Figuring out which commercial VPN provider is for you can be a challenge today. There are a lot of different providers and, on the surface, they can appear to be all the same.

They all have huge lists of features and they all promise to enhance your digital privacy.

That being the case, in this post, we do am in-depth comparison of ProtonVPN and Windscribe VPN to determine which one we should recommend over the other.

ProtonVPN vs Windscribe VPN - Side By Side

Name	ProtonVPN	Windscribe
Rating	9.0/10	9.0/10
User Friendliness Score	9	9
General features
Price per month (cheapest)	$6.63	$4.08
Simultaneous Connections	1/2/5/10 - based on subscription	Unlimited
Servers	865	480
Countries	50	63
Allows torrenting / P2P	Yes	Yes
Streaming
Netflix	Yes	Yes
Hulu	Yes	Yes
Amazon Prime	Yes	Yes
Disney+	Yes	Yes
Security
Supports TOR	Yes	No
Split Tunneling	No	Yes
Router Support	Yes	Yes
Unlimited bandwidth	Yes	Yes
Refund Period	30 Days	3 Days
Free trial	Yes	Yes
Desktop Operating Software	Windows, MacOS, Linux	Windows, MacOS, Linux
Mobile Apps	iOS, Android	iOS, Android
Browser Extensions	No	Yes
VPN Protocols	IKEv2, OpenVPN	IKEv2, OpenVPN, WireGuard
Encryption	AES-256	AES-256
DNS Leak Protection	Yes	Yes
VPN Kill-switch	Yes	Yes
Rent/Own Infrastructure	Both	Rent
Hacked	No	No
Malware/Ad Blocker	No	Yes
Privacy
Logging Policy	No-logging Policy	No-logging Policy
Privacy Policy	Good	Good
Jurisdiction	Switzerland	Canada
Out of 14 eyes	Yes	No
Warrant Canary	No	No
Accepts Cryptocurrency	Yes	Yes
Sign-up Information Required	Only Valid Email	Username/password
Speed (average)
Avg. Ping NY	40 ms	65 ms
Avg. Download NY	Over a 100 Mbps Network (Download): 95.19 Mbps	Over a 100 Mbps Network (Download): 95.36 Mbps
Avg. Upload NY	Over a 30 Mbps Network (Upload): 8.56 Mbps	Over a 30 Mbps Network (Upload): 26.54 Mbps

1. Speed

We’re going to start by comparing ProtonVPN and Windscribe on speed.

Whether you use a VPN or not, your connection speed is going to be important. A VPN will inevitably create some overhead, which translates to a slowdown, but this should be as limited as possible.

ProtonVPN

Tested on a 100Mbps (Download) and 30Mbps (Upload) network

Server: U.S.A., New York

Average Download Speed: 90.42Mbps

Average Upload Speed: 35.60Mbps

Windscribe

Tested on a 100Mbps (Download) and 30Mbps (Upload) network

Server: U.S.A., New York

Average Download Speed: 95.36Mbps

Average Upload Speed: 26.54Mbps

So we want to look at the difference between my ISP bandwidth and the speed test results.

And on that front, they both do extremely well. Speed does not seem to be an issue for either ProtonVPN or Windscribe VPN.

On download, Windscribe does every so slightly better than ProtonVPN. But ProtonVPN does better on upload - even going above my ISP bandwidth (likely due to network volatility). 

But with these two VPN providers, on both download and upload, the speed hit is essentially negligible. I don’t think it would be noticeable in a real-world scenario.

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2. User-Friendliness

It used to be that VPNs were a very niche product, but times have definitely changed. As I mentioned in the opening paragraphs, more people than ever before use VPNs today.

That means that user-friendliness is going to be of major importance.

ProtonVPN and Windscribe both provide official client apps on all major operating systems, which all include a VPN kill switch. But Windscribe also provides an official client for Nvidia Shield and KODI.

Both providers also offer Chrome and Firefox browser extensions - with Windscribe also offering an Opera browser extension.

As far as customer support goes, I didn't need to contact support for either company. Everything just worked. But it's worth nothing that Windscribe offers a live chat option - another small distinction in this ProtonVPN vs. Windscribe post.

Concerning simultaneous connections, ProtonVPNVPN allows up to 10 simultaneous connections, but the actual number depends on the subscription plan you signed up to. The breakdown looks like this: 

• Free - 1 device.
• Basic - 2 devices.
• Plus - 5 devices.
• Visionary - 10 devices.

This is somewhat convoluted, in my opinion.

Windscribe, on the other hand, allows unlimited simultaneous connections.

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3. Streaming

Streaming services are becoming the norm for watching video content.

And since the 2016 Netflix VPN ban, I’m sure you already know about, unblocking Netflix has become a major concern for many commercial VPN providers.

Both ProtonVPN and Windscribe claim to be streaming-friendly. But Windscribe doesn’t make any specific claims about unblocking Netflix.

ProtonVPN, on the other hand, claims to unblock Netflix, but only Netflix U.S. - no other libraries will be accessible. ProtonVPN provides a support document, detailing how to unblock Netflix U.S.

I tested them both and was able to stream Netflix over both provider’s networks, though only Netflix U.S. over ProtonVPN.

While I was able to access different Netflix libraries while on Windscribe’s network, there is a caveat.

In reading other Windscribe reviews online, some reviewers were not able to access Netflix at all over Windscribe’s network.

While this is likely due to the IP addresses of the tested servers being blacklisted by Netflix, and that there’s a good chance those reviewers could have eventually found a working server had they cycled through them, your mileage may vary.

For more information on streaming over these two providers’ networks, check out our Netflix reviews of ProtonVPN and Windscribe VPN.

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4. Security & Encryption

Let’s look at the VPN protocols each provider supports.

ProtonVPN supports:

• IKEv2/IPSec
• OpenVPN

Windscribe supports:

• KEv2/IPSec
• OpenVPN
• WireGuard

Both providers use the industry-standard AES-256 cipher for both IKEv2/IPSec and OpenVPN.

WireGuard, supported by Windscribe, uses more modern cryptography (which may even be more secure than AES-256).

Those ciphers are:

• ChaCha20
• Curve25519
• BLAKE2s
• SipHash24
• HKDF

We’re happy to see that neither VPN provider here supports weak and obsolete VPN protocols, like L2TP/IPSec and the horribly obsolete PPTP protocol, supported by some providers.

This is good. But Windscribe supports WireGuard, while ProtonVPN does not…

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5. Logs & Privacy​

Both ProtonVPN and Windscribe put forth and commit to robust no-logging policies. Let’s have a look at how they attempt to communicate this.

Here’s a screenshot of ProtonVPN’s privacy policy:

Here’s a screenshot of Windscribe’s privacy policy:

Both privacy policies are human-readable and are transparent about the data points they collect. And both these VPN providers collect connection timestamps logs. 

They, of course, do this to mitigate abuse, but other providers manage to do just that without logging connection timestamps.

We hope to see both providers change this practice in the future.

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6. Pricing​

Let’s turn to pricing now. Below, I’ve listed the different packages, prices, and accepted payment methods for ProtonVPN and Windscribe VPN:

ProtonVPN

Visit ProtonVPN

ProtonVPN offers three subscription terms and a free version:

• Free - 1 device, throttled speed, no other features included.
• Basic - 2 devices, full speed, access to P2P, no other features included.
• Plus - 5 devices, full speed, all services except ProtonMail included.
• Visionary - 10 devices, full speed, all services including ProtonMail.

Each subscription is available on a monthly, one year, or two-year basis. And shorter terms obviously cost more than longer terms.

Basic: 

• 5$/month - monthly
• 4$/month - yearly
• 3.29$/month - bi-yearly

Plus:

• 10$/month - monthly
• 8$/month - yearly
• 6.63$/month - bi-yearly

Visionary:

• 30$/month - monthly
• 24$/month - yearly
• 19.96$/month - bi-yearly

Payment Methods

• Credit card
• Debit card
• PayPal
• Cash
• Bitcoin

All their plans are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Windscribe VPN

Visit Windscribe VPN

Windscribe offers three types of subscription:

• 9.00 USD for one month of service
• 49.00 USD for one year of service (works out to 4.08 USD per month)
• 1 USD per active server on their ‘Build Your Own Plan’ plan. With this plan, you choose the servers you want to access and you build your custom plan at 1$ per server.

As mentioned in the opening paragraphs, they also offer a free plan which gives you 10GBs of data transfer per month and 10 VPN servers to choose form.

Payment Methods:

• Credit Cards
• Paypal
• Paymentwall
• Bitcoin

Their plans are backed by a 3-day money-back guarantee. Yes, three days…

So Windscribe is, in most cases, cheaper than ProtonVPN.

Although it’s difficult to calculate the price difference in each possible scenario because ProtonVPN’s pricing structure is, shall we say, rather complex…

They don’t, however, offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, like ProtonVPN. They only offer a 3-day money-back guarantee.

But, one could argue that if you simply want to try Windscribe, you can jump on the free version (which is not throttled, like ProtonVPN’s free option) - and it’s hard to argue against that.

As far as payment methods are concerned, an advantage ProtonVPN has over Windscribe is that they accept cash. But, Windscribe, like ProtonVPN, accepts Bitcoin, so anonymous payments are possible.

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7. Torrenting​

In terms of P2P supprt, both ProtonVPN and Windscribe are P2P-friendly VPN providers. And they both take the approach of supplying dedicated P2P servers to their users. 

The supported servers are clearly indicated within their respective apps (though Windscribe chose to mark the servers that don’t support P2P, because the overwhelming majority of their servers do indeed support P2P).

With ProtonVPN, you should really make to connect to one of their dedicated P2P servers, or else you will be disconnected. ProtonVPN explains this in a support document.

I tested both providers. And, in my tests for both providers, torrenting over their networks was smooth and fast.

Good stuff from both where P2P file-sharing is concerned.

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8. Other Features​

Let’s see if there are other areas in which these two VPN providers can distinguish themselves.

• ProtonVPN supports Secure Core multi-hop servers
• ProtonVPN supports Tor over VPN

• Windscribe offers a ‘Build a Plan’ subscription
• Windscribe offers a high-quality free plan

Standout Features​

ProtonVPN

• Secure Core: ProtonVPN enables you to bounce your VPN connection over multiple server hops. Many VPN providers provide this functionality, but ProtonVPN does it with a twist. They name the feature Secure Core. Secure Core routes your traffic through a “secured core” of multiple hardened, ProtonVPN-owned servers. And from there, sends your connection off to the VPN server you selected when you initiated your connection. Multiple server hops are a great way to enhance your anonymity and Secure Core achieves this in an extremely secure way.
• Tor Over VPN: Tor over VPN is actually very similar to multiple VPN server hops. So like, multi-hop, Tor over VPN servers bounce your traffic from the VPN server over different locations, but these are on the Tor network. So from the VPN server you connected to, Tor over VPN will route your connection over the Tor network, where it is then bounced over multiple locations within the Tor network. Your traffic appears to come only from Tor, even though there’s a VPN “underneath” Tor.

Windscribe VPN

• Build Your Own Plan: As I mentioned earlier, Windscribe really does take an innovative approach to subscription plans. Windscribe is the first VPN provider I know of to offer a ‘Build A Plan’ option. The way this subscription is set up, you literally select the VPN servers you want to use you and build a custom plan giving you access to those servers only. Each server added to the subscription adds 1USD to the cost of your custom monthly plan. This is such a common-sense option because I believe most people tend to use the same subset of servers available. Really refreshing to see a VPN provider offering such a flexible subscription.
• Free 10BG/per Month Subscription: Another original aspect of Windscribe’s service offering is their free plan - which is actually really good. Along with ProtonVPN, Windscribe is the only VPN provider to offer a high-quality free plan (although ProtonVPN’s free option has throttled speeds - Windscribe’s does not). Windscribe’s free plan gives you access to 10 different VPN servers and provides you with 10GBs per month of bandwidth. And this is a free plan, remember? I believe that Windscribe’s free plan is quite simply the best free VPN service in the industry. I’m extremely impressed.

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Conclusion: ProtonVPN vs Windscribe

So who wins? 

We had eight categories, as usual:

The winner in each category is awarded one point. And both providers get a point in the event of a tie.

So the breakdown looks like this:

• Speed - (Tie)
• User-Friendliness - (Windscribe)
• Streaming - (ProtonVPN)
• Security & Encryption - (Windscribe)
• Logs and Privacy -  (Tie)
• Pricing - (Windscribe)
• Torrenting - (Tie)
• Other Features - (ProtonVPN)

So that’s 5 points for ProtonVPN and 6 points for Windscribe VPN.

So it looks like I was right when I said it would be close at the beginning of this post. It’s really tight, and it deserves to be, as these are two very good VPN providers.

We can recommend them both. It simply depends on what you’re looking for and which features are more important to you.

But we totally recommend ProtonVPN. And we totally recommend Windscribe VPN as well. Whichever you choose, you’re signing up for a high-quality VPN service.

For more information on both of these VPN providers, take a look at our ProtonVPN review and our Windscribe VPN review.

ProtonVPN

Go With ProtonVPN if:

• You want a trustworthy VPN provider.
• You want to use Tor over your VPN.
• You want the security benefit of Secure Core.

Visit ProtonVPN

Windscribe VPN

Go With Windscribe VPN if:

• You want a trustworthy VPN provider.
• You want to pay less than ProtonVPN users (and have a simpler pricing structure).
• You want to build your own subscription plan.

Visit Windscribe VPN

Thanks for reading!