Knowing of my interest in VPNs, someone suggested that I take a look at Proton VPN. I was a little wary as I had distanced myself from the Proton environment due to disillusionment with its Android email app. However, this goes to show that discarding one’s negative views is beneficial. Proton VPN is just excellent.
Proton sets itself apart from offering a quality VPN for free, but you are limited to servers in either America, Holland or Japan. Opt for a paid for subscription and the world is wide open to you.
Proton VPN is headquartered in Switzerland, which is not a member of the 5 Eyes or 14 Eyes intelligence-sharing agreements. In fact the main centre is housed deep within a mountain. Proton also adds to its credentials by being opened source and is regularly audited.
Downloading, installing and launching the service is simplicity itself and the first thing that grabs you is the stunning dashboard. This tells you the server you are connected to, its IP address, server load, how long it has been up and running and other information such as countries to can link to.
With a subscription you get several benefits over the free version. First is Netshield, a DNS filtering system that blocks malware, ads and trackers. Second is stealth mode which is a unique protocol that bypasses most firewalls and VPN blocking attempts. Thirds is VPN accelerator that can increase your VPN speeds by over 400%. By overcoming CPU limitations that affect how VPN protocols are processed, using advanced networking techniques to reduce latency, and redesigning VPN protocols themselves to reduce inefficiencies in their code, VPN Accelerator can dramatically increase speed performance. This works. Running a speed test I got substantially faster speeds on my 1 GB connection than with Surfshark which is acknowledged as one of the fastest VPNs out there.
Last is secure core and I quote from the website: “
Proton VPN’s Secure Core architecture gives our secure VPN service the unique ability to defend against network-based attacks. Secure Core protects your connection by routing your traffic through multiple servers before leaving our network. This means an advanced adversary who can monitor the network traffic at the exit server will not be able to discover the true IP address of Proton VPN users nor match browsing activity to that IP.
“Secure core servers are located in hardened data centers in Switzerland, Iceland, and Sweden, protected by strong privacy laws, and operated on our own dedicated networks.”
Servers are located in 68 countries being home almost 400 servers, although free users are limited to how many servers they can access.
Proton VPN uses the usual protocols including Wireguard. TCP and UDP, although there is an automatic setting that will chose the best setting for you.
If you choose to pay monthly you have to part with 11.49 Euros a month, for a yearly plan increase that to 5.99 Euros a month and you get a small saving if you sign up for a two year deal at 4.99 Euros a month. All plans come with a 30 day get out clause. These put Proton at the top end of the market but, as with everything, you get what you pay for and with this VPN you get a long of bang for your buck.
Proton VPN is available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, iPhone and iPad and Android. There are additional extensions for Chrome, Firefox, AndroidTV and Chromebook.
As you would expect from a highly secure VPN that is trusted by security-conscious professionals such as journalists and activists, Proton VPN has a strict no logs policy. There is also a module that fires the connection through to the Tor network. You do not get any more secure than that.
