ProtonVPN Review 2025: Is It Legit? Is It a Scam?

Review Summary

You may be on the lookout for a virtual private network (VPN) for one of three reasons: to bypass internet censorship such as China’s Great Firewall, to access content on Netflix that is restricted to users in specific countries, or to protect your right to online anonymity.

Regardless of your motivation, sorting through the plethora of VPN-related content on the web can leave you feeling overwhelmed.

Our focus today is on ProtonVPN, a Swiss VPN service with over 1,700 servers in 60+ countries.

To determine if ProtonVPN is the appropriate VPN for you, we’ll look at the service’s features, speed, monthly levels, customer service, and apps.

Continue reading our ProtonVPN review below or get the app if you’re curious about this service.

ProtonVPN Review 2025: In-depth

Private Core, Perfect Forward Secrecy, and high-security data servers are just a few of ProtonVPN’s defenses against snooping hackers.

Because of this, you may watch your chosen shows and movies regardless of where you happen.

Whether you work from home or in a shared office, you can stay secure with ProtonVPN because it is compatible with many devices and operating systems.

ProtonVPN has over 1,713 servers in 63 countries, so it’s easy to pick one that has enough capacity to unblock geo-restricted content without violating your privacy or slowing down your connection.

Security & Encryption: Is ProtonVPN Safe?

OpenVPN and IKEv2 are utilized by these apps with the highest encryption levels possible since they are encrypted VPN protocols.

Both OpenVPN and IKEv2 utilize security measures: To safeguard your actual data, use the NIST-recognized cipher AES-256.

The United States government employs it to protect classified material.

To ensure the safety of the TLS key exchange among your smartphone and their VPN servers, they employ RSA-4096 as their cipher of choice.

Using a 4096-bit key size, there are currently no known attacks against RSA. ProtonVPN fails to live up to these claims of high-tech security.

Each VPN session has unique keys due to forward privacy, so if one account is breached, the others remain secure. Within each transaction, keys are shuffled frequently.

Additional safeguards are claimed to be built into their apps to keep you secure online.

Your information will never leave our servers and be sent to a third party because of features like DNS leak protection and IPv6 leak prevention.

If your VPN connection drops, your data will remain secure due to their optional Kill Switch feature.

Privacy

The company claims that as a VPN service based in Switzerland, ProtonVPN has an instant edge over its rivals in protecting user privacy, but this is not the reality.

NordVPN is far better than this VPN. The firm’s web page outlines its logging approach in no uncertain terms: “ProtonVPN is a VPN that doesn’t keep any logs.” However, most users face monitor or record their online actions.

The company professes that there is hardly any session logging. The last completed login is recorded in the company’s database, but that’s it.

This is erased at the beginning of your next session, so the only information ProtonVPN will retain about your account is when you first started using it.

When you sign up for ProtonVPN, you’ll be asked to enter an email address; you’re free to use whatever address you wish.

If you want to stay anonymous, the business recommends utilizing ProtonMail.

No payment information is required when you sign up for the free program. You can change the payment method to Bitcoin if you want.

If you pay with a service like PayPal or a credit card, Proton VPN will view your financial information because a separate company handles the transaction.

Server Locations

The company states that ProtonVPN offers more than 1700 servers across 63 countries.

It’s important to realize that the potential variety of servers you have access to varies widely depending on your package type.

The best server coverage can be found in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

For server access, free accounts are restricted to Japan, the Netherlands, and the USA.

As a result, you obtain coverage, though all of your choices are equally bad for South African consumers.

Not only is it the sole option, but it also lacks peer-to-peer servers. To solve this issue, NordVPN is highly recommended.

Proton VPN’s 63 server locations are available with the Plus package. Plus, subscribers will only have access to special servers with capabilities like Secure Core VPN and TOR over VPN.

Speed

Proton VPN performed rather quickly, which is not surprising given that WireGuard is the tunneling protocol that normally provides the highest speeds.

Provider speed tests may appear exceptional at times, but your connection may be noticeably slower than advertised at other times.

However, if you connect to the closest servers, you shouldn’t have any serious problems.

You’ll need to strike a balance between security and speed if you intend to utilize the Tor over VPN option while still having a satisfactory online experience.

While certain VPN service providers, like NordVPN, are faster than others, the speed you get may vary depending on factors like location, how far away the server is, and what extra features you use.

Torrenting

Torrenting is allowed with Proton VPN, but only on select servers and for paying customers.

Furthermore, it makes it abundantly apparent that it disapproves of copyright infringement. The company claims that ProtonVPN is the best option for torrent users due to its impeccable security record.

The proximity of the closest P2P-friendly server implies that customers beyond Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific region should not expect decent speeds.

Logging Policy

Sadly, there is no easy yes or no response to this topic regarding virtual private networks (VPNs). Things can rarely be reduced to a simple yes or no.

Doesn’t that just make you want to pull your hair out? True, every VPN keeps logs of some information it needs to function.

ProtonVPN is not among the best available from a privacy standpoint.

The VPN does not keep logs of its users’ VPN connections, so even if the Swiss government requests, the firm will have nothing to provide them.

As you can see, ProtonVPN is honest about not keeping logs of your online activity.

To minimize attacks using brute force using your password, the only session data it keeps is the last time you attempted to log in.

Furthermore, ProtonVPN does keep track of the following individual details:

• Electronic mail
• Inquiries about assistance or complaints of problems
• Payment information

ProtonVPN maintains all personal information in its secured local servers until you deactivate your account, at which point the firm promises to destroy all of this information.

VPN Accelerator

The VPN Accelerator feature of ProtonVPN claims to maximize your connection speed even when using servers in remote locations.

But in reality, it fails to do so. ProtonVPN’s apps have this feature, and it’s both simple to find (in the Settings menu, under the Connection tab) and activate.

According to ProtonVPN’s website, VPN Accelerator utilizes cutting-edge technology to decrease latency, sidestep internet traffic, and speed up the transmission of packet information by up to 400%.

If you aren’t tech-savvy or familiar with the many mechanisms at play when it comes to increasing your internet connection speed, you just need to know this much: VPN Accelerator doesn’t do what it claims to do.

Using VPN Accelerator, we could connect to South American, European, and Asian servers (from the United States) at significantly slower rates than we achieved on other VPNs.

Kill Switch

Most VPN kill switches include a simple on/off toggle. If your VPN connection drops, your device will not be able to access the internet, keeping your data safe.

Most kill switches, however, only keep you safe while you’re actually connected to the VPN.

The company claims that Proton VPN has implemented a three-stage kill switch. A permanent Kill Switch is a third option in addition to a kill switch’s standard “on” and “off” settings.

Even if you disconnect from the VPN, the Permanent Kill Switch will continue to keep you safe.

In other words, if you enable the Permanent Kill Switch, even if your VPN connection drops, your device will still be able to access the internet solely through the VPN.

But this kill switch doesn’t work on all the servers.

Restrictions On Servers And Features

The business has streamlined its price. There are only two tiers of service offered to new customers: the free version and the paid Proton VPN Plus.

Although the organization is no longer accepting new customers for the premium (very pricey) Visionary plan, they are still serving its existing clientele.

The plan price for ProtonVPN will be discussed in more depth later.

At this time, We feel it’s important to highlight the fact that there are substantial variations between the Free plan and the Plus plan in terms of servers and features.

If you like what you see on the Free plan, keep it forever. However, it severely restricts your actions and the options available to you.

Plans And Pricing

The free version of ProtonVPN is not among the best we’ve seen from a VPN service.

You can’t enjoy ad-free, data-logging- and bandwidth-unlimited service. Another drawback is that just three nations’ servers are available to you to choose from.

The commercial versions of Proton VPN have been simplified since its latest rebranding.

There is no longer a “Basic” plan; all features are available to all paying subscribers of Proton VPN.

If you sign up for a full year, your monthly fee drops from $9.99 to $5.99. The two-year plan offers the best value at just $4.99 per month. This is also less expensive than it was previously.

A complete Proton subscription, including Proton Mail, Calendar, and Drive, may be had for as little as $7.99 per month.

The price is substantially lower than the previous “Visionary” plan, and the extra apps are useful if you plan to use them, but most people are likely to sign up for a VPN simply.

The company claims that the signup process for Proton VPN, in particular, allows you to maintain complete anonymity.

The website allows users to use their Proton Mail accounts and accepts Bitcoin as payment. That’s a major selling point if you value privacy.

And if you’re still on the fence about whether or not to purchase the premium edition of Proton VPN, you can try it risk-free for 30 days with their money-back guarantee.

User-Friendliness

The ProtonVPN UI may appear daunting at first, but it’s not quite easy once you get going.

Most VPNs try to hide as many features as possible behind a “preferences” menu, making the front page as simple as possible.

You might need some technical knowledge to understand how the VPN interface works and how to use its features.

In Summary, the best VPNs in 2025 are;

Review Verdict

This ProtonVPN review shares much useful information, such as a rundown of the service’s main benefits and some pointers on setting it up.

There aren’t any add-ons for browsers, so it’s not the best option for getting over censorship in places like China.

NordVPN is strongly suggested to solve this problem.

It’s safe to rely on.

Among VPN services, NordVPN ranks extremely well.

Users of this VPN benefit from bulletproof security, unrestricted bandwidth, and perfect privacy, all backed by a verified no-logs guarantee.

The advanced functionality of NordVPN’s apps doesn’t come at the sacrifice of usability, making them ideal for people of varying technical expertise.