Proton VPN Review

Community-sourced VPN review based on real Reddit & Twitter discussions

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Community Verdict
Recommended

Proton VPN has a solid reputation as a privacy-focused VPN, and a lot of people like it because it feels trustworthy and reliable day to day. The free plan gets praised a lot as one of the better “act...

71%
positive
1,012
reviews
Best for: People who want a good free VPN that doesn’t feel sketchy Privacy-focused users who like the Proton ecosystem Folks who want optional anonymous payments Everyday users who want a reliable VPN for general browsing
71% Positive Reviews
493 recommend, 203 warn
High Data Quality
1012 reviews from 836 people
Best For
People who want a good free VPN that doesn’t feel sketchy, Privacy-focused users who like the Proton ecosystem, Folks who want optional anonymous payments
Approval Rate
71% positive
493 recommend · 203 warn
Reviews
1,012
411 Reddit · 552 Twitter
Unique Reviewers
836
Data Quality
High

What the Community Says

Community Rating 7.5/10

Proton VPN has a solid reputation as a privacy-focused VPN, and a lot of people like it because it feels trustworthy and reliable day to day. The free plan gets praised a lot as one of the better “actually usable” free options, and the paid plan is often mentioned as a good pick if you care about things like no-logs, audits, and even anonymous payment options. It also comes up often alongside other privacy tools (like Proton Mail), which makes it appealing if you want everything under one roof.

The biggest complaint is speed: some people switch over from other VPNs and find Proton noticeably slower, especially depending on the server. A few also don’t love how certain torrenting setups work, since things like port forwarding can be a bit annoying to manage if the port changes when you reconnect. And while many trust Proton more than typical “affiliate-list” VPNs, there’s still a slice of people who are skeptical or just prefer competitors like Mullvad.

Strengths

  • Strong privacy reputation
  • Best-in-class free tier
  • No-logs and audit-focused image
  • Anonymous payment options
  • Good reliability overall

Weaknesses

  • Can be slower than competitors
  • Port forwarding can be annoying for torrenting setups
  • Auto-connect behavior can be frustrating
  • Not everyone trusts it as much as top privacy rivals
Best for: People who want a good free VPN that doesn’t feel sketchy Privacy-focused users who like the Proton ecosystem Folks who want optional anonymous payments Everyday users who want a reliable VPN for general browsing
Not ideal for: People who need consistently top speeds for gaming or heavy downloads Torrent users who want a set-it-and-forget-it port forwarding setup Anyone who’s extremely picky and would rather stick with Mullvad-style simplicity

Summary generated 1 week ago from 1012 community mentions

Reviews about "Android"

8 reviews

"I use proton free and have no issues at all. On android box you do get a few locations to actually choose. On my phone I don't, not sure why, guess a different version. "

r/strong_8k 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"...efusing to connect until I either restarted my mobile network or the phone entirely I ended up with proton VPN after switching to some of protons other services and it was included, tested it out and have had none of the same issues so your..."

r/privateinternetaccess 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"I used Proton in the past but switched to Windscribe in 2025, and while I can recommend both services, I feel Windscribe is a better developed app and gives better value. I don't use any Apple products to test so my experience is limited ..."

r/windscribe 4 weeks ago View on Reddit →

"I use a Pixel with Graphene OS.  Shelter: to create a work profile for apps that I need on my phone for my job.  Myne: to download ebooks from the Gutenberg project and then Librera to read them. EnteAuth: for my authenticator and t..."

r/degoogle 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"Thanks. Yea proton has the switch and works on my android just not the shield. Surf shark may win tho if I switch"

r/nvidiashield 3 weeks ago View on Reddit →

"It used to work for me. I didn't use the dns app, I used system settings in android. That's what I'm doing with protonvpn."

r/adguard 1 week ago View on Reddit →

"...Premium and Self-hosted). VLESS-based solutions (Xeovo, self-hosted XRay,etc) work. Adguard VPN (or Proton VPN) doesn't work. Pity. Adguard + Adguard VPN pair was very convinient. Is there plans to make it possible at least to connect reg..."

r/adguard 1 week ago View on Reddit →

"Been with PIA for over 10 years. Tried both ProtonVPN and NordVPN to see if I should switch, but they both were lacking (to put it mildly), so I stayed with PIA. Aside from the glitchy Automation in their Android app, everything else work..."

r/privateinternetaccess 1 month ago View on Reddit →