Proton VPN Review (Oct 2026): Prices, Audits, Free Plan

Proton VPN is a good VPN for anyone who puts privacy first. Of NordVPN, Surfshark, ExpressVPN, CyberGhost and Proton VPN, it is the only one with a free tier at all. The 2-year VPN Plus plan costs $3.49 a month. That is $83.76 up front, and it renews at $83.88 a year. It is worth paying for if you want:

• open-source apps
• five Securitum no-logs audits in a row
• Swiss jurisdiction
• port forwarding
• Secure Core multi-hop

It is a weaker fit if you want Smart DNS, a dedicated IP on a consumer plan, split tunneling on an iPhone or post-quantum encryption today. Its three legal-order cases need careful reading, because they show what “no logs” does and does not protect. This review gives every number with its date and source. Our score for Proton VPN is shown above.

Privacy and logging

Proton VPN is run by Proton AG, a Swiss company in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva. Its main owner is the non-profit Proton Foundation. Proton AG has no parent company and no venture-capital investors. It was founded in 2014 and launched Proton VPN publicly on 20 June 2017. Switzerland is outside the 5, 9 and 14 Eyes, the alliances of countries that share intelligence. Proton states its position in its transparency report: under Swiss law, Proton VPN is not obliged to save any activity logs.

The privacy policy, dated 30 July 2025, says Proton VPN is a no-logs service. A no-logs service promises not to record what you do online. The policy says Proton does not log users’ traffic or the content of communications, and it keeps no VPN session data. The same policy covers the free service. What Proton can hold is account data:

• the address you register with
• any optional recovery address you add
• payment records, if you pay in a way that identifies you

The 2024 case below turned on exactly this kind of data.

Securitum, a European security firm, has audited the no-logs claim every year since 2022. The dates need care, because Proton’s announcement page gives only a year for the middle three audits.

• The first audit was announced on 22 April 2022.
• The second, third and fourth took place in 2023, 2024 and 2025, with no month stated. Our data record uses 1 January as a placeholder for each.
• The fifth is described on the same page, which was last updated on 16 June 2026. Its audit month is not stated either.

Each year the auditors spent several days on site. They reviewed VPN and server configuration files, operating procedures and staff. The 2026 report concluded that the review did not indicate that the examined server infrastructure logs users’ browsing activity. It also found no persistent records linking a user to activity on a reviewed server. All five reports are public downloads from Proton Drive. That puts Proton ahead of NordVPN and Surfshark, whose reports require a customer login.

The transparency report puts numbers to the policy. Proton VPN received 59 legal orders in 2025 and denied all 59. In earlier years it denied:

• 53 of 53 in 2024
• 60 of 60 in 2023
• 80 of 80 in 2022
• 121 of 121 in 2021

Proton says every VPN request came from an authority trying to identify who was connected to a specific server at a specific time. Proton says it cannot do that. There is no warrant canary.

Three legal-order cases are in our record. Read them closely. Two of them concern Proton Mail accounts rather than VPN accounts, and all three are often misreported.

In January 2019, the Swiss courts approved a data request from a foreign country about a Proton VPN user. Proton reported that it could not comply, because it holds no customer IP information. It explained this to the requesting party. The exact day is not stated, so our record uses 1 January as a placeholder. This is the one case in the record that tested the VPN no-logs policy directly, and the policy held.

On 6 September 2021, Proton’s CEO, Andy Yen, explained a French criminal case against a climate activist. Proton had received a legally binding Swiss order that could not be appealed. Three authorities in two countries had approved it. The order required Proton to collect and disclose the IP address used to access a Proton Mail account. Proton said its encryption was not bypassed and no messages were handed over. It said it did not know who the users were. It added that Swiss law treats email and VPN differently: “Proton VPN cannot be compelled to log user data”. Proton Mail, however, can be ordered to log an IP address for a specific account under criminal investigation. Our record rates it medium severity.

On 8 May 2024, TechCrunch’s Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai reported on what court documents showed. Proton had given Spanish police the recovery email address attached to a Proton Mail account, through Swiss authorities. It was an iCloud address. Apple’s records for it then identified a Catalan activist. Proton confirmed it had complied with a Swiss request. It said it holds minimal user information and that the identifying data came from Apple. It also noted that a recovery address is optional. The address cannot be encrypted, because Proton must be able to email it. Proton’s framing is that it offers privacy by default, not anonymity. Our record rates this one medium as well.

The three cases follow the same pattern. Proton did not log VPN activity in any of them. In the two Mail cases, it provided data it legally held, or was ordered to collect, for a named account. For a VPN user, this leads to two practical steps:

• If it matters to you, pay in a way that does not identify you. Proton credits can be bought with cash, bank transfer or Bitcoin. Proton also takes Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal and app-store billing.
• Do not attach a recovery address that links to your real identity.

Security features

A protocol is the set of rules a VPN uses to build its encrypted connection. Proton VPN offers WireGuard and OpenVPN, and the Apple apps also offer IKEv2. Stealth is Proton’s own obfuscation protocol. Obfuscation disguises VPN traffic so that networks cannot easily spot and block it. Stealth sends WireGuard over TLS, so the traffic looks like ordinary web browsing.

Encryption is AES-256 or ChaCha20, with a 4096-bit RSA key exchange, HMAC-SHA384 authentication and perfect forward secrecy. Perfect forward secrecy means a stolen key cannot unlock past sessions. Post-quantum protection is designed to resist attacks from future quantum computers. It is the one headline feature Proton lacks. Proton lists it as future work on the 2026 roadmap, while ExpressVPN, NordVPN and Surfshark already offer it.

A kill switch blocks your internet if the VPN connection drops. Proton’s kill switch works on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and iPadOS, and Android.

Split tunneling lets you choose what goes through the VPN. Proton offers it on:

• Windows
• Linux, in the graphical client
• Android and Android TV
• the browser extension

On macOS it exists only as an experimental feature for excluding apps. It is not available on iOS, while Surfshark and ExpressVPN offer it there.

Secure Core is Proton’s multi-hop feature. Your traffic first enters through servers that Proton owns, installs and runs in Switzerland, Iceland and Sweden. It then exits from a server elsewhere. NetShield is a DNS-based blocker for ads, trackers and malware.

Proton supports port forwarding, which opens a port so other devices can connect to yours. NordVPN, Surfshark, ExpressVPN and CyberGhost do not offer it inside the tunnel. That makes Proton VPN the torrenting choice among the big brands. A dedicated IP exists only on the Proton VPN Professional and Proton Workspace business plans, not on consumer plans.

Proton runs its own DNS servers, with leak protection in all apps. IPv6 is the newer format of internet address. Proton handles it better than any other provider in our table. IPv6 traffic goes through the VPN on Windows, Linux, Android and the browser extension. On macOS and iOS, IPv6 is turned off, with leak protection. Proton says about 80% of its servers support IPv6. Run our IPv6 leak test to confirm how it behaves on your own device.

The network is large. We loaded the servers page on 31 October 2026. Its live counters showed 21,722 servers in 149 countries and 197 locations. That included 125 Secure Core servers and 18,744 Plus servers. The marketing copy says 20,000+ servers in 140+ countries. Smart Routing provides virtual locations for 100+ countries, where the server is physically somewhere else. Proton owns the Secure Core servers and does not state who owns the rest.

Proton VPN is not RAM-only, and that is a deliberate choice. A RAM-only server keeps nothing on a hard drive, so a restart wipes it. In a blog post of 26 July 2024, Proton makes three arguments:

• Diskless servers only help when a server is turned off. An attacker inside a running machine can read its memory or a decrypted disk equally well.
• So in that situation, encrypted disks are neither more nor less secure than RAM.
• A reputable VPN should never log anything that would matter on a seized server in the first place.

Instead, every Proton server uses LUKS full-disk encryption with AES-256. The keys are stored off-site, not on the server. Proton says disks let it:

• keep system logs locally for troubleshooting
• push updates without rebooting the fleet
• run diagnostics more accurately

Proton admits that booting every server from one image has an operational benefit. But it concludes that RAM-only servers offer no privacy or security advantage over strong full-disk encryption. Our feature table records the fact that Proton is not RAM-only. This section records Proton’s reasoning. You can weigh it against NordVPN, Surfshark, ExpressVPN and CyberGhost, which all run diskless servers.

Apps and usability

Proton VPN has apps for:

• Windows, macOS, Linux and Chromebook
• Android, iPhone and iPad
• Android TV, Apple TV and Fire TV

It has browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. The Chrome version also runs on Edge, Brave and Opera. Routers work through OpenVPN and WireGuard configuration files, for OpenWrt, AsusWRT, pfSense, OPNsense, MikroTik and others. Paid plans allow 10 devices at the same time, and the free plan allows 1. There is no Smart DNS, so a Samsung or LG TV needs a router setup.

Every app is open source, so anyone can read the code. That is the strongest transparency position among the big brands. NordVPN publishes the code only for its Linux client. ExpressVPN publishes only its browser extension and the Lightway core.

Streaming is a paid feature. Proton’s streaming guide lists:

• Netflix in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea and 15 more countries
• Prime Video and Disney+ in 22 countries each
• BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Max, Peacock, Paramount+, Crunchyroll, YouTube TV, DAZN and ESPN+

We have not yet tested any of them. So the table above records them as Proton’s documented claims. We have not yet tested speed in our lab either.

Many readers come here for the free plan. Our Proton VPN Free guide covers its limits and setup step by step. It covers one device. It connects you to servers in 10 countries, chosen at random rather than by you. It leaves out streaming, NetShield, Secure Core and split tunneling. Proton’s plan comparison rates its speed as medium. On the plus side, the free-plan page says there is no data cap, no time limit and no advertising. The same no-logs policy and audits cover free users. That is why our best VPN for privacy page treats it as a real option rather than a trial.

We have not yet published our own usability tests or screenshots. The feature table above shows what Proton documents as of 31 October 2026.

Support

Live chat runs 24/7 for paid plans. It starts with an AI assistant and then hands you to a person. Free users get ticket support instead. Email support and a large knowledge base are open to everyone. That knowledge base is the source for most of the platform facts on this page. We have not yet measured response times. So the support score reflects what is available, not how good it is.

Plans and the renewal price

VPN Plus is the consumer VPN plan. On 31 October 2026 it cost:

• $9.99 month to month
• $4.49 a month on the 1-year plan, or $53.88 up front, advertised as 55% off
• $3.49 a month on the 2-year plan, or $83.76, advertised as 65% off

Both long plans are introductory prices. The pricing page states that the 2-year plan renews at $83.88 every 12 months. The plan data in the page lists $83.88 a year as the regular price, and the 1-year plan renews at that price too. That renewal is $6.99 a month. It is double the 2-year rate, but below the monthly price and far below NordVPN’s $139.08 a year. VPN Plus also comes with the free tiers of Proton Mail, Proton Drive and Proton Pass, and limited access to Proton Calendar.

Proton Unlimited bundles premium access to Proton VPN, Proton Pass, Proton Mail, Proton Calendar and Proton Drive. It costs:

• $12.99 month to month
• $9.99 a month on the 1-year plan, or $119.88, renewing at $119.88
• $7.99 a month on the 2-year plan, or $191.76, advertised as 38% off and renewing at $119.88 every 12 months

Proton gives prorated credit when you change plan length or upgrade. That means you get credit for the unused part of your current plan. Our Proton VPN pricing page keeps the price history. The Proton VPN deals page and the Black Friday VPN deals page show today’s promotion against the other brands.

The 30-day money-back guarantee covers website purchases. You request a refund through support. Bank-transfer and cash payments cannot be refunded, which matters if you chose them for anonymity. You cancel App Store subscriptions in your Apple account settings, and Apple refunds them through its own process. Google Play purchases can go through Proton support or Google Play. Proton quotes 5 to 10 business days for card refunds, and 1 to 2 working days for PayPal and Bitcoin.

To cancel on the website, sign in at account.protonvpn.com and open Subscription. Select Cancel subscription, choose a reason and submit. Premium features last until the end of the billing cycle. Then the account becomes Proton Free.

Who it is for and who should skip it

Proton VPN suits readers who rank privacy they can verify above everything else. It offers them open-source apps, yearly audits with public reports, Swiss jurisdiction, cash and Bitcoin payment, Secure Core and Stealth. It also suits:

• torrent users who need port forwarding
• households that use IPv6
• people who want a free plan with no data cap and no ads
• anyone already paying for Proton Mail, who can fold the VPN into Proton Unlimited

Skip it if:

• you need Smart DNS or a dedicated IP on a consumer plan
• you need split tunneling on an iPhone
• post-quantum encryption is a requirement today
• you want RAM-only servers as a matter of principle, whatever Proton’s reasoning
• you want the cheapest possible long plan, where CyberGhost at $2.19 and Surfshark at $2.49 undercut it

The free plan is not for streaming, and you have to pay to get 24/7 live chat. Some readers need anonymity rather than privacy. Proton itself says these are different things. Those readers should pay with cash or Bitcoin and skip the recovery address. They could also consider Mullvad, which never asks for an email address.

Alternatives

NordVPN costs $3.49 a month on its 27-month Basic plan. That is $94.23, and it renews at $139.08 a year. It has had six no-logs checks, runs RAM-only servers and offers post-quantum NordLynx. But it has no port forwarding and no IPv6, and its apps are closed source apart from Linux. See NordVPN vs Proton VPN.

Surfshark costs $2.49 a month for 27 months, or $67.23. Its renewal price is not stated. It has unlimited devices and split tunneling on iOS. But it has no port forwarding, and it is based in a 9 Eyes country. See Proton VPN vs Surfshark.

ExpressVPN costs $2.99 a month for 28 months. That is $83.72, and it renews at $99.95 a year. It has post-quantum Lightway and split tunneling everywhere. But it has no multi-hop, and it has not taken crypto payments since August 2026. See ExpressVPN vs Proton VPN.

Mullvad charges a flat $5.60 a month. It needs no email address, takes cash and runs WireGuard only. It makes no streaming claims and has 566 servers in 50 countries. See Mullvad vs Proton VPN.

Windscribe is the other free tier worth knowing. It is based in Canada and costs $5.75 a month on the yearly Pro plan, or $69. But it has no no-logs audit. See Proton VPN vs Windscribe. IVPN is the option based in Gibraltar, with open-source apps and yearly Cure53 audits. It costs $5.00 a month on its yearly Standard plan, or $60.

For rankings by use, see our best VPN for torrenting, best VPN for Netflix and best VPN for privacy pages, or the full provider list.

How we verified this review

We read every price, plan term, renewal amount, refund rule, server count and feature on this page from Proton VPN’s official pages on 31 October 2026. The pricing page shows the 2-year term by default. So the 1-month and 1-year prices come from the plan data in that page. Audit dates come from Proton’s no-logs audit announcement. Where Proton gives only a year, we use a placeholder and say so. Our sources for the three legal cases are:

• Proton’s transparency report
• Proton’s own 2021 statement
• TechCrunch’s named 2024 report

The RAM-only reasoning comes from Proton’s 2024 blog post. We have not yet run speed or streaming tests. That is why speed is left out of the score and streaming entries are labeled as claims. The data record behind this page is public. Our how we test page describes the lab that will replace the claims with measurements.