This post was updated on February 4, 2021.
We have compiled a full list of reviews of Proton VPN’s Free VPN plan. All of these reviews came from independent review sites.
Proton VPN has received significant interest (and several awards) from technical professionals for our secure and private VPN service. We have collected a number of these independent reviews to make it easier for our users to see professional evaluations of our VPN.
Proton VPN reviews list
Wired.co.uk
The staff at Wired.co.uk named Proton VPN their favorite free VPN service and went on to say “[Proton VPN] is strongly security focused and has a free tier with unlimited bandwidth and support for a wide range of devices.”
They also praised our “clear no-logging policy and solid security features.”
Read the full review here.
TechRadar
TechRadar rates Proton VPN the best free VPN 2021, noting that:
“This is an impressive provider with a strict no logging policy, and you can sign up with nothing more than your email address and a username of your choosing. There aren’t even any ads on the website, let alone the client.“
Read the full review here.
PCMag
Proton VPN gets an Editor’s Choice award from PCMag, and is listed in first place on its Best Free VPNs for 2021 page.
“It’s an Editors’ Choice winner. Proton VPN earns a slightly higher score than its co-winners because of its excellent free version and collection of privacy features.“
Read the full review here.
Tom’s Guide
We are listed in first place by Tom’s Guide for the best free VPN services in 2021, with the Tom’s Guide team concluding that:
“Proton VPN’s zero-logging policy, excellent unlimited data plan, and support for a wide range of devices, plus its functional leak protection, split tunneling and custom DNS servers all combine to make the most well-rounded free VPN we’ve tested to date by far.“
Read the full review here.
ProPrivacy
ProPrivacy lists Proton VPN in top place as best free VPN overall for 2021, and as the best free for iOS, Linux, macOS, and Android. In its review, ProPrivacy concludes that:
“Proton VPN is a fast and secure VPN service with lots of servers, some innovative ideas, and great software. It also shows a strong dedication to privacy, as befits the fearsome reputation Proton Mail has built in this regard.”
Read the full review here.
MakeUseOf.com
MakeUseOf ran a review of the VPN options that are free and do not have a data limit. Simply meeting these criteria already limited the field to three services, and Ben Stegner, the MakeUseOf reviewer concluded:
“Of these three choices, Proton VPN is the clear victor if you must use a free VPN.”
He also stated that someone should consider Proton VPN:
“If you can’t pay for a VPN but still want one that respects your privacy.”
Read the full review here.
Cybernews
The Cyberbnews team rates Proton VPN as the best free VPN overall. In its full review of Proton Mail, Cybernews says that:
“Don’t get the idea that you can find a trustworthy VPN version just about anywhere. VPNs that offer a free version usually do it in the form of a money-back guarantee. The services that use the free forever model are hard to come by.
In this sense, Proton VPN is one of the best options you could get. Especially when it’s free from such restrictions as data caps, which most other freemium VPN services use to lower the load on their server infrastructure. This can be a useful tool for protecting your privacy without spending a dime.“
Read the full review here.
VPNpro.com
Proton VPN was named the Best VPN for Free 2018 by the team at VPNpro. They stated simply:
“Proton VPN is already the best choice for those who want a free VPN.”
Their acclaim extends to our security features:
“As the offspring of Proton Mail, this Swiss VPN does security the way very few services do. Aside from the expected super-tough encryption (AES-256, 2048-bit handshake), Proton VPN has no confirmed leaking issues, a great kill switch, and some really cool bonus features. One of these is Secure Core – an interesting take on the multi-hop VPN.”
Read the full review here.
ProPrivacy.com
Proton VPN won Best Free VPN for 2019 for the second consecutive year from ProPrivacy. The review said:
“Proton VPN is a very polished, privacy-focused VPN service that is secure and very fast when connected to a nearby sever.”
“Proton VPN is an excellent and highly competitive [free] VPN service. You are limited to just three server locations, but with no data limits and speed results that are better than most paid-for services.”
Read the full review here.
ProPrivacy also listed us among the 10 Best VPN Service Providers for 2019.
GoBestVPN.com
GoBestVPN had a lot of good things to say about Proton VPN. They loved our Free Plan, naming us one of their Top 5 Free (or Freemium) VPNs for 2019. In their review of our overall service, they wrote:
“Another differentiating factor is its surprisingly gorgeous layout. All in all, the company’s emphasis on security protocols, a moderate sticker price and a clean interface make Proton VPN a very nice option, especially if your priority is privacy.”
Read the full review here.
VPNoverview.com
Proton VPN was named one of the Top 6 free VPN providers of 2019 by the team at VPNoverview. In their rankings, they said that our VPN service provided users with the best online safety of any free plan. They also noted that our free plan is the only one that has no data limit:
“There is one good free VPN without a data limit: Proton VPN.”
Read the full review here.
BestDroidplayer.com
BestDroidplayer named Proton VPN one of its Top Free VPNs for Windows 10 for 2019. The key for them was the fact that we do not limit our users’ speed or data. They also liked that we do not run advertisements. In their review they had this to say:
“The [Proton VPN] free plan is one of the most attractive on the market.”
Read the full review here.
Top10VPN.com
Simon Migliano from Top10VPN reviewed dozens of free VPNs and said Proton VPN “is a top choice for those seeking high levels of privacy without spending a cent. … It’s very safe to use, its apps are open-source, and it comes with unlimited data.”
Read the full review here.
(Migliano also reviewed our paid plan and gave it an even better review.)
VPNStore.com
On its list of the five Best Free VPN Services to Use in 2019, the VPNStore team named Proton VPN the best free VPN with an unlimited data allowance. To explain the selection of Proton VPN, the team had this to say:
“The free plan is unlimited and it offers the utmost security.”
“There are no limitations on its free plan and according to Proton VPN, there are no catches. It just offers free online privacy for those who need it!”
Read the full review here.
VPNCompare.co.uk
Proton VPN was the first VPN on VPNCompare’s Top 5 VPN services that cost nothing. Ali Raza, VPNCompare’s reviewer, had high praise for our service:
“The first on our list is Proton VPN – a Swiss-based VPN service whose free plan is generally considered to be one of the best that you could use.”
Read the full review here.
TrustedReview
Proton VPN was the first VPN named on TrustedReview’s list of Best Free VPNs for 2021. To explain why we took the number one position, the TrustedReview team praised our unlimited plan and transparency. They concluded their review by saying:
“Its wide range of supported platforms and unlimited bandwidth makes Proton VPN a must-have in your free privacy arsenal”
Read the full review here.
VPNroom.com
The team from VPN Room put Proton VPN #1 on its list of Best Free VPNs in 2019. In the review, the team praised our willingness to create a truly free VPN service:
“[With Proton VPN’s free plan] you get to enjoy all the pros that a premium virtual private network brings you – strict no-logging policy, no ads on the app or website, great connection speeds. And sometimes paid VPNs don’t have that!”
Read the full review here.
ReviewedbyPro.com
Proton VPN was named one of ReviewedbyPro’s Best Free VPNs of 2019. In her review, Alice Woods had this to say about our service:
“Proton VPN provides users with advanced protections, Swiss-based servers, and a decent set of security and privacy features.”
Read the full review here.
Proton VPN Video Reviews
Proton VPN Free Plan review from kilObit
Dutch Proton VPN Reviews
VPN.nl: De Beste Gratis VPN-aanbieders
VPNGids.nl: Top 6 free VPN providers van 2019
VPNdiensten.nl: Gratis VPN diensten, de beste keuze in free VPN servers
French Proton VPN Reviews
ProxyVPN.fr: Voici notre Top 5 des VPN gratuit, et les différences avec les payants
See all of Proton VPN’s awards from 2019!
See an overview of how reviewers rate different aspects of our service, or see detailed reviews of Proton VPN’s paid plans.
While these reviews are great in that they help others to discover the privacy that Proton VPN offers, our number one concern is providing a secure and private VPN service for the Proton community. Let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit.
Are we missing Proton VPN reviews?
If you have already reviewed Proton VPN and your review is not on our page, email us at media@protonvpn.com, and we will consider adding it.
Do you want to review Proton VPN?
Contact us at media@protonvpn.com if you are interested in reviewing Proton VPN and we can give you access to a demo account!
Get a free Proton VPN account here.
Follow us on social media to stay up to date on the latest Proton VPN releases: Twitter | Facebook | Reddit
To get a free Proton Mail encrypted email account, visit: proton.me/mail
When will I get official extensions for Google Chrome from Proton VPN ?
We are testing your protonvpn its very smart and efficient we would like what is the total amount of gb for server for a months with payment subscription plan becouse we plan to propose to our customer best regards have a great day !
Hey Jack! All ProtonVPN users have unlimited bandwidth and speed. We have multiple servers in numerous countries to provide you with the fastest and most secure streaming and browsing experience.
here is a new protonvpn speed test: https://vpnspin.com/protonvpn-speed-test/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saiTW5dkPFM
add it to your list.
I followed the link for thebestvpn.com’s review you provided and the only sentece where protonvpn is named is “If you are still unconvinced, you can try out providers like WindScribe, ProtonVPN and Betternet (but they are all very slow and come with a limited download cap)” (the comment is about the bad quality of free vpn’s service. Last update is on 27/12/2017.
If you click on “ProtonVPN” you follow a link to thebestvpn.com’s review of ProtonVPN: the review explains both pros and cons (and speed is a con, protonvpn being judged too slow). It ends as follows:
<>
Last update of the review was on 08/01/2018. I haven’t found anywhere the quote “With free plans it’s either low data cap and super-fast speeds, or no data cap and extremely slow speeds. Seeing such fast speeds, without a data cap is certainly refreshing.”. Not even in the other users’ review on the same website, most of them also being quite negative.
Why is that? I trust you, I do not believe you are fakeing reviews on purpose, so where does the mistake comes from?
By the way, I’m testing ProtonVPN with a free plan and I find its speed acceptable. I have not tried dowloading big files, but for small files the speed is good enough, I can watch youtube’s video without any flaw and visit websites almost as if I was not using a vpn.
Indeed the review is quite outdated and we’ve already contacted them in order to do corrections to it. We did improve the service in areas where we’ve got criticized for, especially in customer service area.
Hi,
I am using Protonmail and ProtonVPN. I have been looking for security products all over the internet. I have total confidence in your products and your team! I recommend it to everyone I know.
I would like to thank you for your excellent service!
As an existing protonmail customer, I jumped on the opportunity for proton VPN as soon as I became aware it existed.
However, I ran into problems with the temporary iOS interface.
Protonmail/VPN Support Team patiently advised me and guided
me through it until I was able to connect.
I trust protonmail/VPN and find their offerings to be superior products.
How can i install this vpn in my hp laptop that is using windows 7
You must login to your ProtonVPN account and download the Windows app from here: https://protonvpn.com/download/
SSH as VPN is often seen as a poor man’s VPN. Yet OpenVPN’s performance is abysmal compared to SSH [1]. Its fairly easy to use SSH as tunnel; see sshuttle application [2].
Could ProtonVPN support SSH VPN in the future?
[1] http://blog.backslasher.net/ssh-openvpn-tunneling.html
[2] https://github.com/sshuttle/sshuttle
At the moment this is not planned, but that could change as we are constantly testing every protocol solution and check how it improves our service.
I second the notion, a SSH tunnelling capability would be extremely useful.
Hi, can ProtonVPn be installed at router level?
Yes, check if the following resource is helpful to you: https://protonvpn.com/support/?s=routers&ht-kb-search=1
ProtonVPN kill my StandardGateway Everytime.Start The Programm,connect
to a Server,all ok.Disconnect,close the Programm,Restart my PC,no Internet.
StandardGateway Empty.KillSwitch is off.The same on my Notebook.
PC and Notebook W7 PRO/64Bit…….
Please open a support ticket here: https://protonvpn.com/support-form
The Latest Version 1.2.6 works now.
No more Problems ;-)
OpenVPN is a poor and clunky interface to connect to VPN. You have to type login and password anytime you change configs. And the VPN disconnects when phone locks or sleeps. Looking forward to native Proton iOS app.
We are working in order to make this possible in the near future. Thank you for your understanding!
Hi, Any news for the IOS app if it’s in development?
It’s under active development, and we will be sharing more details soon, so follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
If I upgrade email to paid can I get vpn or will it be two separate charges?
Thanks
VPN is a separate service that must be added on top of ProtonMail.
Good list. I’ll have to read through these in the next few days, but so far I’ve only had good experiences with the Product itself, so I’d just be confirming my bias ;)
Howver, I found a typo in the article: “What to review ProtonVPN?” should probably be “Want”?
Thanks for pointing this out!
I am disappointed that the Netherlands is chosen as the free EU area server, since that country is one of the Nine Eyes.
Unfortunately my experience with ProtonVPN support has been less than impressive. My issue was that I could not connect to the ProtonVPN because the connection process failed repeatedly at the “Assigning IP” step.
I contacted the support desk on September 16 and it took until September 19 to get a response. It is now September 24 and after sporadic response from ProtonVPN support, the last from the support service was September 20, I still have the same problem, being unable to connect to the ProtonVPN.
At this rate my subscription may expire before I can get connected.
Very disappointing!!
Hi Steve, we are looking into your ticket and will try to get back to you as soon as possible.
thanks for include my articles and videos in this article!
Recently I wrote, and made a new video about how configure networkmanager in Plasma with openSUSE, to use ProtonVPN (also in spanish):
https://victorhckinthefreeworld.com/2017/09/08/como-conectarnos-a-protonvpn-en-plasma-mediante-networkmanager/
Greetings from Spain!
Any news on Android app?
Closed beta testing has started with ProtonMail Lifetime supporters. Beta will also expand to other user groups in near future