Security
ProtonVPN
Proton VPN is a Swiss privacy-focused VPN from the makers of Proton Mail, with a generous free tier and open-source apps on all platforms.
What is ProtonVPN?
ProtonVPN grew out of Proton AG, the company behind ProtonMail, which was itself founded by CERN scientists in 2013 with an explicit mission to provide privacy tools accessible to activists, journalists, and anyone operating under hostile surveillance conditions. The VPN launched in 2017 as an extension of that mission into network privacy, and Proton's Swiss incorporation adds legal protections from Swiss privacy law that go beyond what most competitors can claim. The service is notable for being the only major commercial VPN to offer a fully functional free tier without bandwidth limits — a deliberate policy choice meant to ensure the privacy tools reach people who cannot afford subscriptions.
ProtonVPN supports WireGuard, OpenVPN, and its own Stealth protocol — an obfuscation layer designed to make VPN traffic look like regular HTTPS traffic, enabling use in countries where VPN protocols are detected and blocked by state firewalls. Secure Core servers — a premium feature — route traffic through servers in privacy-friendly jurisdictions before exiting in the destination country, providing an additional layer of protection against network-level adversaries. The free tier is served on a distinct set of servers from paid tiers, so capacity issues on free servers do not directly affect paying subscribers and vice versa.
ProtonVPN connection failures follow the typical VPN failure taxonomy with some additional complexity around the Stealth protocol. In countries with active VPN blocking, Stealth protocol failures prevent connections entirely rather than producing slow speeds, since the obfuscation layer is what makes the connection possible at all. WireGuard connections that drop without triggering the kill switch allow unprotected traffic to flow through the default network path, a privacy failure that users notice only if they check their IP. The ProtonVPN apps on iOS and Android have occasionally had issues after OS updates where the VPN extension loses its system permission, preventing reconnection until the user manually grants it again.
Outage.gg tracks ProtonVPN service status using real-time community reports from subscribers on all platforms. If ProtonVPN is failing to connect, the Stealth protocol is not working, or specific servers are unavailable, the live status page shows current impact from the Proton user community.
Common ProtonVPN Problems
Issues users most frequently report when ProtonVPN is having problems.
Login failures
Players are unable to sign in, receiving authentication errors or being stuck on loading screens.
Matchmaking problems
Unable to find or join matches, long queue times, or errors when trying to connect to game servers.
Disconnections mid-session
Getting unexpectedly kicked from active sessions, losing in-game progress or items.
In-game store & purchases
Cannot load the in-game store, complete purchases, or received items are not appearing in inventory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about ProtonVPN outages and server status.
You can check the live ProtonVPN server status at outage.gg/services/protonvpn. The page shows real-time community-submitted outage reports, an hourly trend chart, and the current health status.
ProtonVPN can stop working for a number of reasons including scheduled maintenance windows, unexpected server failures, network infrastructure problems, or DDoS attacks. Check the live status page on Outage.gg for the latest community reports to see if others are experiencing the same issue.
Go to outage.gg/services/protonvpn and click the "Report an Issue" button. Your report is counted immediately and helps confirm whether a problem is widespread. Reports from multiple users trigger a status change visible to everyone watching the page.
Click the "Notify Me" bell button on the ProtonVPN status page at outage.gg/services/protonvpn. Create a free account and we will send you an email the moment ProtonVPN comes back online — no app download required.
Many services maintain official status pages with planned maintenance notices. Outage.gg aggregates real-time community-reported outages which often surface faster than official channels.
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