ProtonVPN launched last month, and I've been a user of Protonmail for quite awhile. I'm also a subscriber to Private Internet Access, and have been really pleased with the service, the only qualm I can think of is that PIA is a US-based company. This has some advantages, like the fact that the US has no data-retention law....yet... But at the same time, do I really need a VPN service that isn't US based? Is ProtonVPN worth it? Especially at 3x the cost of PIA. If anyone has any thoughts, I would love to hear them.
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I won't pretend to know a lot about data retention and what that means for you, however I do use PIA myself and have never had any problems with it. Being in Aus I have the ability to connect to nodes outside of the US, I am not sure if this is possible for yourself using their client?
The concern I have in regards to PIA being a US based company isn't whether or not I can access nodes outside the US, I can do that just fine, but that because Private Internet Access is based in the US, it's obligated to follow US law. All I've heard from PIA, which admittedly, isn't a lot, is that they don't log and are willing to close shop rather than give up data, like LavaBit. Whether or not they would do this in reality, I have no idea. Whereas someone like ProtonVPN, they are based in Switzerland and aren't obligated to follow US law.
Ah yes, very informative - thank you!
I personally would take PIA's word on that, but that's just me. I'll follow this post though so to see what everyone else comes up with in regards to different providers.
PIA shutdown their Russian servers last year after they past a law requiring all providers to log internet traffic for up to a year.
Would they do the same if such legislation were created in the US?
They might move the company to another country and shutdown the us servers. However this will only be speculation until the us require logs to be stored.
https://thatoneprivacysite.net/
https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/wiki/index
I'm on PIA right now, but plan to switch once my plan expires.
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I use PIA, they seem ok but I don't think there the fastest, I have seen 2.5mbs from them so not sure if they will go at full speed of my connection which is around 10mbs, I should test that sometime.
Shame about their Russian server, but now days most companies and services have caught on to the loopholes of buying within Russia to get cheaper prices and have pretty much plugged those holes up with account locking and such (warthunder for example)
@cicero64 like you I am a user of Protonmail plus and PIA vpn and was tempted to switch to ProtonVPN. My only reservation to switch was having all my services under one provider. Comparing the GUI for protonVPN and PIA, I liked proton's better, with the graph and a dark theme; it checked all my aesthetic boxes. The secure core option was pretty nice to have as well. The final straw came to should I really combine my email and VPN under one provider? Personally I couldn't justify the switch and plus the cost increase didn't help.
I recently renewed PIA for a year, as I've been getting great speeds and no issues over the last period (I carry out tests fairly regularly) . I realise that a change to the US laws could come on a short notice, but it's not a whole lot of money involved.
Hands down I say ProtonVPN because the are not a US based company.
ProtonVPN's client looks really good, but they're only supporting windows right now on it. Everything else has to come from OpenVPN, which I don't mind, I use OpenVPN because there isn't an Arch client available, but I sometimes have to use MacOS and I hate setting up OpenVPN on it.
oh, i didn’t know proton mail launched a vpn service too. i am aware of pia though and it’s decent if you want to try it out. there’s no metadata retention in usa but they’re bound to provide details if authorities come a knocking. proton mail is great but i don’t know if their vpn encryption is as seamless. where are they based in? or registered from? that said, the price point seems a bit high. also, a windows-only app might be a turn off unless you can set it up over your router manually, which would work just fine, but then, you’ll have a bit of trouble if you’ll try to change your region to something else, say, japan 
It’s not Windows only. All VPN’s that run on Linux use OpenVPN.
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I also didnt know they now have a vpn service. I dont use them much for mail just for some small things but it looks like the’ve made tonnes of improvements. Is that PGP key support now the have. Looks good though my current mail has more PGP key options for management.
Has anyone used ProtonVPN?
You do tend to get what you pay for. But $4/8 doesnt seem particularly high depending on your needs, I guess it also depends on how well it actually works.
As @dot404 mentioned, the app maybe windows only but on Linux VPN management is built into the OS unlike windows. There’s no need for an app, you load the ovpn profile and your good to go.
I imagine there customer contact would be quite good, last time i contacted them they gave me a straight answer pretty fast. So they have that going for them in my books.
Well since no on else did. Heres a quick unscientific view of ProtonVPN
It seems pretty good.
picked up there basic vpn option
It works well, nothing much to say on the config side, its standard open vpn format. Requires username and password that you get from your account info page.
Speeds seem good. The basic is classed as “high” whatever that means. Im getting around 50Mbps down, 15Mbps up. My non vpn connection normally (interesting is slower than it has been) is 62Mbps down 18Mbps up.
this seem good to me, im not sure what the “high” cap is. there’s a faster option available.
I’ve not noticed any slowdowns or long term (in the last 24 hours using it) issues with it being on.
There account security is pretty good, 2FA available, the usually, its the same as there protonmail account security.
I have in the past had good response from then so i might ask about the difference between “high” and “highest” in terms of speed and see what they say.
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Really it depends on how safe you feel knowing that american companies can be compelled to hand over data , no matter the country the data lies. Look at US vs Microsoft where email data was held in ireland.
Hmmm, I’m thinking about getting ProtonVPN just to support them, they made a really great email product. And I hope they can do the same with a VPN.
Could someone explain how using a VPN protects one’s identity and privacy? Is it just to keep your ISP from snooping and injecting? Once you’re out of the VPN your identity is known, because you use services and websites like Facebook and Twitter and whatever else.
Or is it the fact that they know both who you are and what you are doing, but they just don’t know where you are?
Unless you do truly anonymous things on the internet through the VPN (torrenting, fake accounts, etc) all it does is mask your location. Right?
Edit: And to clarify who “they” is, I would say “they” could be either whoever’s service you are using, or government entities.