Proton VPN Review

Proton VPN comes from Proton AG, the Swiss company founded in 2014 by scientists who met at CERN and best known for Proton Mail.

It is one of only a handful of VPNs with a permanent free tier that carries no data cap, no time limit and no credit card requirement, which is the detail that gets it recommended ahead of rivals that only offer a trial.

This review prices Proton VPN Free and Plus on the vendor's own USD pricing page, then sets them next to Mullvad, NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN, the four names that come up most often when a buyer compares Proton VPN against something else.

For a fuller field of paid options, see our Surfshark review and ExpressVPN review.

Most buyers land on this comparison for one of two reasons: the free plan looked appealing and they want to know its real limits before relying on it, or they already pay for a paid VPN and want to know whether Proton VPN's free tier or Swiss jurisdiction is worth switching for.

Both questions come down to the same trade-off covered below: Proton VPN's free plan has no real rival on this page, and its paid plan is priced above four names that do the same basic job for less.

Toolradar data: the September 2026 VPN ranking evaluated 33 tools, and Proton VPN is the top overall pick on that list.

Cyberpresso data: the newsletter reaches 27,000 security readers at a 28% open rate, from the audience file updated 20 September 2026.

Methodology: pricing was read on Proton's own USD currency toggle on 25 September 2026, with Mullvad, NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN each checked the same day on their own pricing pages. No vendor paid for a place on this page.

The question that actually decides this purchase is not which VPN is fastest, but which price you will still accept next year. A VPN with a steep renewal jump can look like the cheapest option on the page it sold you and the most expensive one twelve months later. That framing runs through every section below, not just the pricing table.

Proton VPN is a consumer VPN app that encrypts a device's internet traffic and routes it through Proton's own server network, sold alongside Proton's mail, calendar, drive and password products.

The free plan is the headline feature: it covers one device, connects to servers in 10 countries chosen at random, and runs at medium speed with no cap on data and no expiry date, a structure that most rival free trials do not match.

VPN Plus removes the device cap to 10, opens the full network of 20,000+ servers in 140+ countries, and switches on the fastest server tier, the setup the Proton VPN app pushes toward once a free-plan user tries to pick a specific streaming-friendly country and finds the option locked.

Two features set it apart from a plain tunnel: Secure Core, which routes traffic through a hardened server in Switzerland, Iceland or Sweden before it leaves Proton's network, and Tor over VPN, which connects straight into the Tor network from the app.

NetShield blocks ads, trackers and known malware domains at the DNS level, and split tunneling on Android and Windows lets specific apps skip the tunnel.

Proton also sells Unlimited, a bundle that folds VPN Plus into Proton's Mail, Drive, Pass and Wallet products for one account. That bundle matters only if the other Proton apps are also in play; buying it purely for the VPN adds cost for storage and email features a buyer might not use.

Anyone weighing the password manager piece of that bundle should read our Proton Pass review and 1Password review first, since paying for Unlimited only to get one bundled app usually costs more than buying that app on its own.

The apps themselves cover Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Chromebook, Android TV and Apple TV, plus browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox and manual setup guides for routers.

A router-level install is the way to protect a smart TV or a games console that cannot run the app directly, and it counts as a single device against the plan's device limit no matter how many gadgets sit behind that router.

Signing up for Free needs only an email address and no card, and the app drops you onto a random server from the 10-country free list. Switching servers on Free means reconnecting until the random pick lands somewhere useful, since the free tier does not let you choose a country directly. That is the plan's real limit, not the medium speed cap.

Upgrading to Plus opens a full country and city list, a speed filter, and the Secure Core toggle for a multi-hop route. The kill switch blocks all traffic if the tunnel drops, and DNS leak protection is on by default.

Day to day, the app is a straightforward connect screen, with Quick Connect picking the fastest server and a separate map view for choosing a country by hand.

Billing runs through Proton's account page rather than a third-party reseller, and the currency selector on the pricing page lets a US buyer see USD instead of the default euro rate.

Canceling a paid plan drops the account back to Free rather than deleting it, so a canceled Plus subscriber keeps one device and the 10-country list instead of losing access outright.

Streaming is the other place the plan tier matters. Free's random 10-country assignment makes it unreliable for a specific region-locked catalog, since there is no way to force a connection to land on the one country a service checks for.

Plus adds a server list built for streaming and the highest speed tier, which is the difference a buyer actually notices when a show buffers on the free plan and does not on Plus.

Proton VPN, Mullvad, NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN all publish self-serve prices, and only Proton VPN sells a permanent free plan. Prices in the table above were read in USD on each vendor's own pricing page on 25 September 2026.

Proton VPN Plus carries no discount on the monthly plan, and the yearly plan's lower shown rate is a 12-month intro that roughly doubles at renewal, both figures in the summary and the table above. The Unlimited bundle costs more per month than Plus alone and folds in Proton's other apps, which only pays off if you use them.

Mullvad charges a flat $5.69 a month, the USD equivalent shown on its own pricing page that day, whether you pay monthly or prepay a year. There is no free plan, and a 5-device cap is half of what Proton VPN Plus allows.

Measured over a full two years rather than the first promo term, the ranking changes. NordVPN's 27-month Basic looks cheapest on the checkout screen, but its renewal resets to an annual charge once that term ends, the same pattern that pushes Proton VPN Plus's own yearly rate higher in year two.

Mullvad is the one plan on this page where the number you sign up at is still the number you pay in year three.

NordVPN's cheapest entry is Basic at $3.49/mo on a 27-month term ($94.23 upfront), or $65.88 for one year ($5.49/mo); paying monthly costs $14.99/mo with no discount, and there is no free plan.

Surfshark Starter runs $2.49/mo on its 27-month intro term ($67.23 upfront), with unlimited device connections and no free plan.

ExpressVPN Basic is $2.99/mo on a 28-month term ($83.72 upfront), renewing at $99.95 a year after that; it covers 10 devices and has no free plan either.

Proton VPN Free suits anyone who wants a VPN on standby without paying or starting a trial clock. It covers casual browsing on public Wi-Fi and light privacy use on one device, and the lack of a time limit means it is still there next year if you only reach for it occasionally.

Plus fits a buyer who wants more than one device covered, faster servers, and the Secure Core or Tor routing options, especially someone who already trusts Proton for email and wants the VPN on the same account.

It is not the cheapest paid option here: Mullvad, NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN all list a lower entry rate than Proton VPN Plus, so a buyer chasing the lowest sticker price has cheaper options.

Skip Proton VPN Plus if unlimited simultaneous devices matter more than anything else, since Surfshark's Starter plan covers unlimited connections for less than half Proton's monthly list price. Skip it if a flat, no-intro rate is the priority, since Mullvad has charged the same amount since 2009 with no renewal jump to plan around.

A journalist, activist or anyone handling sensitive research should weigh the Secure Core routing and Swiss jurisdiction against Mullvad's own no-logs record from Sweden before defaulting to the bigger, more marketed name.

Neither claim replaces reading the two companies' own transparency pages, and neither is a reason to skip basic account hygiene like a strong password and two-factor authentication on the email tied to the VPN account.

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