Proton VPN Review
Community-sourced VPN review based on real Reddit & Twitter discussions
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...
What the Community Says
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
Summary generated 1 week ago from 1012 community mentions
Filter by Topic
Clear ×Performance by Use Case
Compare Proton VPN With...
Reviews about "No Email Required"
11 reviews"@mattfle02898557 @A1an_M ProtonVPN, MullVad or SurfShark + Fake email address (via protonmail etc) VPS with own VPN is still valid, but extreme and unnecessary for most users - until of course VPN's themselves come under REAL scrutiny, but even China has problems controlling offshort VPNs"
"Use AdguardDNS, Proton VPN and Obscura iOS and Mac for now - Obscura (They are new and are widening their support for all other platforms including Linux.) Android, Linux, TV, and windows Proton VPN with custom Adguard DNS. So far Obscura has been better since they trick websites into thinking I’m not using an Adblock, they are partnered with Mullvad, and when you sign up you don’t use an ..."
"@KneeHonAlt @badidol @LEGENDARYMSR69 @obscuravpn Yes and if you sign up with Proton VPN directly, a Mail account isn’t even activated unless you go to the Mail site and log in separately. I tested this the other day. Proton VPN accepts throwaway emails too so when creating your login you can use a tempmail service over Tor."
"Yea proton needs to introduce cash payments and 16 digit accounts if they want full privacy. At least that. That being said, there's this: https://protonvpn.com/blog/no-logs-audit"
"ExpressVPN vs Mullvad: Which One’s Actually Better in 2026? I spent some time this month testing ExpressVPN and Mullvad because I wanted to move away from relying on free VPNs all the time. I had been switching between Proton and Windscr..."
"Best IOS VPN in 2026? Any thoughts? Earlier this week I was on my college campus using the student center WiFi on my iPhone and a bunch of apps would barely load. Reddit would not refresh, X kept timing out, and even my email app was actin..."
"@ProtonPrivacy Question: when our 'government' brings in digital ID for VPN access, will proton be asking for ID retroactivly from current users?"
"@SIGNAL_RETURN @ProtonMail That’s interesting. I’m not sure if they do or don’t. I do know that my account doesn’t have an email or anything attached to it. It was just an account name like with mullvad. The referral thing is a good heuristic. I’ll have to look into that"
"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..."
"@sioninfintev @windscribecom @Cartidise This is bad practice still. Plus there is no anonymity when signing up for proton compared to someone like Mullvad or better obscura. VPN is just choosing who has that info, it would be great if the person who doesn’t have KYC. Which proton does."
"@whyte2025 @windscribecom @pcWRT @ProtonVPN Proton mail (and I believe drive) has complied to many law enforcement orders, however not with the vpn.. yet.. with proton you can not make an anonymous account under the tor which is a very big red flag."