Proton VPN Review Australia

Reviewed by Laurence Deer, founder and reviewer in Melbourne, testing VPNs since 2019

Proton VPN

Price checked 3 NovTested 21 OctNumber 3 of 16 in our calculated order

BestVPN score 8.7 out of 10

• Speed8.5
• Streaming8.3
• Security9.0
• Value8.1
• Australia10.0

From our own tests and published figures, newest 3 Nov 2026. How we score

Our verdict

Good for trying a VPN free first

Proton VPN suits Australians who want to try a VPN free, or who put privacy first: it is Swiss and says its apps are open source. In our October 2026 tests it barely slowed our Melbourne line, and Netflix US, Netflix UK and BBC iPlayer played. The catches: SBS On Demand failed until we turned off Proton's ad blocker, and it bills in US dollars.

From US$3.49 (about A$4.98) a month

VPN Plus plan, paying for 2 years, US$83.76 upfront. Renews at US$83.88 every year. Lowest plan of each VPN we track: A$1.58 to A$17.84.

Partner offerVisit Proton VPNFrom US$3.49/mo · checked 3 Nov (Lowest monthly price (about A$4.98), on the VPN Plus plan paid upfront for 2 years; read from protonvpn.com on 3 November 2026)

Price and plan details read from protonvpn.com.

Choose it if

• You want to try a free plan first, with no card needed
• You want British TV (iPlayer, Netflix UK and Channel 4 played, October 2026)
• You want American Netflix (it played, October 2026)
• You want a Swiss provider with open-source apps

Skip it if

• You want to pay in Australian dollars
• You want Netflix Japan or Pluto TV (both blocked, October 2026)
• You want SBS On Demand to work on default settings
• You want a refund on a renewal (Proton refunds only your first purchase)

Proton VPN: key facts

Money-back

30 daysVPNs we track: 7 to 45 days

Free trial

NoneCompare VPN free trials

Devices at once

10VPNs we track: 2 to unlimited

Server countries

149VPNs we track: 30 to 150

Australian cities

5Not named on its site

Company, audits, protocols and features

Company

Based in Switzerland

Audits

Securitum, says Proton VPN

Protocols

OpenVPN, Stealth, StealthVPN, WireGuard

Features

Ad and tracker blocker, Kill switch, Multi-hop (two servers), Obfuscation, Port forwarding, Split tunnelling

As Proton VPN's own site lists them, read 2 Nov 2026.

Proton VPN test results

Speed, Australian server

99% keptOf our download speed with the VPN off. Tested 21 Oct 2026

DNS leaks

None foundTested 21 Oct 2026

Streaming

11 of 13 playedNetflix US✓ playedTubi✓ playedBBC iPlayer✓ playedChannel 4✓ playedNetflix UK✓ playedABC iview✓ playedSBS On Demand✓ playedNetShield off9Now✓ playedPrime Video✓ playedPrime Video US✓ playedPrime Video UK✓ playedPluto TV✕ blockedNetflix Japan✕ blocked6 more opened but we did not play them. Tested 21 Oct 2026

Speed kept by the VPNs we have tested (2021 to 2026 rounds): 44% to 100% or more.

Tested on an account Proton VPN gave us free of charge (17–21 Oct 2026).

Proton VPN: what has changed

• 29 Oct 2026 Servers: 18304 to 18744
• 26 Oct 2026 Review text last edited
• 24 Oct 2026 Servers: 18264 to 18304
• 22 Oct 2026 Servers: 18944 to 18264
• 21 Oct 2026 Our latest test round: local speed, overseas speed, streaming, leaks, kill switch settings (drop test not run) and torrenting

Prices are read from Proton VPN's website every morning (last read 3 Nov 2026) and its feature pages weekly; we record every change we see.

What stood out

NetShield, Proton’s blocker for ads, trackers and malware, is the setting to know. It is on from install, which makes Proton’s defaults more protective and less convenient for Australian TV.

PureVPN, tested straight after it, ships with its blocker off, and SBS On Demand played first time.

Proton also handled server switches better than PureVPN. With its kill switch on, a London-to-Tokyo switch left the Mac briefly offline but never showed our home address. PureVPN, kill switch on, showed ours twice that evening.

Its streaming results flipped between sittings. Netflix UK blocked us and Pluto TV played on 17 October; after an app update it was the other way round. We cannot tell whether the update or the services made the difference.

From our tests in Melbourne, October 2026.

Who should buy Proton VPN?

Buy it if you want to try a VPN before you pay: the free plan needs no payment details and covers one device. On a paid plan it suits overseas Netflix and British TV, which all played in our October 2026 tests.

It also suits you if you want privacy claims you can check, from a Swiss provider that says its apps are open source.

Skip it if you want to pay in Australian dollars, or want SBS On Demand to work without touching a setting. Skip it too if Netflix Japan is the point, or if you expect a refund on a renewal. The VPNs under alternatives cover those.

Proton VPN tested from Melbourne: October 2026 results

SBS On Demand will not play on Proton’s defaults. On a Melbourne server in October 2026 it showed a “Video Playback Error” that blamed ad blockers and VPNs.

The ad blocker was Proton’s own NetShield. When I set NetShield to “Don’t block”, SBS World News played.

We ran every test below in one evening on our test Mac mini in Melbourne, on our NBN line and Proton’s defaults, after an app update. The app chose WireGuard by itself.

Speed: barely noticeable at home, slower uploads overseas

Proton barely slows a Melbourne NBN line. On its Melbourne server in October 2026 it kept 99% of our download speed, the highest of the seven VPNs in our current round. Surfshark and NordVPN kept less.

That left 49.6 Mbps, well over what Netflix recommends for one 4K stream, with room for a video call alongside. Ping was 14 ms.

Overseas servers keep less, as distance always costs. Los Angeles kept 60%, London 68% and Tokyo 81%, each still enough for 4K by Netflix’s own guidance.

The first Los Angeles download crawled and the next two were steady, so its average understates it.

Speed kept

Melbourne home connection · dated per row

Australian server	99%October 2026
Japan	81%October 2026
United Kingdom	68%October 2026
United States	60%October 2026
South Africa virtual location, server in Saint-Victoret (Marseille area), France	60%October 2026
Brazil virtual location, server in Miami, United States	Unusableconnected, but almost no traffic got through; kept 58% on 17 Oct 202621 Oct 2026
India virtual location, server in Singapore	54%October 2026

Download, upload and ping in Mbps, and how we measured

From our test bench Melbourne, October 2026

Australian server, tested from Melbourne, October 2026

Connection	Download	Upload	Ping
No VPN	50.1 Mbps	18 Mbps	13.7 ms
Proton VPN, Australian server	49.6 Mbps −0.9%	17.6 Mbps −2.5%	14.4 ms

Overseas servers, tested from Melbourne, October 2026

Server in	Download	Upload
United States	30.2 Mbps −39.7%	6.50 Mbps −64.2%
United Kingdom	34.2 Mbps −31.6%	6.10 Mbps −66.4%
Japan	40.8 Mbps −18.6%	10.2 Mbps −43.6%
India virtual location, server in Singapore	26.9 Mbps −46.3%	6.70 Mbps −63.1%
Brazil virtual location, server in Miami, United States Unusable on 21 Oct 2026; these figures are from 17 Oct 2026	30.9 Mbps −41.8%	5.40 Mbps −66.3%
South Africa virtual location, server in Saint-Victoret (Marseille area), France	30.1 Mbps −39.8%	8.20 Mbps −54.7%

A virtual location is a server the app lists under one country that actually sits in another; its speed is the speed to that other place.

Our own measurements on a Melbourne home connection of about 50 Mbps at the time, October 2026. Changes are against the speed of the same line with the VPN off, measured the same day.

Share of our download speed kept with Proton VPN on, against the same line with the VPN off, measured the same day.

Uploads fell much further on every overseas server, worst on London. That matters little for streaming, which only needs download speed. We ran each server once, in the evening.

Australian TV and banking

Most Australian services worked through Proton’s Melbourne server in October 2026, with one setting to change.

Everyday use in Australia

Melbourne home connection · dated per row

ABC iview	✓ Played21 Oct 2026
SBS On Demand	✓ PlayedOnly with NetShield, Proton VPN's ad blocker, switched off. With it on (the app's default), SBS On Demand showed a playback error.21 Oct 2026
9Now	✓ PlayedPlayed with NetShield switched off.It served the Adelaide feed: 9Now placed the server in Adelaide.21 Oct 2026
Prime Video	✓ Played21 Oct 2026
Stan	Site opened, not playedNo account, so we could not press play.21 Oct 2026
Binge	Site opened, not playedNo account, so we could not press play.21 Oct 2026
Kayo	Site opened, not playedNo account, so we could not press play.21 Oct 2026
Banking and myGov	✓ Opened normallyCommBank NetBank, NAB Internet Banking, myGov: log-on pages only; we did not sign in21 Oct 2026
Connection to Sydney (games)	15 ms with the VPN, 29 ms withouttime to connect to an AWS Sydney server, one sitting; not an in-game ping21 Oct 2026

"Site opened, not played" means the service's site loaded through the VPN but we had no account to play anything.

SBS is the one to remember. If you are overseas and want SBS On Demand through Proton, set NetShield to “Don’t block” before you press Play.

9Now worked, but its location check placed our Melbourne server in Adelaide, so you get another city’s local news.

CommBank NetBank, NAB Internet Banking and myGov opened their log-on pages normally with the VPN on. We did not sign in, so we cannot say whether a bank asks for more after that.

Gaming: no lag to Sydney, too far for UK games

Proton’s Melbourne server will not add lag to games hosted in Sydney. In October 2026 a connection to Amazon’s Sydney data centre took 15 ms through Proton, against 29 ms with the VPN off.

That is a stand-in for a game server, not a ping measured inside a game.

London’s ping of 302 ms and Tokyo’s 136 ms rule out fast online games on those servers, and can add a short lag to a video call home. Our VPN for gaming guide compares ping across every VPN we have tested.

Overseas streaming: US and UK played; Japan and Pluto TV did not

Proton is a good pick for American and British TV, on our October 2026 tests, but not for Japanese Netflix.

What played

Melbourne · our own tries, dated per service

Netflix US	✓ Played21 Oct 2026
Netflix UK	✓ Played21 Oct 2026
Netflix Japan	✕ Blocked21 Oct 2026
BBC iPlayer	✓ Played21 Oct 2026
Channel 4	✓ Played21 Oct 2026
Prime Video	✓ Played21 Oct 2026
Pluto TV	✕ Blocked21 Oct 2026
Tubi	✓ Played21 Oct 2026

"Site opened, not played" means the service's site loaded through the VPN but we did not play anything.

• United Kingdom (London): BBC iPlayer played Panorama, signed in to a BBC account. Netflix UK played The New Stanford Prison Experiment after a UK advert. Channel 4 played a live channel. ITVX stopped at a terms-of-use screen we did not accept.
• United States (Los Angeles): Netflix showed its US library and played From after two US adverts. Tubi played Freedom Writers. Pluto TV showed its VPN or proxy message. Hulu’s US site loaded, but we have no Hulu account.
• Japan (Tokyo and Osaka): Netflix showed its VPN or proxy message on both cities. We did not get as far as playing ABEMA or TVer. Netflix Japan has played for us only on Mysterium VPN.

Prime Video played in London and Los Angeles, but not the British or American catalogue. It asked “Traveling?”, then showed what our Australian account can watch abroad. A VPN will not get you Prime’s US or UK library on an Australian account.

Streaming services block VPN servers and sometimes let them back in, so treat each result as true on the evening we tested it.

Leaks: none found, and no address shown when switching servers

Proton kept our real address hidden on every server and both switches we tried in October 2026.

• DNS: no leak on Melbourne, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, or the India, South Africa and Brazil locations. Lookups stayed on Proton’s network, so our internet provider could not see which sites we visited.
• WebRTC: on the Melbourne server, BrowserLeaks’ WebRTC check saw only the VPN address.
• IPv6: our line has no IPv6, so we could not test for an IPv6 leak. If your NBN connection uses IPv6, we cannot yet say whether Proton covers it.
• Switching servers: our Melbourne address never appeared, with a script checking our public IP about every 1.5 seconds. Osaka to London (kill switch off) took 18 seconds offline; London to Tokyo (kill switch on) took 16.

Proton does not promise that: its kill switch panel warns: “Your IP may be briefly visible when switching servers.” So pause a torrent before you change country. Either gap is long enough to drop a video call.

Kill switch: off by default, and changing it reconnects

Proton’s kill switch covers the whole Mac, but it is off by default. Proton says it cuts your internet if the VPN connection drops.

Turning it on asks you to accept that split tunnelling is switched off and that devices on your home network, such as a printer, become unreachable.

Changing the setting also reconnects the app. Twice it announced “Connected to South Africa”, and once it really did land there. After you flip it, check which country you are on before you start streaming.

Setting it up: change NetShield before you watch SBS

Proton works on its defaults, with one exception: set NetShield to “Don’t block”, or to malware only, before you play SBS On Demand. It came set to block malware, ads and trackers in October 2026.

The rest of the defaults are cautious. The kill switch, Secure Core and port forwarding were all off, and the protocol was left on Smart, which picked WireGuard.

Virtual locations: India, South Africa and Brazil

Three of Proton’s countries are virtual: the app lists the country, but the server sits elsewhere. Our IP check in October 2026 placed India in Singapore, South Africa near Marseille and Brazil in Miami.

A site that looks up your address sees the real location, not the country you chose.

Brazil was unusable. The app said it was connected, but downloads, ping and google.com all failed, and the change-server button returned the same server.

Torrenting: worked, and the VPN did not slow it

Torrenting worked on Proton’s Melbourne server in October 2026, faster than the same download with the VPN off. We downloaded the official Debian DVD torrent for 2 minutes, with uploads capped and no seeding.

VPN	Our torrent speed	P2P policy	Kill switch	Port forwarding	Audited by
Proton VPN	5.48 MiB/s tested October 2026	Allowed in our test tested October 2026	✓ Listed	✓ Listed	Securitum

Torrent speed is the average download rate we measured on an Australian server, with its date. Features and auditors are as each provider lists them; "Not checked" means we have not recorded it yet.

A faster result with the VPN on means the people sharing the file set the pace, not Proton. Proton says its free plan does not allow torrenting, so you need a paid plan for this.

Still to test

We have tested the updated app only in the evening; a morning run is next. Not tried yet: Proton’s other Australian cities, Secure Core, Stealth, or a forced drop with the kill switch on. Each result will be added here, dated.

What other Proton VPN reviews found

Other testers saw a bigger speed cost than our Melbourne server did. Top10VPN recorded a 12% loss nearby and 16% overseas, and lists inconsistent downloads among its cons. Security.org measured about 8%.

On Netflix, Security.org did better than us: it reached more than a dozen libraries in September 2026, where we got the US and UK but not Japan.

On refunds, go by Proton, not the reviewers. Security.org says Proton refunds only the unused part of a subscription, but Proton’s own terms promise a full refund on a first purchase (see cancelling and refunds below).

These reviewers test from outside Australia. Both are summarised, with links, under Proton VPN reviews on other sites at the end of this page.

Proton VPN deal in Australia (checked 27 Oct 2026)

Proton VPN price in Australia

Proton VPN charges in US dollars, so your bank’s rate and any international transaction fee change what you pay. The Australian-dollar figure in the table is an approximate conversion.

Checked 3 Nov 2026 Price and plan details read from protonvpn.com.

Partner offerVisit Proton VPN

The headline monthly price covers a two-year first term, paid upfront. After that each plan renews every 12 months at a higher monthly rate.

VPN Plus is the VPN on its own. Proton Unlimited adds Proton Mail, Proton Drive and Proton’s other services, so it only pays off if you would use them.

The table is read from Proton’s pricing page and updates automatically. Named offers, such as a Black Friday deal, go on our VPN deals in Australia page once we have checked them.

Cancelling and refunds

Proton gives a full refund within 30 days, but only on your first purchase and only once per person. Renewals are not covered, and neither are cash or bank transfer payments.

To claim, cancel and ask through Proton’s support form inside that window. The refund covers only plans bought from Proton’s own website or apps; Apple and Google apply their own rules.

The free plan

Proton’s free plan needs no payment details and, Proton says, has no data cap. It covers one device, Proton chooses the server, and torrenting is not allowed.

That makes it a good way to see whether a VPN suits you, but not a way to be sure of an Australian or US connection.

Is Proton VPN safe? Privacy and audits

Proton VPN shows more of its working than most. It is based in Switzerland, says it keeps no logs of what you do online, and says Securitum, an independent security firm, has verified that policy in an audit.

It also says the code for all its apps is open source, so outsiders can check what the apps do. Top10VPN adds that Proton publishes its audits and was the first VPN to open-source its apps.

Proton VPN apps, devices and Australian servers

A paid Proton VPN account covers 10 devices at once. We have tested only Proton’s Melbourne servers so far.

It supports WireGuard and OpenVPN, plus Stealth, its own protocol for networks that block VPNs. The extras that matter:

• Kill switch blocks your traffic if the VPN connection drops. It is off until you turn it on.
• Split tunnelling lets your banking app or Stan skip the VPN while everything else uses it. It is switched off while the kill switch is on.
• NetShield blocks malware, ads and trackers, and is on by default. Turn it off for SBS On Demand.
• Secure Core routes you through a second server for extra privacy, at a speed cost. It is off by default.
• Port forwarding helps torrent clients reach more peers. It is off by default.

Using Proton VPN in Australia

• Australian servers: 5 cities, according to Proton VPN's server list.
• Billing: charged in USD, so the Australian-dollar cost moves with the exchange rate.
• Where it is based: Switzerland, according to its own site.
• Refund period: 30 days.

Australian law requires internet providers to keep customers' metadata for two years. A VPN encrypts the connection between your device and the VPN server, so your internet provider can see that you are using a VPN but not which sites you visit. It does not make you anonymous to the VPN provider itself, which is why the provider's logging policy and audits matter.

Alternatives to Proton VPN

These are picked by a fact in our data. For services whose prices we check every morning, see the Best VPN for Australia table and the cheapest VPNs in Australia.

PrivadoVPN

Lowest advertised price we track: US$1.11 a month

Visit PrivadoVPN

NordVPN

Servers in 150 countries, the most we track

Visit NordVPN

Private Internet Access

No limit on devices per account

Visit Private Internet Access

Proton VPN FAQ

How we keep this review current

Prices, plans and server details are read from Proton’s own website, with the date of the last check beside each figure. Each test result carries the date it was measured, and every retest is added here with its own date.

Sources

• Proton’s own pages, read on 13 October 2026: pricing, servers, features, no-logs policy and free VPN page.
• Refund terms: section 9 of Proton’s Terms of Service (modified 9 October 2026), read on 21 October 2026.
• Independent reviews: Top10VPN (updated October 2026) and Security.org (September 2026).
• Our tests of the Mac app in Melbourne: the evening of 21 October 2026 (5.51 to 7.17 pm), with the earlier Netflix UK and Pluto TV results from 17 October 2026, before an app update.