Proton VPN: Fast & Secure Reviews

by Vossba

I would have paid for a subscription, but you can’t buy month to month through your Apple account, you can only pay year by year. And I don’t have a credit card to buy month to month online. They know buying through your Apple account is the most convenient, so they want to force yearly subscriptions. I am not an independent journalist living in a communist country, I don’t need a yearly subscription. Pretty much only Plan on using it when on public Wi-Fi like at the airport. If this app had monthly subscription, paying through ProtonVPN to your Apple account, I would have been a paying customer already. Instead I have to check out other reputable vpn’s like Express or Nord to see if I can buy month to month. Whichever vpn service offers month to month through ProtonVPN , I’ll be purchasing their service. I would love to do business with Proton, but at this current time they make it impossible.

by Reviewer262626

Initially I want to say that Proton is a fantastic company, their ProtonMail and cloud storage service that is in beta are fantastic products. The this app service is equally as impressive but on iOS the service it is fundamentally flawed in a manner that undermines availability and confidentiality.

The application has a critical bug where the VPN connection disconnects when a iPhone is locked. I have experienced this issue on 3 models of iPhones and actually stopped subscribing to the service in June 2020 because of this issue. Now 18 months later I signed up to try out this app due to the WireGuard protocol support and I assumed this critical bug would have been corrected. The bug is still present after all that time and people use this VPN completely unaware their IP is leaking almost every time they lock their phone. I discussed this issue with their support team 18 months ago and just recently and they still acknowledge it’s a bug and suggest that changing protocol has had “limited” success for some users. I have used other services such as Private Internet Access (PIA) extensively where this problem does not occur at all.

I strongly recommend using a different service for iOS until this problem is resolved.

by Gsjbdifibdjdq479999432

It loses connection when the device is locked. Proton blames iOS but other vpns I’ve tried do not have this issue so if there is an issue with iOS it is possible to make it work anyway but proton is content to deliver a subpar product and blame someone else rather than make it work. I like a lot about proton but if it won’t even stay connected it is utterly useless.

Update since this app responded to the above: proton continues to try and justify their inferior service by blaming apple. I cannot say what software (apple’s or proton’s) is to blame here but it doesn’t matter to me because either way the service proton claims in advertising to work on iOS does not actually work on iOS. And either way their competition has figured out how to deliver a working service rather than being comfortable shipping a useless service and blaming someone else. The persistent copping out causes me to lose further trust in the company, even if this technical issue is ever fixed there is a low likelihood I ever want to pay for their service again.

by Ken Seussers

UPDATE: I’ve been using the free “Plus” trial for a week. This is the 4th time in the last 8 hours the VPN has turned itself off and disconnected my WiFi, leaving me to fiddle with both in order to properly reconnect. I’ve read the reviews on here - this has been an ongoing issue with smartphones for at least a YEAR!? Clearly the developers don’t find leaving even paying customers vulnerable to exploits a problem, and have no intention to fix this issue! As expensive as this product is, absolute fail!

Just ok. Often much slower than expected, and I have to interrupt my work more often than I like to try to find the “right” connection. To be fair, this could be because the building-wide wifi gets a bit slow from time to time to begin with. Not as slow as nord vpn, less sketchy than bitdefender, and I haven’t been blocked from any sites for being on a vpn like cyber ghost. In theory Proton should be less likely to have vulnerabilities or be compromised like some of the big names have been or could be, so that is the main sell.

by Ug Used To Be Good

Under no circumstances would I purchase this product. Somehow has become less reliable after I upgraded from the free version. Of course there are multiple tiers to choose from, I apparently picked the “pay for absolutely nothing” option. I was hoping it was just me but I see many other comments with the exact same issues. Disconnects randomly, often won’t tell you, or will say it’s connected to a server but be unusable. You will spend more time staring at the this app connect screen than you will spend using your search engine almost every time, and often through multiple server hops.

I pay for premium and still occasionally will be connected to a free server automatically, and nearly every day it will just turn off without notifying me. Best I can tell is this has something to do with the daily alarms/notifications and the DND mode that turns on when you use your phones sleep/alarm schedule. Screen time limitation options in the iPhone might also affect it, but I have it set as an exception everywhere that’s relevant. Completely turning off and not even attempting to notify or reconnect before allowing internet use seems like an absolutely critical failure for a VPN.

Hopefully it gets better and I will gladly change the rating. I want this product to work. For now, stick to the free or go elsewhere.

by Redcrossman68

I have ProtonMail and it works great so I figured I would give this a try. And I did the free trial version and all was well. As soon as it switched to the free version my phone started crashing and now working properly. At first I thought it was a problem with my phone so I contacted T mobile my carrier and they tried for two days to help me. When they couldn’t figure out what was wrong because it said everything was fine on there end but on my side it said I had no internet connection or WiFi even though all my other devices were working, they couldn’t figure out what was going on. So they put me in contact with apple who tried to fix my problem and took me thru everything they knew what to do and they couldn’t figure out what was making my phone malfunction. They set an appointment with my local apple store to see what they could do. This morning I decided to see if it was my vpn and as soon as I uninstalled the proton vpn, it started working fine. I hope you guys can figure out what caused this problem.

by Mk9s

Update: took another star off. Tried the latest version 3.0.1 which has a fix for quickly reconnecting after waking. Yesterday I happened to check VPN status while on cellular after being on Wi-Fi most of the day. Again, Proton VPN had quietly disconnected some time during the day and left me merrily working away with no VPN running at all. This is worse than no VPN at all.

##########################

Really wish I could give this VPN 5 stars. Like the privacy policy, the NetShield feature, speed, and simple UI. But the disconnection is a real problem. So many others report it, and ok iOS has an issue but I have used other VPNs for years and do not recall them disconnecting completely unknown to me for who knows how long until I happen to check. Just happened again, at least an hour merrily using my phone and just happen to check the this app widget and it offers to Quick Connect…. Huh? I can’t use the kill switch because I need to access local network devices. Really want to use this app but it makes no sense if it is off for long periods without my knowledge. Others have clearly solved this.

by Fatty- Mike..

To start I need answers and solution then you will get six stars and a subscription from me So I contacted Apple and they told me that I needed to contact you even though I read on the other comments stated from your end that you fixed the disconnection or that you can’t fix it you reported it and they won’t fix it they told me it’s an issue with a developer and for me to get in contact through the review section of all places I would give this thing five stars and purchase it if I knew that everything was safe when my phone disconnects from the VPN I am unsure if the apps are still working in the background and then able to track me and find out my location or anything else about me while it’s just sitting there and I’m taking a nap or a break from the phone or what not I need to know what to do so we can further in this it’s an amazing service even the free part of it is really nice but still disconnects I have the Killswitch on too but I still get messages even though it’s disconnected I’m not sure how that works

by Churchtan

Used to be flawless, in my opinion. Started with the free trial, and ended up purchasing the upgraded version, along with my Protonmail. About a month or so ago, the VPN service has just crashed and burned. It doesn’t hardly ever let me connect to the countries I want to connect to, I’m finding myself at risk constantly because it kicks me off of servers and won’t tell me. Please undo whatever you guys have done to make a great VPN service into a subpar VPN service.
Side-note:
It’s extraordinarily annoying to be logged out of my account, completely randomly and without warning. I’ve lost literally thousands of emails because I didn’t store my password anywhere (for security reasons) and to reset the password, it encrypts ALL of your messages. At least give an option to be signed out randomly or to stay logged in, although I’m sure that the majority of people would prefer to not be logged out without warning

by Bhataaqibm

I moved to this app from Nord because of the better privacy policy of the this app. I have been using ProtonMail for a long time & it is great. I started using it on my iPhone & MacBook. But man o man, it is sooooo veeery slow. Nord was much much much faster. On a 1Gigabit LAN connection it reduces speed by more than 10X. On Wifi it is much worse. It constantly keeps disconnecting and reconnecting. I hardly had any such issues on Nord. I wish the developers figure out what is wrong. Speed reduction is expected while on a VPN connection & we who choose to make such compromises never expect a 10X reduction in speed and frequent disconnections. A VPN is supposed to run in background but when the speed is sooooo slow it frustratingly makes a person realize you are on a VPN connection. The speeds we get here are expected on the hawkish VPN services not on a reputable company like Proton Technologies. Hope it gets figured out soon.

by Tunnell_T68

I downloaded ProtonVPN 11 days ago and I was happy with it. It works in the back ground and I wasn’t aware of any issues I didn’t even know I was on the 10 day trial for the premium version. Although I downloaded the iOS version for my Apple products, after the 10 days and I didn’t step up to the premium, I wanted the free version at this time, all of a sudden I was unable to access the internet with WiFi. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, my husband was getting WiFi, so I knew it wasn’t that. When I picked up one of my apple products that i had not downloaded Proton VPN yet, i had WiFi on it! So I uninstalled ProtonVPN from my phone and ipad, suddenly I had WiFi. Just so you know, you may not get WiFi if your not on the premium version. We live in a canyon where there is no cell service, so we do rely on WiFi emergency notifications.

by TuckRiles

this app/ProtonMail is known for their concentration on protecting the privacy of their customers. This they do very, very well. But the IOS version of their VPN is always disconnecting or facing extreme speed issues.
Update:
I have been using Proton Mail for years and truly believe because of their dedication to privacy that the VPN should be one of the best if not the best. I had been having speed and connectivity issues however changing the protocol to IKEv2 has solved most all problems. I have subscriptions to Proton, CyberGhost, Nord, Surfshark, and IP Vanish (I really like to keep everyone guessing) however given the speeds I’m now receiving (250 Down/174 Up) matched with the unbeatable Privacy issues I have no need for many of the others.

by Jose Jaeger

As someone who already uses Protonmail, getting this app as my VPN provider was a no-brainer, especially as I got to upgrade my Protonmail account in the process. While I have a wide variety of servers to choose from, the one aspect I found particularly annoying was that this app would always default to a US-based server whenever it could. As someone based in the US, being able to connect to a foreign server was a major selling point for me, but not only is there no way to configure a profile to never connect to a US-based server, ProtonVPN would automatically connect me to one if I lost a connection to another server I was already connected to at times. There needs to be a way to exclude specific countries within connection profiles to best enhance privacy and security.

by VI Lenin

this app is a good service. The iOS app, while stable, has a few things missing. Plus subscription unlocks region-locked content as advertised, NetShield works as expected. Improvements I’d like to see: sometimes on reconnect after unlocking ProtonVPN will connect you to your default profile instead of the last used profile. Servers in mainland China would be nice. Split tunneling would be incredibly useful. Finally, something that would allow me to have the VPN always enabled would be a widget that, beyond being a “quick connect” button, allows you to add it to the Home Screen and allows you to quick swap NetShield settings and saved profiles.

by Lewprint

I got this with my proton mail. I’m working from home in customer service and was hacked via the PC I bought for my pandemic work-from-home-gig. I went three months without income last year because of hackers trying to steal my Unemployment the previous year, so this second security breach was the last straw. Much more cautious about online security now, and don’t use the PC for anything outside of work with their VPN. (I’m typically an Apple user anyway) Mostly using this VPN on my iPad and it’s working for me, but it does slow things down a bit, and just this morning I had to de-install and re-install because the iPad wasn’t making the connection. I was mostly in need of a couple of secure email accounts, so this is a great bonus for my needs for now.

by Do6082

I have read some of the most recent reviews and I’m not sure what these people are trying to do with ProtonVPN .
I’ve been using the free version for almost 8 months now and I’ve had no issues with connection and disconnection or slow speeds.
I’ve been very happy with the free version hopefully they will keep a free version. I’ve been somewhat hesitant To try the paid version given that sometimes when you switch from a free version to a paid version the paid version may not work as well. This may be what the prior reviewer’s were referring to was a paid version.
Given current finances I will have to stay with the free version. I would like at some point to upgrade to the paid version.

by LexP305

I have had Proton mail and Proton VPN for years. I read several reviews that were bad. Almost all was because the person just did not know where to look to change a preference or just does not know anything about how a VPN works. I have set up several profiles as to where I want to connect. Always use Secure Core. I like that I can change to any location, just by clicking on a profile I created. If one profile server speed is slow, I click on another. Guys, read the instructions and learn how a VPN works, it’s capabilities and how to customize it like you want it. Whatever VPN you use, make sure the servers are not in the U. S. And a country that is big on people’s right to privacy. Sad but true, the U.S is at the top of collecting, mining & spying. And I don’t support using VPN’s for criminal activities. I was an LEO for 27 yrs and I do not believe in just grabbing everyone’s metadata off their cells at a Super Bowl just because they can. Get a warrant!!

In closing, I tried dozens of VPN’s and then ran many security test over the years . Proton passes them all. The only way Proton will fail it’s customer base, is folding from political pressure. But I think these guys & girls work at Proton for a reason. And that reason is because privacy matters.

by Dan 984

Updated, I found out how my IP was exposed, so everyone knows not to do this, here it is: If you enter a profile while it’s on, it shuts the VPN off and your IP is exposed. So don’t do this! —————————————————— This is my first day on Plus. So far I am very pleased. Been testing it going in and out of airplane mode. I did have an IP leak, once, prior to testing airplane mode, thus I am trying to figure out how this happened. It certainly wasn’t purposeful. There is no button for preventing DNS leak in IOS. Is this already enabled on all plus accounts? Dunno.. Also, I have IOS tracking across apps disabled. Hope this doesn’t affect how it operates with apps. Because I previously had that setting disabled and something recently turned it back on. And I turned it off again.

by N3v@St0pBel1ev1n

My concern for privacy and security has grown immensely the past few years, as my awareness grew. After much research and trials, Proton Technologies Mail + VPN services have truly been the best thus far to my experience, of course. I began with the free email account and made my way to the free VPN. Ultimately, I grew to enjoy & appreciate both Mail + VPN; therefore, I decided to upgrade to the Mail + VPN Plus (combo) subscription. The rest is history...I have no complaints. My transition from other mainstream services for personal email to Proton Mail have been relatively painless. There FAQs and fidelity in step-by-step guidance via their web-page(s) makes “doing it yourself” plausible. The intricacies to computer technology and all it entails can be intimidating, but do not worry, help is standing-by. Thank you Proton Technologies personnel from the bottom-up (& vice versa) for making this possible. I certainly appreciate all your efforts. Take care & Peace!

by Mikethereader11

I had initially signed on for a year of this app and found it to be very frustrating to use on my iPhone. The VPN connection would essentially be paused while the phone was not in active use and it would take more than 10s, sometimes 60+s if on LTE, to reestablish a connection. Sometimes a connection could not be established via LTE. I emailed support and after collecting info it boiled down to the way iOS handled VPN connections and I wasn’t the only one experiencing issues. They told me that they were actively working with Apple to try to fix it. And they have! Now I can remain connected all day without having any delays when picking up my idle phone. There are always plenty of servers available and I’ve never had slow data speeds.

by Msailing01

First, ProtonVPN stated I did not have an account and would not recognize names, email I previously registered. So I created a new account and was again denied stating names I registered were already taken. Duh. How stupid, childish and tech incompetent can they be????? They were taken by me when I created account and used vpn.

Second they wanted me to do gotcha more than a dozen times. I quit after 3 correct gotchas, but then started again to see how many times they would go through process. After 12, I proved my point about their further incompetence and stupidity and could not waste any more time with it.

Third, they put an alert in all red stating I was not connected to the internet, but I was, simultaneously.

I mean, would you buy and trust a vpn whose employees acted as described above? Would you trust your apps and devices security and your on line safety to some who engages in the above conduct. I wouldn’t. And for second time refused to pay for a service run by incompetent losers who toy with your privacy and monitor your sign up process and play 2nd grade games with it. That’s because they have so few customers they don’t have any work obligations. This is who you are dealing with at ProtonVPN. There is no way Zi could trust them to keep me safe online.

by MeerSoran

I have had this app for a while now and it was working fine until one day I got Disney+ but it wasn’t allowed in my country to I turned on this app and it worked great for the first 2 days. Then out of no where, it decided it should stop working. It would turn off randomly and would keep messing with my screen. This process kept happening until about 2 days ago, it just stopped working entirely. It said it was connected but the vpn logo wasn’t at the top of my screen. It also wouldn’t let me use Disney+ anymore even tho I’m paying for Disney+ and that means I might have wasted my money on Disney+ just for this app to stop working on it👎 This might be the worst VPN in the world.

by Synchronicityof99

This was a great VPN service way back when the user base was small and the Proton corporation was actively improving and growing it. On a Basic plan, many of their servers are constantly at/near capacity, or under maintenance. And despite speed being one of their early selling points, many of their servers barely move at all now.

As other reviews mention, the VPN connection is pretty fragile. Good luck connecting if your device has been locked/sleeping for more than a few minutes; I normally have to fiddle with the this app app and my Settings app to make it connect, or else it will remain in an infinite loop of attempting to connect. Need to unlock your phone and immediately access online info like transit times or weather? Too bad with this app.

I have reached out to support numerous times regarding these issues and all they ever do is blame iOS/my device and give me busy work that maybe solves these problems for a day or two, before they re-appear again.

Find yourself a stable VPN run by a company who reinvests in their product. this app doesn’t appear to be it.

by Fortuna Favors The Bold

So I have been using this VPN for a couple weeks, and I can say it’s been fantastic. They don’t sell your data, very secure, and makes upgrading feel like a bonus but not completely necessary. However, I have one major issue, which is that it takes a while to connect to the WiFi at my school, and when it does, it doesn’t work. My school WiFi is heavily restricted, and I thought using this VPN would bypass that, but I guess not. Wonderful VPN for most uses, but it will likely not work on WiFi that heavily restricts your usage. Developers, if there is something I can do to fix this, please let me know.

by Instawatcher

Similar issue to ‘randomuntakennickname.’

Message “ Connection Error” “ A previous VPN connection is preventing you from creating a new one. To resolve this issue, please restart your device.”

This typically, and now constantly appears after a device has momentarily dropped a (reliable) WiFi connection due to screen time-out setting or other reason. Attempting to remedy the issue than restart, such as logout and re-login or even app delete and reinstall does not resolve the issue. Unwillingness to restart a device means the VPN’s ordinary functioning is rendered inoperative.
_________\\\________
Edited 8-9-19
** Changed 2-star rating to 4-Star ****
It is unclear how or why this issue has resolved, but the using P-VPN with iOS 12.4 on a iPhone 7 Plus has begun reconnecting without snags again. There was no change in the WiFi networks used, which do not block or prohibit VPNs, and 4G-LTE use was not affected, although ProtonVPN was deleted, then reinstalled.(Same version.) I cannot complain as a user of the free version.

by DeliverTheNoise

I’ve been using the free version for months and am about to upgrade to pro. I highly suggest checking out proton VPN’s transparency report. I especially like using their free U.S. Servers on top of my router-configured vpns through other VPN companies in whom I trust less via servers in other countries (which normally inhibits me from doing things like viewing local news,etc.). Turning on free proton U.S. on iOS means I can use these services again while keeping the privacy I prefer. It should be noted that Apple should be utterly ashamed of themselves for disallowing the VPN killswitch. Apple is NOT interested in guarding your privacy except in the instances where doing so supports their half-evil business model.

by Varlinn

I used Proton VPN for PC since last year, and haven’t been disappointed. The free features are reliable and meet most people’s basic needs, making upgrading truly feel optional; Optional, but far from redundant as the best servers and several advanced features such as peer-to-peer are locked behind a paid account, for users that feel they would like them or just want to support the developers with their patronage. The moment the mobile app dropped I downloaded it, and have not been disappointed as it provides the same quality, reliability, and stability I loved on PC. If you get ProtonVPN, you will not be disappointed whether you decide to pay money or not.

by ConsiderateNotIgnorant

First off, I have Protonmail and this app on all of my devices. Windows desktop, MacBook Pro, iPad and Pixel 4xl. I have been very satisfied.
Unlike some of these mean comments being rude and projecting animals that feel the need to incriminate the programmers & developers of these apps and service, I did my research. I had issues with the connections at points, but I had to read letters and words to find the answers in my settings... 🤪 Free vpn’s are like free hookers.... need I say more. You get what you pay for? At a basic level, they provide good basic service. I have to pay the small subscription fee, and comes with that is the most private and protected VPN on the market. Thank you guys so much. I’m thankful you give me many options to tinker with.

by EEhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy

Proton is part of the reclamation of humanity. The mail app is not ad or spyware supported and they do not sell data. Below is my review for the mail (it stands just the same, for their VPN):

We are all worth more than the ‘free’ services we get from all the giants. These platforms aren’t free, they make a killing selling your data and then still have the gal to manipulate the platform and force ads down your throat. Wake up and stop supporting your own enslavement.

Yes, ProtonVPN is free, but they don’t sell you out. Support them if you can. If you can’t, it’s all good, you’re still supporting freedom. You are important, humanity.

by Minibepa

I think it’s my very first review of the iOS app, never done it before. Love the fact that Proton is giving it for a fair use and not ripping off potential customers: see it yourself and decide which features you need to pay for. I tried to find something reliable, fast and the inexpensive: I ended up with absolutely reliable app that integrates to iOS really well, I’ve got bundle Plus, and planning to move my domain to ProtonMail as well. Speed is great, even in free version it all depends from the time of a day, evenings usually more loaded and speed is slower. Love it!

by Another MusicMan

Experienced a bug after the iOS 13 update, but since has been fixed. Developer response was fast and reflected their care for customers.

Protonmail and Proton VPN are each the best offerings on the market - I’ve paid for multi year usage and will never look back. (Protonmail continues to exceed expectations!!)

It’s been a fun experience watching a company develop a ground breaking product while adhering to their vision - and managing customer expectations. Looking forward to the ongoing features’ rollout.

by ADHD Tim

I wanted a free VPN I could use at work since I know they maintain a record of all text traffic through their system. I mainly use my phone for texting with my wife: nothing controversial but I cherish my privacy. I’m very surprised at the speed through the service. Any VPN I’ve used previously has been very slow. I notice a slight delay, but nothing which impacts the quality of my experience.

On the rare occasions when I need to look up something at home which may attract government attention, I also will turn it on.

by The Reverend Doctor, Esq.

So great! Keep it up, proton team! Side note- it’s pretty funny when I’ve forgotten to turn off location services and open maps or something and it assumes I’m in Atlanta or California or some other random place. Wouldn’t connect to WiFi on my phone without this thing. Congrats on being out of beta. Glad to have been along for the ride. Thanks for being an example to help us keep the faith that there are legit developers and servicers who genuinely believe in the vision of a private and free internet

by XKey10x

Proton continues to be at the forefront of internet privacy. ProtonVPN is another great tool that does exactly as advertised, fast speed, no logging, free basic plan-no catch (although I do pay for a premium account, mostly to support proton’s mission because I believe in their values), and their servers are protected under hundreds of meters of solid granite rock protected by Swiss privacy laws. The premium account’s secure core and Tor relay features are great for any extra sensitive exchanges you may require. You can customise many different profiles and quickly change between them as your needs may require.