ProtonVPNandWindscriberegularly seem in both ourbest VPNs listand ourbest devoid VPN listing , with both tender manufacture - leading free services and outstanding pay - for subscription .
But which is the best VPN for your needs ? Here ’s everything you call for to know .
Pricing and availability
Windscribe ’s free tier fix you 10 GB of VPN dealings every calendar month . spare user get access code to locations in 11 countries – not including any of the Windflix video cyclosis endpoints . A pay - for subscription cost $ 9/£6.92 per month or $ 49/£37.69 per year , and give you accession to endpoints in 65 countries . All very courteous and childlike .
ProtonVPN ’s free tier offers unlimited data throughput , but only via three terminus locations ( in the US , Netherlands and Japan ) . These are nominally slower than the paid - for endpoint ( but often are n’t in praxis ) and miss additional features such as television streaming reinforcement .
When it come to pay ProtonVPN for its service , the tier you should pay attention to is ProtonVPN Plus , which gives you accession to all of the service ’s features and endpoints on up to five devices . It be around $ 10/£8.91/€10 per month , $ 96/£79.63/€96 per yr and $ 159/£131.89/€159 every two age .
ProtonVPN Basic is cheaper but does n’t give you access to the extra waiter reserved for Plus user and only allow you to connect from two equipment simultaneously . This cost $ 5/£4.45/€5 per calendar month and $ 48/£39.82/€48 per year and $ 79/£65.53/€79 every two class .
eventually , ProtonVPN Visionary big money in 10 simultaneous connections , multi - exploiter ProtonMail accounts and is chiefly intended for torrid supporters of ProtonMail ’s mission . It ’s priced at $ 30/£24.88/€30 per calendar month , $ 288/£238.89/€288 per class and $ 479/£397.32/€479 every two long time . All of ProtonVPN ’s paid tier give you entree to 61 endpoint state .
Both ProtonVPN and Windscribe allow you to pay off via cryptocurrency , which can help to keep your identity secret as long as it ’s carefully used alongside other operable security bar . But for real namelessness , we ’re very keen on ProtonVPN ’s selection of sending them anenvelope full of cash – old - schooling privacy at work , there .
Performance
Tested on an ultra - high - swiftness vulcanized fiber connection at a London data centre , our tests shoot for to showcase the fastest speeds we can get out of each service during any commit examination period .
As you may see from the results tabular array from our most late tests above , ProtonVPN is almost twice as fast as Windscribe , so if you ’re on the lookout for raw speed , your choice becomes obvious – ProtonVPN ’s velocity are on a par with speeding - oriented servicesNordVPN , VyprVPNandMullvad .
This is typical for both services . However , those numbers can be deceptive if you do n’t take the testing circumstance into account . Windscribe ’s execution is very secure , despite hovering just under a group average that ’s pushed up by some specially spry outlier .
Few people get speeds of over 200MB / s from their ISP , so the upper verge of what ’s possible if you push the VPN religious service to its limits is pretty irrelevant for the Brobdingnagian majority of net users . While a VPN can sometimes improve connectedness speed to distant countries , you ca n’t exceed the f number of your connection to your ISP .
Ourspeed testsindicate that Windscribe and ProtonVPN ’s both provide barren exploiter with connection speed that are corresponding to those attained by ante up contributor .
Both services are usually okay for watching streaming video without having to impact your security department by disconnect from your VPN .
Security and transparency
ProtonVPN is headquartered in Switzerland , while Windscribe operates from Canada . Switzerland has a slightly right reputation for privacy - respecting laws , but they remain a field of honor . In general , Canadian VPN providers have become more relaxed about what they allow customers to do , despite retiring issues with the potential log requisite of Canada ’s Copyright Modernization Act .
As always , remember that the only fashion we can see that a “ no - logging ” VPN provider is maintain its Logos is through what we learn from third - company audits , legal cases , and reports of administration seizures . Beyond that , we have only the news of the provider that it ’s doing as it claims .
Both ProtonVPN and Windscribe say that they keep no logs , and you’re able to see Windscribe’stransparency reportshowing law enforcement and right of first publication bureau postulation for data , of which Windscribe says “ zero requests were comply with due to lack of relevant datum . ”
Windscribe say it does n’t lumber any identifying information and is very vaporous aboutwhat track record it does keep . The companionship has not yet published any third - party audits of its substructure or secrecy and lumber policies .
ProtonVPN ’s lastexternal security auditof its no - logging policy was gestate out by Securitum and put out in April 2022 . Proton Technologies also operates abug bountyprogramme , which is something we ’d wish to see more of in the VPN space .
This no - logs insurance , as ProtonVPN’stransparency reportreveals , means that there ’s no data to pass over to the authority if a warrant is enforced against the caller . In 2021 , Proton Technologies successfullyoverturned a rulingthat they had to hoard extra data .
However , Swiss authorities have the right to order ISPs to to collect data in in specific criminal cases , include in response tointernational warrants . Proton Technologies AG ’s ProtonMail armed service has done this ona bit of occasions , with notifications going to the individual whose accounts were relate .
Both Proton Technologies and Windscribe are industry stalwarts who ’ve been exonerated around their committedness to foil and security . The fact that they ’ve been in this space without any major scandal for so farsighted help to tolerate their reputation .
Specifications
Both Windscribe and ProtonVPN have the core group features we look for in a VPN . An optional kill - switch to block all dealings if your connection to the VPN server drop is a security must - have , and we ’re happy to remark that both affirm disconnected tunnelling , which allow for you to route some of your traffic via the VPN and specific exception via your ISP .
Neither service of process has complete the deployment of substructure - all-encompassing RAMdisk server yet , although we see that this is in onward motion for both .
Windscribe presently offers its Stealth obfuscation protocol to help evade state or corporate VPN sensing method . ProtonVPN does n’t currently cater any obfuscation to enshroud the fact that you ’re using a VPN , although its “ secure core ” servers bring home the bacon enhanced protection against your data being monitored in privacy - unfriendly end point state .
Windscribe ’s paid subscription allows you to tie an unlimited number of devices at once , while ProtonVPN Plus restricts you to five .
Windscribe fend for the OpenVPN , IKEv2 / IPSec , SOCKS5 and WireGuard protocol . ProtonVPN was a relatively late adopter of WireGuard due to additional time spend assessing the communications protocol ’s security , but now supports OpenVPN , Wireguard and KEv2 / IPSec .
Windscribe has client uncommitted for Windows , macOS , Linux , Android , iOS , Blackberry , Fire TV , and Nvidia Shield , plus the Chrome , Firefox and Opera browsers . ProtonVPN does n’t have any web browser file name extension out , but allow consecrate clients for Windows , macOS , the Linux command line , Android and iOS .
Both cater contour instructions for other devices to bear exploiter . ProtonVPN offer endpoints in 65 area , Windscribe in 61 .
Verdict
If you ’re looking for a innocent VPN , you should probably have both Windscribe and ProtonVPN accounts . As it ’s faster and provide unlimited throughput , ProtonVPN ’s free servicing is the better choice for sidereal day - to - Clarence Day use , but you ’re restricted to endpoints in just three countries , compare to Windscribe ’s 11 .
If you ’re looking to compensate for a VPN religious service , Windscribe is much tacky , at £ 37.63 a year , than the equivalent ProtonVPN Plus tier up , which will cost you £ 79.63 per twelvemonth . ProtonVPN ’s service is a moment good , but the remainder in speed is trifling .
