A VPN does nothing when it’s off. Proton VPN seems to have taken that obvious point seriously, because its latest plan is built around keeping the tunnel up and making it harder to forget about. That’s a sensible goal. It also deserves some scrutiny.
In its fall and winter recap and roadmap, the company says it rebuilt its VPN connection code from scratch. The new “Proton protocols” sit on a WireGuard-based implementation and are meant to connect faster and resist blocking. They’re still in beta on most platforms, and Windows has already graduated. macOS isn’t there yet.
What shipped, and what to take with salt
Proton says it now covers 149 countries with 196 locations, including smart routing servers for China. Smart routing usually means a server is listed in one country but physically sits elsewhere. That’s useful for access, but you should know where your traffic really goes.
The company also points to its fifth consecutive no-logs audit. Audits are worth having. They are still a snapshot of a point in time, not a guarantee about tomorrow, so read the scope before you lean on the headline.
Other additions include Stealth support and a Snap package on Linux, plus Siri Shortcuts and Automations on iOS. Windows users can now exclude specific countries, cities or states from Fastest and Random connections.
Kill switch, pause and guest mode
The most privacy-relevant promises are these:
- A stronger kill switch on Linux, macOS, iOS and iPadOS, plus an advanced kill switch on macOS that blocks all traffic when the VPN is down.
- Pause and Resume, where you pick a duration and the app reconnects on its own. Windows and Android come first.
- Guest mode on desktop, starting with Windows, letting you reach free servers without an account.
- Official Linux packages for Mint, Arch and Flatpak.
Pause and Resume solves a real problem. People disable VPNs to get a banking app working and then forget. An automatic timer cuts that exposure. But a pause is still a window where your real IP is visible, so keep it short.
Guest mode lowers friction, and less friction means more people protected. Free servers are a different trade, though, and an account-free session still deserves a look at what the app collects.
The business side
Proton is also pushing into organizations. Recent additions include always-on VPN for Windows, SCIM group sync, audit event export to SIEM tools and web filtering on dedicated servers. Coming up are site-to-site links, finer-grained permissions, usage reporting and always-on for macOS.
Usage reporting and per-user activity tracking are fine in a corporate setting. But they show how admin visibility grows once a VPN becomes a management tool. Employees should ask what is logged about them.
Our take
The direction is good: fewer ways to leave yourself exposed. Still, much of this is a promise, and Proton has already admitted one item slipped from the last roadmap. Watch the beta releases, check the audit scope, and test the kill switch yourself before you trust it.