Proton VPN

Our verdict: the most credible free-tier VPN on the market — open-source clients, five consecutive independent no-logs audits, and Swiss jurisdiction make it the safest default for most people.

Proton VPN is built by Proton AG, the Geneva-based company behind Proton Mail, and it approaches network privacy the same way: everything verifiable, nothing taken on faith. Every client — Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android — is published as open source under GPL-3.0, and the service's no-logs policy has now passed five consecutive annual audits by the European security firm Securitum, most recently an on-site infrastructure review in May 2026. A SOC 2 Type II attestation completed in 2025 rounds out the picture.

In daily use it is simply a fast, quiet VPN. The free tier is genuinely usable — no data cap, no credit card, servers in a rotating set of countries — while the Plus plan unlocks 10 simultaneous devices, the full server network across 140+ countries, streaming support, and the NetShield ad and malware blocker. Swiss jurisdiction keeps the service outside mandatory data-retention regimes, and the company's public bug bounty program has a documented history of patching reported flaws quickly.