Proton VPN Plus

This fast, feature-packed VPN is a strong choice for region-shifting, but it's no longer a rebel leader

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Once possessed of a rebellious image, Proton Technologies now takes itself seriously, with business tiers and lobbying interests. This has alienated some of its fans, but Proton VPN remains a fast and secure choice for a wide range of consumer VPN needs, from privacy to region-shifting. It’s one of our favourite free VPN providers, too, although recent changes to its free tier mean you can no longer manually select your endpoint unless you're a paying customer.

Recently, some of Proton Technologies’ choices have rubbed its more privacy-conscious users up the wrong way. It appeared to support a controversial US government pick in a post from an official account, although this was later walked back on as a personal opinion of CEO Andy Yen. Then it was criticised for rolling out an opt-in LLM-based writing assistant for its business customers, although even this can run on a local model for those who wish to keep everything on their PC. Perhaps most importantly, it caught flack for honouring Interpol warrants against climate activists using ProtonMail.