Extensive in-house testing is our bread and butter – and we routinely put today's best VPNs to the test to ensure each service provides exactly what it advertises. As a result, the rankings in our guides sometimes change to reflect usability, effectiveness, and value for money.
For instance, our latest round of testing saw PrivadoVPN become our #1 free VPN, effectively dethroning Proton VPN Free thanks to its reliably unblocking popular streaming services – something some of today's premium providers struggle with.
However, nothing is set in stone. In this article, I'll take a look at the areas where ProtonVPN Free could improve to nudge the rankings back in its favor. I should also mention that I don't always recommend a free VPN, as most of them simply can't do what a premium VPN can. That said, you do get the most basic protection level with a free VPN service, but more on that below.
Unveil extra features
Proton VPN's paid plan comes with all the basic features you'd expect from a VPN, and then some. However, while its free plan is more stingy, this is nothing unusual – it's just that other free VPNs are more generous.
But even then, one of the highlights of ProtonVPN's Free plan is that you get unlimited data, meaning you can use the service as much and as often as you like. Compared to other major free VPN providers, which usually impose much stricter data limits, ProtonVPN's unlimited data setup is wonderful.
Looking for a VPN that can unblock a world's worth of content? Check out our guide to the best streaming VPNs of 2024.
It's in other areas that the free plan's limits become evident. For instance, you can only access locations in Japan, the Netherlands, the US, Romania, and Poland. Additionally, while you can install Proton VPN on as many iOS, Android, Linux, Mac, and Windows devices as you like, you can only connect one of them at a time.
It's also a pity that free Proton VPN users don't get P2P or support for unblocking streaming services (although, this restriction makes sense – the service would be swamped with torrenters 24/7 if it offered unlimited P2P-friendly bandwidth for free).
Proton VPN's more advanced features are also inaccessible with the free plan: Tor over VPN for extra security, the Secure Core servers to further hide your traffic from snoopers, and the NetShield ad and malware blocker.
While the loss of these layers doesn't affect the main functions of the VPN, I can't help but compare it to WindScribe Free, which doesn't hide any tools behind a paywall.
Let users take their pick
As mentioned above, Proton VPN Free offers five server locations: Romania, Poland, the Netherlands, Japan, and the US. However, free users don't get to choose which server they join.
This can be very inconvenient in more ways than one. For instance, free users can't choose the closest server to optimize performance, which also typically leads to a struggle when it comes to unblocking location-specific content.
Free users don't get to choose which server they join
Additionally, out of most (all) other providers we tested that offer free VPN plans, Proton VPN is the only one whose free users cannot choose their server location.
To make these limitations (and potential for improvement) even more evident, Proton VPN and iTop VPN are the only two VPN providers with free plans that offer only 5 different servers to users. For reference, PrivadoVPN and Windscribe offer 10 servers on their free plans.
I'd love to see Proton VPN either allow users to choose their servers or, at the very least, broaden the server availability for its free plan.
Transparency is key
During our latest round of testing, we noticed something: to reduce the number of people using the service for heavy-duty downloading, Proton VPN has a tendency to cut down its download speeds whenever it thinks someone has used "too much" data.
While such a practice does make sense, as the service probably doesn't want its free servers swarmed by folks on the hunt for a reliable torrenting VPN there's still a lack of transparency here.
On the one hand, ProtonVPN has one of the least detailed Transparency Reports we've seen. Its 2023 report mentioned: "Total Orders: 60," "Denied Orders: 60," and virtually nothing else at all.
On the other hand, ProtonVPN does still fulfill the key purpose of a Transparency Report, highlighting that no data has been released. In fact, the provider does, at the very least, work harder than most to keep users in the loop, with report updates happening "whenever there's a notable new legal request."
Essentially, free Proton VPN users should be fine if they use the service to simply check social media. However, downloading hefty files may lead to issues.
What does Proton Free VPN do right?
So, while I've discussed how ProtonVPN Free could improve to regain its #1 spot in our free rankings, I want to make it absolutely clear that it's still a service worthy of consideration and a convenient way to improve your online security and anonymity without a paid subscription.
There are several ways in which it's better than other free alternatives These include:
- Passing its third no-logging audit
- A browser extension that's now available for free
- Unlimited data
- Open source apps
Bottom line, ProtonVPN Free isn't bad at all – it still does a decent job of providing the most basic level of protection. With a few tweaks, it could very easily regain the top position in our rankings and, once again, be crowned the #1 free VPN.
