Proton VPN

Proton VPN is the privacy-focused VPN from the team behind ProtonMail, the world's largest encrypted email service. Based in Switzerland and protected by some of the strongest privacy laws in the world, Proton VPN offers a level of transparency and trustworthiness that is unmatched in the VPN industry.

All of Proton VPN's applications are fully open-source and have undergone independent security audits. This means anyone can inspect the code to verify that it does exactly what it claims. This level of transparency is rare in the VPN industry and gives privacy-conscious users genuine confidence in the service.

With over 16,000 servers globally and 553+ servers in five UK locations, Proton VPN has the largest UK server presence of any VPN provider. This ensures fast, reliable connections for British users, whether they are streaming BBC iPlayer at home or accessing UK content from abroad. In speed testing, Proton VPN achieved 1,521 Mbps on a 10 Gbps UK line and 1,242 Mbps on trans-Atlantic connections, making it the fastest VPN for UK-to-US traffic.

The Secure Core feature routes traffic through privacy-friendly countries (Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden) before reaching the exit server, providing an additional layer of protection against network-based attacks. NetShield blocks ads, malware, and trackers at the DNS level. The Stealth protocol provides obfuscation to bypass VPN blocks in restrictive environments.

Proton VPN's free tier is genuinely useful, offering unlimited data with no advertising, no credit card requirement, and access to servers in five countries. While it is limited to one device at a time, it is by far the most generous free VPN tier available from a reputable provider. Paid plans support up to 10 simultaneous connections and include access to Proton's broader ecosystem of privacy tools including ProtonMail, Proton Drive, and Proton Calendar.