ProtonVPN
ProtonVPN has made tremendous progress in the last two years. While in the past the service was overshadowed by ProtonMail’s flagship product, it now competes with the best VPN services on the market. The service has improved dramatically in virtually every area – from security to the speed of the servers on the network.
- A good jurisdiction for a VPN service
- Possibility to pay in cash
- Large network of servers
- Excellent speeds with WireGuard protocol
- Streaming support
- Multihop and ad blocking
- Open source applications
- The service has undergone third-party audits
- Free program (with restrictions)
- Lack of an app for routers
- Browser extensions and Smart DNS are missing
- Higher price
- Refund of an aliquot amount only
#1 BASIC INFORMATIONS
#2 REPUTATION AND JURISDICTION
#3 SERVERS AND SPEEDS
#4 SECURITY
#5 APPLICATIONS
#6 STREAMING AND TORRENTING
#7 FEATURES
#8 SUPPORT
#9 SUBSCRIPTIONS AND PRICES
#10 SUMMARY
Basic information
ProtonVPN at a glance
| Web page | protonvpn.com |
| Jurisdiction | Switzerland |
| Number of countries supported | 64 |
| Number of VPN servers | 1746 |
| Maximum number of simultaneously connected devices | 10 (for Plus subscription) |
| Monthly price | from 3,59 € |
| Refund policy | within 30 days of purchase (aliquot amount only) |
| Free program | yes, limited |
| Support | Live Chat (for subscribers only), Email, Contact Form |
| Supported systems and devices | Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Linux |
| Kill Switch function | yes |
| Ad-blocking function | yes |
| Multi-hop function | yes |
| Supported protocols | WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2 |
Reputation and jurisdiction
Excellent jurisdiction, external audits and open source
ProtonVPN is based in Switzerland, which is a great jurisdiction for VPN services. Switzerland is not part of the Five/Nine/Fourteen Eyes alliance and the country is very strict about protecting the privacy of companies and individuals. At the same time, it does not require companies to keep a history of their online activity.
The service was launched in 2017 and is backed by the renowned company Proton AG, which also offers ProtonMail (a secure email client), ProtonDrive (secure file storage, synchronization and sharing) and ProtonCalendar (a secure calendar).
Proton AG was founded in 2014 by a team of scientists, engineers and developers who met at CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) to create ProtonMail, the world’s largest encrypted email service. In total, its products protect more than 70 million people worldwide.
ProtonVPN is one of the VPN services that has undergone a third-party audit, which has confirmed that the company adheres to a policy of not logging data about its users. The audit was carried out in 2022 by the renowned Securitum company from Poland.
Apps for all operating systems were also audited in 2019. These audits were carried out by SEC Consult from Lithuania. The other good news is that all applications are open source.
Of course, there is also the Bug Bounty program. Proton AG has prepared a reward for every user who finds security holes in their applications.
Servers and speeds
Great server speeds on a large network
ProtonVPN has more than 1700 servers in 64 countries around the world. This is a very decent server network that will satisfy even the most demanding users. At the end of 2022, ProtonVPN had servers in every country in the European Union.
In addition, ProtonVPN uses only its own dedicated servers, which are encrypted, but do not operate in RAM mode (they have classic hard drives).
The service also uses virtual server locations, but only for ten countries (Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, South Korea, India, Nigeria, Egypt, Puerto Rico, Ecuador). The company refers to this technology as Smart Routing and states on its website:
In our speed tests, ProtonVPN scored great results, which is an excellent improvement over the past. We tested the service on a Windows system with the WireGuard protocol set up. All tests were performed on a dedicated 500 Mbps network located in Hungary at different time intervals.
Connections were stable, did not fluctuate and worked without interruptions. The connection speed to the servers was very fast. Switching between VPN servers was very comfortable.
Nearest / recommended server (Slovakia)
- Lowest measured speed: 362,73 Mbps
- Highest measured speed: 427,89 Mbps
- Average measured speed: 404,78 Mbps
- Average PING: 40 ms
England, London
- Lowest measured speed: 199,38 Mbps
- Highest measured speed: 374,74 Mbps
- Average measured speed: 353,48 Mbps
- Average PING: 62,43 ms
USA, New York
- Lowest measured speed: 57,71 Mbps
- Highest measured speed: 166,02 Mbps
- Average measured speed: 139,09 Mbps
- Average PING: 133,32 ms
Australia, Melbourne
- Lowest measured speed: 62,87 Mbps
- Highest measured speed: 109,93 Mbps
- Average measured speed: 104,61 Mbps
- Average PING: 318,19 ms
Security
WireGuard, ChaCha20 and AES 256
ProtonVPN encrypts all network traffic using AES-256 or ChaCha20 encryptors, both of which are extremely secure. VPN connections that use OpenVPN or IKEv2 are secured using AES-256. While no encryption is unbreakable, it would take billions of years for even the most advanced computers to break AES-256 by brute force attack. With WireGuard, your connection is encrypted with ChaCha20, which is an advanced encryption cipher that is just as secure as AES-256 (and slightly faster).
Proton VPN uses the gold standard protocols – WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2.
OpenVPN
When properly configured, this proven open source protocol is recognized by the cybersecurity community as secure. The advantage of OpenVPN is that it can be used with UDP and TCP. UDP is faster, but with TCP we can configure OpenVPN to use the same port as HTTPS, which secures all sensitive communications on the Internet. This makes OpenVPN effective for censorship, for example.
IKEv2
IKEv2 is a modern, fast and secure VPN protocol that Proton VPN implements at its strongest encryption settings. It uses the Diffie-Hellman process for key exchange.
WireGuard
WireGuard is open source and is also faster than traditional VPN protocols. It uses the advanced ChaCha20 cipher to protect your VPN connection.
Applications
Very well crafted attractive applications
ProtonVPN supports a variety of devices/operating systems:
- Windows
- macOS
- iOS
- Android
- Android TV
- Amazon Fire TV
- Linux
There is a lack of browser plug-ins (Chrome, Firefox, Edge) and also a Smart DNS service that would work on smart TVs and gaming consoles. ProtonVPN doesn’t even have a dedicated application for routers.
The ProtonVPN apps are the best-designed apps we’ve ever tested, and they don’t lag behind functionally either. During testing, we did not observe any bugs or data leaks.
Of course, ProtonVPN also has a Kill Switch function, which disconnects you from the Internet in the event of a connection failure via the VPN server.
You’ll also find a Split tunneling feature that lets you specify which apps should go through the VPN tunnel and which shouldn’t.
Streaming and torrenting
ProtonVPN now (finally) handles streaming well
Virtually all streaming services use software to geo-block content. Proton VPN has many servers that can bypass this blocking. In the past, he has been much less successful in this regard.
There is now an arrow icon in the list of servers to indicate that the server is suitable for streaming. After clicking on the icon, you will even see a list of streaming platforms that you should be able to connect to without any problems.
In the image below, you can see that Germany has dozens of servers that can unblock Amazon Prime Video, DAZN, Disney+, Netflix and more.
We connected to the server in Berlin and all the services worked well. ProtonVPN seems to have done a great job in this respect.
If you’re downloading content from P2P services like BitTorrent, you really need a fast, stable, but also secure VPN. You really don’t want to get in trouble with a multi-billion dollar company for copyright infringement.
ProtonVPN supports torrenting as long as you use one of their P2P enabled servers. To make a connection, find the name of a country that is physically close to your current location and next to it is the icon for P2P (marked in red in the screenshot below).
Given the measured server speeds, ProtonVPN is a great choice for file sharing.
Features
Ad blocking, multihop and other features
Secure Core (Multi-hop)
ProtonVPN is one of the few VPN providers that offer multi-hop or dual VPN servers. With this connection, your traffic is encrypted through two separate VPN servers. They call this functionality Secure Core. It can be activated on the main screen and provides a large number of connection combinations.
Despite connecting through two servers, the connection speed was not dramatically lower. For example, for the combination of Iceland and Hungary we measured the following values:
- Lowest measured speed: 66,33 Mbps
- Highest measured speed: 144,41 Mbps
- Average measured speed: 136,87 Mbps
- Average PING: 193 ms
Tor over VPN
If you’re looking for an extra level of encryption and anonymity beyond a one-hop VPN server, another option is to use Onion-over-VPN servers (with the onion icon), which encrypt traffic using the Tor network in addition to a regular VPN server.
NetShield
On the main screen, you can enable the NetShield feature with two options:
- blocking malware (malicious software)
- blocking malware, ads and tracking codes
The feature gets rid of annoying ads and improves page loading speed. It also eliminates tracking codes from marketing companies.
Port Forwarding
Port forwarding routes connections through the firewall that Proton VPN uses to protect customers. It’s a feature that’s mainly useful for people who download and share files using P2P protocols like BitTorrent, although it can improve performance for online gamers as well.
Stealth protocol
In October 2022, ProtonVPN introduced a new proprietary protocol called Stealth. It is a protocol that can bypass most firewalls and VPN service blocking methods. This allows you to access censored sites and communicate with people on social networks, even if your government is trying to restrict your access. Stealth protocol is currently available on Android, macOS and iOS.
Support
Chat support for subscribers only
For live chat support, you must be logged into your account and have purchased a subscription.
For this review, we tried ProtonVPN customer support several times and everything worked well and without any problems.
In all of our interactions, it didn’t take long to connect with a representative (usually less than a minute). The staff answered our questions reliably.
Other users have to use email support or the contact form, which also work very quickly and without problems.
Subscription and prices
ProtonVPN is not one of the cheapest services
ProtonVPN is certainly not one of the cheapest services on the market. However, with a long-term subscription (given the quality of the service) you get a fair monthly price.
You can request a refund within 30 days of purchasing the service, but you will only get back an aliquot amount (for example, if you used the service for 15 days, you will get back half of the amount you paid).
ProtonVPN also offers a free program, but it is quite limited. You can only connect to servers in three countries, speed is limited, multihop and ad blocking are not available, and there are no servers for streaming and torrenting. If you want to use the full potential of the service, you need to go to the paid Plus program.
Payment is available by credit cards, bank transfer, PayPal and cryptocurrencies. If you are looking for total anonymity, you can also send money by post in cash.
Long-term subscription THE MOST POPULAR
Free subscription
– connection is only possible in three countries
– speed is limited
– it is not possible to use the Multi-hop and ad blocking functions
– servers for streaming and torrenting are not available
Summary
