ProtonVPN: The World’s BEST VPN – Totally Free, Ultra-Secure, and Private. Why Isn’t Everyone Using This?

@ProtonVPN_CN

Recommended pairing : Mullvad DNS → VPN tutorial at the bottom (Chinese!)

🔎Transparent audit : code submission audit - update log - maintenance

1. Company Background:

Founded and Headquartered: ProtonVPN is a subsidiary of Proton AG, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Switzerland, long known for its strict privacy and data protection laws, provides a unique environment for its service operations and data security. Parent Company Background: Proton AG was founded by scientists from CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) . Its core businesses include the world-renowned ProtonMail (end-to-end encrypted email), Proton Drive, Proton Calendar, and other integrated privacy services. Company Philosophy: Proton's mission is to "protect digital privacy and defend online freedom." It emphasizes open source, transparency, and public welfare, actively advocates for resisting large-scale surveillance and digital censorship, and empowers everyone to control their own data.

II. Independent Audit/Important History:

2019-2021: Multiple rounds of third-party audits conducted by international security organizations such as SEC Consult and Securitum, covering all clients and backends, found no critical vulnerabilities, and all audit reports were made public.
2021 ProtonMail IP leak incident: In September 2021, ProtonMail was legally breached due to Swiss police storing and submitting specific user IP addresses and related login metadata (see official statement for details ), pursuant to a Europol request and Swiss approval. While this incident only affected ProtonMail, it garnered global privacy concerns. Proton officials subsequently strengthened the transparency of their privacy policy and limited login tracking to temporary use in extreme legal circumstances. ProtonVPN, maintaining its independent, no-logging architecture , remained unaffected.
2022-2024: Actively participate in Swiss and EU open source security initiatives. Open-source the core server code and all client code. Continued external red team penetration testing and vulnerability public testing. In 2023 and 2024, we passed comprehensive audits by Germany's X41 D-Sec and the Dutch ROS security team. All recommendations were immediately addressed, and no user privacy leaks were found.
Innovation and Development: Partnering with the Tor Project and Mozilla, ProtonVPN launched Secure Core and the optional Tor over VPN, significantly enhancing anonymity. ProtonVPN is leading the VPN industry towards decentralized infrastructure and greater compliance and transparency.
2025: Passed reversemode 's security audit. On July 9, 2025, ProtonVPN secretly deleted a large number of free servers and removed the Japanese servers in the IPv6 segment without issuing any statement. On July 22, Schellman was hired to complete the SOC 2 audit.

Proton publishes a regular annual Transparency Report - VPN , which details all legal/police requests received, data access requests, and the actual amount of data handed over, all publicly available and unabashed. How many legal requests were received in which year, how many times Proton handed over data, if any, and when Proton firmly refused to cooperate

3. Server and Log Policy:

ProtonVPN emphasizes that all of its servers utilize full-disk encryption technology to enhance the security of data at rest. They strictly adhere to a no-logging commitment: they never store sensitive information such as user source IP addresses, connection times, domain names visited, data usage, and DNS requests . They retain minimal billing and technical support data. Registration requires only an email address (which can be anonymous), and they support anonymous cryptocurrency payments.

Impact of events in 2021:
After the incident, Proton AG frankly disclosed the temporary log activation mechanism required for compliance, but ProtonVPN's architecture is designed independently and is separated according to different laws, and its VPN business still achieves true zero logs.

4. Security

OpenVPN, WireGuard, Stealth self-developed and other industry standard protocols
The entire traffic is encrypted with AES-256 and RSA-4096 and supports forward secrecy (PFS)
⭕️💰 ~~Secure Core: Multi-hop routing strategy to further protect against ingress and egress attacks~~
Built-in Kill Switch, DNS/IPv6 leak protection
All platforms support NetShield (advertising and malicious domain name blocking)
All encrypted DNS queries are handled by our own servers to prevent data leakage from third parties. External compliance and technical resistance: regulated by the Swiss Data Protection Authority and the EU GDPR, which is superior to major international VPN services.

From Proton Team :

It really depends on how you define free. For example, some VPNs are nominally "free," some even have no ads, but actually sell your information or log it. Other VPNs are "free" but have bandwidth and usage limits that stop working after you exceed them. And some "free" VPNs actually sell your internet connection as a proxy network (Hola VPN is the most famous example). Proton VPN is probably the only VPN that

- Free VPN in every way.
- No speed limits or bandwidth caps
- Free forever (not free trial)
- Free software (open source)
- No ads, no logs (fully audited)
- Does not sell your data and does not monetize free users

What makes Proton VPN Free unique is its performance. It's faster than most paid VPNs and has advanced anti-censorship technology built in, allowing it to work seamlessly in places like China, Russia, and Iran—some of the most complex online locations in the world. It works on all operating systems, browsers, and devices, and free users get customer support. If this sounds like a terrible business, it's true. Offering a free VPN in so many countries while being the only VPN investing in technology to sustain its operations is undoubtedly a loss-making proposition. But this also leads to perhaps Proton's greatest differentiator: Proton VPN is primarily owned by the nonprofit Proton Foundation. Proton is built on a philosophy that puts people first, not profit . By using Proton VPN (which may require a ❤️ ~~payment~~ ), you support our core mission: to achieve internet freedom worldwide. This is how we can provide a truly free VPN.

Software Download:

Official version / modification: PC Windows 🖥️ - Don't connect to the internet + don't update ! ( Registration: Feel free to enter any email address )

Official version / modification: Android 📱 / Super Lite version (OpenVPN will crash, everything else works)

Fruit Ios 🍎 (I don't want a country: the connection is quickly disconnected. There will be no switching time waiting)

Browser Chrome / Firefox 🦊

Recommended pairing: Mullvad DNS

Author's comment:

🔎 I recommend you choose the Stealth protocol (which can bypass the firewall)

Function
/ Built-in firewall (prohibits software from using the network) + split tunneling

/ Unlock 400% speed
/ Block ads, Trojans, and trackers
/ Alternative routing (wall-climbing technology)

A brief introduction to firewalls:
In today's Internet age, all your software can access the Internet. Isn't that scary? A laptop or a picture software can even upload all your data without your knowledge using the Internet. Or the software doesn't need the Internet at all. You can use this.

‼️ Using the Stealth protocol method

Open Settings →
Protocol → Stealth →Save

‼️ How to use the firewall / allow specific software to connect directly

Android Settings: VPN has two options
Always turn on VPN (On)
Block VPN usage (1 to enable, 2 to disable)

Tip: You can only choose one of the following two methods

‼️ Firewall, usage (1):

Open Settings →
Split TunnenLing → Mode Select Inverse
Open Included Apps → Select the software you want to use → Select Save → The software can use the network

‼️ Allow the software to access the Internet using its real IP address (2):

In Settings > Split tunneling > Mode
If you select Standard

Just select the software you want to allow and you will have a real network.

‼️ How to select other countries:

In Profiles → Crate Profiles → Enter any name
→ To find a Country, you can choose:

Romania, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, United States

The corresponding ones are:
Romania, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, the United States

After selecting, click Next, and in Protocol, turn on Stealth → Save

Server Status: (Data Centers for all free servers)

🇷🇴 Romania : M247, Datacamp
🇳🇱 Netherlands : WordStream (almost 95%) , Datacamp, NForce (158.156), NovoServe BV (197)
🇺🇸 United States : Datacamp (almost 90%), M247, CDN77
🇯🇵 Japan : Datacamp (almost 90%), M247, CDN77
🇵🇱 Poland : Datacamp

🇨🇭Proton AG Genus name : 🇯🇵Tokyo, Japan-1, 🇯🇵Osaka, Japan-7 (Xtom)

Why should you pay attention?

A representative from EarthVPN stated that users were caught by law enforcement using data center logs without the VPN provider's knowledge— " the company never stored any identifying logs," but the data center where the server was seized did retain IP traffic logs.

💡Tip : If the server you want does not appear, you can clear the cache and change the language to the United States. + Keep clearing the cache and refreshing the account

💬Hear what our users have to say!

We are honest and trustworthy, and we put the best things in front of you.
We will never favor users because of payment, and realize the concept of freedom and equality for all

🤣Why it is not recommended to use any product other than VPN!

That’s why you should only use VPN products

The reason to avoid other products: If you use other products, like password managers and email services, and they get mad at you, they'll ban your account, just like Alex described. 😨 And if someone raises an objection on Telegram, they'll delete your message.
Please use other email and password managers instead of Proton.

🚫The data you store will eventually disappear and will be betrayed by the company you trust the most ‼ ️‼ ️‼ ️

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