Proton VPN: Great paid plan, even better free plan

Solid speeds, excellent privacy, and the best free plan.

- BY SAM SINGLETON

When you use a third-party VPN, you have to place a certain amount of trust in your service provider. Some companies make that really hard by hiding who they are or confusing you with opaque data collection policies. Then there are services that make trusting them easy—like Proton VPN (fave.co/42n3u4l), from the creator of Proton Mail.

Swiss company Proton provides commendable transparency with all of its apps, even taking the extra step to make them all open source. In a VPN market where everyone is out to make a quick buck, Proton seems like an anomaly. Its privacy-focused services genuinely seem intended to make the internet a better place.

Proton VPN in brief:

P2P allowed: Yes

Device connections: 10 simultaneous connections

Business location: Switzerland

Number of servers: 11,000-plus

Number of country locations: 117

Cost: $9.99 per month, $59.88 for 1 year, or $107.76 for 2 years

FEATURES AND SERVICES

Proton VPN for Windows opens by displaying a map of the world with triangles signifying the countries where there are available servers. If you prefer to use the VPN without the map, there's an arrow button on the top left to collapse it for a more smartphone-like interface.

On the left rail are your connection options and available servers. There's a Quick Connect button at the top if you want Proton VPN to choose the fastest server based on your current location. Otherwise, you can scroll down the list of countries to choose another option.