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Expert Score (From 3 Experts)80/100
Customer Score (From 551 Reviews)3.3/5
Proton VPN may not be as popular as other top-ranking VPN service providers, but it still offers reliable VPN services. The company has a steady network of about 1700 servers, with a presence in slightly over 60 countries. It offers AES-256 encryption and tunneling protocols such as WireGuard, OpenVPN TCP, OpenVPN UDP, and IKEv2/IPSec.
To keep its subscribers’ online traffic safe, it also includes a kill switch that kicks in to shut down the Internet connection in the event that a device gets disconnected from a VPN connection. It also offers a split tunneling feature where subscribers can choose what parts of their traffic to get through its VPN tunnel.
In terms of subscriptions, users can sign up for a 1-month plan, a 1-year plan, and a 2-year plan, and payment is accepted through all the major credit card providers or even anonymous means such as Bitcoin.
It is a bit better than some higher-ranking VPN services since it also features a free plan where users who are still undecided can get a taste of what lies in store. Its apps are also easy to use but not as well designed as those of Perimeter 81 VPN. See our Perimeter 81 VPN review for more on that.
Reasons to Buy
Reasons to Not
Compared to to NordVPN: Proton VPN is not as well known as NordVPN, but NordVPN has a more extensive server network of up to 5500 servers compared to Proton VPN, which has a server network of about 1700 servers. NordVPN also has a live chat support service, while Proton VPN does not.
Compared to to ExpressVPN: Proton VPN does not have as many servers in the world as ExpressVPN since it has around 1700 servers, while ExpressVPN has about 3000 servers. ExpressVPN also has servers in up to 94 countries, while Proton VPN only has a presence in 60 countries. Lastly, all servers on the ExpressVPN network support torrenting, compared to a restricted number of Proton VPN servers.
Compared to to Mullvad VPN: Proton VPN has support for Peer to Peer connections while Mullvad VPN does not, and Proton VPN also has a free plan, but Mullvad VPN does not.
Proton VPN’s zero-logging policy was admired by experts since it guaranteed user data privacy to subscribers by only recording their most recent sign-in, and for server, speeds averaging 440Mbps and 670Mbps for its OpenVPN and Wireguard protocol, along with its ability to unblock Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer make it a great pick for buffer-free streaming.
PC Mag and Tom’s Guide also liked that it had a free plan with no data limits, making it slightly better than Secure VPN, which is limited. Still, make sure to check out our SecureVPN review if you’re interested.
Users who own many Internet-enabled devices might also appreciate its ability to handle up to five simultaneous connections. Speedify VPN also allows for the same number, while Privado VPN has a higher capacity of up to 10 devices. See our Speedify review and our Privado VPN review for more info on those.
Unfortunately, Proton VPN’s inability to work around Chinese censorship and lack of a live chat support service were quite disappointing.