Proton VPN

Yes — Proton VPN works well in Australia. Its paid plans include local servers in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth for fast connections and an Australian IP, while the free tier works from Australia but routes you through its free-server countries abroad, so it's slower and has no local exit. Proton is run from Switzerland under strong privacy law, costs US$2.99/mo on the 2-year Plus plan, and backs it with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can confirm the local speeds yourself.

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Both things are true: the free tier is genuinely free — no data cap, no ads and no activity logs, which is rare — but it's deliberately limited to one device and a handful of server countries, with no Australian servers and no streaming support. It's the only free VPN we actually recommend, because most 'free' apps cap you hard or monetise your data. For everyday use — local Australian servers, streaming, more devices — you'll want Plus, which is about US$2.99/mo on the 2-year plan and renews at US$6.99/mo. A 30-day money-back guarantee covers the paid tier if you change your mind.

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It depends on the tier. On paid Plus servers, streaming generally works well, with the occasional per-server flag cleared by switching locations. The free tier isn't built for streaming — it has no Australian servers and is usually blocked by Netflix and similar platforms. Proton's real strength is privacy rather than unblocking, so if a foreign catalogue is your main reason for subscribing, ExpressVPN or NordVPN stay the more consistent choices. For privacy-first users who also stream occasionally, Plus is enough.

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Yes — fully legal. Proton VPN is run by Proton AG from Geneva under Switzerland's strong privacy laws, and its apps are open-source and independently audited. That transparency makes it the privacy purist's pick in our Australian ranking.

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