Proton VPN vs Private Internet Access

These two agree about more than most pairs on this site. Both publish open-source clients, both offer port forwarding, both have been inspected by outside auditors recently, and both are cheap if you commit. What separates them is where each one lives and what it costs to find out whether you like it.

Two open-source clients, two jurisdictions

Proton VPN is registered in Geneva and Switzerland sits outside every intelligence-sharing agreement. Private Internet Access is in Denver, inside the five-country one, and is owned by Kape Technologies, which sells two other VPNs as independent brands.

Jurisdiction is not the whole picture. Private Internet Access has been asked for records in court more than once and produced nothing, because there was nothing to produce, and that is stronger evidence than any audit or address. Proton VPN's answer is a five-year run of server inspections, most recently June 2026. Both are real arguments; they are just different ones.

One concrete gap: Private Internet Access's kill switch allowed traffic through after a restart under testing. Proton VPN's holds.

Free to try against cheap to keep

Proton VPN's free plan has no data cap and no expiry, which lets you settle the one question that actually decides this pair before paying anything. Proton VPN is the slowest service measured here to start loading a page, and on video calls that shows.

Private Internet Access is quicker off the mark and renews its three-year plan at the rate it charged, which over a long horizon makes it the cheaper of the two. It also has no cap on simultaneous devices where Proton allows ten.

Which should you choose?

Choose Proton VPN if the jurisdiction matters, if you want a kill switch that behaves, or if you would rather test a VPN properly than trust a refund window. Choose Private Internet Access if you need more than ten devices, you want the cheaper long-term price, or a slow first page load would send you back to using nothing.

Use Proton's free tier to decide. It costs nothing and does not expire, and the speed question is the one thing here you cannot settle by reading — it depends on your connection and on whether your day contains calls.