Proton VPN—part of a growing Proton online services suite—is a slick VPN with an excellent collection of advanced features, and it has the best free subscription plan we've seen. Few competitors can match its mix of affordability, features, and design. Its premium subscription is a fantastic value for any VPN, and it's made all the better for including secure email, storage, and calendar tools. For all that, it gets a rare five-star rating and earns our Editors' Choice award.
How Much Does Proton VPN Cost?
In 2022, Proton revamped its entire product line with a new pastel purple look, a name change (from ProtonVPN to Proton VPN), and a new pricing structure. If you were paying for Proton VPN (or Proton Mail) before the change, you get an upgrade and can keep your existing rate. This is a particularly sweet deal for existing Proton VPN users as the new VPN plans grant you access to premium Proton Mail features, space on the cloud-based Proton Drive, and access to the Proton Calendar scheduling tool.
How a VPN WorksWe're especially happy to see Proton VPN continues to offer an excellent free VPN subscription tier. This includes just three VPN server locations (Japan, Netherlands, and the US) and only allows one device to be connected at a time. You do have to create an account with Proton VPN to access its free tier, but you also get access to the rest of the Proton product line (Drive, Calendar, Mail), including the new Proton Pass password manager. Neither Mullvad VPN nor IVPN requires you to create an account or give them any information, even for paid subscriptions.
Even though you must create an account to use it, the free version of Proton VPN is uniquely valuable because it does not limit the amount of data you can use. TunnelBear VPN's free offering limits you to 500MB (upgradeable to 1.5GB) of secured traffic per month, for example. Other free VPNs pile on other restrictions. Because of all that, we recommend Proton VPN over all the other free VPNs we've tested.
This is where things get confusing. You can opt for a Mail Plus subscription to get premium Proton Mail features and stick with just the free VPN offering, or the premium VPN Plus and stick with free Proton Mail features. Purchasing a Proton Drive Plus or a Proton Pass subscription won't unlock premium Mail or VPN features, and there's no option to buy Proton Calendar on its own.
For this review, we used the $11.49-per-month Proton VPN account ($71.88 per year, $119.76 every two years), which is significantly more expensive than it used to be. We track pricing for 36 VPNs, and the current monthly average stands at $10.03, and the average annual subscription costs $66.95. This now puts Proton VPN among the most expensive VPNs we've reviewed, although it's notably less than NordVPN's $12.99 per month fee or Surfshark VPN's $12.95 per month subscription.
(Credit: Proton VPN)Some less feature-rich services beat Proton VPN on price. Private Internet Access VPN meanwhile offers annual plans for an affordable $39.95. Despite the potential savings, we caution against starting with a long-term VPN subscription. Instead, get a short-term or free plan first and see how the VPN works in your home and with the sites and services you need before making a high-cost commitment.
Proton VPN calls its paid plan VPN Plus, and it grants access to VPN servers in Proton VPN's network that are reserved for paying customers. Unlike the free servers, these are likely less crowded, which may provide better service. VPN Plus subscribers can use up to 10 devices simultaneously, double Proton's previous offering and the industry average. However, some VPN companies have done away with device limitations entirely. Among the services we've tested this includes Atlas VPN, Avira Phantom VPN, Encrypt.me VPN, IPVanish VPN, Private Internet Access VPN, Surfshark VPN, and TunnelBear VPN.
(Note: IPVanish and StrongVPN are owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag.com's parent company.)
Proton VPN Plus subscribers also unlock multi-hop connections to Secure Core servers (more on this below) and access to the Tor anonymization network via VPN—both rare features. You don't need to pay or use a VPN to access Tor, but it's nice to have. VPN Plus subscribers are still limited to only the free features of Proton Calendar, Drive, and Mail.
(Credit: Proton VPN)The highest tier for Proton's products is Proton Unlimited, which costs $12.99 per month, $119.88 per year, or $191.76 every two years. This doesn't add any additional VPN features, but it does significantly increase the value of the rest of Proton's offerings. You'll get 500GB of storage shared between Mail and Drive, 15 email aliases, unlimited email messages per day, up to 20 calendars, calendar sharing, 20 vaults in Proton Pass, unlimited Proton Pass email aliases, and a Proton Pass authenticator app. Note that the Mail Plus and Drive Plus offerings are cheaper but don't include all these features. Unlimited is the most of everything Proton has to offer.
If you want to go bigger, Proton offers subscription plans for businesses and families. Business plans start at $6.99 per user per month and can be scaled up from there. Family plans include everything in the Proton Unlimited plan, but raise the email addresses for Proton Mail to 90 and increase Proton Drive storage to 3 TB. Six users can share a Family plan, which costs $29.99 per month, $287.88 per year, or $479.76 every two years.
In early 2023, Proton VPN announced it had released browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox, as well as browsers built on those platforms, such as Microsoft Edge. Like most VPN browser extensions, this isn't a true VPN. Instead, it functions as a proxy and re-routes your browser traffic (and only your browser traffic) to the location you designate while encrypting it with HTTPS. This can be handy when you want to access geographically restricted content or when you want a little more security but aren't authorized or able to install the full VPN application. It's handy, but it's not a replacement for the full VPN experience.
Not everything made the transition to Proton's new incarnation. The Proton VPN Basic $5-per-month plan is no more, which deprives customers of a lower-cost middle option. Proton VPN formerly offered custom add-ons, such as additional simultaneous connections. The company says anyone with those plan tweaks will keep them, but anyone wanting them now will have to switch to a Proton VPN for Business account. Anyone previously subscribing at the now-defunct Visionary tier will be boosted to a whopping 3TB of Proton Drive storage, as well as receiving other sweeteners.
Proton VPN subscriptions can be purchased via a major credit card or PayPal. You can make Bitcoin payments, but you must create an account first. Proton VPN says it will also accept cash sent directly to its headquarters (but you have to send an email first), an option we've otherwise only seen with Editors' Choice winners Mullvad VPN and IVPN.
VPNs are valuable tools that can improve your privacy online, but they don't protect against all threats. We also recommend everyone use a password manager, activate multi-factor authentication wherever it's available, and install an antivirus app.
What Are Proton's Secure Core Servers?
The Proton VPN Plus tier also includes access to multi-hop Secure Core servers, which are a bit unusual and merit further explanation.
(Credit: Proton VPN)When you switch on a VPN, your web traffic is encrypted and sent to a server operated by the VPN company, through which your traffic exits onto the open internet. In a multi-hop connection, your traffic connects to a server operated by the VPN company and then a second server before exiting onto the internet. The best VPN services feature multi-hop connections. Notably, CyberGhost VPN boasts about the integrity of its NoSpy data center. While most services limit multi-hopping to set paths, IVPN lets you hop between any two of its servers.
When you connect via Secure Core servers, your VPN connection makes two hops, once from your device to the Secure Core servers and then onward to the VPN server you select. Proton VPN says that its Secure Core servers are housed only in countries with strong privacy laws and that it owns them directly. Physically, they reside in secure facilities (on an old military base, in one example).
(Credit: Proton VPN)While a VPN protects your data with its encrypted tunnel, you're' out of luck if an attacker has taken control of the VPN server. That's an exotic, unlikely scenario, but the Secure Core server scheme guarantees your information is secure from your computer to the Secure Core server, which is under lock and key. If the next VPN server you connect to after the Secure Core server has been compromised, whoever has taken control won't be able to glean anything about you because your traffic will appear to be coming from the Secure Core server and not your actual computer. This setup is similar to what Tor uses, but Tor is much more complex, with many more hops in between you and your destination.
Unsurprisingly, multi-hop connections tend to come at a hefty trade-off in terms of speed and performance, but they are a feature we rarely see and should put even the most paranoid mind to rest.
What VPN Protocols Does Proton Offer?
VPN technology has been around for a long time, and there are many flavors of encrypted tunnels from which you can choose. OpenVPN has been our preferred option for years, but the WireGuard protocol has seen rapid adoption across the industry. Like OpenVPN, WireGuard is an open-source protocol that can be freely examined for flaws. But WireGuard also sports the latest encryption technology and may offer better internet speeds than other options.
Proton VPN uses IKEv2, OpenVPN (UDP/TCP), and WireGuard in all its Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows apps. By default, the app selects the best protocol to use.
(Credit: Proton VPN)Proton VPN Servers and Server Locations
Regarding distribution, Proton VPN covers a respectable 69 countries, above the 52-country average among the VPNs we've reviewed. It is by no means the largest collection, however. HMA VPN offers 190 countries, PureVPN 140, and Surfshark VPN 100 countries. Having more server locations is good because it means you're more likely to find a VPN server near you, giving you better performance and more options for spoofing your location.
Proton VPN deserves credit for improving its geographic distribution. The company now offers server locations in South America and Africa, two entire continents often ignored by VPN companies, as well as India and Ukraine. The company has been steadily expanding its global presence.
(Credit: Proton VPN)Having VPN servers in regions with repressive internet policies does not necessarily allow users to circumvent censorship, but it may provide the populace with modicum of security and privacy. Proton VPN covers several such countries, including China (in Hong Kong), Russia, Turkey, and Vietnam.
Virtual servers are software-defined servers, meaning a single physical server can play host to many virtual ones. Virtual locations are VPN servers configured to appear somewhere other than their physical location. Neither is inherently problematic, but we prefer VPN companies to be transparent about server infrastructure and location.
A representative for Proton VPN told us it has recently employed some virtual locations to provide VPN servers in regions where it may not be safe to house servers physically or to expand its server capacity in high-demand areas. The company calls this feature Smart Routing, and such servers are marked in the app with a globe icon. The company's documentation breaks down the true location of its server hardware, which we greatly appreciate.
Regardless of location, we were told the company only uses "bare metal" servers, meaning they are dedicated machines, which is important for security.
In terms of physical security, Proton VPN says it uses full disk encryption, so any seized server would be inaccessible. The company also says its dedicated servers are harder to attack than virtual servers, and any server that goes offline in "unforeseen circumstances" is immediately wiped and re-provisioned. Other VPNs—such as ExpressVPN—have gone further, deploying servers that run only in RAM.
Your Privacy With Proton VPN
VPN companies must both respect your privacy and protect your personal information. After all, the main reason to use a VPN is to limit access to that personal information. After reading Proton VPN's documentation and speaking with the company, we believe it is acting in its customers' best interests—though determining that with total certainty is all but impossible. If, for any reason, you feel you cannot trust a particular VPN company, look elsewhere. There are plenty of choices.
The company's privacy policy and no-logs policy says it does not log user activity or IP addresses. Previously, the company stored timestamps of the last login, but it no longer does so. That's an improvement that means the company now does even more to protect customer privacy.
A representative from Proton VPN tells us the company only makes money through subscription sales, not by selling user information, nor does it "do any targeted advertising or any profiling."
Proton VPN is owned by the parent company Proton Technologies AG and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. It can be found in the Swiss Commercial Registry and operates under Swiss law. As such, it only responds to requests for information from an approved Swiss court order, which also requires that the individual who is the target of the investigation be notified. Even if Proton were required to respond to a request, it would have little or nothing to provide. The company's transparency report indicates Proton VPN received a valid request for information in January 2019, but it did not have any information to provide, and the company has not received new requests for Proton VPN data since. This is all excellent from a privacy and security standpoint.
Although 2019 was the last time law enforcement attempted to get information from Proton VPN, that's not the case for other products in the Proton stable. In 2021, the company behind Proton VPN confirmed it had been legally compelled to collect and supply IP address information about a climate activist's Proton Mail (not Proton VPN) account, which led to the activist's arrest. The company clarified that it couldn't provide access to email content, that IP addresses are not gathered under normal circumstances, and that its VPN product was not subject to the same requirements and would never collect or turn over similar information. An update to the company's blog post announced that a Swiss court decision in Proton's favor meant that email providers would not be subject to information-gathering requirements in the future.
Proton VPN has open-sourced its apps, meaning any researcher can verify there are no potential vulnerabilities. It also manages a bug bounty, paying researchers for the bug vulnerabilities they submit, and had its apps audited by SEC Consult. In April 2022, the company released the results of an audit of its security policies by Securitum, which found Proton VPN fulfilled its promises of privacy for customers. Audits are imperfect but still useful for establishing trust.
Hands On With Proton VPN for Windows
Proton VPN offers clients for Android, Android TV, ChromeOS, iOS, macOS, and Windows. The company provides detailed instructions on how to configure a Linux machine to use the service. We had no trouble getting Proton VPN's Windows app installed on an Intel NUC 11 (NUC11PHKi7C, 'Phantom Canyon') desktop running the latest version of Windows 11.
Not long ago, Proton VPN ditched the black and green color scheme for a snazzier purple look that we like. The controls and layout of the app are the same as before, but some of the buttons have been restyled to match the rest of the app. It's a small but welcome change and makes the whole app feel fresh. The app's design puts everything within reach but does make it rather busy. Newcomers may be overwhelmed. TunnelBear VPN still offers the friendliest and most approachable design.
By default, Proton VPN shows a large map and real-time network status graph. All the controls for the VPN are in the left rail, including the option to hide the map. A large, purple Quick Connect button will get you online immediately, which we appreciate. Once connected, the flag of the country you're connected to appears in the upper left, along with your new IP address. The map shows your data's journey, too.
(Credit: Proton VPN)Profiles are one unusual feature of Proton VPN. These let you define certain parameters for your VPN connection. For instance, you could say you want to connect only to Tor servers but don't care where. You can create your own or use one of the included options. Profiles are an accessible way to customize your VPN connection, but most people can safely ignore them.
(Credit: Proton VPN)In the middle of the left rail are toggles for some of the app's features: Secure Core, the Netshield ad and malware blocker, the Kill Switch, and Port Forwarding. Clicking Secure Core changes the server list, now letting you select the multi-hop path your data will take. The Kill Switch halts web traffic on your machine should the VPN link become disconnected. That prevents your traffic from being exposed, even if only briefly. An enhanced Permanent Kill Switch, which prevents the computer from communicating with the internet even if it is rebooted, is accessible from its toggle. A recent upgrade to the Netshield interface now shows how many ads it blocked. Note that we do not test port forwarding or VPN ad-blocking and could not manually test the Kill Switch.
(Credit: Proton VPN)The bottom of the left rail has a searchable list of available servers organized by country. You can select individual servers in each country and see the current load on any server, a feature we like. Icons make it easy to figure out if P2P or Tor is available for a particular region. Annoyingly, you can't filter the list to show all the Tor locations, for example. You can, however, connect to servers by clicking on their map location—a change we're happy to see.
From Settings, you can also access an easy tool for Split Tunneling—that is, routing the traffic from specific apps or IP addresses either into or outside of the VPN tunnel. We appreciate how flexible the Split Tunneling controls are in Proton VPN. We verified that Split Tunneling routed the Chrome browser traffic outside the VPN connection.
You can also adjust which VPN protocol the app uses to secure your data from Settings. By default, the app is set to Smart Protocol—which means it automatically selects the protocol. This is fine for most users. In our testing, we found we were unable to connect via WireGuard and could only use OpenVPN. A quick reinstallation set this right.
It's difficult to watch Netflix with a VPN because Netflix wants to enforce its distribution deals. In our testing, we had no trouble streaming from Netflix while connected to a US-based VPN server. That said, the conflict between VPNs and streaming sites is ongoing, and what works today may be blocked tomorrow.
Ideally, a VPN will not leak information about your ISP, your true IP address, or your DNS requests. In testing with the DNS Leak Test tool, the server we used protected our information and changed our public IP address. Note that we only tested one server; other servers may be configured incorrectly.
Proton VPN Speed and Performance Testing
When you use a VPN to secure your web traffic, your data won't be taking the optimal route to and from the internet. Generally, a VPN will increase latency while reducing upload and download speeds. To get an impression of that impact, we perform a series of tests using the Ookla Speedtest tool and find the percent change between when the VPN is on and when it is off. You can read how we test VPNs for a complete breakdown of our methodologies, as well as the limitations of our testing.
(Editors' Note: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company.)
Our latest testing found Proton VPN reduced download speed results by 7.2%—the fourth-best results among our current tests. The impact on upload test results was similar, at just 6.6% slower. That's the second-best result we've seen across all the services we've recently tested. Finally, our testing shows Proton VPN increasing latency by just 30.3%.
You can see how Proton VPN compares with other products in the chart below. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we've changed how we test VPNs and now update the chart with the latest results as soon as we have them.
We believe that security, privacy, and overall value are far more important differentiators than speed and that speed should not be the primary consideration when choosing a VPN. Keep in mind that while our testing is useful for comparison, your results may differ greatly.
Does Proton VPN Get Faster if You Pay More?
On its pricing page, Proton VPN shows its Plus and Free subscription tiers side-by-side. On the Plus side, it lists "highest VPN speed" as a perk. That's because Proton VPN gives Plus users more choices across more servers, freeing up more bandwidth, while Free users are herded on fewer, more crowded servers. Proton VPN tells us it does not throttle your speeds, regardless of the subscription you use.
Proton VPN also includes the Secure Core servers feature, which creates a multi-hop connection to a VPN server by routing through one of the company's high-security servers first. Like all multi-hop connections, the extra hop has a profound impact on speed and especially latency.
We reran our speed tests to compare the various means of connecting via Proton VPN. The results are shown in the chart below. The Secure Core test results were based on a multi-hop connection from the US to Sweden. For the Free tier, we used a Free account and let the app select a server automatically—in our case, Los Angeles, CA.
You can see how the three different modes compare in the charts below. Note that Secure Core multi-hop connections are only available with a paid Proton VPN Plus subscription.
In our testing, we found that a Plus server reduced download speed results by 7.2%, a Free server by 5.9%, and Secure Core by 74.9%. For upload testing, Plus reduced results by 6.6%, Free by 74.5%, and Secure Core by 95.1%. Finally, we found that Plus increased latency by 30.3%, Free by 1,184.4%, and Secure Core by an unsurprisingly staggering 7,279.5%.
These results were mixed compared with our last evaluation of Proton VPN's three modes. Although the Free tier had better download performance, its upload results were less impressive, and its latency increased dramatically. Bear in mind that we allowed the Proton VPN app to assign us the "best" Free tier server, which in this case was across the country. Finding a closer server would at least improve the latency results.
From these results, we've drawn a few conclusions. First, networks are fickle things, and the performance you get from your VPN will depend as much on network conditions as on the server you connect to. We must reiterate that these results are only a snapshot in time and can't be taken as the final word on overall performance.
Secondly, despite some changes in results, it's entirely possible for Proton VPN Free subscribers to get acceptable speeds. In our testing, the Free tier performed slightly better in the download testing than the Plus tier. This is great news for anyone strapped for cash or simply wants to test out a VPN before they purchase it.
Finally, although Secure Core didn't perform as well this time as previously, it's still better than our earliest testing. Of course, we don't expect to see its latency come down to Earth unless the laws of physics change.
Hands On With Proton VPN for Mac
Proton has the most attractive Mac VPN app we’ve tested, though installation is clunkier than the competition. For testing, we used a Macbook Pro M1 running macOS Ventura 13.4.
After logging in, downloading the app, and installing it, we encountered an additional step when opening the app for the first time. A pop-up window instructed us to enable custom VPN protocols on the Macbook Pro and provided GIF instructions for visual learners. As the lessons continued, Proton VPN launched another window for a guided tour through the app’s features and connectivity options. Mullvad VPN’s macOS app provides a faster and smoother start-up experience, but we appreciate Proton VPN’s educational approach to helping users get familiar with the app.
(Credit: Proton VPN)The app’s user interface features a black background with purple highlights. An interactive map uses purple triangles to indicate VPN server locations. The UI is striking but still easy to navigate. Proton VPN’s app for macOS looks great, but it doesn’t offer many features. The app includes a Kill Switch, Netshield, and access to Secure Core server connections, but that's about it.
To test the VPN, we visited DNSLeakTest.com and ran an extended test to determine if Proton VPN was leaking our actual IP address or DNS requests. The server in Brussels did not leak our actual IP address. While connected to a server in Paris, we watched YouTube videos and live gaming streams on Twitch.tv. Videos on both sites loaded quickly and streamed without any noticeable interruptions.
Hands On With Proton VPN for iPhone
We like reliability and simplicity in our privacy tools at PCMag, and Proton VPN’s updated iPhone VPN app has those qualities. For this test, we used an iPhone XS running iOS 16.4.1.
The Proton VPN app for iOS is excellent for new VPN users. Just log in, tap the Connect button at the bottom of the screen, and you’re done. Proton VPN eschewed a dashboard or Home screen for this application, instead allowing users to find all of the core functions of the app from the navigation menu at the bottom of the screen. It’s easy to connect to a server, disconnect, switch to a new server, and change your settings from the navigation bar.
(Proton VPN)Recently, Proton VPN added some familiar features to the iOS app, such as a Kill Switch, a VPN accelerator, NetShield, the Always-On VPN feature, and the option for all the apps to try alternative network routing to reach Proton sites.
After opening the app, choose from a list of countries with Proton VPN servers. You can select a specific, named server within that city or country and even determine whether you want to use a Plus server for a specialized task such as streaming video.
A purple bar at the top of the app window indicates whether the device is connected to a VPN. At the bottom of the window is a purple triangle for connecting and disconnecting from the VPN server.
We went to DNSLeakTest.com and ran an extended test to determine if Proton VPN was leaking our actual IP address or DNS requests. We didn’t find any leaks during the test, but we only tested one server in Atlanta.
We tested Proton VPN’s NetShield, which is an ad-blocker that purports to stop website trackers, too. Initially, we could not load any websites while NetShield was running, but it worked after disabling the feature and turning it back on again.
After opening the Safari browser app and tapping various links on the PCMag.com homepage while connected to a Proton VPN server in Atlanta, NetShield claimed it blocked 114 ads, stopped 34 trackers, and reported that the website saved 28.2 MB of our data. We cannot verify if the numbers listed above are true, but we can report that we did not see any ads (or autoplay videos) on PCMag’s website. We visited YouTube and still saw ads while watching videos.
The iOS app’s performance was excellent, and we successfully watched Twitch streams and YouTube videos without interruptions while connected to a server based in Oslo.
Hands On With Proton VPN for Android
Proton’s Android VPN app has a black and purple interface that was easy to navigate on a Samsung A71 5G running Android 13. After opening the app, we chose from a list of countries with Proton VPN servers. You can select a specific server within that city or country. The app's Settings menu reveals several features, but some, such as DNS Leak Protection, are permanently toggled to be Always-On and represent a standard function of a VPN and shouldn’t be counted among the perks. There’s also a VPN accelerator feature, but anecdotally, we did not notice significant differences in page loading speed or streaming video interruption when we switched it off.
Adjustments to Android OS mean users have to go into their device’s settings menu to toggle on the Always-On VPN and Kill Switch functions. A handy step-by-step tutorial in the Proton VPN app walks users through that process. You can turn NetShield, alternative routing, and other features on and off in the app.
We went to DNSLeakTest.com and ran an extended test to determine if Proton VPN was leaking our real IP address or DNS requests. We didn’t find any leaks while connected to a server in Montreal.
We tested Proton’s ad-blocking feature, NetShield, while using the Google Chrome browser app for Android. Like the iOS version of the app, the Android version of NetShield needed to be toggled off and on before it began blocking ads. We’d like to see NetShield work immediately after toggling on. During our 5-minute browsing session on PCMag.com, the feature allegedly blocked 375 ads and 194 trackers. NetShield also claimed the site saved 161.38 MB of data during the session.
Our connection to a Proton VPN server remained fast and stable during testing. We watched Twitch streams and YouTube videos without interruptions while connected to a server based in Buenos Aires.
Hands On With Proton VPN for ChromeOS
The best way to use a VPN on ChromeOS is to simply use the Android app. Installing this app on our Dell Chrome 3100 with an Intel Celeron Processor was tricky. Attempts to download the app directly from Google Play resulted in download timeouts. We then went to Proton VPN’s website and followed the link to download the app for Chromebook, and the download failed again. Finally, we followed the link on the website to the Android app, and the download worked.
The next bit of trouble came when trying to connect to a VPN server. Connecting using the default Smart Protocol setting—which automatically selects the VPN protocol to use—resulted in connection errors. We had to change the protocol to OpenVPN UDP for any VPN server connections to work. The above experience is not ideal and certainly not a user-friendly way to connect to a server.
As noted previously, the Proton VPN Android app has a busy interface, with a list of available VPN servers taking up most of the screen and a small connection button at the bottom. There’s also a map view to allow users to choose server locations from a map rather than a list.
Proton VPN’s Android app on ChromeOS has a lot of helpful features. You can choose to enable an Always-On VPN or the Kill Switch from the Settings menu. There’s also NetShield, which blocks ads, malware, and trackers. Split tunneling is another feature found on Proton VPN’s Android app, and you can also enable something called Alternative Routing, which finds alternative connection paths if a service or site blocks Proton VPN. Finally, there’s a feature called VPN Accelerator, which claims to increase VPN speed by up to 400%. We didn’t see much difference in speed with this option toggled off on our Chromebook, but the feature stays on by default and doesn’t seem to cause any harm.
Proton VPN Is Our Top Choice
Proton VPN has long been a favorite for its strong privacy policies and collection of advanced VPN features. Simply put, it offers all the VPN features we want to see and is still a good value after a hefty price hike. Its free version is also excellent and places no limit on the amount of bandwidth you can use. It's our go-to recommendation for anyone in need of a free VPN. Finally, integration with Proton's secure email, cloud drive, password manager, and calendar apps makes this service all the more excellent. It's a stacked starter pack for online privacy.
Since we first reviewed Proton VPN, the service has more than doubled its number of servers, server locations, and simultaneous connections. The company has shown it can scale up its service without sacrificing its integrity. Importantly, Proton VPN remains committed to its reputation as a privacy-focused company, which is a refreshing change after seeing so many other VPNs emphasize speed and video streaming. A 2022 audit is a valuable endorsement of the company's privacy practices. We believe that Proton VPN is setting the standard for the VPN industry, which is reflected in our five-star rating and Editors' Choice award.
Max Eddy contributed to this review.