Proton VPN Free, $ 0.00/mo. on VPN

Free has been updated on February 11, 2026 (added October 29, 2019)

🔌 Connected devices :	1
💳 Payment Methods :	Credit / Debit / Prepaid Cards
🔧 Category :	VPN
⚑ Targeting :	BR CA HR FR DE GR HU ID IR IT MX NL PL PT RU ES CH TR UK US

See also initial Free plan location on their website!

*📜 Plan description

📄 Editorial Review

Proton VPN is the VPN service of Proton AG, a privacy-focused company based near Geneva in Switzerland. The same organization runs Proton Mail, Proton Drive, Proton Pass and Proton Calendar, so the VPN sits inside a broader encrypted ecosystem instead of being a standalone tool. The service has been running for years and feels mature in terms of apps, protocols and infrastructure.

The core offer is a multi-platform VPN with a genuine free tier and several paid tiers. Proton Free is a permanent free plan: one device, moderate speeds, a smaller set of countries, but no data caps and no ads. Crucially, it uses the same encryption and no-logs approach as the paid service, which makes it a realistic option for basic privacy, occasional hotspot use and light censorship bypassing.

For more demanding use, the VPN Plus plan unlocks the full network, the highest speeds and the advanced features. That includes Secure Core multi-hop routing through hardened servers in privacy-friendly countries, streaming-optimized servers, P2P-friendly locations, Tor over VPN, and NetShield DNS filtering for ads, trackers and malware. VPN Plus allows up to 10 devices per account, enough to cover a typical household of phones, laptops, tablets and maybe a router.

Above that, Proton Unlimited bundles VPN Plus with full Proton Mail, Proton Drive and Proton Calendar features. For someone who wants an end-to-end encrypted stack for email, files and VPN under one roof, this bundle is the natural choice. There are also Family, Duo and Business plans that extend the same toolset to several users with shared storage and centralized management.

On the technical side, Proton VPN leans heavily into security and transparency. Apps for all major platforms are open source, and the infrastructure and no-logs policy have gone through independent audits. They support modern protocols (OpenVPN, IKEv2, WireGuard and their own Stealth protocol for tougher censorship environments), use strong cipher suites, and include important safety features like an always-on VPN option, a permanent kill switch, split tunneling and a performance booster labelled VPN Accelerator for long-distance links.

In day-to-day use, the service is a security product rather than just a streaming unblocking gadget. The apps show server load and latency, make it easy to save different connection profiles (for example, one for streaming, one for Secure Core, one for P2P), and behave consistently across desktop and mobile. Streaming on paid plans is usually smooth when using the designated servers, although, as with any VPN, behavior can vary over time as streaming platforms adjust their own countermeasures.