Proton VPN Review

Proton VPN claims to have a true no-logs policy, but we found it does log some connection timestamps. However, these logs are minimal and still keep you private and anonymous online.

The VPN logs the specific time of your last successful login attempt, which gets overwritten each time you successfully connect to the VPN.

Proton VPN’s support team confirmed this timestamp doesn’t contain identifying information, such as your IP address, and is only recorded in order to “protect user accounts from password guessing attacks.”

The single timestamp is detached from all other identifying characteristics and can’t be used to identify you from your VPN activity.

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

Proton VPN is part of a small number of VPN services to have had their logging policies verified by a real-world test.

Moreover, Proton VPN has 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.

The only other information Proton VPN retains is your email address, payment information, and support tickets. This is a common practice among VPN providers, but you can enhance your anonymity by signing up using a private ProtonID and Bitcoin.

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

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.

Our speed tests confirm Proton VPN is a fast VPN. But, it doesn’t match the speeds of the very fastest VPNs, like those we saw in our Hotspot Shield tests.

The Proton VPN Plus and Unlimited plans deliver the fastest speeds. This is mostly due to less-congested 10Gbps servers and better hardware.

Proton VPN’s local connection speeds are good, dropping just 4% to 96Mbps. Wherever you’re located, you’ll experience a similar speed drop connecting to a nearby server.

With these fast speeds, we were able to download files quickly and load web pages instantly.

Long-Distance Speed Test Results

We tested Proton VPN’s long-distance connection speeds using our same scientific manual speed testing method.

Our results showed that Proton VPN’s long-distance speeds are impressive, with fast speeds recorded across the majority of locations.

Proton VPN used to be a slow VPN service, but its long-distance speeds are now consistently fast. As you can see from our results, the VPN impressively maintained download speed losses below 35% across every location.

Proton VPN’s Speeds Versus Other Popular VPNs

To ensure our speed test results are as accurate as possible, we also run a series of automated tests on 18 VPN services. That way, you can see live information on how fast Proton VPN is compared to the best VPNs on the market.

The graph below shows the latest download speed results from our New York location when connecting to a server nearby:

Our Speed Test Tool compares Proton VPN’s speeds across various cities.

The results from our speed test tool mirror our manual test findings. Proton VPN is one of the fastest VPNs you can get.

The graph above shows how Proton VPN matches or exceeds the speeds of top VPNs, like NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

Proton VPN’s streaming ability depends on the plan you subscribe to. While its free servers are blocked by Netflix, Proton VPN works with US Netflix on its Plus servers.

Although Proton VPN claims it works with Netflix “in almost every country,” our tests reveal it unblocks 10 regions.

Proton VPN Unblocks All Popular Streaming Services

Not only is Proton VPN a great Netflix VPN, it also unblocks Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video.

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:

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

The VPN service provides dedicated servers for P2P file-sharing and a suite of security features including an internet kill switch.

All Proton VPN’s server locations allow torrenting through P2P VPN redirect, although there are also high-performance servers specifically optimized for torrenting.

The problem is Proton VPN’s torrenting servers are located in only twelve countries: eight in Europe, two in North America, and two in Asia.

Despite this limitation, Proton VPN delivered very fast P2P speeds in our VPN torrent tests.

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 download 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.

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

The 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 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 level of encryption. 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 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 from the UK and were able to watch BBC iPlayer and access devices on our local network, all while using a Netherlands VPN server to safely download a torrent file.

Proton VPN’s IP and 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 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 used ipleak.net. 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 dnsleaktest.com 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 grey 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 has recently launched a new protocol, named Stealth. Stealth has been developed specifically to bypass web blocks in censored countries.

In our tests, Stealth has been extremely effective at accessing blocked websites and apps in Russia and Iran.

Stealth is only available on the VPN’s Android, iOS, and Mac apps. We’d like to see the VPN add compatibility for Windows as soon as possible.

Doesn’t Work in China

Our tests found that Proton VPN still doesn’t work in China. Over months of testing on our Shanghai test server, we have not been able to unblock websites from China once.

After analyzing Stealth’s open-sourced source code, we found that the protocol is essentially WireGuard over TLS. This means the 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. In turn, Stealth is unlikely to ever work in the country.

This isn’t a surprise, considering many VPNs struggle to work in highly-censored countries. However, a handful of VPNs still work in China, with impressive results.

We’d like to see Proton VPN adopt similar obfuscation methods as these VPNs, like giving users access to a Shadowsocks proxy.

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

Proton VPN recently introduced live chat customer support for all paying subscribers. However, the 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 3 am and 11 am.

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

Email support is very slow, sadly. 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.

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