Proton VPN: Fast & Secure

This is the undoubtedly the best free VPN you can find on the AppStore and I imagine it’s even better with paid options. Unlike a lot of other VPNs it even has a desktop version that’s just as good. I’ve used it for a while and haven’t had any major issues with it. Most other VPNs I’ve tried also slow your internet speed considerably but I’ve never had this issue even when connecting to far away servers. I live in the U.S. and have connected to Japan servers a few times and even then my internet speed is still fast enough to be functional. There is however a minor but really annoying issue I’ve encountered a few times. Sometimes when you change servers it will disconnect and then reconnect you to the same server in the same location. This is usually followed by a 20 minute wait timer. I understand that this wait timer isn’t in the premium version and that you can even pick locations with premium but regardless I feel like the change server button should always change servers. Lot of countries and some states have laws that restrict what users can access so you can see how this can be problematic when the change server button reconnects you to the same server in the same location. Other than this minor issue it’s a great VPN and I highly recommend it to anyone who is searching for a free VPN because it’s certainly the best one out there.

There needs to be an update to be able to temporarily disconnect (pause) the VPN connection which will automatically reconnect after a period of time. Nordvpn had this, was able to pause and pick 5 minutes, 30 minutes, or 60 minutes. This is needed for some websites or apps that have trouble connecting when on VPN (if they're blocking it usually). Right now I have to manually disconnect and half the time forget to manually reconnect it. Adding a pause timed option (which should also be accessible from the widget) would greatly improve the app. Also the newer UI (6.x) on recent updates is a little confusing, and creating profiles is a lot harder. This needs improvements, such as when building a profile, should be able to do a search on the select server screen when building a new profile. Currently you can search when going into the normal countries tab, but you cannot search when building a profile. Another function that needs to be available for profiles is to be able to create a profile with multiple servers, and it will randomize between those specific servers. For example, if the country is United States, I would like to add in all of the servers for a single state for a profile (more limited than the generic random function which will not narrow down by state). I would prefer this so that VPN will still somewhat randomize but I can keep them limited to the smaller geographical area rather than the entire country.

Well, I’ve mostly used this on my PC but recently installed it on my iPhone. Both seem to work great with very rare issues that are easy enough to fix by simply restarting the app. I do miss the feature in which users could pick from the free servers, but there’s probably a reason that feature was removed. I know it was available on PC but not sure if it was ever available on iOS. Anyway, this is a good VPN with a decent and reliable free plan. I’ve utilized proton for a while, including their email service, and I feel they do their best to provide good, secure products. The only thing I would change is the aforementioned option of choosing from the free servers on the free plan just because I absolutely under no circumstances want to use US servers ever. Overall, it’s good though and the best that I have used; I’ve used many such services including paid VPNs, and this has been the most reliable. Edit: I realize on the free plan it automatically connects to the fastest server. I would still like it better if the option to pick was still there like it was before. It’s fine if we only have a handful of countries to pick from. And it’s fine if they aren’t the fastest. That’s part of it being free. But getting stiffed with an American IP address just because it is apparently the fastest (it isn’t usually much different from one of the other countries available to free users) is really a bummer every time. Still love Proton though and they still provide excellent quality products. Hoping a solution arises for this one snag that keeps it from being the perfect free VPN. Either way I’m always recommending them to others for their various products.