Proton VPN vs PureVPN

This comparison is decided by evidence rather than features, and the evidence is not close. It is still worth reading, because PureVPN is much cheaper and cheap is a legitimate reason to buy something.

Evidence that is current against evidence that is not

Outside auditors have inspected Proton VPN's servers five years running, most recently June 2026, and its clients are open source, so the software's behaviour can be checked by somebody who does not work there.

PureVPN has been assessed four times and none of them recently. The fourth ran in February 2023, and the pages describing it no longer name the firm that carried it out. Before that, in 2017, it supplied a customer's connection records to the FBI while advertising a no-logs policy. Its current policy does name the specific record categories it says it does not keep, which is more precise than most, but a policy is a promise and the 2017 case is what happened to a promise.

Both are registered outside every intelligence-sharing agreement — Proton AG in Geneva, GZ Systems Limited in Tortola with the group run from Karachi.

What you can use before paying

Proton VPN's free plan has no data cap and no expiry, so the question of whether you like it costs nothing to answer. PureVPN has no free tier; its low rate requires a twenty-seven-month prepayment, and port forwarding and a dedicated address are sold on top.

On capability Proton VPN leads: port forwarding included, multi-hop, obfuscation, open-source clients and a kill switch that holds. PureVPN has obfuscation, ad blocking, IPv6 protection and streaming support, which Proton does not claim, plus apps down to Apple TV and Fire TV.

Speed is the one place Proton is genuinely weak. It is the slowest service measured here to start loading a page, and on video calls that shows. PureVPN has not been measured on that bench at all; the independent figure available puts it around a fifth slower than an unprotected connection, so it is not an obvious escape.

Which should you choose?

Choose Proton VPN unless the price is the only thing that matters. On audits, on source, on features and on history it is ahead throughout, and its free tier lets you check the one thing it is bad at before committing.

Choose PureVPN only if a long prepayment at the lowest available rate is the requirement, and you have read the 2017 case and decided it no longer describes the company.