ProtonVPN Review – A VPN Worthy of Your Money!

ProtonVPN is a Switzerland-based VPN service which offers server locations across 32 countries. It is a best-suited service for the users who want solid privacy features along with faster speed (upload & download) on the local connections. It also has servers optimized for P2P traffic, making it a great choice for torrent users. ProtonVPN offers strong encryption along with advanced privacy features like secure core servers, minimal logging policy, kill switch and more. The individual servers are owned and set up by the company, and connected to the internet using the company’s own network. To know more about ProtonVPN and its features, check our detailed review on ProtonVPN.

Table of Contents:

• ProtonVPN Price and Payment Methods
• ProtonVPN Supported Devices
• ProtonVPN Server Locations
• ProtonVPN Privacy
• ProtonVPN Speed and Reliability
• ProtonVPN Streaming and Torrenting
• ProtonVPN Apps and Ease of Use
• ProtonVPN Customer Support
• ProtonVPN Advantages and Disadvantages
• ProtonVPN Alternatives
• ProtonVPN Review and Final Thoughts

Related: IvacyVPN Review

ProtonVPN Price and Payment Methods

ProtonVPN comes with three different plans of Basic, Plus, and Visionary. The Basic plan costs $4 per month, Plus plan costs $8 per month and the Visionary Plan costs $24 per month. Along with these plans, there is also a free version which offers free VPN service without charging anything. Here are the differences between all the plans of ProtonVPN:

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Features	Free ($0/mo)	Basic ($4/mo)	Plus ($8/mo)	Visionary ($24/mo)
Countries	3 (USA, Japan and the Netherlands)	All Countries	All Countries	All Countries
Device	1	2	5	10
Speed	Low	High	High	High
P2P	–	✔	✔	✔
Plus Servers	–	–	✔	✔
Secure Core	–	–	✔	✔
Tor Servers	–	–	✔	✔
Secure Streaming	–	–	✔	✔
ProtonMail Visionary	–	–	–	✔

When it comes to payment methods, ProtonVPN offers only two options: credit/debit cards and Paypal. Users can also purchase ProtonVPN with Bitcoin.

ProtonVPN Supported Devices

Apps: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux and Routers

Browser Extensions: Nil

Gaming Consoles & Streaming Devices: Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Google Chromecast, Roku, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo

ProtonVPN Server Locations

ProtonVPN offers 395 servers across 32 countries. If you want servers locations, we recommend HideMyAss VPN, which offers servers across 190 countries. ProtonVPN also operates only a few numbers of an individual server, it means there could be congestion at peak times. Fortunately, with the dedicated apps, you can monitor the performance of each server. The company also city-level choice options in the four countries (US, UK, Germany, and Canada). It’s very nice to see a few servers across countries like Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, and South Africa.

ProtonVPN Privacy

ProtonVPN has stronger privacy policies and it doesn’t record any of your internet activities. But, the VPN will record the timestamp of your recent successful transaction and it will be overwritten whenever every time you use the service. Since it operates under the jurisdiction of Switzerland, it allows users to have some of the world’s strongest privacy laws. It doesn’t subject to any of the US or EU data laws. While signing up for the free plan, you don’t need to provide any payment details. If you use Paypal or credit cards for the premium plans, the payments will be processed by the third-party and the company will record any of your billing details.

ProtonVPN Speed and Reliability

With our performance tests, we can say ProtonVPN is nowhere near the best but the consistent performance makes it ideal for the privacy-conscious streamers and torrenters. The performance on the local connection is excellent and consistently it delivers impressive upload and download speed of 88Mbps. While comparing with other VPN providers, the latency of ProtonVPN is pretty sluggish. Hence it is not ideal for gaming users. The VPN takes a little longer (approximately 11-14 seconds) to connect with the server location. Once the connection was made, the performance is incredibly reliable without any drop in connection drops. Overall, ProtonVPN is decent enough for normal day use and it offers a decent level of consistency across the global server networks.

ProtonVPN Streaming and Torrenting

ProtonVPN is a perfect choice if you want quick and hassle-free access to streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. However, it doesn’t unblock the services like Amazon Prime and BBC iPlayer. ProtonVPN is one of the victims of BBC’s recent crackdowns and you can’t access BBC iPlayer with the ProtonVPN. Consistent speed on local connection means ProtonVPN is a perfect choice for the torrent and Kodi users. But be aware of the fact that P2P is limited to just 4 countries. If you want P2P of all servers, you have to consider the options like ExpressVPN or CyberGhost.

ProtonVPN Apps and Ease of Use

The ProtonVPN applications are easy to download and you can find the download links from the website. ProtonVPN for Windows and Mac can be downloaded directly from the website, whereas the Android and iOS version of the VPN can be downloaded from their respective app stores. Installing the ProtonVPN doesn’t take much time. After downloading the software, just go through the usual onscreen instructions. There are many installation guides that are available on the website to take you in the right direction.

The desktop apps are very easy to use and it displays a lot of useful information like new IP address, upload & download speed, server load and more. The server locations will be listed alphabetically and the servers which P2P and torrenting are clearly marked. You can find the servers list behind the menu option in the top left corner of the app.

The Android and iOS clients look much better than most of the other VPN providers. However, mobile clients lack some of the features which available on the desktop client. You can also access the full servers list with ease. The main disadvantage of ProtonVPN compatibility is that it doesn’t offer proxy extensions for any of the web browsers.

ProtonVPN Customer Support

The customer support of ProtonVPN is fairly limited and it clears only a few queries. The website also hosts a series of FAQs on several topics and you will also have a search option to find your query with ease. If you want to contact the support team, you will have to fill the form on the website and the responses are very slow. The company lacks live chat, which left us feeling frustrated when we had a small problem. The setup guides and troubleshooting guides in the website are well-written and it helps us to solve your small queries with ease. While comparing with other providers, the support section has to improve a little bit.

Advantages

• Minimal Logging Policy
• Unblocks Netflix with ease
• Faster download on local connection

Disadvantages

• No live chat
• Advanced features are limited to Plus plan
• Server locations are too low

ProtonVPN Alternatives

The lack of live chat support, few server locations, not able to access BBC iPlayer and much more may push you to look out for other alternatives. For those users, here are some of the best alternatives for ProtonVPN:

OpenVPN: If you are searching for a perfect alternative to replace ProtonVPN, then OpenVPN should be the first choice. It provides a set of mechanisms to create a secure network. It authorizes, authenticates, encrypts and ensures the integrity of the transmitted data.

Hide.me: Hide.me is another alternative which offers both free and paid subscription for their users. It uses a wide range of protocols like L2TP, IKEv2, PPTP, IPsec, Softether, OpenVPN, SOCKS, and SSTP. Hide.me is a VPN capable of boasting some of the best expert-level configuration options.

Hotspot Shield: Hotspot Shield is a popular VPN service which provides basic privacy features at cheaper rates. It provides strong encryption along with kill switch feature. It also provides faster upload and download speed on the local connections.

ProtonVPN Review and Final Thoughts

ProtonVPN is a perfect choice of privacy-conscious users who don’t need access to extensive servers. The faster speed on local connections also makes it ideal for P2P users. The VPN also provides a high level of privacy (minimal logs policy) along with advanced privacy settings like the VPN kill switch and DNS leak protection. The software’s looks user-friendly and they are very easy to navigate. Overall, ProtonVPN is the best choice if you’re searching for raw power and faster local speeds, however, the small server locations of 32 countries may be a deal-breaker for some users.