‘Quick Connect’ makes things easy by connecting your device to the nearest VPN server with the least load. The Windows app connects and disconnects in seconds, with a global view of ProtonVPN’s server locations.

The Android app has a more simplified user interface, so definitely start with the mobile version if you’re new to VPNs. We tested ProtonVPN across the Windows and Android versions of the app. We also like that ProtonVPN has inbuilt advanced features, including antimalware, privacy-friendly data routing, and a kill switch that can be toggled between basic and severe.

For extra peace of mind, ProtonVPN is based in Switzerland, which is great for privacy rights and legally accountable for privacy breaches. Privacy and security are incredibly important for our VPN evaluations, though, and ProtonVPN offers strong data/channel encryption- Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit data and RSA 4096-bit-plus it has open-source apps that are independently audited. The main close competitor that has ProtonVPN beat on this metric is the unlimited simultaneous connections from Surfshark VPN. ExpressVPN), four more than NordVPN, and three above CyberGhost VPN. Where things start to look better in terms of numbers is the 10 simultaneous connections, which is double the industry standard (e.g. ProtonVPN has a low server count (1625 vs 7,618 for CyberGhost VPN), small-ish country count (63 vs 94 for ExpressVPN), and the second-lowest location count (89 vs 160 from ExpressVPN). It’s a good thing ProtonVPN has cheap monthly pricing because it takes some initial hits when comparing other numbers with its closest peers.

Protonvpn free review