbps in Australia are decent numbers, and better than a lot of less reputable VPNs, but it’s still slower than big-name rivals like Hotspot Shield or even Ivacy VPN.

EXPERT ADVICE: To get the fastest speeds, make sure that ‘VPN Accelerator’ is enabled in your app’s settings. It can be found in the Connection tab.

Proton VPN Free Is the Fastest Free VPN

Proton VPN’s free app, however, really impressed us in our testing. In fact, Proton VPN Free is the fastest free VPN we’ve ever tested.

You can see the free version’s speed test results in the table below:

Not only are its raw upload and download speeds impressive, but Proton VPN Free is the only reputable free VPN with no data cap. That means you’ll never run out of bandwidth for downloading, streaming, gaming, or anything else.

Just beware that with only 200 free servers available to connect to (versus 4,874 for the paid app) your speeds might not be as consistent due to congestion.

Ranked #7 out of 65 VPNs for Streaming

Proton VPN’s streaming ability depends on the plan you subscribe to. While its free servers are blocked by Netflix, its Plus servers consistently work with US Netflix and 5 other regions.

Although Proton VPN claims it works with Netflix “in almost every country,” our tests reveal it unblocks just 6 Netflix regions.

Though higher than average, this is significantly fewer than other top VPNs, like ExpressVPN and NordVPN, which can access 18 and 17 regions respectively.

Proton VPN also fails to unblock many of the most popular Netflix regions, including Australia, Canada, and the UK.

Proton VPN Works with the Best Streaming Sites from Around the World

Not only is Proton VPN a great Netflix VPN, it also unblocks Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video. In our latest round of tests, we even found it worked to watch the Australian Football League from abroad.

In the screenshot below, you can see us testing Proton VPN with BBC iPlayer:

Below is a list of Proton VPN’s servers we tested that successfully unblock popular streaming services:

Don’t judge the free version too harshly — we did find it works with F1TV to stream live F1 races without paying. Plus, it’s extremely rare for free VPNs to work with any streaming sites.

We’ve made an up-to-date list of the best free VPNs for Netflix to help you find one.

Ranked #4 out of 65 VPNs for Torrenting

Our P2P tests found that torrenting with Proton VPN is private, secure, and fast.

All Proton VPN’s server locations allow torrenting through P2P VPN redirect, which means that your traffic may be securely re-routed to a server closer to you for better download speeds.

There are also high-performance servers specifically optimized for torrenting — they’re clearly marked within the app, but you can torrent on any server you like.

Proton VPN has recently increased the number of these P2P-optimized servers, improving the spread of their locations. There are Proton VPN torrenting-optimized servers in 20 countries: 15 in Europe, two in North America, two in Asia, and one in Africa.

South America and Oceania are missing from the list, but you can still torrent on any of their servers (they just aren’t specifically optimized for P2P). While testing we also noticed almost zero difference in download bitrates between P2P-labeled servers and regular servers.

Whichever server you choose and wherever you are in the world, Proton VPN is a great torrenting VPN — we just wish you could use the free version for it, too.

Proton VPN Supports Port Forwarding

Proton VPN is one of only a few VPNs that support port forwarding. Using this, you can bypass the NAT firewall on your router and transfer files faster.

Proton VPN is a fast torrenting VPN anyway, but port forwarding increased our P2P speeds by 10%. The only downside is that it’s currently only available on the Windows app. We hope Proton VPN adds it to other platforms soon.

1. Monthly$9.99/moPlus Plan: Billed $9.99 every month
2. 12 Month(s)$5.99/moPlus Plan: Billed $71.88 for the first 12 months, then $96.00 every 12 months thereafterSave 20%
3. 2 Year(s)$4.99/moPlus Plan: Billed $119.76 for the first 2 years, then $159.00 every 2 years thereafterSave 33%

Proton VPN accepts payment via these methods:

Ranked #14 out of 65 VPNs for Security & Technical Features

Proton VPN is one of only a few VPNs to have both open-source apps and a published third-party security audit.

Proton VPN’s Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS apps are all open-source. The source code is freely available to view on Github, and all vulnerabilities discovered so far have been fixed.

The benefit of open-source apps is that anyone can view and contribute to their development. This improves the app’s security due to the error checking of a larger community.

This represents a level of transparency and commitment to security that we rarely see from other VPN providers — we love that Proton VPN has made the effort to do this.

Proton VPN’s Highly Encrypted Connections

As part of our security tests, we inspected Proton VPN’s connection logs to assess the strength of the encryption used. We were impressed with what we saw.

Here are Proton VPN’s encryption specifications:

• Traffic is securely encrypted using the AES-256 cipher.
• Connections established via an RSA-2048 handshake.
• Perfect Forward Secrecy via an ECDH key exchange.
• Authentication is provided using an SHA-384 hash.

Our tests confirm Proton VPN’s encryption exceeds the security needs of most users. The VPN’s encryption will protect and hide your data from your ISP and any potential snooper or attacker.

Proton VPN’s Advanced Security Settings

Proton VPN’s applications include many advanced security and privacy settings. Below we listed the most important app features:

Kill Switch

A VPN kill switch is a key security feature. Without one, you risk exposing your IP address to snoopers if your VPN connection disconnects unexpectedly.

Proton VPN includes a kill switch on its Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android apps. It’s not enabled by default, so make sure you turn it on in the ‘Connection’ tab within the Preferences menu.

We put Proton VPN’s kill switch to test by running a series of manual IP and DNS leak tests, while disconnecting the VPN connection. In all cases, the kill switch worked perfectly and did not expose our true IP address.

Split Tunneling

With split tunneling, your VPN creates a separate tunnel that goes directly through your ISP, just like you weren’t using a VPN at all.

This feature is particularly useful for retaining compatibility with devices and services that require a local IP address, like a wireless printer, for example.

Proton VPN includes split tunneling on its Windows and Android app, but it isn’t included on macOS or iOS. To use it, simply toggle on the apps that you want to be excluded from the encrypted VPN tunnel.

We tested split tunneling and were able to access devices on our local network, all while using a Netherlands VPN server to safely download a torrent file.

EXPERT ADVICE: All apps you exclude from the VPN tunnel will use your true IP address. Never use this setting for sensitive activities, like when using free public WiFi.

Proton VPN’s IP & DNS Leak Test Results

Before trusting a VPN with your sensitive data, conducting a real-world IP and DNS leak test is a good way to verify the VPN is working properly.

All of Proton VPN’s apps include IPv6 and DNS leak protection, but we needed to verify these tools actually work. We ran these tests using Proton VPN on both macOS and Android.

To test for any IP address leaks we connected to several Proton VPN servers, including the US, South Africa, Germany, and Australia. Proton VPN didn’t leak our true IP address on any server.

We then used our IP and DNS leak testing tool to test Proton VPN for any DNS leaks. DNS leaks occur when your browser routes DNS requests through your ISP instead of the VPN, but we experienced no DNS leaks with Proton VPN.

This is no surprise, as Proton VPN operates its own DNS servers, and therefore directly handles your DNS requests. This removes the risk of leaks from third-parties.

NetShield Is a Poor Ad Blocker

Proton VPN Plus and Unlimited subscribers have access to NetShield, the company’s ad, malware, and tracker blocker. You can enable this by clicking on the shield icon from the app home screen.

We found NetShield stops malware and trackers effectively, but it was very poor at blocking ads.

Unlike other ad blockers, NetShield doesn’t fully prevent advertising elements from showing on web pages. Instead, it replaces them with a gray box, which is an eyesore.

On top of this, NetShield only works when you’re connected to a Proton VPN server. Therefore, you’ll have to stay constantly connected to Proton VPN to stop ads from showing.

Proton VPN’s Secure Core Servers

Proton VPN owns servers in 67 of its locations. These make up its Secure Core network.

This feature — only available on Plus and Unlimited plans — bounces traffic via a Secure Core server before relaying it onto another server in Proton VPN’s network.

This feature is an example of Double VPN, also known as Multi-Hop. Double VPN typically routes your traffic through two VPN servers instead of one, increasing your security.

Because Proton VPN owns and has sole access to these servers, Secure Core is even more secure than similar solutions like NordVPN’s or Surfshark’s Double VPN.

It wasn’t long ago that Secure Servers only existed in three countries – it’s great to see Proton VPN expanding that number so frequently.

The drawback of using Secure Core servers is that they noticeably slow down your internet speed.

Download speeds are much slower using the Secure Core network given the increased encryption overhead and the extra distance the data has to travel.

Additional Security Features We’d Like to See

• A seriously improved ad blocker. As demonstrated above, NetShield just isn’t good enough. We like that it’s included in the app, but Proton VPN desperately needs to improve it.
• A working Stealth protocol. Currently, Proton VPN does not reliably work in China, despite having Stealth protocol available. We’d like to see it improved to the point where it works consistently to beat the Great Firewall.
• An advanced kill switch. With Proton VPN’s kill switch activated as it is, you have no choice but to lose access to your local network and all the devices on it. A more advanced version could add some customization there.

Ranked #29 out of 65 VPNs for Bypassing Web Censorship

Proton VPN has its own custom-developed obfuscation protocol named Stealth. Stealth was created in late 2022 specifically to beat web blocks in censored countries. It’s available on both the free and premium versions of the app.

Stealth is extremely effective at accessing blocked websites and apps in censored regions like Russia and Iran — even receiving praise from real users on internet forums and sites like Reddit.

However, Stealth is only available on the VPN’s Android, iOS, and Mac apps. This means that we are unable to test it on our server located in Shanghai, China, which runs on Windows.

Doesn’t Work in China

Despite Proton VPN’s efficacy within less strictly censored regions, company representatives have admitted to us that the Stealth protocol is unlikely to work in China. This goes for both the free and paid versions of the app.

After analyzing Stealth’s open-sourced source code, we found that the protocol is essentially WireGuard over TLS. This means your web traffic is encrypted twice, theoretically making it harder for Deep Packet Inspection tools to block it.

However, China’s Great Firewall is extremely effective at blocking TLS-based obfuscation tools. As a result, Stealth is unlikely to ever work in the country.

We’d like to see Proton VPN adopt other obfuscation methods, like giving users access to a Shadowsocks proxy.

Occasionally, Proton VPN’s ‘TOR via VPN Server’ feature works in China. However, using Tor over VPN is very slow and unreliable. We don’t recommend it as a regular solution — use VPN that consistently works in China instead.

You can use Proton VPN on the following games consoles and streaming devices:

These apps aren’t just for paying subscribers, either — you get all of them with a Proton VPN Free account, too.

You can use Proton VPN on the following games consoles and streaming devices:

Ranked #7 out of 65 VPNs for Ease of Use

Ranked #11 out of 65 VPNs for Customer Support

Proton VPN’s live support service needs improvement.

Firstly, the live chat feature is not straightforward to find. To use it, you have to log into your account on the VPN’s website. Then, click your name at the top right, select ‘Get help’, and click ‘Chat with us’.

Secondly, unlike other top VPNs, Proton VPN’s live chat is not available 24/7. It operates between 9 AM to 5 PM (CEST), which is a poor time for most of the world. For instance, if you live in New York, you can only use this feature between 3am and 11am.

We also don’t like that live chat is only available to paying subscribers. It would be a really impressive gesture if Proton VPN changed that — VPNs like Surfshark don’t even need proof of you having an account in order to chat to an agent.

If you require assistance outside of these times, you can either use the service’s impressive online guides and FAQs, or contact the customer service team via email.

Email support is often slow. At times, we waited over three days for a response. Time-sensitive and pressing queries, like what servers work with US Netflix, are simply not worth asking.

Proton VPN’s support team is knowledgeable and helpful in its responses, at least, despite the long waits.