This question may have been asked before, but I’m curious about people’s opinions on ProtonVPN being free. Why would a company invest resources to create it and then offer it for free?
You’ve probably heard the saying, ‘if something is free, you are the product.’ Would this apply here?
Proton VPN uses a freemium business model, so users that want more features, or more speed, can upgrade to the paid option, and this is how we keep the business sustainable. Proton also has business customers, who are always paying, and that also subsidizes the free services.
However, when it comes to privacy and security, the Proton VPN Free plan offers the same that the paid plans do. It’s made possible thanks to the support from our paid users, NOT your data.
Why would a company invest resources to create it and then offer it for free?
Because:
Our mission is to make online security and privacy accessible to all. To help achieve this goal, we provide a free VPN so that everyone can securely and privately access the Internet.
Would this apply here?
No. Proton paid users are enabling to offer the service for free.
Paying customers are the reason for free plans. Be happy people have free access in restricted countries to a good vpn
I started as a free account, probably most started with free, but I like their service and decided to upgrade to a paid status. I’m supporting the company and supporting free accounts because I believe in it.
I tried the free plan for a day and was so happy with the performance I became a paying customer hopefully it helps those in restrictive countries access the information they require in a small way for me even the free plan was fairly fast and I had no disconnections and having a paid plan takes Proton VPN to another level in turms of available servers, speed and reliability.
Probably most people with Proton VPN are using the free version. Some of them end up buying the premium paid version, and the rest tell a friend how good it is, and they then go on to either buy it or tell a friend, etc.
Paid VPNs pay a fortune to advertise their product. Proton doesn’t have to because the users are doing the job for them. So instead of spending $100,000 on a billboard or $50,000 sponsoring a YouTuber or $250,000 on a “pay for ranking” review site to try to get more users, the money from paid users goes into improving the product. And a better product means more people recommend it.
So company mission aside, it also turns out to be a smart business model. Good for Proton, and good for the users (although bad for YouTubers).
With all due deference to Proton’s professed social mission, this is an extremely common business model in the software-as-a-service space, the mobile app space, and in gaming. Companies provide a free product or service to get you in the door, and then count on a certain percentage of customers to upgrade to one of their paid options (or to pay in other ways, like through microtransactions in games). The cost of supporting those free customers is a sales & marketing expense, and the pricing for paid customers is set accordingly to cover that expense.
The quote about “if something is free, you are the product” is often quite valid. But it’s usually more relevant to products that are exclusively or predominantly free (e.g. Google search or Reddit).
I am willing to bet the free user to sub conversion rate is pretty good too. A company would make something free in order for you to test the product and, if you like it, buy it. It’s a little sample, like what a fast food place might hand out in the malls.
Ive seen that reviews on the play store is very bad for proton vpn and almost all of them are from free users. Does that affect the name of proton vpn for people trying to purchase the premium plan (which is actually good).
I’m a paid proton customer. Your free shit works because I pay. I pay proton because I want to, and I love to pay Proton. Proton is one of the best companies in the world.
Is this topic genuine/legit or is it some AI generated bullshit by shitass Reddit to prompt discussion? If you don’t appreciate the free service you’re getting, fuck off and go get whatever Facebook/meta and Google will give you for free or go pay nord or whomever the fuck you think has got your back. These topics and titles disgust me. You act all innocent “I’m just asking.” Or is it really your goal to add more shit online with negative connotations that people have to step up and defend? Fuck off.
Free servers are not fast
Your questions are very valid… and each one of us should ask that question. Having Said that they are definetly making some money out of you in some way or other
Any company even protonVPN is in the bussiness of making money, so irrespective of what that company says they make money out of you.
This is how freemium model works. You burn some cash on letting users use your service but once they like it enough, they decide to pay for it. Why? Because they reach the limits of the free tier.
For example, you are using ProtonMail for 6 months and you have some file attachments. You have used up 499 mb of the 500 mb given to you for free. Now, you have to either delete attachments which will take time or upgrade with money.
If you are a working professional, the upgrade is probably more cost effective considering the time and hassle to reduce storage (time is money). Similarly, Proton throttles free VPN users. Sometimes, the free version is almost unusable, when many free users are connected to the same node. That’s the issue I faced and decided to upgrade.
But they seriously need to work on drive. Proton drive is almost unusable at the moment as we can’t use ignore patterns.
You are not wrong to be suspicious, you will be better off paying for Proton VPN.
Initially, they have made an option so we can select country, server. Now they select it for us. I don’t understand if they want to keep it why don’t they let us choose the country and server we want??
How much are you willing to pay for this advice?
The free VPN was good when you had 3 countries to pick from but now it’s randomised so it’s not good for people like me who used it for region locked content. I can say it was quite reliable. I haven’t used it since so don’t know if anything has changed
This exact saying applies to the vast majority of all other free VPNs.