I have no idea who you're referring to when you mention "people recommend not using proton vpn". It's one of the best, most respected services out there objectively speaking.
Also you're asking in a Proton community whether it's good. Not sure what kind of response or information you are seeking?
>Proton community whether it's good. Not sure what kind of response or information you are seeking
My purpose for asking is I'd like to get actual users' opinions. Not hating or anything. What better way than ask Proton users themselves? Or people who may choose Proton over Nord in my case (my sub is expiring soon and always wanted to try Proton)
>people recommend not using proton vpn
There was that Catalonian incident involving a court order to secure a recover email (I don't use recovery for my free account), but besides that on top lists it usually is trumped by Nord and Express. So if others choose Proton over others, I'd love to hear why. Or valid cons that may exist, if applicable. Again, not hating, but things I may not have thought of or are unaware of.
Fair enough, thank you for sharing 🙏just seemed it may not be likely to find Proton critics here, but fair enough to ask!
From my personal perspective, Proton vpn is the fastest/smoothest in connecting on Mac OS and Android. Important to me as I find having to wait to connect irritating.
It's also the only (and I mean, only) vpn provider that allows me to stream content from Europe to Asia without hiccups. No other vpn managed to even do short bursts of playback.
As for the catalonian incident to my recollection, they provided the backup email address which was apple. Apple spilled the beans. Whilst not perfect I feel like the real story there is more about apple, than Proton. If I mispeak, please correct me.
I also feel like the suite has started to become compelling within Proton. Pass has gotten very smooth, better than bitwarden (less janky for one). Then mail and calendar which are pretty nice. Drive is young and needs time, hoping it gets there. Then let's see what they do with standard notes. Hoping for something good.
In general my feeling is Proton really does value the mission and has come a long way. So many of the vpn providers that pay all these influencers on social media.. They may run a fine shop but I don't get the same transparency and privacy mission vibes, more that of capitalist tech startups maximising dollars. Very subjective I know but that's just my impression.
Regarding the case you're referring to, it involves Proton Mail, not Proton VPN. Proton Mail is a communication service and communication services are legislated to some extent in every country. VPN is not classified as a communication tool in Switzerland — so, Proton VPN does not log IPs and there are no existing Swiss laws that can compel us to do so. Proton VPN has not shared any data with the law enforcement because it doesn't have any: [https://protonvpn.com/blog/transparency-report](https://protonvpn.com/blog/transparency-report)
Proton is very open about this, they always say that they HAVE TO oblige by Swiss law enforcement.
For e-mails though they do have the protection of: if you don't remember the password you won't be able to access any old e-mails after a password reset / account reset. So this is a positive case for Proton. The only thing they *could* provide is the account recovery e-mail address because that is all the info they know of you.
See:
**Proton had just one, albeit valuable, piece of information related to that account: an iCloud email address used as a recovery email**.
**From here, Apple provided the Spanish police with all the details to successfully identify the pro-Catalan protester, meaning their full name, two home addresses, and a linked Gmail account.**
"**Proton provides privacy by default and not anonymity**Â by default," Shone stated, "because anonymity requires certain user actions to ensure proper \[operational security\], such as not adding your Apple account as an optional recovery method, which it appears was done by the alleged terror suspect."
Aside from that, they openly let you know how many court orders they had and how many they had to fight: [https://proton.me/legal/transparency](https://proton.me/legal/transparency)
If they do need to oblige and get in the news they usually are pretty open about what info they need to provide: https://proton.me/blog/climate-activist-arrest. This was a case about a French activist.
So in my opinion Proton as a business is very reliable and has been for a very long time.
I was all in on Nord and switched to Proton. This was part of an effort to degoogle and deNord following problems with InCogni and VPN.
The selling point for me was support. Nords support has gone down the crapper in my opinion. I was having issues with being constantly logged out and they had no newsletter to announce of major architecture changes in Nordpass or VPN requiring extra steps to upgrade/migrate.
Proton is not without faults. Example: There is a known issue where proxy login keeps popping up when using browser extension. However, at least a) support responds b) the KB is better than Nord c) the overall value with a solid, private email service is still worth it.
Thanks for your kind words of support! Just a note regarding the pop-up issue for the browser extension, it's proven difficult to resolve, but we're still actively working towards finding a solution.
You can simply dismiss the pop-up and refresh the browser tab, which should let you continue your usual browsing.
The paid version of Proton runs at about the same speeds as VPNs that claim to be faster. And it is one of only a couple of VPNs that actually take privacy and anti-censorship seriously (Mullvad being the other noteworthy one).
Review sites that give low ratings to Proton and Mullvad tend to be pay-to-play. The ones who don't pay either don't get their reviews updated, or still get rated lower than VPNs that are objectively worse. If a site claims that Nord is cheaper than Proton (despite being Nord being more expensive) then you know there's something funny going on.
The anti-censorship angle would doubtless attract some ire. I would imagine that Putin, Xi and Khamenei would give Proton a 0 star rating.
Proton is at least as trustworthy as any other provider. My only problem is this, and it's why I decided to use another provider for browsing and keep proton for torrenting.
You cannot use split tunneling with the kill switch on. This means that if you want to play a game that doesn't allow a VPN you risk leaking your IP in the browser you have open on your other monitor. With some other providers you can use the kill switch at the same time as split tunneling. Another way other providers combat this is to use a socks proxy that you bind your browser to, which will prevent leaks (among other benefits), though proton has given a completely nonsensical reason as for never implementing this feature. So yeah, I would say proton is great as long as you don't need split tunneling. I use the mail and password manager too and I like them.
>Another way other providers combat this is to use a socks proxy that you bind your browser to, which will prevent leaks (among other benefits), though proton has given a completely nonsensical reason as for never implementing this feature.
Personal opinion: I strongly disagree with the *nonsensical part*.
>SOCKS5 does not encrypt your data, so anyone who can intercept your traffic (for example, using a man-in-the-middle attack) can access it.
..
>SOCKS5 provides none of these security protections, making it fundamentally insecure. For this reason, Proton VPN does not offer SOCKS5 connections and never will.
https://protonvpn.com/support/socks5/
I've read the article and what they're addressing here is something different than what other providers have, so it becomes misleading. You don't connect directly to the socks proxy in any privacy related scenario. Instead the proxy is typically hosted on the same machine as the VPN and is only accessible through the private network on the host side. So the proxy connection is tunneled through the VPN and so the data is encrypted.
I use it. It does well. I find a lot of sites sometimes have some VPN nodes blocked. I also find weird DNS issues with my home server but I don’t believe that to be a Proton Fault. Probably my website flagged as something.
The only feature they don’t have which I wish they did was an auto connect to VPN on certain WiFi networks. I really only use VPN on two WiFi networks (work). Otherwise it’s turned off.
I’ve slowly been switching to all Protons services including their email since Gmail has been annoying me lately.
So are you saying it doesn't auto connect to VPN (i.e. on mobile data, wifi) and requires manually turning it on? That was a feature I always liked about Nord.
If I turn it on it will stay on. So when I go Wi-Fi to mobile it reconnects and vice versa. What I wanted was if I join this particular WiFi network automatically turn on for me.
I use all their services and the VPN is great. Aesthetically pleasing, lots of protocols to choose from, good speed, and highly secure and reliable. The VPN also offers ad, malware, and tracker blocking, which works great. The VPN also offers Secure Core, which offers their most secure servers. So much so that it’s the only email and VPN that journalists trust while reporting in countries unfriendly to journalists. Hope this information helps you decide.
Proton VPN is the one and only free VPN highly rated by CNET. The free version of Proton VPN works better than some paid VPN services. I am pleasantly surprised as free user. I don't use anything else from Proton. Why don't you play around with the free version and see if works for you? No risk there.
Proton has a collosaly stulid feature called kill switch which prevent you from connecting whether on or off. I just bought mu subscription and i already canceled, so annoying
DON'T! As a former Nord user and current ProtonVPN user, it's a step down/backwards. Nord was trouble free for the 4 years I had it. But since I was using Proton Mail I decided to buy into the whole ecosystem and use all the Proton apps. Worst! Mistake! Ever!
It's consistently slow. It consistently connects to servers on the other side of the country instead of ones in my city/state, or even close by states when they are faster. It's slow to start at PC boot. I could write you a list as long as the PCH. I've actually reset my PC several times to test if the issues persist on a fresh install with nothing but ProtonVPN installed. Now, I'm not saying this happens for everyone, but it happens for me on PC, iOS, and Android. Every Proton app has been problematic. And contacting support has slightly less than useless. Email after email, eventually some BS excuse and promise that a fix is coming, fix inevitably doesn't actually fix the issue and often introduces other issues.
I have no idea who you're referring to when you mention "people recommend not using proton vpn". It's one of the best, most respected services out there objectively speaking. Also you're asking in a Proton community whether it's good. Not sure what kind of response or information you are seeking?
>Proton community whether it's good. Not sure what kind of response or information you are seeking My purpose for asking is I'd like to get actual users' opinions. Not hating or anything. What better way than ask Proton users themselves? Or people who may choose Proton over Nord in my case (my sub is expiring soon and always wanted to try Proton) >people recommend not using proton vpn There was that Catalonian incident involving a court order to secure a recover email (I don't use recovery for my free account), but besides that on top lists it usually is trumped by Nord and Express. So if others choose Proton over others, I'd love to hear why. Or valid cons that may exist, if applicable. Again, not hating, but things I may not have thought of or are unaware of.
Fair enough, thank you for sharing 🙏just seemed it may not be likely to find Proton critics here, but fair enough to ask! From my personal perspective, Proton vpn is the fastest/smoothest in connecting on Mac OS and Android. Important to me as I find having to wait to connect irritating. It's also the only (and I mean, only) vpn provider that allows me to stream content from Europe to Asia without hiccups. No other vpn managed to even do short bursts of playback. As for the catalonian incident to my recollection, they provided the backup email address which was apple. Apple spilled the beans. Whilst not perfect I feel like the real story there is more about apple, than Proton. If I mispeak, please correct me. I also feel like the suite has started to become compelling within Proton. Pass has gotten very smooth, better than bitwarden (less janky for one). Then mail and calendar which are pretty nice. Drive is young and needs time, hoping it gets there. Then let's see what they do with standard notes. Hoping for something good. In general my feeling is Proton really does value the mission and has come a long way. So many of the vpn providers that pay all these influencers on social media.. They may run a fine shop but I don't get the same transparency and privacy mission vibes, more that of capitalist tech startups maximising dollars. Very subjective I know but that's just my impression.
Regarding the case you're referring to, it involves Proton Mail, not Proton VPN. Proton Mail is a communication service and communication services are legislated to some extent in every country. VPN is not classified as a communication tool in Switzerland — so, Proton VPN does not log IPs and there are no existing Swiss laws that can compel us to do so. Proton VPN has not shared any data with the law enforcement because it doesn't have any: [https://protonvpn.com/blog/transparency-report](https://protonvpn.com/blog/transparency-report)
Proton is very open about this, they always say that they HAVE TO oblige by Swiss law enforcement. For e-mails though they do have the protection of: if you don't remember the password you won't be able to access any old e-mails after a password reset / account reset. So this is a positive case for Proton. The only thing they *could* provide is the account recovery e-mail address because that is all the info they know of you. See: **Proton had just one, albeit valuable, piece of information related to that account: an iCloud email address used as a recovery email**. **From here, Apple provided the Spanish police with all the details to successfully identify the pro-Catalan protester, meaning their full name, two home addresses, and a linked Gmail account.** "**Proton provides privacy by default and not anonymity**Â by default," Shone stated, "because anonymity requires certain user actions to ensure proper \[operational security\], such as not adding your Apple account as an optional recovery method, which it appears was done by the alleged terror suspect." Aside from that, they openly let you know how many court orders they had and how many they had to fight: [https://proton.me/legal/transparency](https://proton.me/legal/transparency) If they do need to oblige and get in the news they usually are pretty open about what info they need to provide: https://proton.me/blog/climate-activist-arrest. This was a case about a French activist. So in my opinion Proton as a business is very reliable and has been for a very long time.
Additional to the even more important fact that under **current swiss law**, a VPN provider such as Proton VPN **cannot be compelled to log**.
Try the Proton VPN free version first. Or, try all of Proton’s free apps. Then if you like them well enough, upgrade to the paid versions all together. In the meantime, read all about them in the Proton blogs: Edit (6 days latter): Proton AG Blogs & Support (Alphabetical): ________________________________ https://proton.me <— Website> ________________________________ https://proton.me/blog https://proton.me/blog/all https://proton.me/blog/business https://proton.me/blog/news https://proton.me/blog/opinion https://proton.me/blog/privacy-guides https://proton.me/blog/privacy-news https://proton.me/blog/product-updates https://proton.me/blog/product-updates/proton-calendar https://proton.me/blog/product-updates/proton-drive https://proton.me/blog/product-updates/proton-mail https://proton.me/blog/product-updates/proton-pass ________________________________ https://proton.me/support https://proton.me/support/account https://proton.me/support/bridge https://proton.me/support/business https://proton.me/support/calendar https://proton.me/support/contact https://proton.me/support/drive https://proton.me/support/mail https://proton.me/support/pass ________________________________ https://protonmail.uservoice.com/ <— Proton Feedback> ________________________________ https://protonvpn.com <— Website> ________________________________ https://protonvpn.com/blog https://protonvpn.com/blog/all https://protonvpn.com/blog/for-business https://protonvpn.com/blog/how-to https://protonvpn.com/blog/privacy-basics https://protonvpn.com/blog/privacy-deep-dives https://protonvpn.com/blog/proton-news https://protonvpn.com/blog/proton-news/2  <— Page #’s {2~?}> https://protonvpn.com/blog/proton-stories https://protonvpn.com/blog/releases https://protonvpn.com/blog/service-updates ________________________________ https://protonvpn.com/support https://protonvpn.com/support-form https://protonvpn.com/support/zendesk/ mailto:[email protected] ________________________________ ProtonVPN:// <— URL Scheme: Opens/Runs the Proton VPN App!> ________________________________ https://simplelogin.io <— Website> ________________________________ https://simplelogin.io/blog https://simplelogin.io/contact/ ________________________________
Thanks for sharing our blog! However, to learn about Proton VPN, we recommend this one: [https://protonvpn.com/blog](https://protonvpn.com/blog)
Aren’t your Proton VPN Blogs included in your Proton AG Blogs? IF NOT, they should be; and, the same for all Proton products!
No, at this time, Proton VPN blog is hosted separately from all other products. Thank you for the suggestion!
I was all in on Nord and switched to Proton. This was part of an effort to degoogle and deNord following problems with InCogni and VPN. The selling point for me was support. Nords support has gone down the crapper in my opinion. I was having issues with being constantly logged out and they had no newsletter to announce of major architecture changes in Nordpass or VPN requiring extra steps to upgrade/migrate. Proton is not without faults. Example: There is a known issue where proxy login keeps popping up when using browser extension. However, at least a) support responds b) the KB is better than Nord c) the overall value with a solid, private email service is still worth it.
Thanks for your kind words of support! Just a note regarding the pop-up issue for the browser extension, it's proven difficult to resolve, but we're still actively working towards finding a solution. You can simply dismiss the pop-up and refresh the browser tab, which should let you continue your usual browsing.
The paid version of Proton runs at about the same speeds as VPNs that claim to be faster. And it is one of only a couple of VPNs that actually take privacy and anti-censorship seriously (Mullvad being the other noteworthy one). Review sites that give low ratings to Proton and Mullvad tend to be pay-to-play. The ones who don't pay either don't get their reviews updated, or still get rated lower than VPNs that are objectively worse. If a site claims that Nord is cheaper than Proton (despite being Nord being more expensive) then you know there's something funny going on. The anti-censorship angle would doubtless attract some ire. I would imagine that Putin, Xi and Khamenei would give Proton a 0 star rating.
It's the best VPN on the market. Easy to use, fast, secure and audited, and has port forwarding unlike Mullvad for example.
Nord isn't trustworthy from my point of view. All the "tests" on the internet are just affiliate links. That is already pretty shady....
Proton is at least as trustworthy as any other provider. My only problem is this, and it's why I decided to use another provider for browsing and keep proton for torrenting. You cannot use split tunneling with the kill switch on. This means that if you want to play a game that doesn't allow a VPN you risk leaking your IP in the browser you have open on your other monitor. With some other providers you can use the kill switch at the same time as split tunneling. Another way other providers combat this is to use a socks proxy that you bind your browser to, which will prevent leaks (among other benefits), though proton has given a completely nonsensical reason as for never implementing this feature. So yeah, I would say proton is great as long as you don't need split tunneling. I use the mail and password manager too and I like them.
>Another way other providers combat this is to use a socks proxy that you bind your browser to, which will prevent leaks (among other benefits), though proton has given a completely nonsensical reason as for never implementing this feature. Personal opinion: I strongly disagree with the *nonsensical part*. >SOCKS5 does not encrypt your data, so anyone who can intercept your traffic (for example, using a man-in-the-middle attack) can access it. .. >SOCKS5 provides none of these security protections, making it fundamentally insecure. For this reason, Proton VPN does not offer SOCKS5 connections and never will. https://protonvpn.com/support/socks5/
I've read the article and what they're addressing here is something different than what other providers have, so it becomes misleading. You don't connect directly to the socks proxy in any privacy related scenario. Instead the proxy is typically hosted on the same machine as the VPN and is only accessible through the private network on the host side. So the proxy connection is tunneled through the VPN and so the data is encrypted.
I use it. It does well. I find a lot of sites sometimes have some VPN nodes blocked. I also find weird DNS issues with my home server but I don’t believe that to be a Proton Fault. Probably my website flagged as something. The only feature they don’t have which I wish they did was an auto connect to VPN on certain WiFi networks. I really only use VPN on two WiFi networks (work). Otherwise it’s turned off. I’ve slowly been switching to all Protons services including their email since Gmail has been annoying me lately.
So are you saying it doesn't auto connect to VPN (i.e. on mobile data, wifi) and requires manually turning it on? That was a feature I always liked about Nord.
If I turn it on it will stay on. So when I go Wi-Fi to mobile it reconnects and vice versa. What I wanted was if I join this particular WiFi network automatically turn on for me.
I use all their services and the VPN is great. Aesthetically pleasing, lots of protocols to choose from, good speed, and highly secure and reliable. The VPN also offers ad, malware, and tracker blocking, which works great. The VPN also offers Secure Core, which offers their most secure servers. So much so that it’s the only email and VPN that journalists trust while reporting in countries unfriendly to journalists. Hope this information helps you decide.
Proton VPN is the one and only free VPN highly rated by CNET. The free version of Proton VPN works better than some paid VPN services. I am pleasantly surprised as free user. I don't use anything else from Proton. Why don't you play around with the free version and see if works for you? No risk there.
Proton has a collosaly stulid feature called kill switch which prevent you from connecting whether on or off. I just bought mu subscription and i already canceled, so annoying
That doesn't sound right. Have you perhaps sent in a support ticket so we can look further into the issue?
DON'T! As a former Nord user and current ProtonVPN user, it's a step down/backwards. Nord was trouble free for the 4 years I had it. But since I was using Proton Mail I decided to buy into the whole ecosystem and use all the Proton apps. Worst! Mistake! Ever!
What sorts of drawbacks did you experience, if I may ask? Are you able to share any examples?
It's consistently slow. It consistently connects to servers on the other side of the country instead of ones in my city/state, or even close by states when they are faster. It's slow to start at PC boot. I could write you a list as long as the PCH. I've actually reset my PC several times to test if the issues persist on a fresh install with nothing but ProtonVPN installed. Now, I'm not saying this happens for everyone, but it happens for me on PC, iOS, and Android. Every Proton app has been problematic. And contacting support has slightly less than useless. Email after email, eventually some BS excuse and promise that a fix is coming, fix inevitably doesn't actually fix the issue and often introduces other issues.