ProtonVPN offer four plans to choose from. One of these is a Free VPN plan. This Free plan is suitable for use on Android, IPhone, IPad (IOS), Mac (MacOS), Windows and GNU/Linux. In this article we look at the features of the free plan vs the paid plans.
What is ProtonVPN?
ProtonVPN is a VPN service provider that provide a free VPN service as well as paid plan options.
Their head office is based in Geneva, Switzerland. Because VPN is an online security feature centred around online privacy, the fact that they are based in Switzerland is an advantage. This because Switzerland has extremely strict privacy laws.
Proton was founded in 2014 by a team of scientists. They first created ProtonMail, which is arguably the world’s largest encrypted email service. ProtonVPN was later developed when a need was identified to further protect the activists and journalists who used ProtonMail.
If you are not sure what VPN is, then you can find out more about this in our article “How does a VPN Connection work”
Features of ProtonVPN Free Plan
Strong Encryption
They only use the strongest encryption to protect your internet connection. The data on their servers are also encrypted, so even although there are limited account information on their servers, even this is kept in encrypted format.
Easy to Use Application
The ProtonVPN applications were not only designed with security and privacy in mind. It was also designed in such a way that it is easy to use.
Anonymous account
You are not asked to divulge any personal information when you open a VPN account. You will be asked for an email address, but if you do not want to use your personal email address, you can open a ProtonMail account completely anonymously and use that email address instead.
One VPN connection
The free plan offers VPN for one device.
No Logs
User Activity is not logged.
No Ads
Unlike most free online apps where the catch is that you get bombarded with ads, ProtonVPN do not use advertisements to boost revenue. Their revenue comes from the paid plans.
Servers in 3 Countries
On the Free plan users have access to their VPN servers in three countries. These three countries are the Netherlands, Japan, and the US.
Medium Speed
They use high-end servers on high bandwidth links for fast connection speeds. Although ProtonVPN does not set bandwidth limits or bandwidth throttles, the number of servers on the free plan are limited. The number of users on the free plan, combined with the number of servers allocated can result in decreased speed.
Storage Limit
The default storage space on the free plan is 500 MB.
There is a way to increase this to 1 GB however, by following these steps:
- Import your emails and contacts.
- Send a message for the first time.
- Set up recovery.
- Test the mobile app on IOS or Android.
Additional Features on ProtonVPN Paid Plans
Up to 10 VPN connections
The paid plans offer connections for more devices. The number of devices will depend on the plan that you select, with the top plan offering up to 10 VPN connections.
Servers in more Countries
The paid plans allow access to servers in many more countries than the free plan. At the time of this article, their servers were available in 55 Countries.
Higher Speed
On the paid plans, the connection speed will be higher, as there are more resources dedicated to the paid plans than to the free plan.
Netshield
Netshield is a DNS filter. When you attempt to connect to a website, when Netshield is enabled, it will check the website against an extensive database of sites that are known to have malware, spyware, or any other malicious software that it will attempt to download to your device. If it finds that you are attempting to access one of these malicious websites, it will protect you by blocking access.
Netshield also has an adblocker feature. This will prevent annoying adds from cluttering your screen and using up unnecessary data. The Ad and Tracker blocker will protect your entire device, not only the internet browser.
Access to Blocked content
Some services like movie streaming services only allow access to some content in certain countries. This is called GEO blocking. Two of the three paid plans include a feature to allow access to blocked content, by routing your connection to a server in the desired country.
P2P/BitTorrent support
P2P is a protocol that enables users to search and download large files. Torrent technology allows file sharing of these large files.
TOR over VPN
TOR nodes are a number of independent nodes where traffic is randomly routed between these nodes in virtual secure tunnels. Under normal circumstances, only the entry node knows the true identity of the client. This was created to improve privacy and security. With ProtonVPN’s TOR over VPN feature, TOR and VPN technologies are combined to further improve privacy and security. This feature is available on two of the three paid plans.
Secure Core VPN
Hackers may attempt to expose VPN traffic by launching an attack on a VPN server. With Secure Core VPN, ProtonVPN pass the VPN traffic through multiple servers. When a user connects to a server in a high-risk country, this traffic will be passed through secure core servers in countries with strong privacy laws. This means that even if an attacker manages to gain access to monitor traffic on that server, they will only be able to monitor it to the secure core network but no further than that.
Storage Limits
Individual Plans
Proton Mail Plus : 15 GB
Proton Unlimited: 500 GB
Proton Visionary: 3 TB
Business plans
Proton Essentials: 15 GB per user
Proton Business: 500 GB per user
ProtonVPN Free VPN Account and Download
To sign up, follow these easy steps to create your free account and to download the App.
- Go to the ProtonVPN website
- Click on the “SIGNUP” button at the top right-hand side of the Home Page. This will bring up the Plan options.
- Under the Free VPN Plan, click on “GET FREE”. Alternatively, you can select one of the paid plans here if you require additional features.
- Once you have made your selection it will bring you to the screen where you can create your account. It will ask you to choose a username and password and ask you for an email address. The email address is needed, in case you forget your password and a password recovery email needs to be sent to you. Although ProtonVPN has extremely strict privacy policies, if you want to remain completely anonymous, you can also create a Free ProtonMail account. This will be an anonymous encrypted email account.
- Next you will be asked to verify that you are human. This is just a preventative measure to prevent Bots from opening free accounts. A verification code will also be sent to you. Complete these steps to open your account.
- Your account will now be active, and you are now ready to download the ProtonVPN App for your device. You will be taken to a screen where you will be asked to select your device type. i.e. Android, IOS, MacOS, Windows, GNU/Linux
- Once you have completed this step you are ready to go.