On common, Proton dropped about 15 p.c of my unprotected velocity, however that quantity wants some context. In a location like Atlanta, Georgia, noon on a Thursday, I skilled a drop of solely round 3 p.c. In Columbus, Ohio, within the night on a Friday, that grew to a 25 p.c drop. One of these variation is regular. Suppliers like Surfshark and NordVPN see comparable variations and have comparable velocity drops on common.
The distinction for Proton is that I’ve but to bump into an actual stinker of a server. I’m certain they exist—with some 15,000+ servers, you’re certain to seek out one sooner or later—however I haven’t seen them after weeks of use. Windscribe and ExpressVPN are aggressive with Proton on common, however additionally they have some places the place I noticed wherever from a 40 to 60 p.c drop in velocity. These outcomes aren’t indicative of the velocity total (you simply swap to a special server), however Proton will get you there quicker.
That edge is probably going as a result of Proton’s VPN Accelerator. I’ll admit, it gave the impression of nonsense. Within the Proton VPN app, you’ll discover a toggle for VPN Accelerator, which boldly claims to extend velocity by as much as 400 p.c; unlikely. Regardless of the speedup, I don’t assume VPN Accelerator will attain wherever close to that quoted quantity, at the least within the overwhelming majority of instances.
Nonetheless, there are some benefits, most notably, BBR. Bottleneck Bandwidth and Spherical-trip propagation time, or BBR, is a congestion management algorithm developed by Google that’s been deployed on YouTube and Google itself. Somewhat than limiting packet switch when packets are misplaced, as most congestion management algorithms work, BBR fashions the community and estimates accessible bandwidth. It doesn’t must see misplaced packets to kick in.
Proton’s speeds aren’t fully attributable to BBR, however I think it helps when connecting to servers over lengthy distances. Connecting within the UK, for instance, I noticed a median velocity lack of round 20 p.c, which is far nearer to my US outcomes than it has any proper to be.