Proton VPN

About Proton VPN

Proton VPN is operated by Proton AG, the Swiss privacy company also responsible for Proton Mail, Proton Drive, and Proton Calendar. Founded by scientists from CERN in Geneva, Proton AG has built its entire product suite on the premise that privacy is a fundamental right—not a commodity to be traded. Proton VPN is the natural extension of that mission to network privacy, offering encrypted tunnelling with a legal foundation in Swiss privacy law that is widely regarded as among the strongest in the world. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, or Fourteen Eyes intelligence-sharing alliances, and its Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) imposes strict restrictions on the disclosure of user data to foreign authorities. Swiss courts have consistently upheld the privacy rights of Proton AG's users against foreign data requests, and the company publishes a detailed Transparency Report documenting every government request received and its response. All Proton VPN client applications—for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and Chromebook—are fully open source and independently audited by SEC Consult and Securitum. The open-source nature means that any security researcher in the world can inspect the code for backdoors or privacy violations, providing a level of transparency unavailable with closed-source VPN products. The server infrastructure uses full-disk encryption on RAM-only servers in certain configurations, meaning no data survives a server power cycle. NetShield is Proton VPN's DNS-based filtering feature that blocks known advertising domains, trackers, and malware-serving domains before a connection is established. While less sophisticated than file-level AI scanning, DNS filtering is highly effective at reducing advertising exposure and preventing connections to known malicious infrastructure at near-zero performance cost. Proton continuously updates its blocklists using threat intelligence feeds. Proton VPN offers a genuinely unlimited free tier—unlimited bandwidth, no data caps, and access to servers in five countries—making it the most capable free VPN from a privacy-compliance perspective. Paid plans start at $4.99 per month (annual billing) and unlock access to 8,500+ servers in 112 countries, high-speed servers, Secure Core multi-hop routing through privacy-friendly jurisdictions, and NetShield. For organisations and regulated industries, Proton for Business provides centralised account management and dedicated support.