this post might sound like a one sided affair but it is! it is very true that Proton’s free offering is really something I can’t live without and I have been a long time user and I have been there when they graciously offered a whole week trial of all premium servers too.
I am totally a hoarder but my work demands it otherwise, have to do with lots of research papers, books etc and these are not directly accessible. I still use your free service but the guilt is building up and once I reach a good stage in my life, I assure you that I will not only buy but will donate even if it is a small amount.
we are all in this together, I am right now an electron and once I reach the neutron state, I will become proton. well, the +Ve charge is all we need in the life after all
many thanks and godspeed to everyone. .
Yeap. Proton helped me to surf the internet safely when I didn’t have the money to buy premium. I used free servers for like 2 years. In my country the isps are not much trusted and the censorship was high. Even to access Reddit, Pinterest I had to use VPN. And as a gratitude I’m now paying for premium as I can afford now. Keep working !
That’s what proton is for. Accomplishing the mission, while also breaking even or making money. I subscribe to proton unlimited even though I’d be fine with just simplelogin, because I like the proton ecosystem and want to see it thrive.
Use it responsibly (whether free or paid) and pay if you can. A good message.
Love your post and you are right. Proton is generous with the free offerings and they do out of principle. That’s what I like the most. Hope you will reach the neutron state soon and can become a paying customer. It is important to give back and support privacy.
I love their stealth protocol!
To the OP… your word’s said it for me too… my Proton Pack zaps the ghosts everyday and I’m more than thankful to the people at Proton for what you are doing…
Unfortunately not everybody is like you, some people view Proton as a company they can easily take advantage of and being on the free plan demand more servers and more speed and quick support because their iPhone is being slow for gaming or something like that.
I’ve been trying to test the free plan before buying. They say it’s unlimited, but I’m coming constantly being limited to 500kbps after a few minutes of downloading anything.
Either there is a problem somewhere, or it’s not actually unlimited. I feel like I need to be able to trust my vpn provider, but as a few others have mentioned this too, something strange is happening…
We’re happy to hear this!
i got premium this month, best decision i’ve ever made tbh
been with proton for a few years. Never used the free version and there is a lot of hype over free vpn’s being sketchy and untrusted. Proton dont have this policy if you have “free” your doomed scenario
I monitor the traffic all the time and the uptime is awesome.
I am however finding VPN an issue in terms of config files with wireguard. Because proton “protects” you from most. It can also be your downfall when it comes down to apps such as bbc i player, netflix, prime on an android tv.
I have found the only solution and thats sadly no protonvpn client. just wireguard server.
Note that the free servers are not designed for heavy usage, downloading lots of files, and also block BitTorrent, because we need to support millions of free users from countries like Russia, Iran, so that they can gain access to the free internet. The bandwidth on them is, therefore, significantly lower than on the paid servers - but they can be used for an unlimited period of time.
For heavier usage, we really suggest getting the paid plan, which is capable of extremely high speeds since our paid server network is using 10Gbps uplinks: https://protonvpn.com/pricing
There are some, yes. However, only Proton offers it’s services under Swiss law.
They are not artificial limits, all servers have limits. Paid plan allows you to use servers with a higher bandwidth, which are also much faster.
It’s likely load balancers getting triggered. They are used to prevent one user from taking up so much bandwidth on a server that some other users that are currently on that server lose connection altogether. You can read more about it in our Terms of Service (section 2): https://proton.me/legal/terms
No, our paid servers have much more bandwidth, and we keep expanding the server infrastructure.