Proton VPN Review: Privacy Claims, Free Tier and Pricing

Proton VPN pairs a genuinely usable free tier with five yearly no-logs audits. This review checks its privacy claims, free plan limits and pricing.

By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-08T16:23:22+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-08T16:23:22+00:00

Proton VPN is a Swiss VPN with a free plan that has no data cap. That alone makes it unusual. Most free VPNs limit your data or sell your activity. Proton's free tier does neither, and its paid plan adds streaming, P2P and multi-hop routing. This Proton VPN review checks the privacy claims, the free tier and the pricing, so you can decide if it is worth paying for.

Proton VPN review: the free tier in plain terms

The free plan costs $0 and needs no credit card. You get one device at a time. You connect to servers in 10 countries, and the app picks the country for you. There is no data cap and no ads. That last point matters. Many free VPNs cap data at a few hundred megabytes per day. Proton does not.

The free tier uses the same no-logs policy as paid plans. It also includes a kill switch and DNS and IPv6 leak protection. The Stealth protocol is included too. Stealth disguises VPN traffic so restrictive networks are less likely to block it.

What you do not get: streaming support, P2P servers, Secure Core, NetShield or split tunnelling. Those are paid features. The free plan also runs at medium speed, not the highest speed paid users get. The 10 free countries are the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, Poland, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Mexico, Canada and the United States.

One device is the real limit for most people. If you want protection on a phone and a laptop at the same time, the free plan cannot do it. For a single device, though, this Proton VPN review finds it the strongest free VPN tier available.

Proton VPN pricing and plans

Proton sells two paid options. VPN Plus is the full VPN plan. Proton Unlimited is a bundle that adds the premium tiers of Proton Mail, Drive, Pass and Calendar. Prices in this Proton VPN review were checked in early November 2026.

VPN Plus costs $9.99 per month if you pay month to month. A two-year term cut that to about $3.49 per month when checked on 7 November 2026, or $83.76 for the first two years. The plan then renews at $83.88 per year. Proton Unlimited costs $12.99 per month, or $7.99 per month on a two-year term, and renews at $119.88 per year. Prices vary by currency and promotion, so check the pricing page before you buy. All paid plans carry a 30-day money-back guarantee.

VPN Plus covers 10 devices at once. It opens the full network of more than 20,000 servers in over 140 countries. It adds streaming support, P2P servers with port forwarding, Secure Core multi-hop routing, NetShield ad and malware blocking, and live chat support.

Proton Unlimited adds the paid tiers of Mail, Calendar, Drive and Pass, with 500 GB of storage shared across Mail and Drive. It makes sense if you already use Proton's other products. If you only want a VPN, VPN Plus is the cheaper route. A Proton VPN review that ignores the renewal price misses the real cost, so note it before you buy.

Privacy claims: no-logs audits and Swiss jurisdiction

Proton says it does not log your IP address, the sites you visit or your VPN session data. The claim is backed by audits. The security firm Securitum has audited the no-logs policy every year since 2022. The fifth audit, published in 2026, found no sign of logging of browsing activity or connection metadata on the servers it examined. Proton publishes the full reports.

That audit record is the strongest part of this Proton VPN review. A privacy promise is easy to write. A yearly independent check is harder to fake. Proton is based in Switzerland, outside the 5, 9 and 14 Eyes surveillance alliances. Swiss law gives it a strong privacy framework, though Swiss authorities can still issue lawful orders. Proton's transparency report counts 458 legally binding Swiss orders since 2017, and in none of them could it identify the user.

Account data is a separate matter. Proton keeps the data needed to run your account, such as your email address and payment details. Its policy says this data is stored encrypted on servers in Switzerland, Germany or Norway. The no-logs promise covers VPN activity, not account records.

All Proton VPN apps are open source. Anyone can inspect the code. Each app has also been independently audited. Open source code plus published audit reports is a transparency level few VPNs match.

Features that matter day to day

Secure Core routes your traffic through a hardened server in Switzerland, Iceland or Sweden before it exits in your chosen country. An attacker watching the exit server sees the Secure Core server, not your real address. It costs speed, so use it when the extra layer matters, not for everyday browsing.

NetShield blocks ads, trackers and malware domains at the DNS level. It is a paid feature. The kill switch blocks all traffic if the VPN connection drops, so your real IP address never leaks. Protocols include WireGuard, OpenVPN and Stealth. WireGuard is the default for speed. Stealth wraps traffic to slip past networks that block VPNs.

VPN Accelerator is Proton's set of optimisations for long-distance connections. Proton claims it can raise speeds by up to 400% on slow routes. This Proton VPN review did not test speeds firsthand, so it reports Proton's speed claims as claims. Tor over VPN lets you reach onion addresses through the normal app, without the Tor browser. P2P users get dedicated servers and port forwarding, which helps download speeds.

Where Proton VPN falls short

No VPN is perfect, and this Proton VPN review found real gaps. It has no Smart DNS feature for devices that cannot run a VPN app, such as some smart TVs. Post-quantum encryption is not available yet. Speeds are strong on paid plans, but the free tier runs at medium speed by design. Support on the free plan is limited to email and help articles. Live chat is paid only.

Some server locations are virtual. Proton lists servers in 149 countries, but dozens of those are virtual locations served from servers in other countries. That is normal in the industry, but it means the country count overstates the physical network. The two-year discount also hides the renewal price. The first term is cheap, then the plan renews at $83.88 per year. Budget for the renewal, not the intro price.

Bottom line: is Proton VPN worth it?

The verdict of this Proton VPN review is clear. Proton VPN is the best choice for privacy-first users and for anyone who wants a genuinely usable free VPN. The free tier has no data cap, no ads and the same no-logs policy as paid plans. That combination does not exist elsewhere. VPN Plus is worth paying for if you need streaming, P2P, 10 devices or server choice. The five yearly no-logs audits give the privacy claims real weight. The main weakness is the lack of Smart DNS and the renewal price jump. Start with the free plan. If it fits your devices, upgrade on a longer term and watch the renewal date.