The Best Paid & Free ProtonVPN Alternatives for 2024
There are several paid and free VPN options if you’re looking for a good ProtonVPN alternative. This alternatives article will help you find the right VPN for your needs.
Written by Samuel Okoruwa (Writer)
Reviewed by Samuel Chapman (Writer, Editor)
Facts checked by Jasna Mishevska (Lead Fact-Checking Editor)
Last Updated: 2024-10-18T19:36:33+00:00
All our content is written fully by humans; we do not publish AI writing. Learn more here.
Key Takeaways: Best ProtonVPN Alternatives
- PrivadoVPN — Best Free Alternative to ProtonVPN.
- NordVPN — Best premium ProtonVPN alternative with an outstanding proprietary protocol and security features. NordVPN’s two-year plan offers 73% off on the first two years with three months free.
- Surfshark — Best budget-friendly premium ProtonVPN alternative. A 86% discount is available for users who choose Surfshark’s extended subscription options.
- ExpressVPN — Fast speeds with impressive streaming performance and security. New ExpressVPN subscribers get up to 49% reduced rates on long-term commitments.
- Windscribe — One of the fastest free VPNs with tons of features.
- TunnelBear — High speeds and server count, plus good free plan.
- VyprVPN — Great pick for security and speed, but expensive.
Facts & Expert Analysis
- ProtonVPN is one of the best free VPNs. It offers a lot of quality but falls short in terms of speed.
- In this article, we list some great alternatives to ProtonVPN, including our top pick, PrivadoVPN.
- For each alternative VPN, we’ll list their unique features and highlight their standout benefits compared to ProtonVPN.
ProtonVPN is a great free VPN, offering extensive security features that give you the ability to unblock sites. It also comes with solid security and protects user privacy pretty well, as you can read in our Proton VPN review.
However, ProtonVPN’s speeds are not the fastest we’ve seen. This pushes it behind some of its competitors and may send some looking for a ProtonVPN alternative.
ProtonVPN is a solid freemium VPN — you can’t beat the ProtonVPN price of “free.” However, if you’re in search of a VPN with faster and more consistent speeds, we’ve got you covered with the best paid and free ProtonVPN alternatives.
-
11/30/2023
Updated the article to reflect ExpressVPN’s expansion of server presence from 94 to 105 countries.
-
10/01/2024 Facts checked
We adjusted the article’s VPN positions to reflect recent improvements and feature updates.
The Top ProtonVPN Alternatives
- 1
- : PayPal, Credit card, Coinbase, SEPA, Discover
- : 10
- :
- :
- :
- :
- 2
- : PayPal, Credit card, Google Pay, JCB, UnionPay, Bitcoin, Ethereum, X-Coin
- : 10
- :
- :
- :
- :
Average speedDownload Speed89 MbpsUpload Speed9 MbpsLatency6 ms - 3
- : PayPal, Credit card, Google Pay, Amazon Pay
- : Unlimited
- :
- :
- :
- :
Average speedDownload Speed90 MbpsUpload Speed8 MbpsLatency103 ms - 4
- : PayPal, Credit card, Bitcoin, UnionPay, iDeal, Sofort, Giropay, Pixpay, Sepa Direct Debit
- : 8
- :
- :
- :
- :
Average speedDownload Speed86 MbpsUpload Speed8 MbpsLatency4 ms - 5
- : PayPal, Credit card
- : Unlimited
- :
- :
- :
- :
Average speedDownload Speed78 MbpsUpload Speed9 MbpsLatency25 ms - 6
- : Credit card
- : Unlimited
- :
- :
- :
- :
- 7
- : PayPal, Credit card
- : 5
- :
- :
- :
- :
What Makes the Best ProtonVPN Alternative?
ProtonVPN excels in many areas, so the best ProtonVPN alternative must be of equal or higher quality. We’ll make our case using the same criteria we use to judge the best VPN providers, as well as the areas in which these VPNs outperform the ProtonVPN rating.
Achieve Online Privacy and Security Even as a VPN Novice
- Comprehend the essential role a VPN plays in safeguarding your digital life
- Gain a deep understanding of how VPNs function under the hood
- Develop the ability to distinguish fact from fiction in VPN promotions
Thankfully, ProtonVPN has excellent security. It uses virtually uncrackable military-grade AES-256 encryption paired with the OpenVPN protocol, as well as well-known encryption protocols, such as IKEv2 and WireGuard. ProtonVPN also adheres to a strict no-log policy, meaning that it does not collect or “log” information on user activity.
Unfortunately, ProtonVPN doesn’t have the best speeds. When we tested it using speedtest.net, its download speeds dropped significantly in all the locations we tunneled.
Most of the VPN recommendations perform better than ProtonVPN in terms of speed, so we’ll make that our priority. These VPNs also have robust security features that let users browse the web anonymously and protect their data online.
Like ProtonVPN, all the VPNs we’ve listed in this article come with the best encryption and protocols for secure connection. They are also no-logs VPNs and have never been caught logging or sharing user information.
In this article, we list five VPNs we consider to be the best alternatives to ProtonVPN. For each VPN service, we’ll talk about their unique features, then dig a little deeper to highlight their standout features.
The 5 Best ProtonVPN Alternatives
Below are five best alternatives to ProtonVPN, starting with our top free VPN suggestion, PrivadoVPN.
1. PrivadoVPN — Best Free ProtonVPN Alternative
PrivadoVPN is our favorite free VPN, and for good reason. Although it has a data cap, it provides double the amount of servers as Proton VPN, and doesn’t force you into random server selection.
This means that despite having a 10GB data cap, it’s a much better free VPN for streaming, not to mention other less data-intensive tasks that still require an IP address from a specific country.
PrivadoVPN Control Tower
If you upgrade to PrivadoVPN’s paid plan, you get access to a full security suite known as Control Tower. This includes a variety of different blockers, parental controls and social media monitoring. Read our PrivadoVPN review for more information.
Although PrivadoVPN’s free plan is excellent, you might want to upgrade to a paid plan if you’re happy with the service but need more data. Its cheapest paid plan comes in at $1.99 which is very cheap.
- 10GB
- 1
- *Billed $44.85 for the first 15 months, then $59.88 every 12 months. *Billed $53.73 for the first 27 months, then $95.76 every 24 months.
- Unlimited GB
- 10
- Yes
2. NordVPN — Best Premium ProtonVPN Alternative
Very Fast
Very Fast
Very Fast
NordVPN provides a lot of value for the money, especially in the area of security. In addition to the essentials, it comes with a host of advanced features such as obfuscated servers, which help you bypass firewalls used by countries and internet service providers to ban VPN usage.
The VPN also offers a dark web monitor, a recently launched tool that prevents the dark web from selling your personal information. This feature scans the dark web for stolen credentials and prompts the user to take action if it finds any.
To further secure users, NordVPN comes with a tool called threat protection (a more developed version of NordVPN’s CyberSec). Threat protection stays on 24/7, blocking ads, pop-ups and third-party trackers that collect your personal information.
Threat protection also protects your device against malware by scanning downloaded files and deleting the ones it deems dangerous. Once enabled, threat protection secures your browsing whether you’re connected to a VPN server or not.
NordLynx, NordVPN’s Proprietary Protocol
NordVPN is one of the fastest VPNs on the market. This also makes it a great alternative to ProtonVPN, which falls behind in speed. NordVPN displays consistent download and upload speeds when tested across different locations, and is the fastest on a worldwide scale. This makes it the go-to VPN for speed-intensive online activities such as gaming and torrenting.
Luckily, NordVPN is more affordable than ExpressVPN (known for its pricey plans), but it still doesn’t offer a free plan, like ProtonVPN does. However, you can use its 30-day money-back guarantee. Read more about it in our NordVPN review.
- *The prices are charged in the first billing cycle only. Renewal prices vary.
- Unlimited GB
- 10
- Yes
- *The prices are charged in the first billing cycle only. Renewal prices vary.
- Unlimited GB
- 10
- Yes
- *The prices are charged in the first billing cycle only. Renewal prices vary.
- Unlimited GB
- 10
- Yes
3. Surfshark — Most Affordable Premium ProtonVPN Alternative
Very Fast
Very Fast
Good
Surfshark is another top choice that we frequently reccomend on our lists. Owned by the same company as NordVPN, it offers a similar level of security, privacy and performance as its bigger brother.
That said, it does struggle with latency on certain servers, and its Mac and iOS apps are lacking some key features. For more information on all its strengths and weaknesses, make sure to check out our Surfshark review.
However, if one of the reasons you’re using ProtonVPN is that its free, Surfshark is a good alternative. While it might not offer a free plan, its longer-term plans are incredibly affordable, making it one of the cheapest VPNs on the market.
Unlimited Simultaneous Connections
Another fact that can help make Surfshark even cheaper is that it allows for an unlimited number of devices to be connected at the same time. This means that you can potentially share the cost of a subscription with friends and family, since all of you can use the account at the same time without risk of getting kicked out.
- Unlimited GB bandwidth, Unlimited devices, Secure VPN, Ad blocker, Cookie pop-up blocker. Plans renew: $59.76 for one year, $59.76 per year for the two-year plan.
- Unlimited GB
- Unlimited
- Yes
- Everything in Starter, plus Antivirus protection, Identity protection, Email Breach and Credit Card Alerts, Online Alias Plans renew: $79 for one year & $79 per year for the two-year plan.
- Unlimited GB
- Unlimited
- Everything in One, plus Data removal Plans renew: $269.25 for one year, $404.65 for two years
- Unlimited GB
- Unlimited
4. ExpressVPN — Best ProtonVPN Alternative for Beginners
Very Fast
Very Fast
Very Fast
ExpressVPN is one of those VPNs that excels in virtually all areas (except price, but more on that later). It is a great alternative to ProtonVPN, thanks to its fast speeds. Beyond that, ExpressVPN is a beast when it comes to security. It offers essential features like a kill switch, AES-256 encryption and open-source protocols (OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPsec), plus its proprietary protocol called Lightway.
Despite being a relatively new protocol, Lightway is on par with popular established options, delivering high speeds and reliable security. When enabled, the protocol also keeps ExpressVPN in a perpetual active state (always-on protection), reconnecting you to a VPN server whenever you switch networks instead of cutting off your connection.
ExpressVPN also comes with install options for a wide range of devices. You can secure your internet connection whether you’re on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux or your home router. There are native apps for Fire TV and Kindle Fire, Roku, Chromecast and other smart TV systems, as well as Chrome OS.
Stream, Torrent or Game at Fast Speeds
Not only does ExpressVPN unblock all major streaming services, its speeds are among the best on the market — and are leagues above ProtonVPN — losing only 10% of its upload and download speeds across different locations and maintaining significantly lower latencies than other VPNs.
With these speed results, it won’t seem like you’re using a VPN while streaming, gaming or torrenting. It’s also worth noting that ExpressVPN earns a top spot on our list of best VPNs for torrenting. However, one downside to ExpressVPN is its price and lack of a free plan. You can read more about it in our ExpressVPN review, or try it with its 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Unlimited GB
- 8
- Yes
5. Windscribe — Fast Free ProtonVPN Alternative
Fast
Very Fast
Very Fast
Windscribe has long held the reputation of being one of the best free VPN services, and has several attributes that make it a great free alternative to ProtonVPN. Besides its excellent speeds and free plan, Windscribe excels in other areas like security, features and the degree of flexibility it gives users.
On top of the regular features like a kill switch and split tunneling, there’s R.O.B.E.R.T., a custom domain-blocking and IP-blocking tool that helps users block ads and malware, create custom blocklists and browse faster.
Another interesting feature is the Windows-only “share” tool, which allows you to enable a secure hotspot that can be shared with your family and friends. It’s one of the reasons Windscribe is the best free VPN for PCs.
To better protect your privacy, Windscribe uses two proprietary protocols, Stealth and Websocket Stunnel (WStunnel). Stealth is an obfuscation tool that prevents websites from knowing that you’re using a VPN, while WStunnel is a protocol encapsulation tool that lets you bypass censorship and VPN bans in restrictive countries.
With download and upload speeds reaching up to 90% of unprotected speeds coupled with a low ping increase of less than 5ms when compared to other VPNs using USA servers, Windscribe is one of the fastest VPNs. These numbers mean that you can access streaming sites, torrent or play games without experiencing any interruptions.
Access Tons of Features With Windscribe’s Free Plan
Windscribe is one of the most flexible and generous free VPN plans, with unlimited simultaneous connections and bandwidth, plus 10 server country locations (seven more than ProtonVPN’s free plan). You’ll start with 2GB of data per month, which you can increase to 10GB per month when you confirm your email address.
That’s not all. Windscribe offers some creative ways to add to your monthly data. You can add up to 5GB of data to your free account just by tweeting about Windscribe, and get even more when you use the service’s referral code or participate in a Windscribe contest or giveaway on Reddit and Discord. Read more about it in our Windscribe review.
- Up to 15 GB free with email confirmation and Tweet
- 15GB
- Unlimited
- Unlimited GB
- Unlimited
- Yes
6. TunnelBear — Good Free Alternative to ProtonVPN
Although TunnelBear doesn’t come loaded with features, it has some proprietary security features that are quite impressive. There’s VigilantBear, which is TunnelBear’s kill switch tool for blocking internet traffic when your VPN connection drops. This is particularly helpful when torrenting or handling sensitive information.
TunnelBear also offers GhostBear, which hides the fact you’re using a VPN. This tool comes in handy in countries that ban VPN usage. Furthermore, you can create your own list of trusted networks. TunnelBear will automatically connect only when you’re using a network outside this list, but disconnect when you’re using a trusted network.
Access up to 40 Server Locations
TunnelBear’s server count is as good as it gets for a free VPN, and reaches some underserved locations like Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. The only quibble is its low data limit; however, it makes up for this by increasing the data cap when you tweet about the service.
While TunnelBear is not the fastest VPN out there, its security is top-notch and on par with ProtonVPN. Plus, it is one of the best free VPN options available, though we consider it to fall behind PrivadoVPN, ProtonVPN and Windscribe in quality. Although you can access all the server locations, you’re limited to 500MB per month. Read more about it in our TunnelBear review.
- 2GB
- 2GB
- Unlimited
- Unlimited GB, unlimited devices, priority customer service
- Unlimited GB
- Unlimited
- Yes
- Unlimited GB, centralized billing, account manager, price per user per month (minimum 2 users)
- Unlimited GB
- Unlimited
- Yes
7. VyprVPN — Security-Focused ProtonVPN Alternative
VyprVPN comes loaded with lots of features that helps it place near the level of top-tier VPNs like ExpressVPN and NordVPN. In addition to an automatic kill switch and split tunneling, it also offers advanced features. These include an auto-reconnect option that will restore your connection to the VPN immediately in case your VPN drops suddenly.
There’s also public WiFi protection that lets you create a list of trusted WiFi networks, so that the VPN can swing into action whenever you connect to a network that’s not on the trusted WiFi list.
Get Stellar Security With VyprVPN
Like ProtonVPN, VyprVPN has excellent VPN security. In addition to secure VPN protocols like OpenVPN, IKEv2 and WireGuard, VyprVPN offers a proprietary protocol called the Chameleon protocol, built to bypass internet restrictions such as China’s Great Firewall.
Chameleon measures up to OpenVPN in terms of security, but it also comes with obfuscation, which hides the fact that you’re using a VPN. This makes VyprVPN capable of breaking through internet censors undetected.
As an extra layer of security, VyprVPN provides a network address translation (NAT) firewall, which prevents malicious hackers and bots from gaining access to your device and keeps it safe from malware and identity theft.
Unfortunately, VyprVPN’s speeds are quite inconsistent. Another downside is VyprVPN’s expensive plans. This makes it a much more pricey option to ProtonVPN, which is a free VPN service. However, VyprVPN comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, and its plans provide a lot of value for money. Read more about it in our VyprVPN review.
- Unlimited GB
- 5
- Unlimited GB
- 5
- Unlimited GB
- 5
More plans
- Includes 3 Users, $99 per year per additional user, Multiple User Management. Global Business Servers, Dedicated Account Manager
- Unlimited GB
- 3
- Includes 3 Users $99 per year per additional user, Multiple User Management, Your own dedicated server, Fast and easy deployment
- Unlimited GB
- 3
Final Thoughts
The VPNs on this list are at least on par with ProtonVPN, and most have an edge over it. Occupying the top spot is PrivadoVPN, a secure option that gives you access to all its features (with few restrictions) despite being a free VPN.
If you’re willing to consider a VPN besides a free alternative, NordVPN is an excellent choice for its stellar security features, speeds and privacy. It will bring you a lot of value for money, but it is quite expensive compared to ProtonVPN. If NordVPN seems interesting to you, you can check it out risk-free and claim a refund within 30 days if you’re not satisfied.
Which VPN makes the best alternative to ProtonVPN? Will you use it on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS or iPad? Did we miss a VPN you think should be on the list? Let us know in the comment section below. As always, thanks for reading.
FAQ
Windscribe and ProtonVPN are both free VPNs, and should be expected to come with some limitations. However, if you were to choose between the two, we’d recommend Windscribe, thanks to its generous serving of features and larger number of servers compared to the ProtonVPN free plan, which offers only three server countries and limits your speeds.
Yes. NordVPN has better speeds than Proton VPN, as well as more advanced features and a larger server network.
Proton VPN is a free VPN that still has some ground to cover if it wants to reach top-tier status. However, it’s one of the best free VPNs, and only falls behind its competitors due to restrictions that come with its free version.
ExpressVPN is a top-tier VPN provider with many more features and a better overall performance than Proton VPN, including in its ability to access sites for streaming, as well as speed and security.