ProtonVPN Review
ProtonVPN is a (at least part) Swiss Provider. And Swiss products usually stand for quite good quality. We tested the VPN to check if the provider can fulfill this quality promise. In the following ProtonVPN review, we will answer that question. And also show you the strengths and weaknesses of Proton in a transparent way.
Brief introduction
For our readers who want to know the most important aspects at a glance, we made a small summary. In it, you can see the most recommended applications. The provider is especially useful for anonymous communication.
Product description | ProtonVPN |
Recommended applications | Amazon Video Germanyavoiding dissuasionsavoiding geo-blockingdata safetyfilesharing torrentmaximum anonymityprotection of hackers virusessafe communicationStreaming (Urheberr.)TOR (.onion) accessVPN-Router (ASUS) |
Our conclusion
ProtonVPN is a high quality service. Besides, the service is available only in English. But there are many things that ProtonVPN does right: The integration of TOR is undoubtedly a very good feature and the service can also be used safely and well on Routers.
You can also use ProtonVPN free. With the free tariff, you have no data limit. Accordingly, for many occasional users, it also represents a real alternative to a paid service. All in all, our Proton VPN test shows that we are dealing with a professional and technically well-solved service.
- 1. ProtonVPN
- 2. ProtonVPN Review
- 3. Brief introduction
- 4. Company
- 5. Pricing and payment options
- 6. ProtonVPN Apps
- 7. Tested Speed
- 8. Privacy
- 9. Streaming availability
- 10. Safety with Download/Torrenting
- 11. Support of VPN Routers at home
- 12. Online Gaming (Support for Online Gamers)
- 13. ProtonVPN for Travellers
- 14. Support
- 15. Special Options and features
- 16. ProtonVPN FAQ
Company
ProtonVPN is in reality not a purely Swiss company. Its roots also lead to the USA and Lithuania, where the majority of the company’s team is based.
The fact that the service always pretends to be a thoroughly Swiss company is more part of the brand strategy that ProtonMail also pursues. Switzerland is supposed to stand for security. But it is often forgotten that the Swiss are also polite and diplomatic people. Nevertheless the CEO and one of the founders of ProtonMail and ProtonVPN, Jason Stockman, attracted attention with his pro-USA political statements in many current conflicts and even on data protection issues.
Operating location | Belize |
Billing location | Belize |
Local laws influence on clients protection | ✔ |
Operation and billing are separated | ✘ |
Servers location | 49 |
no log files | ✔ |
Own DNS server | ✔ |
Virtual server | ✔ |
Dedicated server | ✔ |
RAM-disk Server | ✘ |
Hardware's owner | ✘ |
Owner of IP-address | ✘ |
Pricing and payment options
ProtonVPN offers 4 different tariffs, which differ in the extent of the offered services – e. g. number of simultaneous connections, number of available servers, additional functions such as SecureStreaming, Tor connection, etc. Among the tariffs, there is also an excellent possibility to use ProtonVPN free of charge (of course with some restrictions regarding the server, data limit, etc.).
ProtonVPN FREE
ProtonVPN is also the most popular free VPN service from our tests. Many of our readers are looking for a VPN that they can use for free, which is not an easy task. ProtonVPN free offers 3 different locations and unlimited use on all available apps and applications. In the long run, this is a secure alternative to many dubious free VPN offers.
Advantages of ProtonVPN free:
- No costs at all
- You can use all apps
- No data limitation
- Three locations to choose from
- No time limits
Disadvantages:
- No large selection of locations.
- Available servers are shared with many other users, which makes them slower than usual.
- Routers and other external devices cannot be used.
Prices / Tarifs | |
---|---|
Free using | ✘ |
Tariff (1 Month ) | 15 USD |
Tariff (2 Months ) | 25 USD (per month 12.5 USD) |
Tariff (3 Months ) | 36 USD (per month 12 USD) |
Tariff (12 Months ) | 120 USD (per month 10 USD) |
Number of connections per account | unlimited |
Test options | Money back guarantee |
ProtonVPN Apps
ProtonVPN initially only offered its application for Windows. All other devices could only be used by free OpenVPN software using the OVPN files (configuration files). Meanwhile, the provider also offers software for macOS, iOS, Android and Linux – which of course makes the life of the users easier.
New: ProtonVPN supports OpenVPN on iOS (July 2020)
New too: Smart Protocol function on Android
ProtonVPN on F-Droid instead of Google
Available protocols | Multi-Hop-VPNOpenVPN (TCP)OpenVPN (UDP) |
Own apps | AndroidApple iOSDD-WRTLinuxMac OS Xother OS/integrationTomatoWindows |
KillSwitch function | ✔ |
Interface language | EnglishRussian |
Tested Speed
ProtonVPN with the free servers is not special, but that’s no surprise. So ambitious VPN users will understand this and usually book a premium tariff. With ProtonVPN, many locations with really good speeds can be selected. The service convinced with a low utilization and very good test results in the last 12 months constantly.
Privacy
ProtonVPN tries to act with maximum transparency. The company also publishes transparency reports on requests for information and answers inquiries directly on its Website. In general, the company does not pass on any data in response to requests and has so far successfully defended itself against copyright lawsuits by the US entertainment industry, which demanded data from Switzerland.
However, pay attention, when choosing a server, as Proton also uses rented servers. These are subject to the legislation of the respective location and the server hosts. If required by law, these hosts will most likely pass on the data of the users.
As far as log files are concerned, Proton VPN only collects the time stamp of the last login. This is overwritten every time a user logs in successfully. This Proton timestamp contains no identifying information such as IP address or location; it only shows the time and date of logon.
ProtonVPN data is secured via 256-bit encryption with AES standard. Thus, they correspond to the general standard for OpenVPN data transmission. Our ProtonVPN test also showed that OpenVPN was implemented clean and secure from authentication to data transfer.
Anonymity in internet | |
---|---|
Altered virtual location | ✔ |
Protection from requests for information | ✔ |
General monitoring protection | ✔ |
Targeted monitoring protection | ✔ |
no log files | ✔ |
Obfuscation (masking) | ✘ |
Streaming availability
Proton VPN is suitable at least in the paid tariffs quite well for streaming and it is also secure. However, the service is not designed to enable premium content from Germany. It simply lacks SmartDNS and other adjustments. Therefore ProtonVPN is blocked by most German-language premium portals.
Even in the overview of the most popular TV & streaming portals you can quickly see that the service does practically nothing to make them usable abroad. So if you decide to use ProtonVPN, you won’t be able to avoid the geographical blocks abroad!
These are not possible with ProtonVPN:
- ProtonVPN – Amazon Prime Video (EN) does not work.
- ProtonVPN – DAZN (DE) does not work.
- ProtonVPN – Sky (EN) does not work.
- ProtonVPN – Netflix (Only works via USA location and then with English content)
Streaming TV and video content | |
---|---|
Use on the home router | ✔ |
Use with KODI | ✘ |
SmartDNS | ✘ |
FireTV App | ✘ |
Avoid warnings | ✔ |
Supported streaming platforms | NetflixzattooWaipuARDZDFBRN24MDRrbbWDRArte3SatPro7Sat1Kabel1ORFSRFServus TV |
Safety with Download/Torrenting
During filesharing, you also share all your identity information with others. Therefore, security is especially important to avoid unpleasant consequences. Anonymity and no risk of warnings is the real domain of ProtonVPN. The service offers not only fast servers, but also secures your identity very well even when using Torrent. Downloaders appreciate ProtonVPN for its security against warnings. So you can rely on ProtonVPN. Torrenting and also all kinds of streaming with ProtonVPN are really fast and safe to use.
Warning-free surfing and downloading from the Internet is the real profession of ProtonVPN.
Download and Torrent | |
---|---|
Torrent usage allowed | ✔ |
Own Torrent Server | ✘ |
Avoid warnings | ✔ |
Port forwarding | ✔ |
Support of VPN Routers at home
By using OpenVPN, ProtonVPN can also be used directly on many routers. Even if the service does not offer load balancing, it still runs stable. But OpenVPN is a resource guzzler and makes data connections slower than necessary, so for excessive router use other alternatives may be more suitable.
The limitations of “OpenVPN” alone and the individual servers that are not fail-safe unfortunately do not make Proton VPN the best provider for the VPN home router.
Using with VPN-Client Router | |
---|---|
Using with Routers | ✔ |
Load Balancing | ✔ |
Fail-safe operation | ✔ |
Own router application | ✔ |
Compatible with | DD-WRTTomato |
Online Gaming (Support for Online Gamers)
You love to gamble and play Online Games? But you are often annoyed because of too long pings? Proton could help you. But you have to connect your game consoles manually as the provider doesn’t offer own apps.
Online gaming | |
---|---|
Low latency | ✘ |
Use on game consoles | ✘ |
DDoS protection | ✔ |
ProtonVPN for Travellers
When travelling, the weaknesses of the less adaptable protocols that are used become apparent. Therefore ProtonVPN does not help if you are in a country that has active barriers against VPN users. There you simply cannot use the service. The same occurs in some hotel networks etc. Therefore in the area for traveling users the service is not our first choice. Unfortunately, ProtonVPN also is not an ideal travel companion when it comes to accessing domestic TV & video content. For this use-case, we would, for example, recommend Surfshark VPN to you.
VPN for travelling and in foreign countries | |
---|---|
Using in restrictive networks (China, hotels) | ✘ |
Obfuscation (masking) | ✘ |
Protection in unsafe WiFi-networks | ✔ |
Shadowsocks or SOCKS5 | ✘ |
Support
ProtonVPN’s customer service is only available in English, which will certainly not please some of the users, but the service has chosen Switzerland as the company location for legal reasons only, the people behind it are mostly based in Lithuania (Vilnius). In the customer area of the website everything is structured in a clear and simple way and even without perfect English knowledge there are hardly any open questions. With an online translation program you will easily find details or more complex settings and be able to implement them.
Customer service | |
---|---|
Interface language | EnglishRussian |
Customer service | Live-ChatQ&A Website |
Customer service language | EnglishRussian |
Special Options and features
ProtonVPN offers a lot of great additional functions, but many of them only in the higher-priced tariffs. For example, the TOR (Onion) integration is very good and useful. This is because you can use the Onion Network (TOR) directly via a Proton VPN server. This brings some advantages. Also, it helps to avoid a dangerous leak in the TOR network, which currently only a few international authorities can use.
Proton VPN also offers another very good special option, the so-called “SecureCore”. This means that data that runs between the providers’ servers also runs via their VPN connections. The users who connect to server B are connected to server A before and the encrypted connection to Server B is used. This is technically ok, because individual connections on the Internet can no longer be tracked, as these are always routed via existing VPN data connections. However, our ProtonVPN test shows that those servers you can use for this feature are very limited.
Special functions | |
---|---|
Always On Server | ✔ |
Dedicated Server | ✔ |
Firewall | ✔ |
IP changing | ✘ |
IPv4 | ✔ |
IPv6 (new) | ✔ |
KillSwitch | ✔ |
Load Balancing | ✔ |
Malware filter | ✘ |
Multi Hop VPN | ✔ |
NeuroRouting | ✘ |
No logfiles | ✔ |
Obfuscation (Mask) | ✘ |
Own DNS | ✔ |
Own Hardware | ✘ |
Own IP adresses | ✘ |
Own Torrent Server | ✘ |
Port forwarding | ✔ |
RAM-Disc (k.HDD) | ✘ |
Shared IP | ✔ |
Smart DNS | ✘ |
Static IP | ✔ |
Tracking Blocker | ✘ |
Virtual servers | ✔ |
VPN with TOR | ✔ |
ProtonVPN FAQ
ProtonVPN can also be used free of charge and on a permanent basis in a limited number of selected locations. However, the Premium rates are much faster to use.
Yes, users of ProtonVPN will not have to worry about receiving warnings.
Basically, Switzerland has strict data protection rules that already provide a certain degree of data security, but it is even more important that the IP address of an Internet user, according to the Swiss constitution, is also part of his personal data and therefore may not be disclosed. This means that users of a Swiss service enjoy a very, very high level of protection against access to their data even by public authorities.
Attention: We didn’t evaluate the e-mail service “ProtonMail” here, in many cases a combination of VPN + mail service will result in more attractive prices.
Erstellt am: 11/26/2019