Proton VPN Review

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

Visit Proton VPN
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 "Cheap"

19 reviews

"I highly recommend PROTON VPN best service for torrenting in my opinion and its worth the monthly subscription"

r/qbittorrent 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"Best free ones are gonna be either proton VPN or windscribe free. If you can get a paid Mullvad is only approximately €5 a month ($5.91). All of these are reputable VPNs."

r/imsaracing 1 week ago View on Reddit →

"I've found Proton to work well, and it's decent value."

r/vpn_reviewer 1 week ago View on Reddit →

"Proton has a deal $2.50 a month if you buy for 2 years. You can set it to only use with tivimate. My isp was interfering with my iptv and the paid proton servers fixed the issue. Their free ones were too heavily used."

r/tivimate 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"Free vpns are risky, proton is good as they still keep your information private. It's not a free VPN, but MullVad is something like £2 a month, but can pay for 1 month without the high price"

r/vpnreviews 2 months ago View on Reddit →

"Look at the Black Friday sales. The paid ones are dirt cheap and high quality. Get proton"

r/vpnreviews 2 months ago View on Reddit →

"...VPN you really need to pay for it (though there are good mail options around $1 a month). Free tier Proton VPN is slower and you can't choose your server. The free email is oversensitive about the bots issue and you won't get much support (..."

r/degoogle 3 weeks ago View on Reddit →

"Proton VPN works for me these days with India server, but not Hong Kong. A bit slow though. It is very cheap for the the first month, so great return on investment for me. I prefer to use eSIM, but gotta use hotel WiFi to not drain the data..."

r/travelchina 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"This reads like astroturfing. Regardless though, Witopia is incredibly overpriced for the service they offer and I have frankly never heard of them before this post. >However, they are more expensive, have less servers to chose from, c..."

r/stlouis 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"Look into Proton. I gets better ratings and has. Some very nice prices."

r/vpnreviewhub 1 week ago View on Reddit →

"You can try Surfshark or Proton this year, both have solid Black Friday deals and dont break the bank. I locked mine in last year and it saved me a lot."

r/homenetworking 2 months ago View on Reddit →

"Mullvad and proton are both cheap."

r/stlouis 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"I did some shopping and researching and am testing Proton for a month to see if I like it. It works pretty well, a little lag but I think I can choose better locations. I made the decision based on price and needs"

r/vpnreviews 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"Hello, I am looking for a new VPN provider that has a good Black Friday deal. I was looking at Proton VPN for their 10GIG speed until I came across that Surf Shark offer the same plus starting (just one area for now sadly) 100GIG speed. Do..."

r/vpn 2 months ago View on Reddit →

"I've used ExpressVPN, NordVPN and most recently ProtonVPN (all paid tiers). I ended up sticking with Nord for a couple of reasons. 1. They seem to have less issues with blocks from Cloudflare. I often found ProtonVPN endpoints being blocked..."

r/vpnreviews 2 months ago View on Reddit →

"I literally just read that ProtonVPN is available for $60 for 24 months. I went there and it was actually €60. Guess it’s geo pricing. But anyway, that’s one option. Never used a VPN before and considering it now."

r/homenetworking 2 months ago View on Reddit →

"This is gonna be so dumb, but... I typically have no idea what vpn is used for, and i do not sue it in my daily life becuase it slows my connection speed that is already struggling. I used proton on my mobile device since i cant pay for vpn..."

r/it 2 weeks ago View on Reddit →

"Is Mullvad VPN good enough? Since Proton VPN is banned in Pakistan, what is the next best alternative for vpn, whether paid or free? Is Mullvad a good choice considering its affordability and privacy features?"

r/pakistanitech 1 week ago View on Reddit →

"[WARNING] Proton VPN cancelled my paid 2-year subscription after I redeemed a "free month" promo cod I'm sharing my experience with Proton VPN to warn other users about a serious issue with their promotional system. What happened: Late N..."

r/vpnreviews 1 week ago View on Reddit →