The free trial FAQ link:
Now redirects to “How to create a free VPN account”:
Here’s an archive of the Google cache of the free trial FAQ from February 17, 2021. So this change happened between then and now (the 21st).
It’s interesting that they made the choice to redirect instead of updating the answer to say “no, ProtonVPN does not offer a free trial any longer.”
It didn’t vanish so silently that freeloaders weren’t complaining about it. My view is if you want Proton VPN for free, use the free tier; if you want Proton VPN with decent speeds then pay for the service.
For what it’s worth I recently emailed their support and asked if I could get a trial of their paid service as my current vpn subscription with Windscribe is expiring soon and I wanted to give their service a try.
Support responded back they they had activated a free 7 day trial on my VPN account and everything was fine.
It wasn’t an issue at all. I am a paid ProtonMail subscriber so I don’t know if that made a difference.
I wished they would cancel any free service and concentrate on providing a premium service for paying customers instead. I would pay double the price if they would let me chose my own local DNS on Pi etc. with higher speed, Wireguard etc. Proton as a brand should only attract paying users imo and position itself in the premium price region.
Interesting find. I recently asked their official reddit account if they could post something regarding the whole free trial thing. If they agree, hopefully we will see an official announcement soon. (It’s 7am Monday in Switzerland right now)
Where’s the transparency Proton?
I know that the free trials were exploited by people but at least give an info like “Due to heavy exploitation of free trials, we do not currently offer a free trail” or sth like that.
People do always say that if a product is free then your usage is the payment. Give it a few months and it will probably be found that all free users data has been sold off
Exactly. It’s a good quality VPN. Don’t be a cheapskate
I get it why they close it but what’s wrong with a official statement, its confusing for people who legit used it for the first time
how much do you weigh
Are you really that blind, naive and incompetent? PAID users are paying for charity (= free users).
or maybe ill continue to be
You can still cancel it for a full refund if you’re not happy within 30 days.
https://reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/loi0rx/_/gobywvq/?context=1
Hopefully the “freeloaders” are now working on a way to exploit the refund system. I’m sure its more than possible to outsmart them.
Someone’s mad
I will be messaging you in 4 months on 2021-06-22 13:04:23 UTC to remind you of this link
CLICK THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
^(Parent commenter can ) ^(delete this message to hide from others.)
Thats shitty but not major. I’d say just create multiple protonmail accounts and if one gets shut down for no reason then begin using another. I did see a shared twitter post where proton say they don’t allow their system to be used for hate speech and they will remove accounts involved with it, they get asked how they could tell the content of an email and they never give a response, its just others trying to defend the service.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/cnbqqd/supporting_hate_groups/
I have also just found a huge list of issues with protonmail, some of which claim it is a CIA/NSA honeypot. Yet again, no official response.
https://www.reddit.com/r/thehatedone/comments/kkuo4z/the_truth_about_protonmail/
Do you know of any more issues we should be aware of? This place isn’t looking too good right now
They are the most sketchy VPN out there. Nobody EVER has a solid explanation for anything, its always left up to guess work and assumptions. The fact proton don’t issue any responses to these comments just makes them look more guilty
I did see a shared twitter post where proton say they don’t allow their system to be used for hate speech
Sad day to see proton join big tech in their identity politics sjw crusade
Because this comment is FUD and full of crap, OP is known for spreading that. Not worth their time.
And what are those legitimate criticisms? Are you saying the android app is safer than the Tor .onion address?