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VPN review

Proton VPN review

A VPN from Swiss company Proton AG with a free plan that has no data cap and paid plans for up to 10 devices, backed by yearly independent no-logs audits and open-source apps.

By PrivacyTechReview Editorial Team · Editor-in-Chief: Kirill Prosandeev · Reviewed 30 Oct 2026 · Documentation-based overview

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Proton VPN is the VPN service of Proton AG, the company in Geneva, Switzerland, behind Proton Mail. It has a free plan that Proton says has no data cap, no ads and no time limit, and paid plans, VPN Plus and the Proton Unlimited bundle among them, that cover 10 devices at once and add streaming support, file sharing, ad blocking and Secure Core. Proton says it keeps no activity logs and publishes yearly audits of that claim.

This review covers both the free plan and the paid plans. We haven't tested Proton VPN ourselves, so every product fact below comes from Proton's own websites, help centre, terms and privacy policy, or its App Store and Google Play listings, as they read on October 30, 2026. Where those pages disagree, we say so.

The short answer

Proton VPN · An audited no-logs VPN with a no-data-cap free plan

Pick Proton VPN if you want a free VPN for one device with no data cap, or a paid no-logs VPN with yearly published audits for up to 10 devices — not if you need to choose a country for free, or split tunneling on an iPhone.

  • Free plan with no data cap or ads
  • Securitum no-logs audits every year since 2022

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Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • A free plan with no data cap, no ads and no time limit, Proton says, and no credit card to sign up
  • Securitum has audited its no-logs policy every year since 2022, most recently in May 2026
  • Open-source apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, Android, Android TV and Apple TV, plus Chrome and Firefox extensions
  • Paid plans cover 10 devices and add Secure Core, NetShield ad blocking, P2P servers and port forwarding
  • A transparency report listing 458 orders approved by Swiss authorities from 2017 through June 2026, none of which Proton could answer for lack of logs

Limitations

  • The free plan covers one device and picks your server country for you from a list of 10
  • Guaranteed streaming, BitTorrent, ad blocking and the Apple TV app need a paid plan
  • No split tunneling on iPhone or iPad, and port forwarding only in the Windows, Mac and Linux apps
  • Proton's own pages disagree on country counts, free-plan speed and which protocols each app supports

Who it’s for

  • Anyone who wants a free VPN for one device without a data cap, ads or a trial clock
  • People who want a no-logs VPN with published yearly audits on up to 10 devices
  • Proton Mail, Drive or Pass users who'd rather get the VPN inside Proton Unlimited, Duo or Family

Who should look elsewhere

  • Anyone who needs to choose a country, or cover several devices, without paying
  • iPhone and iPad users who need split tunneling, or port forwarding on a phone
  • People who want streaming access guaranteed on a free plan

Is Proton VPN worth it?

It depends on which plan you mean. The free plan is a real free tier, not a trial: Proton says it has no data or time limits and no ads, it needs no credit card, and it includes the kill switch and the Stealth protocol. The catch is that it covers one device at a time and connects you to servers in 10 countries that Proton picks for you, at what its plan comparison calls "Medium" speed.

The paid plans are where most of the features are. VPN Plus covers 10 devices and adds more than 140 countries, streaming support, P2P file sharing, NetShield ad blocking and Secure Core; Proton Unlimited adds Proton's other paid apps. A VPN still doesn't scan your device for malware.

What Proton VPN includes

Proton's feature pages and help centre list these, with the plans that get each one:

  • Encryption with AES-256 or ChaCha20, with forward secrecy, which Proton says creates a new key for each session. All plans.
  • A kill switch on Windows, macOS, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android, on all plans. Windows, the Linux app and iOS (in beta) also offer an advanced kill switch that blocks all traffic unless the VPN is connected.
  • DNS leak protection, and IPv6 leak protection or full IPv6 support depending on the platform. All plans.
  • Stealth, Proton's own protocol for getting past VPN blocks, which it describes as WireGuard tunneled over TLS. Proton lists it among the free plan's features.
  • NetShield, DNS filtering that blocks malware only, or ads, trackers and malware. Paid plans.
  • Secure Core, which routes your traffic first through Proton-owned servers in Switzerland, Iceland or Sweden. Paid plans.
  • P2P servers for BitTorrent, and port forwarding in the Windows, macOS and Linux apps. Paid plans.
  • Split tunneling, to send chosen apps or addresses outside the VPN. Paid plans, and not on iPhone or iPad.
  • Tor over VPN, for reaching .onion sites in an ordinary browser. Paid plans; Proton's product lifecycle page lists it as deprecated.
  • VPN Accelerator, which Proton says speeds up long-distance connections, and its Plus servers. Paid plans.

Proton VPN Free: what the free plan includes

Proton calls its free plan "Unlimited and free forever." Its help centre lists what the plan includes, and other Proton pages add the rest. As stated on October 30, 2026:

  • Devices: one at a time. A router counts as one connection, however many devices are behind it.
  • Servers: in 10 countries, "randomly selected" from the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, Poland, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Mexico, Canada and the United States. Proton's "Proton plans explained" help page says they're "automatically chosen for you."
  • Data and time: no data cap and no time limit, and "No credit card required."
  • Speed: Proton's free-plan pages say there are no speed limits, but its plan comparison rates free speed as "Medium" against "Highest" on paid plans, and its VPN privacy policy reserves the right to restrict speed on free servers "in cases of excessive consumption."
  • Ads and logging: no ads, and the same no-logs policy as the paid plans.
  • Included: the kill switch, Stealth, DNS and IPv6 leak protection, and the same encryption.
  • Not included: streaming support (Proton says it doesn't block streaming sites on Free but guarantees them only on paid plans), BitTorrent, NetShield, Secure Core, split tunneling, port forwarding, Tor over VPN and the Apple TV app.
  • Inactive accounts: Proton's terms let it suspend or delete free accounts that stay inactive for 12 months in a row; connecting to a VPN server counts as activity.
  • Guest mode: Proton says its mobile apps already let you connect to its free servers without creating a Proton Account.

Proton VPN in the UK

Nothing on the Proton pages we read limits its free plan, VPN Plus or its bundles by country, so a UK buyer gets the same plans, 10 devices on paid plans and the same apps. What differs is the contract: Proton's terms say consumers living outside the US are governed by Swiss law, with disputes going to the courts of the Canton of Geneva to the extent the law permits, and the arbitration clause and class-action waiver for US consumers don't apply. In the UK App Store the iPhone app is "Proton VPN: Fast & Secure" from Proton AG, and Google Play's UK English listing is "Proton VPN: Secure & Fast VPN". Proton's 30-day refund covers subscriptions bought directly from Proton. We read Proton's pages from outside the UK, so check the plans, local prices and currency at checkout.

Proton VPN plans and devices

Proton sells the VPN on its own and inside bundles with its other apps. Its terms say subscriptions are billed monthly, yearly or every two years and renew automatically for the same term. What each plan adds, per Proton's plan pages:

  • Proton Free: the free plan above, on one device.
  • VPN Plus: the paid VPN on 10 devices at once, with servers in more than 140 countries, the "Highest" speed tier, streaming support, P2P, NetShield, Secure Core and split tunneling. Proton says it comes with the free versions of Proton Mail, Drive and Pass, and its pricing page lists priority support and live chat.
  • Proton Unlimited: everything in VPN Plus on 10 devices, plus the paid versions of Proton Mail, Calendar, Drive and Pass, with 500 GB of storage.
  • Proton Duo and Proton Family: Proton Unlimited for two people, or for up to six, each with their own account. Proton says each member can connect up to 10 devices at the same time.
  • Proton VPN for Business: plans for teams, with an admin control panel, dedicated IP addresses and, on higher tiers, dedicated servers.

Proton VPN on PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, TV and routers

Proton says all its apps are open source. Where each one comes from, and what it needs, on October 30, 2026:

  • Windows: an installer from Proton's website, in x64 and ARM versions. Windows 11 and Windows 10 (build 19045) are supported; older builds are deprecated or end-of-life.
  • Mac: a DMG download from Proton's website. macOS Sequoia and later are supported, and Sonoma is listed as deprecated.
  • Linux: a desktop app and a command-line tool for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch, plus a Snap package with fewer features. A Flatpak version exists but is made by third parties.
  • iPhone and iPad: Proton VPN: Fast & Secure, from Proton AG in the App Store, for iOS and iPadOS 17 or later.
  • Android: Proton VPN: Secure & Fast VPN, from Proton AG in Google Play, or from F-Droid or as an APK on GitHub.
  • Chromebook: the Android app from Google Play, or the Chrome extension.
  • Android TV: the Android app from the TV's app store or Google Play. It runs on the free plan, but streaming support needs a paid plan.
  • Fire TV: Proton's Android app on Fire OS devices, or its Vega OS app on newer Fire TV Sticks, found by searching on the stick. The Vega OS app runs on the free plan.
  • Apple TV: from the App Store on the Apple TV, for tvOS 17 or later, and only with a paid plan.
  • Browser extensions: from the Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons, also supported in Edge and Brave. They work with a free account but cover only that browser's traffic.
  • Routers: manual setup on routers that support OpenVPN or WireGuard as a client, on every plan. Proton warns that most routers supplied by internet providers don't support VPN setups.

Privacy, logging, audits and who runs Proton VPN

Proton VPN is run by Proton AG, Route de la Galaise 32, Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva. Proton says its main shareholder is the Proton Foundation, a Swiss nonprofit, and that employees own most of the other shares. Its privacy policy (last modified May 12, 2026), VPN sub-policy (July 30, 2025) and no-logs help page say:

  • Not logged: the websites you visit, your traffic or the content of your communications, your IP address, session lengths and location.
  • Collected: an email address if you sign up with a non-Proton one (no other personal information is needed, Proton says), your name and a card's last four digits from payments, support messages, and app crash reports and analytics.
  • Account IP logs: Proton's general privacy policy says it keeps no permanent IP logs tied to your Proton Account by default, but may keep them temporarily to fight abuse and fraud, and permanently if you breach the terms. No retention period is given.
  • Where: account data is stored encrypted on servers in Switzerland, Germany or Norway. Proton says it owns all Secure Core servers and most of its VPN servers in Switzerland and Germany, and that every VPN server uses full-disk encryption.
  • No-logs audits: Securitum, a European security auditing firm, has audited Proton VPN's no-logs policy each year since 2022. For the 2026 report, dated May 2026, Proton says Securitum reviewed server configurations and procedures on site and interviewed staff, and that the evidence it reviewed did not indicate that the examined servers log browsing, DNS queries or user-identifiable connection metadata.
  • App audits: Proton's open-source post (updated December 1, 2025) says its latest VPN app audits are by independent security researcher Ruben Santamarta, and links a "Proton VPN Clients Security Assessment" final report dated November 21, 2025. Its no-logs post separately credits Securitum with the most recent audit of all Proton apps. The code is on GitHub.
  • App-store labels: Apple's lists contact info and diagnostics as collected but not linked to you, and notes it "has not been verified by Apple." Google Play's lists email, user IDs, purchase history, an optional phone number and optional crash logs, with no data shared with third parties.

Is Proton VPN legit and safe?

It's a VPN from a named Swiss company that publishes its terms, privacy policy, audit reports and source code. Proton's transparency report, updated July 14, 2026, says it has received 458 legally binding orders approved by Swiss authorities from 2017 through June 2026, each trying to identify who was connected to a server at a given time, and that it couldn't provide that information in any of them because it doesn't keep those logs.

Proton says it complies only with requests approved through the Swiss legal system and that Swiss law doesn't oblige it to log VPN activity. Its help centre ties that to the "current Swiss legal framework", and in a July 23, 2025 post launching its Lumo AI assistant, Proton cited legal uncertainty around Swiss government surveillance proposals and wrote that "Proton is moving most of its physical infrastructure out of Switzerland," with Lumo the first product to move. Its VPN privacy policy, updated a week later, still says account data is stored in Switzerland, Germany or Norway.

That is documented evidence, not a guarantee: audits and court records show what happened, not what will. For consumers outside the US, the terms are governed by Swiss law, with disputes going to the courts of the Canton of Geneva, to the extent the law permits. Get the apps only from Proton's site, the App Store, Google Play, F-Droid, Proton's GitHub, the Chrome and Firefox add-on stores, or a search on your Fire TV.

Limits to know before you choose a plan

  • Free plan: one device, no country choice and what Proton's comparison calls "Medium" speed; its VPN privacy policy also reserves the right to restrict free-server speed in cases of excessive consumption.
  • Streaming is guaranteed only on paid plans, and Proton itself notes that watching Netflix titles not licensed where you are is against Netflix's policy.
  • Split tunneling isn't available on iPhone or iPad, is experimental on Mac, and on most platforms doesn't work together with the kill switch (Windows is the exception).
  • On macOS and iOS, Proton says some DNS requests from Apple services can bypass the VPN even with the kill switch on, and macOS may briefly expose your IP address when you switch servers.
  • Port forwarding works only in the Windows, macOS and Linux apps. P2P servers show up on iPhone, but torrent apps aren't allowed in the App Store.
  • Protocols are being trimmed: OpenVPN is deprecated on Windows and end-of-life on iPhone and Android, and IKEv2 remains only on macOS until January 2027.
  • Server counts vary by page: the server list showed 21,722 servers in 149 countries on October 30, 2026; most pages say 20,000+ in 140+, one help article 15,000+ in 120+, and the free-VPN page both 110+ and 140+ countries.
  • Other pages disagree too: the protocol help page says OpenVPN is available only in the Linux app and that Stealth works there with the beta Proton Protocols turned on, while the lifecycle page lists OpenVPN as deprecated on Windows and supported on macOS, Linux and routers, and Stealth as unavailable on Linux.

Proton VPN free trial and refund window

Proton offers a free plan rather than a free trial. On October 30, 2026, the Proton pages we read offered no time-limited trial of VPN Plus, and the terms mention free trials only for business plans. Paid plans come with what Proton calls a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Proton's terms, last modified October 9, 2026, give a full refund if you cancel within 30 days of the initial purchase, for subscriptions bought directly from Proton, once per user, and not for payments made in cash or by bank transfer.

Proton VPN alternatives

Our verdict

On paper, Proton VPN is two products. The free plan is a genuine free tier: no data cap, ads or time limit, a kill switch and the Stealth protocol, but only one device and no say in which of 10 countries you connect to. The paid plans add 10 devices, more than 140 countries, streaming support, P2P with port forwarding, NetShield and Secure Core. The evidence behind it is well documented: yearly Securitum no-logs audits since 2022, an app assessment from November 2025, open-source code and a transparency report. The trade-offs are uneven features by platform, protocols being phased out and Proton pages that don't always agree. Start with the free plan if one device is enough; consider a paid plan if you need streaming, file sharing or more devices.

Bottom line

Proton VPN · An audited no-logs VPN with a no-data-cap free plan

Pick Proton VPN if you want a free VPN for one device with no data cap, or a paid no-logs VPN with yearly published audits for up to 10 devices — not if you need to choose a country for free, or split tunneling on an iPhone.

  • Free plan with no data cap or ads
  • Securitum no-logs audits every year since 2022

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Sources · checked 30 Oct 2026

Frequently asked questions

Is Proton VPN really free?
Yes. There's a free plan with no time limit, and Proton says no data cap, no ads and no credit card. It covers one device at a time and connects you to servers in 10 countries that Proton selects at random, at what Proton rates as "Medium" speed. Streaming support, BitTorrent, NetShield ad blocking and Secure Core need a paid plan.
Is Proton VPN legit and safe?
It's run by Proton AG, a Swiss company in Geneva that also makes Proton Mail. Proton publishes yearly no-logs audits by Securitum (the latest dated May 2026), a November 2025 security assessment of its apps, its source code and a transparency report. That report says Proton couldn't provide identifying information for any of the 458 orders approved by Swiss authorities that it received from 2017 through June 2026, because it doesn't keep those logs.
Does Proton VPN keep logs or sell your data?
Proton says it doesn't log the websites you visit, your traffic, your IP address, your session lengths or your location, and Securitum's 2026 audit says the evidence it reviewed didn't indicate such logging on the servers it examined. It does keep account data such as your email address, and its general privacy policy allows temporary IP logs tied to your Proton Account to fight abuse and fraud. Proton says paying users fund the free plan, and its Google Play label says no data is shared with third parties.
How many devices can I use with Proton VPN?
One at a time on the free plan, where a router counts as one connection. VPN Plus and Proton Unlimited cover 10 devices at once, and on Proton Duo and Proton Family each member can connect up to 10 devices at the same time.
What's the difference between VPN Plus and Proton Unlimited?
Both include the paid VPN features on 10 devices. VPN Plus is the VPN on its own and comes with the free versions of Proton Mail, Drive and Pass. Proton Unlimited adds the paid versions of Proton Mail, Calendar, Drive and Pass, with 500 GB of storage.
Can I torrent with Proton VPN, and does it have port forwarding?
On paid plans. Proton runs P2P servers, marked with a two-way arrow icon, in jurisdictions it says allow P2P file sharing, and offers port forwarding in its Windows, macOS and Linux apps. The free plan doesn't allow BitTorrent.
Does Proton VPN block ads?
Yes, with NetShield, a DNS filter included in paid plans that can block malware only, or ads, trackers and malware. NetShield isn't part of the free plan, though the free plan shows no ads of its own.

Proton VPN — our verdict

An audited no-logs VPN with a no-data-cap free plan

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