A few reasons:
- Lots of “cloudfare” verification checks are popping up everywhere.
- Proton exited from specific geographies.
- Most streaming services end up blocking the IP address (invalidating the use of the VPN).
- Extremely poor Linux support. I mean, for a company to advertise itself based on “open source” principles, this lack of Linux support is jarring.
- I no longer see myself aligned with the “principles” it quotes.
- iOS client is bad. However, the VPN support in iOS isn’t stellar either.
What’s good about Proton:
- Connection issues have improved, and I get a pretty stable connection. In short, it works when it works, and I haven’t faced any random disconnection issues.
- Windows application is fantastic. I haven’t used Mac in ages, and I have no idea. Android application has improved beyond what I can express in words. Good work devs! I usually connect from specific widgets, and it’s quick and almost instantaneous.
- Wireguard support finally came to Proton, and I am happy for this development.
Overall, a mixed bag. I have shifted back to Mullvad (which is cheaper). In practice, you’d end up connecting to specific servers only. You really don’t need a whole “basket” of servers. Proton is way overpriced in the market, but that’s their decision. I am splitting the VPN costs with my buddy, and we find the conceptual idea safer.
Will I shift back to Proton? I am not sure. There’s nothing extraordinary about Proton or any other VPN company. It’s just a small means to change your IP address. Its use doesn’t impact privacy now, since there are other ways to identify you with your browser signatures. Currently, I use a VPN only to access restricted content.
One simple thumb rule: Never do anything on the Internet that would actually embarrass you in your real life. VPN’s are NOT a source of anonymity anymore.
Honestly, I wish the Proton Team good luck. There are some volunteers/support staff here, and a hi to them too! In all this time, I never needed any real support, which is a testament to reasonable services. Yet, this is still not value for money.
As a (mainly) Linux user, I cannot agree more. My dream is to have the same quality services on every platform, as I am a paid subscriber.
From your list of perceived negatives, why do you no longer see yourself aligned with principles Proton quotes? Which principles and why?
A few additional remarks of my own. The iOS app works very well for me. The only ambivalence I have is not being a hundred percent sure whether the connection ever drops–this is because of iOS and carrier imposed peculiarities when it comes to kill switch functionality–but that said, the connection always seems very stable, and I don’t think it ever drops (or at least it doesn’t seem to).
The Windows app is terrific. It lacks the Stealth protocol, but that is being worked on.
The Cloudflare thing isn’t a problem with any particular VPN, rather it’s a general problem with the internet. I think the DDOS mitigation those services provide is needed, but I think there’s an additional, unadmitted, sly backchannel attack on privacy: “We really can’t do any better (i.e excuse to not even try to do better) because of all the bad actors. We have to block everyone.” This forces people to turn off privacy tools to visit those anyway anti-privacy sites that most often use those content delivery services (Cloudflare, Cloudfront/AWS).
As for the cost, I guess I just don’t see the price as being a big deal. I’m happy to pay Proton, whose products’ performance I’m pleased with and whose reputation and transparency disclosures meet what I believe are the highest standards out there, what I pay. I’m not one of those people who always wants what’s cheapest or expects that which is best (for me) to be cheap or cheapest.
Thanks for sharing, I’m always happy to see critical reviews because it forces a solution (either fixing an app or a competitor filing the gap).
Can you elaborate on some of your complaints?
Your location, what geographies are removed, where your seeing clouflare popups etc… I haven’t really had any of the experience you have, so I’m assuming we just have different use cases.
Can one not just use an open vpn app on Linux? Ofcourse it doesn’t make up for poor experience out of the box but I had to go that route on my ipad and now it’s flawless.
Thanks for the honest review, I’m happy you didn’t get downvoted, which seems to happen with criticism of Proton. I share many of the same issues you’ve experienced with Proton. I actually came from Mullvad and has a worse experience with connectivity with them, however I think their IP reputation was better.
2023 Roadmap also explains priorities and how real world event shifted them: Proton VPN’s roadmap for the first part of 2023 | Proton VPN
I switched my ISP to Starlink. I can only run P-VPN when Starlink is actively connected. Then I get disconnected and can’t rejoin Starlink, without killing the P-VPN instance. Tailscale worked fine.
Can’t recall why I decided on Tailscale, but I paid the highest plan for Proton and kind of feel like I should use the whole Proton basket.
Going on your point 1. I’m also noticing issues with some payment pages not loading with protonvpn running.
Last night I tried to buy flights but for whatever reason the page wouldn’t fully load behind the VPN.
Turned it off and went through selecting flights all over again and it worked first go.
I’ll probably end up going back to mull I think.
nice.
i just canceled Mullvad for the 2nd time i use a router as my connection so i don’t have to worry about junk applications for either company!
i had constant issues with wireguard on Mullvad. it worked with Proton but then streaming services detected a VPN moved back to openvpn and it worked again.
sha384 is used with Mullvad. Proton uses sha512
Mullvad doesn’t use TLS certs. Proton does
i always recieved replay errors in the event lost using udp (randomly) on Mullvad. most likely because of the lack of TLS> but always had these filling up logs
Mullvad doesn’t support streaming services. Proton does
those are just the ones off the top of my head i am sure there are more.
I"m unlimited subscriber and i no longer use VPN because it is nearly useless for the following reasons
- Almost slow. The hosting website detects VPN connection and drops the speed
- VPN Server IPs are blocked on AAdhar portal (India Social Security ID) portal
I"m thinking of removing this service if it is going to be cheaper. In fact I jumped into this conversation because I want to ask how people are using this VPN service because my expectations are not met.
I asked support about this - they mentioned to me…please ask the site who is hosting the content to unblock VPN server IP.
Am I the only one who gets a bit tired hearing something along the lines of “extremely poor linux support”? I am a Linux user myself but it’s just a bit tiring to hear this.
According to itsfoss.com – “Statista (last updated on Jan 2023): The Linux desktop market share was 2.76% compared to 14.55% for macOS, and 70.39% for Windows.”
It’s not the year of Linux desktop yet and for the next 10 or so years, it probably won’t be. Thus from a business point of view it makes absolute sense to cater first to Windows / Mac customers and last the Linux customers. The point of any business is to make money. Period. And Windows+Mac is where the big cash is. Why would any company care for the 1-2% if desktop users if they can make money elsewhere?
I am a Linux user. It is more difficult, but I use the command line interface.
I have many scripts for the CLI and can change cities / countries very easy.
Proton is improving, Servers are getting better in my experience.
I have very little captcha problems. I like that I can buy from ebay, Amazon and others while I am overseas. I like the Australian servers. I can use AU websites because of them. Not many VPN’s have AU.
I am very dissatisfied with their tech support.
But I have had many VPN’s . None are perfect. Proton seems to have good management. At some point, they will realize how much Linux is growing and invest more resources there.
1,2&3 I can’t see as a problem… The major problem is indeed the difference between platforms and there’s no love for Linux.
Fingerprint techniques are out there for a long time, if you can’t secure (99%) your systems and network, than you always have a “problem” with VPN’s, and most users just want to hide the traffic from theirs ISP/GOV… There’s no way to break into the tunnel, but the connections you make can make you less “anonymous”, so… user fault.
they need to hire good dev, not… “dev that make us look good”…
Firefox extension only work with normal firefox not ESR… :facepalm:
I am slowly losing interest in ProtonVPN too. Proton Unlimited simply remained such a great value for its suite of products but that is getting less and less relevant. Even running NextDNS and ProtonVPN Linux CLI with LibreWolf in Linux Mint, I am consistently aware that it is harder and harder to maintain data sovereignty and privacy. Honestly, it’s getting to the point that the only way to assure this is to have an OS or indeed a router that routes all traffic across several different protocols. The extra work is worth it though.
I am using Proton VPN ios (iPhone 14 Pro Max), Android and Windows 11 and for me it works fine and I prefer to my previous vpns clients (Nord and Express).
I let my Nord expire when I moved to Proton Unlimited as the costs worked out well, until I got Proton Visionary upgrade 
.
It has enough servers in the countries I need, connection speed is always good and can save setups.
That said I am always happy to have more options and indeed need more options as vpn ips get blacklisted and you need to keep up the whackamole game so I might try Mullvad at last.
Proton exited from specific geographies.
Actually one of the reasons I stick to Proton, is precisely the fact that they decide to opt-out of certain countries, instead of risking concession.
Extremely poor Linux support. I mean, for a company to advertise itself based on “open source” principles, this lack of Linux support is jarring.
Fully agree here, it’s ridiculous the point it’s gotten too, after so many years of waiting. I support with premium VPN & Mail, and the one thing I feel is missing has gone unanswered for multiple years. This is the reason I can’t fully and always recommend Proton to my peers anymore, many features are just lacking or downright nonexistent (port forwarding). This alone has gotten me entertaining the idea of moving to another provider.
i just cancelled my subscription because i only use linux and android. mullvad is a dream coming true!
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