Proton VPN evaluation 2025: A nonprofit service with premium efficiency

Proton VPN stands out for 2 major causes: it's one of many solely digital non-public networks (VPNs) to incorporate a free plan with no knowledge limits, and it's one of many few companies majority-owned by a nonprofit. It's the perfect VPN in each of these classes, and it makes a robust case for being the perfect total.

Even if you happen to don't care in regards to the work of the Proton Basis, Proton VPN is a service price utilizing. It's straightforward to put in and handle, runs just like the wind and meets excessive requirements for safety and privateness. It has extra IP places in Africa than any of its opponents. It's even wanting towards the longer term by working towards full IPv6 assist.

In brief, Proton VPN will get our enthusiastic advice, particularly for torrenting (which it helps on nearly each server). It's not good — the apps for Apple techniques lag behind their Home windows and Android counterparts, and the free servers might be noticeably sluggish — however the cons pale compared to the professionals. We'll get into all of it beneath.

Editor's observe (7/25/25): We're within the means of revamping our VPN protection to supply extra in-depth, actionable info and shopping for guides. Our suggestions, and all the data on this web page, are topic to alter because the replace continues. Take a look at our revamped ExpressVPN review and NordVPN review to see the brand new route, or study extra about how we test VPNs.

Desk of contents

• Findings at a look

• Putting in, configuring and utilizing Proton VPN

• Proton VPN velocity take a look at: Impacts of VPN Accelerator

• Proton VPN safety take a look at: Watertight protocols

• How a lot does Proton VPN price?

• Proton VPN facet apps and bundles

• Shut-reading Proton VPN's privateness coverage

• Can Proton VPN change your digital location?

• Investigating Proton VPN's server community

• Options of Proton VPN

• Proton VPN buyer assist choices

• Proton VPN background test: The CERN origins of Proton AG

• Last verdict

Findings at a look

The desk summarizes what we discovered whereas reviewing Proton VPN, each good and dangerous. Hold it open in a tab whilst you comparability store for a VPN.

Putting in, configuring and utilizing Proton VPN

This part explains the way it feels to run Proton VPN on the assorted platforms it helps. As a rule, it's not tough. Proton VPN has extra options than ExpressVPN, and a few them would possibly journey up new customers, however you'd have to essentially scrounge to search out an precise inconvenience to complain about.

Home windows

Proton VPN installs simply on Home windows — you'll have to grant it permission to make modifications, however that's it. When you've signed in on the app, you'll attain top-of-the-line interfaces we've tried on a VPN. The server community is straight away seen as each a listing and map, and the placement search bar, join button and main options are all laid out across the identical window.

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It's truthfully superb how a lot you’ll be able to attain from the launch window with out something feeling cluttered. They even squeezed in keyboard shortcuts for the search discipline. We additionally love that settings open in the identical window, since coping with each the primary VPN app and a separate preferences panel can get annoying. Our solely actual gripe is that there must be a better approach to regulate the dimensions of the map.

Mac

The desktop app for Mac isn't fairly as deftly laid out because the Home windows app. You possibly can attain many of the necessary options from the primary window, together with Profiles, NetShield, Safe Core servers and the kill change. Nonetheless, there's now not a approach to filter out a listing of the P2P or Tor servers, besides by digging by means of the Profile controls. On the plus facet, you’ll be able to regulate the dimensions of the map, so it's now a viable different to the server listing.

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The opposite preferences are hidden within the menu bar — go to Proton VPN > Settings to succeed in them. They're specified by 4 tabs, and shouldn't take greater than a minute to undergo at setup.

Android

The Android app takes the identical design cues because the Home windows app, and works as effectively. 4 tabs alongside the underside change between the house display, the nation listing, Profiles and all different settings. You possibly can search the listing of nations by tapping the magnifying glass on the top-right. In one other good contact, tapping the dots by any digital location will let you know the place the server is bodily positioned.

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Android customers get some nifty unique Profiles, together with "anti-censorship," which mechanically connects to the quickest nation aside from the one you're in. The Settings tab is a single menu with subheadings and no pointless complication.

iOS

Proton VPN for iPhone and iPad appears nearly the identical because it does on Home windows and Android, however with a few of the identical drawbacks discovered on Mac. The server listing is extra cluttered, and as soon as once more there's no straightforward approach to sift out the P2P and Tor places.

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The Settings tab places all of the characteristic descriptions within the open, which makes it look denser than it’s. However these are minor quibbles — that is nonetheless a VPN that's very straightforward to activate and overlook about.

Browser extensions

Proton VPN has browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. These function de facto break up tunneling, as connecting by means of the extension protects solely browser site visitors; every little thing else goes unprotected. You possibly can break up the tunnel additional by setting the VPN to not work on sure URLs (in contrast to the opposite apps, you don't have to know the IPs of these websites).

Proton VPN velocity take a look at: Impacts of VPN Accelerator

We used Ookla's Speedtest app to find out how a lot Proton VPN drags on a person's latency, measured in milliseconds (ms), and obtain and add speeds, measured in megabits per second (Mbps). Collectively, these three stats present whether or not a VPN will noticeably decelerate your web, particularly throughout demanding duties.

We had excessive hopes for Proton right here due to its VPN Accelerator expertise, which runs VPN communications throughout a number of parallel tracks to course of every little thing sooner. It didn't disappoint — for probably the most half. Though obtain speeds didn't attain the heights we noticed from ExpressVPN, Proton VPN's shopping efficiency nonetheless appears glorious practically throughout the board.

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To decide on our places for the take a look at, we checked Proton VPN's listing of sensible routing servers, which use servers in a single nation to simulate IP addresses in one other. Virtually all of the sensible routing servers are primarily based in 5 cities: Miami, London, Marseille, Bucharest and Singapore. We ran these checks on a Mac utilizing the automated protocol setting.

Proton VPN appears excellent in that desk. Its common obtain velocity was 88 % of our unprotected speeds. To place that in perspective, if you happen to began with 30 Mbps down (about half what we get) and related to any Proton VPN server, you'd nearly actually nonetheless have a quick sufficient connection to stream in 4K.

Be aware the "nearly" — Proton VPN did drop noticeably on its French server in Marseille. It's not unusual for considered one of a VPN's knowledge facilities to have bother whereas the others work advantageous, and you may normally repair the issue by simply disconnecting and reconnecting. Simply observe that whereas drops to about 75 % of your obtain velocity are uncommon, they're not inconceivable.

Proton VPN safety take a look at: Watertight protocols

After we discuss VPN safety, we're actually speaking about reliability. Can this VPN set up an encrypted tunnel and transmit all of your info by means of it, each time, with out leaks or failures? With Proton VPN, we're completely satisfied to say the reply is sure; we probed its safety and located no cracks to talk of. Learn the part beneath for specifics.

Proton VPN protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2 and Stealth

Proton VPN makes use of 4 VPN protocols to speak between your gadgets, its servers and the web. Three of them (WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2) are frequent decisions with no severe flaws so long as they're carried out thoughtfully. The fourth, Stealth, is an obfuscation protocol it is best to solely use if the opposite three are blocked.

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• OpenVPN is probably the most safe choice. With out getting too technical, OpenVPN encrypts its backend capabilities in addition to the information itself, which leaves it with no apparent vulnerabilities. It may possibly additionally talk utilizing the identical ports as frequent HTTPS site visitors, so it's onerous to dam.

• WireGuard is extra environment friendly than OpenVPN, each in its supply code and the cryptography it makes use of. It usually requires an alternate of mounted IP addresses, however the Proton VPN implementation overwrites these IPs with randomized addresses, slicing the safety danger.

• IKEv2 is a protected selection that's sometimes sooner than both OpenVPN or WireGuard. You most likely received't use it except it occurs to come back up whilst you've set the protocol to Good. As such, it's on the best way to being phased out of Proton VPN.

• Stealth is exclusive to Proton VPN, although its operate will not be. It's obtained the identical structure as WireGuard, however provides one other TLS tunnel to evade community blocks that catch VPN site visitors. That additional encryption slows it down, so we don't suggest utilizing it except the opposite three protocols don't work.

The primary choice on the app, known as "Good," will not be a protocol — it means your VPN consumer selects the protocol that provides you with the perfect speeds in your present server. Since all 4 protocols are protected, there's no draw back to utilizing the Good setting more often than not.

Leak take a look at

We used AirVPN's IP leak instrument to test all 4 of Proton VPN's protocols for DNS and WebRTC leaks. Proton VPN makes use of its personal DNS servers to scale back the danger of sending unencrypted requests, however since leaks are nonetheless doable, we examined utilizing a easy methodology: checking our seen IP handle earlier than and after connecting to the VPN.

Regardless of testing a number of places over three days, we by no means noticed our actual IP handle present up on the instrument. This held true even outdoors the Safe Core server listing, the place knowledge facilities might need been managed by third events. It's not good proof, nevertheless it's an excellent signal that Proton VPN enforces a constant safety regime on all its servers.

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We additionally used BrowserLeaks to test for WebRTC leaks. These are primarily a problem on the browser facet, however a VPN is doubly necessary in case your browser occurs to be leaking. We enabled WebRTC on our browser and examined the identical set of Proton VPN servers with out springing any WebRTC leaks.

Proton VPN and IPv6

Proton is engaged on making its complete VPN appropriate with IPv6 addresses. If a VPN that's solely configured for IPv4 has to resolve an IPv6 handle, it may trigger a leak — that's why most VPNs, even the perfect ones, block IPv6 altogether. That mentioned, the entire web will run on IPv6 sooner or later, so it's good to see Proton VPN main the pack.

Up to now, IPv6 is mechanically enabled on Proton VPN's Linux apps and browser extensions, and might be optionally activated on its Android app. The Proton VPN apps for all different platforms nonetheless block IPv6 site visitors, however this could hopefully change quickly.

Encryption take a look at

Even when a VPN's protocol decisions are stable, it's doable for particular person implementations of these protocols to fail. We used WireShark, a packet inspector app, to check whether or not Proton VPN's encryption labored it doesn’t matter what settings had been in place. We're completely satisfied to say we by no means noticed plaintext as soon as.

How a lot does Proton VPN price?

To get full entry to Proton VPN, you'll want a Plus subscription, which prices $9.99 per thirty days. You possibly can knock off half that worth by subscribing for a full yr and paying a lump sum of $59.88, understanding to $4.99 per thirty days. A Plus account with Proton VPN additionally provides you free entry to each different Proton app.

It’s also possible to pay $107.76 upfront to subscribe for 2 years, a mean of $4.49 per thirty days — maybe extra handy, nevertheless it doesn't prevent a lot. The one-year plan is the perfect worth, although it's additionally good that you just don't must pay by means of the nostril for just one month. There's a 30-day, money-back assure on all plans.

Proton VPN is presently providing Engadget readers an unique deal that provides a 12-month plan for $47.88 ($3.99 per thirty days) and a 24-month plan for $81.36 ($3.39 per thirty days). Study extra about it right here. One ultimate choice is the Proton Limitless subscription, mentioned within the "facet apps and bundles" part beneath."

The Proton VPN free plan

Proton VPN is without doubt one of the greatest free VPNs available on the market proper now. No different VPN backed by as a lot expertise and common sense has a free plan with no knowledge limits. As an alternative of capping how a lot knowledge you need to use per thirty days, Proton VPN restricts which servers free customers can entry, limiting them to 5 international locations: america, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania.

The irritating half is that you could't select which of those servers you utilize; Proton VPN simply auto-connects to whichever one is the least burdened. A Proton consultant informed us that this variation goes together with enhancements to the choice algorithm, higher load balancing and the addition of the Poland and Romania places. Additionally it is doable to attempt for a greater connection by clicking "change server."

The actual fact stays, although, {that a} free Proton VPN plan is ineffective for unblocking content material in particular places — however this can be by design. The free plan appears extra aimed towards privateness and anonymity than streaming, and the position of the free places close to Russia and China displays that. Free Proton VPN plans don't sacrifice any important safety features.

Proton VPN facet apps and bundles

Proton VPN's major bundle is Proton Limitless, which will get you all six Proton merchandise in a single bundle: VPN, Mail, Drive, Calendar, Pockets and Move. This prices $12.99 for a month, $119.88 for a yr ($9.99 per thirty days) and $191.76 for 2 years ($7.99 per thirty days). We received't be going in-depth on any of them on this evaluation, however right here's a fast rundown of every.

• Proton Mail: An end-to-end encrypted e mail service. Proton can nonetheless see a Mail person's actual IP handle, however can't learn any of their messages.

• Proton Drive: Encrypted cloud storage. As with Mail, Proton can determine customers, however can't learn any of the content material they retailer.

• Proton Calendar: An encrypted scheduling app with occasions and reminders.

• Proton Pockets: A self-custody pockets for storing Bitcoin unconnected to any alternate.

• Proton Move: A password supervisor that generates, shops and autofills passwords for on-line accounts.

Even if you happen to solely want two of the six, Proton Limitless saves you cash. Separate month-to-month subscriptions to Proton VPN and Proton Mail would price a complete of $14.98, so that you've already knocked off $2 per thirty days. That will increase if you happen to're capable of decide to a yr upfront.

Shut-reading Proton VPN's privateness coverage

Proton's privateness coverage is available in two elements: the overall Proton coverage and the shorter coverage particular to Proton VPN. We'll cowl them in that order.

Basic Proton privateness coverage

Proton tracks person exercise on its product web sites utilizing its personal advertising instruments; the information set collected doesn’t embrace IP addresses. It retains an e mail handle related to every person's account, nevertheless it's not allowed to attach IP addresses (and thus identities and places) to these emails except the person breaches the phrases of service.

You could rightly ask how Proton would know a person is abusing considered one of their companies in the event that they don't preserve exercise logs. The reply is that logs aren't wanted; most types of abuse might be detected in different methods and noticed in actual time. For instance, if somebody used a Proton VPN server to launch a DDoS assault, the crew may examine that server and discover the hacker whereas the assault was nonetheless ongoing.

The coverage goes on to listing the 5 third-party knowledge processors Proton makes use of (Zendesk, PayPal, Chargebee, Atlassian and Stripe), none of whom are allowed to retailer buyer exercise knowledge. Proton cautions that it’ll share what knowledge it does have in response to unblockable requests from the Swiss authorities, however not "till all authorized or different treatments have been exhausted." That is normal for a VPN that wishes to stay in enterprise, and the transparency report reveals the corporate does certainly struggle court docket orders when it may.

Proton VPN privateness coverage

Proton's VPN-specific privateness coverage is sort of quick. It states that Proton can’t log person actions or identifiable traits of gadgets related to the VPN, can’t throttle web connections and should prolong full privateness and safety to free customers.

In a single sense, a privateness coverage requires you to take the VPN supplier at their phrase, nevertheless it's harmful for a corporation to make guarantees they don't intend to maintain. The coverage is legally binding, and breaking it’s grounds for a lawsuit. Proton VPN's succinct no-logs coverage is due to this fact an amazing signal. It's additionally been confirmed a number of instances by a third-party audit, most just lately in July 2024.

Can Proton VPN change your digital location?

Testing a VPN's means to masks a person's location isn't advanced — all you want is a streaming subscription. We related to 5 take a look at places and tried to unblock Netflix with every one. If we managed to entry the location, and noticed totally different reveals than these on the American library, we concluded that the placement had masked us efficiently.

Proton VPN handed the take a look at each time in all 5 places. The one hiccup got here in Romania, which we selected as a result of it's one of many free places. The app related us to a free server, which was too sluggish to load Netflix; after we selected a paid server, the issue disappeared.

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Investigating Proton VPN's server community

Proton VPN's free plan contains servers in 5 places: the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, america and Japan. While you join as a free person, you'll be mechanically related to whichever location is quickest.

A paid plan opens up the complete community of 154 servers in 117 international locations and territories. The menu contains an enormous number of African places, greater than any VPN we've examined in a while. The Center East, together with central and southern Asia, are additionally effectively represented, and U.S. customers will discover 20 totally different places to select from.

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Remember the fact that about two-thirds of those server places are digital, which means they're not bodily positioned the place they declare to be. This contains all of the African servers besides South Africa and Nigeria; all of the South American servers besides Brazil, Colombia and Argentina; and all of the Center Jap servers besides Turkey, Israel and the UAE. A majority of the places in Asia are additionally digital, together with South Korea, India, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

To be clear, digital places can disguise your IP handle simply in addition to bodily ones. It's solely an issue if you happen to're anticipating the form of efficiency, notably by way of latency, that you just get from a close-by server. Fortunately, Proton VPN provides you quick sufficient obtain and add speeds that distance shouldn't be an issue.

Options of Proton VPN

Proton VPN has plenty of additional options that transcend normal VPN performance. We've already talked about the Stealth protocol and IPv6 assist. On this part, we'll cowl a further 5 options that could be of curiosity.

NetShield advert blocker

Proton VPN's built-in advert blocker is called NetShield. It's obtainable on the primary UI web page, and has two settings: one which blocks solely malware websites, and one which blocks websites related with malware, adverts and trackers. The stronger characteristic is on by default.

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NetShield works by checking any DNS requests in opposition to a database of net servers identified to host malware, inject adverts or connect cross-site trackers to your shopping session. The DNS-blocking strategy means it's not able to blocking adverts served from the identical area that hosts them — so no blocking YouTube video adverts. On the optimistic facet, it means NetShield works throughout your complete gadget, not simply in your browser.

NetShield additionally shows a working whole of what number of of every type of interference it's blocked. It catches most banner adverts, however since you’ll be able to't customise the blocklist in any manner, it's greatest when mixed with one other browser-level advert blocker.

Safe Core servers

Right here's an fascinating one. Safe Core is a type of a typical characteristic often known as double VPN or multi-hop VPN, through which a connection runs by means of two VPN servers earlier than being decrypted. If one server fails or will get compromised, the opposite server retains your connection non-public.

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Proton VPN takes this a step additional. While you activate Safe Core, your connection will nonetheless finish at your chosen server location — however earlier than that, it would journey by means of a chosen server in Iceland, Sweden or Switzerland. Just a few touches make Safe Core servers extra dependable than the common VPN node:

• All three international locations are protected jurisdictions, with consumer-friendly privateness legal guidelines and courts sympathetic to privateness claims.

• Safe Core knowledge facilities are locked down bodily; for instance, the Iceland location is a refitted army base, and the Sweden location is actually underground.

• Proton owns and operates all Safe Core places itself, with no leases or third-party managers.

Virtually no different VPNs pay as a lot consideration to bodily safety as Proton VPN does with this characteristic. The second hop makes Safe Core connections slower on common, nevertheless it's price it when you have one thing particularly delicate to do on-line.

Kill change

Proton VPN features a kill change, an ordinary characteristic. When energetic, a kill change cuts off your web every time your connection to the VPN drops. This implies you're by no means in peril of leaking your actual id or location, even for a second. It additionally protects you in opposition to the TunnelVision exploit, which requires the hacker to make a faux VPN server.

Break up tunneling

Break up tunneling is included on the Home windows and Android apps, however customers on different gadgets can entry it by means of the browser extension. With break up tunneling, some apps or web sites get on-line by means of the VPN, whereas others keep unprotected.

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Proton VPN permits break up tunneling by each app and IP handle. This grants you a exact degree of management over your break up, so long as you understand the IP of every web site you're putting on the listing (you could find that out utilizing DNS checker).

Torrenting servers and port forwarding

Proton VPN is without doubt one of the greatest VPNs for torrenting. It restricts torrenting to P2P servers, however practically each server on the listing is a P2P server — solely Safe Core servers and a few free servers don't allow torrenting. Mix that with the truth that it maintains 96 % of your add speeds on common, and it is best to have few issues utilizing a torrenting consumer.

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It additionally has some assist for port forwarding, which may enhance torrenting velocity. Home windows and Linux customers can allow it with a easy toggle, which offers an energetic port quantity for configuring non-public servers. Mac customers can arrange port forwarding by means of guide OpenVPN or WireGuard configurations.

Tor over VPN

A handful of Proton VPN servers route you on to the Tor community after encrypting your connection. Whereas related to considered one of these Tor over VPN servers, that are marked with TOR of their names and an onion image, you'll be capable to open .onion hyperlinks on a standard browser.

That is extra than simply handy — Tor over VPN is the most secure approach to entry the darkish net. With the VPN as an middleman, you're by no means connecting to Tor with your personal IP handle, so malicious node operators can't see your actual id. For optimum privateness, use Tor Browser to create your Proton VPN account, so that you're by no means uncovered at any level within the course of.

Proton VPN has Tor servers in six international locations (the U.S., France, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany and Hong Kong). Every simply has one Tor server, besides america, which will get two. Tor over VPN is supported on all platforms, nevertheless it received't work on Mac or iOS except you’ve gotten the kill change enabled.

Profiles

A "profile" on Proton VPN is a bunch of pre-established settings you need to use to rapidly configure the VPN for a specific activity. Two profiles can be found from the beginning: Quickest, which connects to the quickest server, and Random, which at all times connects to a unique server. You possibly can create extra profiles by toggling 4 settings:

• Characteristic: The kind of server used. Select from Normal, Safe Core, P2P or Tor over VPN.

• Nation: The nation to which the profile connects.

• Server: A server inside that nation. It’s also possible to choose "quickest" or "random."

• Protocol: Which VPN protocol the profile will use. "Good" might be chosen.

For instance, say you need to watch a TV sequence that's solely obtainable on Netflix in Canada. You could possibly create a profile known as "Netflix Canada" that connects to the quickest Canadian server with only one click on. We'd name profiles situationally helpful, however they’ll save loads of time if you happen to frequently carry out the identical motion in your VPN.

Proton VPN buyer assist choices

We went to Proton VPN's FAQ pages with two questions that got here up whereas researching different sections: which of Proton VPN's servers are managed by third events, and why do sure server places (like Marseilles) run sluggish regardless of the app displaying a lightweight load?

You possibly can entry the assistance middle by means of any of Proton VPN's apps, or by going on to the web site. Articles look like organized into six classes. Oddly, clicking any class button solely reveals you a handful of the articles in that part — for instance, the Troubleshooting class appears prefer it solely has 5 articles. For those who sort "troubleshooting" into the search bar, although, you'll see dozens pop up. There are even some sections, like Billing, that don't seem on the primary web page in any respect.

It has the texture of an internet site replace that wasn't adequately introduced in keeping with the majority of the assist content material. Till Proton fixes it, simply use the search bar for every little thing. The articles themselves are well-written, give or take some stilted English.

Getting fast assist

We couldn't discover written solutions to our questions on possession and server load, so we turned to stay chat. Free customers ought to take into account that stay chat assist is just obtainable on paid accounts, however there's a reasonably energetic subreddit at r/protonvpn the place Proton workers steadily put up.

Reside chat will not be intuitively positioned on protonvpn.com. We lastly discovered it by scrolling all the best way to the underside of the primary web page, solely to be informed no one was on-line to assist in the mean time — stay chat is just accessible from 9 AM to midnight Central European Time (CET). We submitted our query in regards to the Marseille servers as an e mail ticket as a substitute.

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This half was straightforward, at the very least, as the shape helpfully populated our system info. We additionally obtained a immediate response inside 24 hours. We ended the interplay there, as we weren't capable of reproduce the sluggish conduct on the French server places, nevertheless it's good to know the crew will reply rapidly.

Proton VPN background test: The CERN origins of Proton AG

Proton VPN launched in 2017, however its crew's expertise goes again a lot farther. The founders of its guardian firm, Proton AG, met whereas working at CERN in Switzerland, and the corporate stays below Swiss jurisdiction.

Their first product, Proton Mail, went stay in 2014 after a profitable crowdfunding marketing campaign, and claims to have 100 million customers right now. Proton VPN was Proton AG's second undertaking. Like Proton Mail, it consists of a free plan supplemented by paid upgrades.

Since then, Proton has launched a number of extra merchandise: Proton Calendar in 2020, Proton Drive cloud storage in 2022 and the Proton Move password supervisor in 2023, every designed round utilizing end-to-end encryption to make person knowledge inaccessible.

The Proton Basis

Proton introduced in 2024 that almost all of its shares had been acquired by the Proton Basis, a nonprofit whose solely objective is to regulate Proton inventory. Amongst different advantages, this prevents it from being bought by anybody who disagrees with its mission. To promote to an objectionable guardian firm, the complete board of trustees must agree, which feels unlikely primarily based on Proton's observe file.

All through Proton's historical past, we solely discovered two incidents severe sufficient to touch upon, and solely considered one of them involved Proton VPN. We'll cowl them each beneath.

ProtonMail legislation enforcement collaboration allegations

On the web page that hosts its annual transparency report, Proton states brazenly that it "could also be legally compelled to reveal sure person info to Swiss authorities" (see the Privateness Coverage part of this text for extra on exactly what info that describes). In 2021, the corporate admitted it had given Swiss police (performing on a French warrant) a ProtonMail person's IP handle and gadget logs. The police arrested the person, a French environmental activist.

Whereas that's unnerving for privacy-minded customers, there are some necessary contextual points to think about. Most significantly, ProtonMail will not be ruled by the identical coverage as Proton VPN. On the time the case unfolded, Swiss legislation obliged all e mail corporations to adjust to court docket orders from Swiss authorities handy over knowledge. VPNs aren't topic to these retention necessities.

As we speak, Swiss e mail corporations have been reclassified so that they're additionally exempt from knowledge retention necessities, thanks partially to a coverage change Proton fought for. A consultant from Proton confirmed that "below Swiss legislation, we aren’t obligated to save lots of any person connection logs." It's additionally reassuring that, regardless of complying with the subpoena, Proton wasn't capable of flip over the contents of any emails.

Alleged WireGuard reminiscence vulnerability

In January 2025, researchers at Venak Safety alleged that Proton VPN lacks reminiscence safety for keys generated below the WireGuard protocol, which could let hackers scrape the keys and decrypt intercepted communications. Proton responded to Venak in a weblog put up, which a Proton consultant confirmed stays their official response to the allegations.

In brief: the Venak article solely demonstrates that it's doable to view public keys, not non-public ones. This isn't a lot of a bombshell, provided that "public" is correct there within the identify. However uneven encryption — the type utilized by VPN protocols like WireGuard — requires each keys to decrypt any messages. Even when a hacker had been capable of get ahold of a personal key, they probably wouldn't be capable to use it for something. WireGuard incorporates good ahead secrecy by default, altering session keys usually sufficient that any given secret’s out of date by the point it's stolen.

Last verdict

In brief, we're ready to suggest Proton VPN to nearly anyone. Whether or not you're primarily involved with safety, streaming or one thing else, likelihood is good that you just'll be happy. The one severe downsides are that the long-term plans are overpriced and that it's onerous to get stay tech assist if you happen to stay outdoors of Europe.

It's additionally our unqualified choose for the perfect free VPN, however with the caveat that it's a nasty selection for anybody who wants to decide on particular server places. If all you care about is staying hidden out of your ISP and advertisers, Proton must be your first selection.

This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/proton-vpn-review-2025-a-nonprofit-service-with-premium-performance-153046073.html?src=rss