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 "Streaming"

11 reviews

"it’s so easy to 🏴‍☠️ nowadays and these sites are fancy as hell now. just download an adblock and a vpn (proton vpn is a good free one!) and you’re set. pls stop giving netflix money."

@eightyonegraces 1 week ago View on Twitter →

"@princess_kim_k They changed US servers, use an international location Proton VPN is free and easy to use"

@adhdwonderwoman 1 week ago View on Twitter →

"@MoiDawg Have you tried Pluto and matching that with Proton VPN... It is a pretty powerful combination"

@ShadowNix_Kali 3 weeks ago View on Twitter →

"@AlexisLvesque4 @lazarbian Yeah. I use the free version of Proton VPN, except for on Saturdays when I can watch on CBC Gem. It's ridiculous how many services you have to have to watch PWHL games without a VPN in Canada."

@SkyKnightXP 1 week ago View on Twitter →

"@4DPfan18 I used ProtonVPN for a while to watch shows, dunno if itll help, otherwise Ive heard of (Windscribe?) I have never used it myself but Ive heard its quite decent"

@KnightlyTired 1 week ago View on Twitter →

"@Brian_Murphy_ @Rolex24Hours Free on youtube with a free vpn (proton vpn)"

@hunterjsmith03 1 week ago View on Twitter →

"@audreyfeldroy @grok It still works with a free VPN like Cloudflare's or Proton's ;)"

@titopao 2 weeks ago View on Twitter →

"I use Proton Vpn. Its £8.99 pm full cover and choice of servers settings. They also have a free service which I'm using at the moment, I'll subscribe again if it comes to that. You will have to bounce around a bit and change servers until you get to America on the free service. I haven't tried any others so there may well be cheaper or better services out there."

@Unravel72 3 weeks ago View on Twitter →

"@PeterSweden7 time to find another vpn provider just for iplayer as all the decent and reputable vpn providers will leave the UK if this passes... right @ProtonVPN @surfshark @NordVPN @mullvadnet ???"

@StopForumSpam 1 week ago View on Twitter →

"Yo i actually need to watch ep4 but jjk friday… but also no i deserve it ive had a bad day Proton vpn pls give me japan first try"

@anatomised 1 week ago View on Twitter →

"@zander01_King Does Proton VPN unblock it?"

@Lepro_chico01 3 weeks ago View on Twitter →