ProtonVPN Review 2026

ProtonVPN is the privacy-first choice. Headquartered in Switzerland (outside the Five/Nine/Fourteen Eyes intelligence-sharing agreements), it's an excellent option if you're particularly concerned about government surveillance or corporate data collection.

The Secure Core feature is unique. Your traffic gets routed through secure servers in Switzerland before exiting, providing an additional layer of encryption. This meaningful security feature comes at the cost of some speed — we measured about 320 Mbps average on Secure Core vs. 400 Mbps on standard servers.

In our audit verification checks, ProtonVPN's no-logs claims held up. They don't store connection logs, traffic data, or IP addresses. The company has published transparency reports detailing zero law enforcement requests complied with.

The free tier is genuinely useful (three simultaneous connections, limited servers), making ProtonVPN an excellent entry point for privacy-conscious users. The paid plans are competitively priced and include streaming access.

Streaming support is solid but not exceptional — Netflix and Prime work, but BBC iPlayer was inconsistent. For pure privacy and security, ProtonVPN is our top recommendation.