Proton VPN: Fast & Secure

Proton VPN Review: The Free Tier Is Real, the Connection Less Steady

Is Proton VPN free? 10 countries, 1 device and a random server

Yes: no data cap and no ads. The free plan covers one device at a time, with free servers only in the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, Poland, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Mexico, Canada and the United States. You cannot pick the country. The app connects to the fastest free server, and Change server swaps it for a random one, with a 45-second wait after the first switch and 10 minutes after each later one. The privacy policy also reserves the right to slow free servers during excessive use. Secure Core, NetShield, split tunneling, P2P and streaming need a paid plan, marked in the app with a Proton+ badge.

Secure Core: a second hop through Iceland, Switzerland or Sweden

Secure Core, included with every paid plan, passes traffic through an extra Proton server before it exits. Entry servers sit in Iceland, Switzerland and Sweden on hardware Proton owns outright; the Swedish site is an underground data center, the Icelandic one a former military base. If someone watches an exit server in the US or another high-risk country, the trail ends at the Secure Core edge rather than at your IP. On Android it is a filter in the Countries tab. It is separate from Smart Routing: of 109 listed Smart Routing locations, 87 have no physical server in that country, and India, for example, runs through Singapore.

458 Swiss court orders, five no-logs audits and what the app collects

Proton AG is based near Geneva and is mostly owned by the nonprofit Proton Foundation. Its transparency report counts 458 legally binding Swiss orders since 2017, 47 of them in the first half of 2026; all were denied because no such logs existed. Securitum has checked the no-logs setup on site five years running, most recently in 2026, and the reports are public. The apps have been open source since January 2020. Play's Data safety form lists email, user IDs, purchase history, plus optional phone number and crash logs, with nothing shared. The Android app offers Smart Protocol, WireGuard and the in-house Stealth protocol; dropping OpenVPN cut its size by about 36%, Proton says.

VPN Plus at $11.99 in the App Store, against NordVPN and Mullvad

The U.S. App Store lists two VPN Plus purchases, $11.99 and $83.90, and Proton Unlimited at $14.99 for one month or $119.99; Google Play shows in-app items from $9.99 to $119.88. Prices are regional and may change, so check the current figure in the app. Unlimited adds Mail Plus, Drive Plus, Pass Plus and 500 GB of storage. Direct purchases can be refunded within 30 days, once per user. NordVPN cannot be used without a subscription, and its one-month App Store plan starts at $11.99. Mullvad has no free plan either, but charges a flat €5 a month for up to five devices. Of the 150 most relevant English Play reviews, 68 give one or two stars, mostly over dropped connections and websites blocking VPN addresses.