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ProtonVPN vs TorGuard pits one of the most audited providers against a power-user service with no audit. Proton VPN, from Proton AG in Switzerland, has five annual no-logs audits by Securitum, the latest published in June 2026. It costs about $71.76 for 24 months, then $83.88 a year, for 10 devices, with a full refund within 30 days and a free plan with no data cap. TorGuard, run by VPNetworks LLC in Orlando, Florida, has no independent audit, uses closed-source clients, includes port forwarding and Stealth options, and settled a 2022 lawsuit with film studios by blocking BitTorrent on its US servers.
This guide compares them on privacy, torrenting, China, price, streaming and fit.
ProtonVPN vs TorGuard on Privacy
ProtonVPN’s no-logs policy has five annual Securitum audits, and its apps are open source. TorGuard has no audit in our table and keeps its clients closed, so its claims rest on trust.
Switzerland sits outside the Five Eyes; TorGuard’s US base sits inside it. Our Five Eyes guide explains what that means.
ProtonVPN vs TorGuard for Torrenting
Both offer port forwarding, which helps torrent clients reach more peers. Under its 2022 settlement with about 25 studios, TorGuard blocks BitTorrent on its US servers, so torrent users connect elsewhere.
ProtonVPN allows P2P on paid plans but not on its free plan. Our torrenting VPN guide compares providers.
China and Restrictive Networks
GreatFirewallGuide ranks TorGuard second for China with a 78% success rate, using its Stealth VPN and Stealth Proxy, which disguise traffic as HTTPS. Proton’s Stealth protocol handles some deep packet inspection, its support pages say.
For China specifically, TorGuard has the stronger independent rating of the two. Our China VPN guide covers more.
ProtonVPN vs TorGuard: Price and Refunds
Proton costs about $71.76 for 24 months, then $83.88 a year, and has a free plan. Reviewers report TorGuard’s standard plan at $4.27 to $10.99 a month, with streaming on a higher tier and dedicated IPs extra.
Proton’s free plan and clear renewal make it easier to budget for several years.
Proton gives a full refund within 30 days of the first purchase, once per user, excluding cash and bank transfers, its terms say. GreatFirewallGuide lists a seven-day refund for TorGuard.
Proton’s longer window gives more time to test, though it applies only once per user.
Network, Streaming, Ownership and Controversy
Proton lists more than 19,700 servers in 145 countries, Tom’s Guide reported this year. TorGuard runs about 3,000 servers and keeps streaming for a higher tier.
Proton’s free servers do not block Netflix, but it supports streaming only on paid plans, its free server page says.
TorGuard sued NordVPN in 2019 over alleged attacks; a court dismissed the case on jurisdiction without ruling on the merits. Proton AG is a Swiss company outside the big VPN groups.
Our VPN ownership guide explains why ownership matters.
Proton’s Free Plan
Proton’s free plan has no data cap and picks servers in up to 10 countries at random, for one device, without P2P, Secure Core or NetShield, its plans page and reviews note. TorGuard has no free plan at all.
The free plan suits light browsing and testing Proton’s apps on your own devices before paying.
Platforms and Dedicated IPs
Proton has apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Android TV and Amazon’s Vega OS sticks, and guides for routers including OpenWrt and GL.iNet, its support pages list. TorGuard’s apps cover Windows, Mac and Linux, with an Android app recommended on Chromebooks.
TorGuard also offers a V2Ray-based Premium Proxy for Linux in beta, its downloads page shows.
TorGuard sells dedicated IPs as extras, useful for whitelisting or fewer CAPTCHAs. Proton does not list a dedicated IP option in the sources we read.
If a fixed address matters for work or banking, TorGuard covers that need.
Stealth Options Compared
TorGuard offers Stealth VPN, which wraps OpenVPN in SSL, and Stealth Proxy, which disguises traffic as HTTPS for countries such as China, Iran and Russia, its support pages say. Proton’s Stealth protocol handles some deep packet inspection, and its Smart protocol tries several options automatically.
For heavily filtered networks, TorGuard’s two-layer approach and its China rating give it the edge.
Secure Core, NetShield and Routers
ProtonVPN’s paid plans add Secure Core, which routes traffic through servers in privacy-friendly countries first, and NetShield, which blocks ads, trackers and malware. TorGuard does not offer comparable built-in blocking in our sources.
Neither feature is available on Proton’s free plan, only on paid ones.
Proton publishes router guides for OpenWrt, Asuswrt, pfSense, OPNsense, MikroTik, GL.iNet and others, with WireGuard files from your account. TorGuard offers an OpenWrt app that sets up WireGuard through its API. Our Hotspot Shield vs TorGuard comparison sets the two side by side.
Both suit households that want every device covered, including TVs and consoles.
How We Research
This page draws on Proton’s terms and support pages, Tom’s Guide’s Proton coverage, GreatFirewallGuide’s TorGuard review, TorGuard’s support pages and our audit, price and settlement tables. We cross-checked these sources against each other, and where they conflict or something can’t be verified, we say so in the text rather than guessing. We checked time-sensitive figures, including prices in US dollars, on 8 October 2026. The main source we relied on is Proton VPN’s plans page. Our full approach lives on the About Us page.
Proton VPN vs TorGuard FAQ
Proton for audited privacy and a free plan; TorGuard for China and power-user tools.
No; Proton has five annual audits.
No; its 2022 settlement blocks BitTorrent there.
TorGuard, ranked second with 78% success by GreatFirewallGuide.
Yes, without a data cap; TorGuard has none.
The Verdict
ProtonVPN vs TorGuard: Proton for audited, open-source privacy and a free plan; TorGuard for China and port forwarding with fewer guarantees.