proXPN Review

Despite being in the online security industry for almost a decade, proXPN is still a relatively unknown player in the VPN game.

Outside of a few passing remarks I’d seen on other websites, I never really knew much about proXPN or how their services perform until I began using it for the purposes of this review and, in my opinion, this is a pretty serious red flag.

The question that I’ve set out to answer is a simple one,

Is proXPN’s relative anonymity due to a subpar service or subpar marketing?

Over the course of this review, I’m going to answer that question and take a deep dive into proXPN’s services.

I’ll be analyzing the speeds, features, and compatibility of both their paid and free VPN client to determine whether or not the company deserves your hard earned cash (spoiler alert: they probably don’t). But before I dive into the rest of this review, let’s take a minute to look at the company behind proXPN.

• What is proXPN?
• proXPN Features
• Is proXPN Safe?
• proXPN Cons
• How to Use proXPN
• proXPN Review Conclusion

What is proXPN?

Founded in 2009, proXPN is an apparent veteran of the VPN industry.

After more than 8 years in business, proXPN has developed a simple and straightforward freemium VPN software that can be used on most major devices.

Basic users are limited to Windows and Mac compatibility whereas premium customers have access to a fully compatible software that works with:

• Windows
• Mac
• Linux
• iOS
• Android

With their headquarters located in the Netherlands, proXPN is located in nine eyes territory which significantly increases the possibility of government intrusion or surveillance.

ProXPN Overview

OVERALL RANK:	46
USABILITY:	Not very user-friendly
LOG FILES:	No Logging
LOCATIONS:	4 countries, 21 servers
SUPPORT:	Good customer support with premium subscription
TORRENTING:	Allowed
NETFLIX:	Blocks Netflix USA
ENCRYPTION/PROTOCOL:	2408-bit encryption key, 512-bit encryption tunnel; OpenVPN, PTPP
COST:	$6.25/mo
OFFICIAL WEBSITE:	www.proXPN.com

ProXPN Features (Not much)

proXPN offers their users both free and paid versions of their software and the differences between the two, which I’ll touch on in a later section, are pretty significant.

Unfortunately, neither their free nor paid software brings anything particularly unique or special to the table.

They offer a dismal server selection with only a handful of locations to choose from, most of which are in the United States.

Unlike many of their competitors, proXPN offers unlimited data transfer and connection time to both their free and paid users, but that is about as far as their “Features” page goes.

If you’re a bit surprised at how short this particular section of the review is, then you’re not alone. proXPN offers one of the most barebones and no frills VPNs that I’ve ever seen.

There are very few advanced features or bonuses and even the most novice VPN user will find their short list of features entirely underwhelming.

However, just because a VPN doesn’t offer an abundance of extra features and settings doesn’t mean that it cannot redeem itself with exceptional speeds and security.

Unfortunately, proXPN doesn’t seem particularly concerned with either area of its service.

Their list of compatible devices is also relatively small.

Here’s the official list of currently-supported devices from their site:

• Windows
• Mac
• Linux
• Android
• iOS

You can connect up to four devices at a single time. However, as you can see from the list above, they don’t offer any support for routers, smart TVs, or game consoles right now.

Is proXPN Safe?

The safety (or lack thereof) of any VPN provider depends on four things: the company’s jurisdiction, logging policy, encryption standards, and available protocols.

As I mentioned earlier, proXPN is headquartered in the Netherlands, a member of the nine eyes alliance and therefore, significantly more open to government interference than a VPN provider in a country not party to the alliance.

proXPN, however, has a very strict no logging policy that they clearly spell out in their privacy policy:

With regards to their available protocols, proXPN is fairly limited and only allows their users to connect using OpenVPN and PTPP.

Although I would like to see more protocols become available, their lack of available protocols isn’t exactly a deal breaker since OpenVPN is one of the fastest and most secure protocols that are currently available.

Their encryption standards, on the other hand, pose a very serious problem for potential customers.

The standard in question is only 2408-bit encryption key and a 512-bit encryption tunnel.

For those of you who aren’t particularly familiar with encryption standards, the 512-bit encryption is incredibly vulnerable and can be easily cracked by any hacker worth their salt.

Considering that nearly every other VPN on the market uses the more secure (and open source) AES-256 encryption which, as of this writing, has yet to be broken, this is a major blemish on proXPN’s record and a serious concern for any security conscious customer.

proXPN Pricing and FREE Plan

Unlike many of their competitors, the differences between proXPN’s free and paid plans are painfully obvious.

Here’s a brief rundown of how the plans differ.

Over the course of this review, we’ve been primarily discussing the quality of a proXPN premium account and, as you’ve probably ascertained, it’s thoroughly unimpressive.

With this in mind, it should come as little surprise to find out that their free VPN service is even more unimpressive and comes equipped with such a paltry selection of features and servers that it is all but unusable.

The biggest and most important difference between their paid and free plans is that proXPN is not compatible with Android or iOS unless you upgrade to a premium account.

This is a huge issue when you consider that most people do the majority of their browsing on mobile devices.

With a free account, your VPN speed and server selection is almost nonexistent and P2P file sharing is only accessible to paying customers.

To put it bluntly, proXPN’s free VPN is among the worst that I’ve ever seen.

Considering this fact, many of you are probably wondering how much it will cost you to access their premium features.

I was surprised to find that, despite their lackluster service, proXPN charges a very premium rate for a very basic product.

Unlike most VPN providers, proXPN doesn’t offer a one month package or a steeply discounted 24-month plan.

Instead, they offer three, six, and twelve-month pricing plans.

Here’s the breakdown.

3-Month:

• $9.98 a month
• $29.98 billed quarterly
• 0% Savings

6-Months:

• $8.33 a month
• $49.95 billed twice a year
• 17% Savings

12-Months:

• $6.25 a month
• $74.95 billed yearly
• 37% Savings

Having reviewed more than 30 VPNs, I can honestly say that there is no possible way to justify the rate proXPN tries to charge. There are much cheaper (and better) VPNs.

Considering their disappointing speeds, paltry server selection, and easily hackable encryption standards, there is simply no reason that someone would select proXPN over any of their competitors.

For example, ExpressVPN (review), one of my personal favorite VPNs, offers download speeds that are twice as fast as proXPN and offers one of the most secure VPN software that I’ve ever encountered.

If you’re interested in fast VPNs, consider reading this comparison.

But let’s get back to the matter at hand.

Another serious problem posed for anyone who wishes to become a customer of proXPN is that they severely limit how you can purchase their VPN and offer no anonymous forms of payment. If you aren’t comfortable paying with a Visa, MasterCard, or PayPal, then you should probably start looking for a different VPN.

However, in their defense, all payments are backed by a 30-day no questions asked money back guarantee that has no bandwidth restrictions or connection limits.

So if you do purchase a proXPN membership and decide that it isn’t right for you (which is likely), you can get a full refund for the purchase amount as long as you submit your request within a month of your initial purchase.

proXPN Cons

1. Slow Speed (Only ~40 Mbps out of 100 Mbps)

Outside of specific features like P2P compatibility, adblock, and Netflix “unblocker unblockers”, most people care about only three things when purchasing a VPN:

Security, price, and speed.

I will touch on the differences between proXPN’s free and paid subscriptions and the pricing packages that are available in just a minute, but first I want to discuss its download speeds.

To ensure that this review is accurate, I connected my device to several different servers and used the tool speedtest.net to determine just how much proXPN throttled my connection.

I used a 100 Mbps connection located inside of the EU for each test.

EU Server:

• PING: 39 ms
• Download: 40.3 Mbps
• Upload: 6.05 Mbps

US Server:

• PING: 119 ms
• Download: 16.14 Mbps
• Upload: 5.56 Mbps

UK Server:

• PING: 69 ms
• Download: 40.15 Mbps
• Upload: 5.25 Mbps

As always, you should take these tests with a grain of salt since they can vary wildly and are dependent on a number of uncontrollable variables. That being said, we’ve tested more than 70 VPNs here at TheBestVPN.com so we have a pretty accurate benchmark against which we can compare results. 

While these aren’t the worst speeds that I’ve ever seen for a freemium VPN, they are far from what would be considered “Fast”.

The UK and EU servers run at an acceptable but sluggish 40 Mbps but the U.S. servers bordered on unusable, with the fastest download speeds topping out at only 16 Mbps.

This is another serious concern for many would-be customers, especially when you consider just how many of proXPN’s competitors offer speeds that are twice as fast for less than half the price.

2. No Netflix (Torrenting is allowed, though)

Ever since 2016, when Netflix instated their proxy, VPN, and unblocker ban, companies who have found a way to circumvent these restrictions have enjoyed a massive advantage over their competition.

Unfortunately, proXPN does not enjoy any such advantages.

Their services are entirely incompatible with Netflix, Hulu, and other common similar streaming services making proXPN a poor choice for anyone who is looking to access the American/British versions of Netflix from other countries.

Luckily, their services and servers are P2P/torrenting friendly and the inclusion of a kill-switch feature allows you to download with impunity, knowing that, even if your connection is dropped, your location and identity will still be secure.

3. Customer Support Quality – No Live Chat!

Although proXPN gets a lot of things wrong There is one upside to using proXPN’s premium service is that they offer exceptional customer support in the form of email, Twitter, and phone support.

I called the support number and was thoroughly impressed to find that my inquiry was handled within minutes of my call.

I also sent an email to their customer service team to gauge the speed of their online support and, after only two hours, my question was thoroughly answered.

After digging through some other third party reviews of proXPN’s service, I found that just about everyone had a similarly positive experience with their customer service team regardless of which method they used to contact the company.

Considering all of the points against proXPN, this is a welcomed breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale review.

How to Use proXPN

If you’ve decided that you want to use or purchase proXPN, the setup process is fairly simple.

Before you can use their free service or purchase a paid subscription, you will need to setup an account on their website.

Unfortunately, account creation does require an email address so if you are looking for a VPN with high levels of anonymity, proXPN is not it.

Once you have created an account, you need to decide whether you want to proceed using the paid or free version of their product.

If you want to purchase a paid subscription, then simply click the “Buy Now” button from the pricing page and follow the prompts that you see using your selected payment method.

Next, download and launch the file for your respective device.

Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the Setup Wizard and then launch proXPN to get started.

When proXPN launches, you will be asked to login using the account information that you just created.

You will then be taken to the main dashboard where you can select your server, connection protocol, and alter the VPN settings.

I should point out that, while I was creating this review, I purchased and downloaded proXPN onto my Windows device and was unable to launch their software the first time that I downloaded it.

I restarted my device and tried again to no avail.

In order to actually use proXPN’s VPN, I was forced to manually delete all of the local files and then redownload those files and go through the setup process again.

How to Refund or Cancel proXPN Premium Purchase

If you decide that you do want to refund the price of proXPN (which is quite likely considering everything I’ve discussed in this review) the process is actually quite simple.

There are no bandwidth or connection limitations and, as long as you submit your ticket within 30 days of your initial purchase, the refund process is quick and painless.

Anytime within the first month of your subscription, you can simply submit a support ticket requesting a refund and you should have the money returned to your account within 5-7 business days.

ProXPN Review Conclusion

After nearly a decade in business, you would assume that any VPN company would have been able to create a software that was, at the very least, usable.

However, as you can probably tell, with proXPN, this simply isn’t the case.

The download speeds are slow, the software is unreliable, and their atrocious encryption standards made me hesitant to use their VPN for anything other than some light web browsing.

When you tack on the premium price tag, limited features, and unusable free service, I struggle to understand how the company has stayed in business for the past eight years.

In their defense, proXPN does offer exceptional customer service and a great zero logging policy, however, these paltry few pros do not even come close to outweighing the cons.

I will say that, as a company, proXPN is exceptionally transparent and honest about their services, which is refreshing to see even if their honesty does nothing to improve the abysmal quality of their product.

At the end of the day, I simply cannot recommend proXPN to anyone looking for a high quality (or even usable) VPN.

If you are looking for an alternative to proXPN, I would recommend checking out our in-depth reviews of ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access, or Surfshark.

P.S. I’m always interested in user-reviews so if you’ve used proXPN before, don’t hesitate to leave your review below. If your experience matched mine, cool. If it didn’t, that’s fine too!

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