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 "Bandwidth Limit"

11 reviews

"You could always go for ProtonVPN, that is a pretty good option and is much faster as well. They do have a free plan, however you don't choose the servers and it's only for 1 device. But it's one of the most secure VPN's out there (besides ..."

r/vpn_question 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"Proton also announced they will be releasing more 100gb vpn servers , only one available now is in Amsterdam but after they roll that out more widely , congestion in some areas should drastically decrease. Speeds are already very good in mo..."

r/firewalla 2 months ago View on Reddit →

"ProtonVPN’s great because of the unlimited data, but yeah, those free servers can get sluggish during peak hours. Still solid if you don’t need high speed all the time."

r/vpn_reviewer 2 weeks ago View on Reddit →

"I feel the same with private trackers. Sometimes I get a torrent to seed 1:1, sometimes.... Meanwhile I'm seeding 1tb+ non-stop of what I download from public trackers. PD: Using Transmission with ProtonVPN and 600/600."

r/torrents 1 week ago View on Reddit →

"I guess Proton offers it for free but it caps you at a certain amount of gigs that I’d hit quickly."

r/stlouis 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"Best free VPN for everyday privacy use right now? i've been testing a bunch of free VPNs lately (Proton free, Windscribe free, TunnelBear, Hotspot Shield free) and most of them feel too limited for daily use. Either the speeds drop hard on..."

r/vpn_reviewer 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"Is ProtonVPN slowing down your speed's and pings as much as mine? [speedtest.net results](https://preview.redd.it/f4ujtpwjf4bg1.png?width=1251&format=png&auto=webp&s=614e523361a8d377cfcd14003c899a39f1173202) Hello guys :) I s..."

r/protonvpn 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"any actually good free vpn for daily use? kinda confused what to try so ive been trying different free vpns like proton free, windscribe free, tunnelbear, hotspot shield free and honestly most of them kinda suck for daily use… either to..."

r/vpnreviews 2 months ago View on Reddit →

"Bin aber über 1&1 welche über vodafone laufen, habe aber das selbe problem. Hab Proto VPN benutzt aber das scheint beim kostenlosen die leistung zu drosseln"

r/ffxiv 1 week ago View on Reddit →

"Not a fan of either. Proton randomizes what country server you connect to, so there is no manual control in terms of country server selection, plus there is only like 5 or 6 country servers available, and Windscribe has a annoying 10GB data..."

r/brave_browser 2 weeks ago View on Reddit →

"Proton VPN: Lousy performance. Lousy service. Proton VPN turned my VNPT ADSL into lousy. And their 'Support', when you get any, jsut ignores the problem/s,and when i asked for a frefund after a month of lousy performance and complaints, ..."

r/vpnreviews 2 weeks ago View on Reddit →