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 "Technical"

10 reviews

"@Niklaskerl01 This could also be an issue with QUIC over Starlink. For now I'd use a VPN such as Proton and use their Wireguard tunnel to repackage your QUIC traffic into UDP."

@slikey 1 week ago View on Twitter →

"Thanks. Yea proton has the switch and works on my android just not the shield. Surf shark may win tho if I switch"

r/nvidiashield 3 weeks ago View on Reddit →

"I use gluetun to access protonVPN over wireguard. I specify Irelan, Netherlands, France as server countries."

r/sonarr 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"Yea proton has a kill switch but feature is not on shield tv pro. Thanks."

r/nvidiashield 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"I'm using the paid version of Proton. Also change the DNS settings on your router."

r/stlouis 1 month ago View on Reddit →

"@Proton_Pass Proton drive for Linux please! Let me use nextdns custom configurations on proton vpn!"

@SrMikeProvlone 1 week ago View on Twitter →

"@Sosowski happened to me couple months back after installing Proton VPN i believe, i thought it was some kind of linux mint update lol"

@maic_hell 1 week ago View on Twitter →

"Issue from VPN extension in your browser. Same issue with ProtonVPN, Windsribe, TunnelBear."

r/piratedgames 3 weeks ago View on Reddit →

"@ProtonMail Can you sort out proton vpn from auto connecting everytime i boot up my computer?"

@ch4zify 1 week ago View on Twitter →

"@ProtonVPN PROTON VPN DOESN'T KNOW HOW HTTPS WORKS PROTON VPN DOESN'T KNOW HOW HTTPS WORKS PROTON VPN DOESN'T KNOW HOW HTTPS WORKS PROTON VPN DOESN'T KNOW HOW HTTPS WORKS PROTON VPN DOESN'T KNOW HOW HTTPS WORKS PROTON VPN DOESN'T KNOW HOW HTTPS WORKS PROTON VPN DOESN'T KNOW HOW HTTPS WORKS"

@MaxRovensky 2 weeks ago View on Twitter →