Proton VPN
A highly trusted, Swiss-law protected VPN running on self-owned hardware with a verified no-logs audit record.
Top alternatives at a glance
View comparison (See side-by-side)All criteria & scores
10 criteria · Scored based on your profile: Everyday browsing · Single device · Standard security
| Criteria | NordVPN | Proton VPN | Surfshark |
|---|---|---|---|
No-Logs Audit Independent audit firm & scope | 8.7/10 | 9.3/10 | 8.3/10 |
Speed & Performance Protocol speed, latency | 9.5/10 | 6.8/10 | 7.8/10 |
Server Network Country & server count | 9.2/10 | 6.5/10 | 7.5/10 |
Device Limit Simultaneous connections | 6.0/10 | 7.0/10 | 10.0/10 |
Streaming Unblocking Netflix, Prime, regional catalogs | 8.8/10 | 6.0/10 | 8.0/10 |
Pricing & Value Cost across plan lengths | 7.0/10 | 6.5/10 | 9.5/10 |
Security Features Kill switch, protocols, leak protection | 8.5/10 | 8.8/10 | 8.0/10 |
Jurisdiction & Trust Legal jurisdiction, data-request record | 6.5/10 | 9.6/10 | 6.8/10 |
Ease of Use App usability across platforms | 8.0/10 | 7.0/10 | 8.2/10 |
Use Case Fit (Your Profile) Everyday browsing · Single device · Standard security | 6.1/10 | 6.9/10 | 10.0/10 |
| Overall Score Out of 100 | 50/100 | 55/100 | 61/100 |
What the scores mean for you
Best fit for your profile
Surfshark and Proton VPN score highest for a beginner-friendly, privacy-conscious profile.
Top pick: Surfshark
Lower fit
NordVPN scores lower for this specific budget-first, single-device profile.
Why: Strong on speed and audits, but priced above Surfshark's entry plan for one device.
Detailed strengths & weaknesses
NordVPN
50/100Strengths
- Fastest speeds via NordLynx protocol
- Large 6,000+ server network
- Six independent Deloitte no-logs audits
- Built-in ad/threat blocking
Weaknesses
- Panama jurisdiction (some prefer Swiss)
- Renewal price rises after year one
- Only 6 simultaneous devices
Proton VPN
55/100Strengths
- Swiss jurisdiction, outside 14-Eyes alliance
- Fully open-source, Securitum-audited
- Genuinely usable free tier, no data cap
- Runs on self-owned hardware
Weaknesses
- Slower average speeds than NordLynx
- Smaller server network
- Fewer streaming-unblock guarantees
Surfshark
61/100Strengths
- Unlimited simultaneous devices
- Cheapest entry-level pricing
- Deloitte + Cure53 audited RAM-only servers
- CleanWeb ad/tracker blocking
Weaknesses
- Netherlands jurisdiction (Nine Eyes)
- 2-year plan renews at a higher rate
- Single-connection speeds trail NordVPN
Latest real-world feedback
POSITIVE
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Sources we trust
Audit Reports
Deloitte, Cure53, Securitum
Reddit Communities
r/VPN, r/privacy
YouTube Reviews
Linus Tech Tips, Mental Outlaw
Independent Test Labs
Comparitech, Top10VPN
Official Sites
Docs & Blogs
Where the score comes from
Breakdown for: Privacy-focusedNo rounding, no editorial nudge. Each fact carries an evidence-weighted impact multiplier (Maker claims count 70%; Laboratory measurements count 100%).
| The fact, and the words it came from | Evidence | Sum | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every product starts here — neither good nor bad | 50 | ||
| Open Source Apps All app code is publicly viewable and verified by security researchers so there are no hidden backdoors. All Proton VPN applications are 100% open source and independently audited by Securitum. | independently measured counts 100% | +16 × 1.00 | +16.0 |
| No Logs Audit Conclusion An outside security firm from Poland (Securitum) went to Proton's offices in Zurich in August 2025, looked at the real machines that carry customer traffic, and signed its name to a statement that Proton keeps no record of what customers do online. This is the auditor's own written conclusion, not Proton's summary of it. Based on these findings, Securitum attests that the Proton VPN service, as configured at the time of the audit, fully complies with the privacy commitments outlined in its No-Logs policy. | independently measured counts 100% | +16 × 1.00 | +16.0 |
| Swiss Jurisdiction Protected by Swiss federal privacy laws outside Fourteen Eyes intelligence sharing alliances. Protected by strict Swiss privacy laws under Federal Data Protection regulations outside the 14-Eyes alliance. | the maker's own claim counts 70% | +20 × 0.70 | +14.0 |
| Audit Scope Exclusions The audit deliberately did not look at Proton's software itself. Nobody read through the program code of the VPN, and nobody pulled apart the finished app that runs on your phone or laptop. The audit only covered the company's own servers, so a flaw living inside the app would not have been caught by it. A formal source code review of the VPN software and its associated libraries. | independently measured counts 100% | -10 × 1.00 | -10.0 |
| Court Orders Outcome Proton publishes a running count of legal demands it has received. Since the service started in 2017 it says it has had 458 binding orders from Swiss courts, and that in every one it had nothing to hand over. This is the company's own count, so treat it as a claim rather than a verified figure - but a false statement here would be a serious legal problem for them. In every case, we were unable to provide the requested identifying information because Proton VPN does not keep the logs that would make such identification possible. | the maker's own claim counts 70% | +12 × 0.70 | +8.4 |
| Owns Its Hardware Proton runs the service on physical machines it owns outright, rather than renting space from a big cloud company. That matters because a rented machine can in principle be accessed or copied by the landlord; the auditors checked and confirmed the hardware is Proton's own. It was confirmed that this infrastructure runs on bare-metal servers fully owned and controlled by Proton AG. Some servers utilize lightweight, OS-level containerization, but the underlying physical hardware remains under Proton's exclusive control. | independently measured counts 100% | +8 × 1.00 | +8.0 |
| Audit Method Limits The same auditors wrote down, in their own report, the limits of what they did. Proton's engineers were driving during the inspection - the auditors watched systems being shown to them rather than digging through the machines unsupervised. They also only checked a sample of servers, not every server Proton runs worldwide. The findings are based on a guided review process, where Securitum auditors observed live systems as demonstrated by Proton's senior engineers. While this provides a high degree of assurance, it is distinct from an unsupervised, direct forensic investigation. The assessment was also conducted on a representative sample of production servers and did not encompass every server in Proton's global fleet. | independently measured counts 100% | -8 × 1.00 | -8.0 |
| Some Logs Do Exist It is not literally true that Proton's servers write nothing down. Basic housekeeping records exist - things like how busy a machine is, and administrator sign-ins. The auditors' finding is narrower than 'no logs': it is that these housekeeping records are kept apart from the VPN and do not contain anything that points to a customer. While standard OS-level logs are present as they are essential for basic server administration and troubleshooting (e.g., monitoring CPU usage, cron job execution, or SSH daemon activity), our guided review confirmed these logs are properly segregated from VPN services and do not contain any user-related IP addresses, traffic, or other privacy-sensitive data. | independently measured counts 100% | -5 × 1.00 | -5.0 |
| Fifth Audit Softer Wording A fifth annual check was done in late May 2026 and reported the same result. Worth noticing: the wording is more careful than the year before. Instead of stating the service fully complies, the auditors said the evidence they saw did not indicate any record-keeping - a statement about what they found, not a guarantee about what exists. The technical evidence reviewed during the engagement did not indicate that the examined Proton VPN server infrastructure logs users' browsing activity, DNS queries, destination services, network traffic contents or user-identifiable connection metadata | reported by owners and reviewers counts 80% | +4 × 0.80 | +3.2 |
| Disputed Memory Vulnerability In January 2025 an outside security firm published a claim that Proton's Windows app left encryption keys unprotected in the computer's working memory, where an attacker could grab them and unscramble traffic. Proton publicly disputed this, saying what was actually shown were the harmless half of the key pair. The disagreement was never settled by a neutral third party. Since these keys are not protected in memory, a hacker or a bad actor can simply sniff the traffic and decrypt them. | sources disagree counts 40% | -6 × 0.40 | -2.4 |
| Fit for “Privacy-focused” | 50 + 40.2 = 90 | ||
A score measures fit for a situation, not quality in the abstract. The same product can score 99 for one person and 43 for another without either number being wrong.