I have been using ProtonVPN for the past six months roughly, but only in the past month or so, I’ve found it to be barely useable. Although it always says it’s connected, my internet constantly freezes and I need to constantly switch servers every 30-60 minutes or so for it to even be useable. Even when my connection seems to be stable, my internet speeds are still incredibly slow and it takes several minutes for certain videos on YouTube to even load for me. I’m not exactly sure what is going on with it and I would greatly appreciate any support people on this forum could give me.
Hi! We do not limit the bandwidth of your connection, so the speed that you would get from the VPN server is mostly influenced by the server distance, server load, your native ISP speed, etc.
If we do receive reports about servers performing poorly, we make sure to dig deeper and improve our infrastructure where needed. But for this, we need actionable bug reports which will provide us with adequate information so that we can pinpoint any issues with a particular server or network range, and act accordingly.
With that in mind, we would appreciate it if you contacted our support team through the ‘Report an Issue’ option in the app menu so we can help you troubleshoot further. If you’re experiencing connection issues with the servers themselves, rather than slow speeds, please also send us the error logs. This support article contains illustrated instructions on how to send us a bug report from our client on every OS: https://protonvpn.com/support/report-a-bug/.
When you send us a bug report, some of the general troubleshooting questions that our support team might ask are the following, so you can provide the information beforehand if you wish (note that we might ask additional questions depending on the specific case reported - the ones below will help for slow speed reports, but some of the information is also required for connection problem reports):
- Your current location (country) and which exact servers (i.e. CH#10) you're experiencing this problem with?
- Have you tried connecting to servers with low server load near your location?
- Is there any type of anti-virus or firewall software running on your device? If so, which one?
- What kind of internet connection are you using (Home/work/school/public & wifi/ethernet/cellular data)?
- Your ISP (Internet Service Provider)?
- Have you tried switching between the available connection protocols and then check if the issue persists (https://protonvpn.com/support/how-to-change-vpn-protocols/)? For instance, if you're using the default Smart protocol, try switching to WireGuard, or maybe OpenVPN - UDP, to see if you get faster speeds.
- Do you have any downloading apps (like torrents) running in the background?
- What is your ISP connection speed and what would be the minimum speed that you expect to receive while using Proton VPN?
- Could you send us screenshots of https://speedtest.net while you are connected to our VPN vs. while you aren't?
We also have a support article with some tips on increasing VPN speeds which you can check out here: https://protonvpn.com/support/increase-vpn-speeds/
Feel free to contact us. We’d love to try to help improve your experience with Proton VPN.
I’ve been having that issue too. Speeds just get ridiculously slow until I switch servers. I pay for Proton Unlimited, and even when I’m on servers with low load, it still happens.
Same as the paid servers. I have to leave it off now, it’s pretty much unusable for me at the moment.
What does the paid vpn version offer over free?
I’ve been using this VPN for almost 6 months now, this VPN is very helpful for me and my colleague. so far I don’t have any problems with the service.
one thing is make sure you have the most current version of software.
Servers with low loads probably mean they are bad. Start picking higher populated servers.
Recently I’ve been getting slower speeds on desktop and I switched from using the cli to the gui to select the fastest connection and it’s a bit better. Hopefully Proton fixes these rampant inconsistencies.
You can see the features here:
Streaming support, way more servers in way way more countries, faster speeds, P2P support with port forwarding.
That’s basically it I think.
All are doing the same, there is no difference. If you have issues, please contact the customer service team;
Yeah same here. Have it installed on a Pfsense router and it’s been consistently awesome!
Proton’s configured to autoconnect to the “fastest” server on startup, and when I connect to a different server, I do so by launching into the “fastest” profile. Ultimately though, a VPN shouldn’t require active management on the user’s end to maintain decent speeds.
I found this to be correct, I usually get on servers that have over 50% load tho Im on a paid plan and not the free one.