I called it the best free VPN both in my standalone review and my guide to the Best VPNs, but that doesn’t mean it’s only good as a free option to the other VPNs I recommend; namely, NordVPN and Mullvad VPN.
Proton VPN offers a paid tier that greatly expands what it has to offer. You can select your particular server, as well as get full access to all 11,802 Proton VPN servers across the world. At $10 per month on a normal yearly plan, it’s worth it. At $5, it’s a bargain.
And if you’re a fan of bundling services into a single account, Proton offers a more comprehensive suite of privacy services than either of those two options. I’ve spent some hands-on time lately with Proton Pass, their password manager, and Proton Mail, their secure email service, and both are as tightly and well-made as Proton VPN.
why you should use a vpn
VPN stands for virtual private network. Acting as a middleman, it routes all the information exchange between you and other websites’ servers on the internet, in both directions, through a server owned by the VPN service.
Should a website or a bad actor try to follow you across the web, they won’t see your unique, identifiable IP address, only that of the VPN server you’re connected to. Since these are shared servers—any decent VPN will have thousands of servers to choose from—you disappear into the crowd if a data thief or snoop tries to eavesdrop on your digital trail.
Access to Proton VPN’s paid-tier servers offer compatibility with streaming services, faster speeds (up to 10 Gbps), split tunneling (which lets you specify which websites and apps are protected by the VPN, but not on Macs), using the Tor network over VPN, P2P/BitTorrent support, and the ability to connected up to 10 devices. That’s quite a bit better than the free tier, which has none of that and can only be used on one device at a time per account.
The monthly plan doesn’t offer any discount at all, and moving to the two-year plan only saves you 50 cents per month. Stick with the annual plan. It’s the best choice overall.
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