Great, Private and Transparent Service - Some Flaws – Proton VPN: Fast & Secure Review

I am rewriting my review as I posted some questions/complaints to their forums which not published. So I’ll include here what I posted below lower my rating a bit. Context: I pay for Plus accounts for both their ProtonMail and ProtonVPN services (bundled). I have done so for years and I do not plan on changing that. So my experience using their stuff is entirely within that of a user paying for something. Specific to ProtonVPN... First the good: * Great privacy policies - They operate in locations where it is remarkably challenging for any government to gain access to any information Proton keeps on its users and their activity. And they tell you what they log (nearly nothing - just who you are and when you connected, not what you did while connected). * Transparency - You know who owns and operates this service. Their privacy policies are easy to read and understand. You know what they do log about you, and, as I mentioned above, it’s not much. * Solid uptime for all servers I can choose to connect from. The number of available servers have decreased significantly though, and I describe that below. Still, the servers that are available are up and free of excessive load more often than not. * Solid encryption standards. * Their Secure Core feature is a solid chunk of add-on security functionality. But there are some flaws as I explain below. * Tor servers for Plus and Visionary users. * No DNS server leaks. * Excellent, professional, courteous, personalized (not scripted) customer support. But, please Proton, stop using ZenDesk as your support platform. Next the not so good: * A massive reduction in available servers over the years. I live in a fairly large metropolitan area with a ton of technology industry based here. There is no shortage of hosting companies that do all the collocation, dedicated and so on stuff ProtonVPN relies on in facilities not owned by Proton. For some reason, what was nearly a dozen server options for Plus and Basic users within no more than 20 miles from me have gone away. First it started by changing from fast servers to much slower (I’m talking a reduction in ping times and throughput of over 500%). And then all available local servers were just removed from the ProtonVPN service. Even with a Plus account, using the “Fastest” server option (the default for Quick Connect) sends me to a server nearly 400 miles away (which really is based in the closest location with listed server I can choose to connect to that is available to me now). This has slowed my internet connections and that is pretty much no good. Connection quality remains acceptable, though, and doing what I need to do while connected is remains fast enough. Maybe they got rid of all those servers for good reasons (i.e. the hosting companies policies changed and became unacceptable for Proton’s privacy requirements), but some explanation or announcement letting paying customers know what’s up and whether or not they plain on increasing the number and locations of servers to what it all started out with would have been appreciated (and would still be appreciated). * Secure Core is not all they say it is. For example, geolocation via IP still points back to the endpoint server - a server in my country I could select without using Secure Core. I am not sure what Proton would say to this or what it means in the grand scheme of Secure Core things because they never responded to this when I posted this and asked about it. Based on how Secure Core is explained and how I understand it, this seems not good. There are other things I won’t point out here. * A not so big thing but still an annoyance - In order to use the quick connect feature from the ProtonVPN widget after I restart my phone, I must first open the app and connect using the app before the connections from their widget will actually be established. I prefer that I can always use my quick connect options with a swipe and a tap. Overall, the benefits of the “good” outweigh the any problems I’ve pointed out. Proton is a solid email and VPN provider (and soon more), much of what they use is open to the public for review, their policies and details ownership are transparent, and I trust them. I would most definitely recommend using ProtonVPN (and ProtonMail), and would go so far as to suggest going with a Plus account so their great work is supported.
Review by jj.b.jj on Proton VPN: Fast & Secure.