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
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Reviews about "Streaming"
42 reviews"If you are still looking for a free VPN for Australia then, I will recommend you can try ProtonVPN. It gives great features for online privacy, streaming and gaming. It works well for me."
"Proton configured with WireGuard TCP configured works well. I’m also using it to bypass adds from a purple well known streaming platform 🥲"
"Proton for Streaming Mullvad for downloading"
"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."
"Per VPN, jo. Ist aber binnen Minuten eingerichtet und die gängigen haben meist eine 30-Tage-Geld-zurück-Garantie, die recht problemlos funktioniert. Offiziell natürlich nur mit Wohnsitz in UK, aber dann funktioniert z.B. ProtonVPN, Cyber..."
"ProtonVPN (USA server - free version) and Bitdefender (Argentina & USA servers) are not being blocked in hidive.com/login ExpressVPN (USA server) is getting blocked, though. Weird..."
"Protonvpn is free no ads but must use quaddns so Proton will not get detected so you can use youtube or Hulu. Go to settings/network/check network status/advance take pic of settings, then click back and go to forget network then find forg..."
"Protonvpn is free no ads but must use quaddns so Proton will not get detected so you can use youtube or Hulu. Go to settings/network/check network status/advance take pic of settings, then click back and go to forget network then find forg..."
"ExpressVPN was my first and favourite but Proton is able to bypass streaming services that block vpn. (except for hidive in my experience) Proton didn’t change my TikTok feed as much as ExpressVPN but I think that has more to do with my ..."
"for streaming, Proton's premium plan and Aura VPN"
"@princess_kim_k They changed US servers, use an international location Proton VPN is free and easy to use"
"@MoiDawg Have you tried Pluto and matching that with Proton VPN... It is a pretty powerful combination"
"I've been using it for years for streaming mostly and it gets the job done. I'm not in there for privacy just sreaming (netflix I have not tested) However, for heavily censored networks, I have to use free windscribe and proton. Pure does..."
"honestly the proton vs mullvad thing seems to come down to if you need streaming or not. mullvad is prob better for pure privacy but ive heard proton works better for netflix and stuff if thats important to you"
"@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."
"@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"
"@Brian_Murphy_ @Rolex24Hours Free on youtube with a free vpn (proton vpn)"
"@audreyfeldroy @grok It still works with a free VPN like Cloudflare's or Proton's ;)"
"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."
"Best VPN Services of 2026 According to Reddit I’ve been diving into a bunch of threads here lately trying to figure out what the best VPN in 2026 is one that actually lives up to the hype. There are so many options now, and every site seem..."
"I'm planning on using proton, but haven't settled on it. I've used their free version and the Opera browser vpn on my desktop before, the stream I'm looking to watch is both on youtube and the race series website"
"I see you‘re new and you don’t know much about VPNs.. you don’t mention what you need it for, but lets say for privacy. Forgot them all, you only have 2 (maybe 3 if you want streaming) options. 1: Mullvad (the best one) 2: IVPN 3: Win..."
"Best Monthly VPN to Use in 2026 Without Committing Long-Term? I only needed a VPN for a brief trip overseas recently and did not want to commit to a long subscription like most providers try to push. I spent some time reading free VPN Redd..."
"Best VPN for Firestick / IPTV? So my ISP is not allowing mmy IPTV to work, so going to get a VPN. I am UK based. I've looked at videos, reddit posts and a number of 'VPN Comparison tables' that I found, and it *seems* that the the top..."
"NordVPN vs ExpressVPN in 2026: Which One’s Actually Better Now? I recently made the decision to stop relying on free VPNs after dealing with constant slow connections and websites refusing to load. I had been using Windscribe and ProtonV..."
"@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 ???"
"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"
"...VPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN, Private Internet Access, CyberGhost, IPVanish, and more — each suited for different use cases like streaming, gaming, torrenting, or maximum privacy. If you’re trying to decide which VPN is genuinely..."
"...dVPN, ExpressVPN, ProtonVPN, and Private Internet Access. * ExpressVPN is often recommended for speed and streaming. * ProtonVPN looks strong on privacy, audits, and has P2P‑optimized servers. * NordVPN gets praised for speed and feature..."
"...like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, ProtonVPN, and others, it’s hard to figure out which one is actually the **best VPN according to Reddit users** in 2026. From what I’ve seen across different subreddits (like r/VPN, r/Privacy, and r/tec..."
"Windscribe is the best choice in terms of unlocking many Netflix libraries than any VPN along and other major UK/NZ/USA streaming services. Some users with high bandwidth, like those over 500.Mbps, report slow speeds and lag (not less than ..."
"Best VPN Still Works with Discovery Plus? I tried to watch a series on Discovery+ a few days ago that is only available in the US, but I am currently staying in Southeast Asia for work. I assumed one of the free VPNs people often mention i..."
"Can you still use a VPN to bypass netflix’s password sharing rules in 2026? I have been sharing my sisters Netflix account for a long time, but things got annoying after they started enforcing the household rules more strictly. I am stud..."
"What’s the Best VPN to Watch UK Netflix? I tried watching \*\*The Office\*\* and a couple of other shows this week that are only on \*\*Netflix UK\*\*, but I am currently in Canada. I assumed a free VPN would be enough, but Netflix clear..."
"I'm connected to mullvad 24/7 and I have no issues, the only thing is i had to disable it to log into netflix not a big deal. Apart from that gaming, watching yt, movies etc etc its great no issues. An anime service provider I'm testing out..."
"I tried using a VPN to watch Blues games on ESPN and it didn't work. Teen again, it didn't work when I tried when I was in Canada. How do I use a VPN with my television? And other connected devices? Roku and XBOX mostly. You can PM me i..."
"Let’s start with the features removed. The map that so many loved and allowed us to distinguish where we were logged into city wise or country, was taken down. Nord by their own admission has had many complaints since removing this map, a..."
"Your experience is unique to you. Others, specially those that stream, see Proton as a very slow speed VPN service, with also far less servers and locations then the top VPN services."
"But nord and surfshark work the best with streaming. Proton gets detected even by Netflix."
"Same here. Since early December have gotten terrible connection issues. Noticed websites take up to 30 seconds to load, YouTube videos just don’t work or are constantly buffering, etc. Switched protocols, servers, and same result. If I d..."
"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, ..."