I’m evaluating ProtonVPN as a potential replacement for NordVPN, which I’ve used for several years.
During my trial period, I’ve encountered an issue that raises a concern about the service’s functionality. The specific use case involves accessing YouTube without advertisements by connecting through countries where ads are not shown.
With NordVPN, connecting through Albania successfully blocks YouTube ads. However, when using ProtonVPN’s Albanian servers, the ads still appear.
After contacting Proton’s support, they acknowledged an issue, forwarded to their technical team and suggested using alternative locations. While servers in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan work as expected, Albania and Moldova do not. Support hasn’t provided a timeline for fixing the Albanian servers, which I prefer.
This raises a question about ProtonVPN’s reliability in providing consistent service. While some locations work properly, others don’t deliver the expected functionality of appearing to connect from that specific country.
For context, I’m considering this switch mainly to take advantage of new promotional discounts and to follow good (? not sure, my gut feeling tbh) security practices by rotating providers. NordVPN has performed well, but I’m also generally interested in trying new services.
Would appreciate any insights from others who might have experienced similar issues with ProtonVPN. Should I switch to another service while I can (within 30 days guarantee period)?
Which protocol are you using? Do you keep it on “Smart”?
I already tried a few countries where it should be possible to be ad free and i am not being successful
I’m having the same issue. ProtonVPN paid plan, Proton native app on MacOS and AppleTV, Google/Youtube thinks I’m in France or some shit, and gives me ads. Funny enough, I log in and change my location to Papua New Guinea, and the ads stop. I stay logged in and disconnect Proton and the ads come back. So, at this time, I have to do both: use Proton connected to Albania, log in to YT with location PNG. That way, there are no ads.
I’m not sure if this is Proton’s fault… using ipleak.net it shows the exit node as clearly in Albania. I need to experiment with using the OpenVPN client and some other IKEv2 client to see if there it behaves differently.
Same. I actually have a similar post I made that the mods haven’t looked at yet, so hasn’t been posted, but it’s basically a copy of this. I used to have Nord, and then switched to Proton, and THEN I learned about this Albania thing, and was disappointed to learn it didn’t work at all.
I hope they can explain why, because in theory, it should automatically work. It suggests that DNS queries are leaking maybe, I’m not sure. A shame, because apart from that Proton has been WAY MORE STABLE than Nord, and more or less flawless.
For a VPN, I use PIA.Its been great. While that won’t block Ads on YouTube, I use Brave Browser which runs off the same engine as Chrome (minus the creepy trackers and fingerprinting). It blocks ads on YouTube natively. No VPN needed to do it.
Just finished a year with Surfshark and had no problem blocking ads by connecting to servers in Albania. Switched to Proton two days ago and have been getting ads ever since.
Yeah, same here…
I’ve been using Surfshark for the last couple of years and connecting through Albania works like a charm to block YT ads. But these last weeks I’ve been testing ProtonVPN and connecting through Albania doesn’t block YT ads.
I’ve tested the Turkmenistan server and it it works fine (blocks the ads), just don’t understand why the Albanian one doesn’t…
Just wanted to chime in. This is still an issue with (at least for me) Albania and Moldova (haven’t tried the others recommended here). I used windscribe for years before moving to Proton just recently, and none of the 2 servers I mentioned block ads on youtube but yet Windscribe and (as per OP Nord does) so something is up for sure
You know what I complain 2 issue 1) one of the streaming services is not playing
2) my country server speed is the worst and even the worst in the weekend. I complained about this 2 months ago but still they are not ready to solve this issue
So I brought nordvpn, but it’s also having a streaming problem one of OTT but when I shared what they requested within one day tickets created they solved…
Protonvpn customer support is worst, thy live chat is useless and also they are not available in weekend time
Always buy good customer support and 24/7 service.
To be clear: you do not see ads on YT when connected to Albania?
I rechecked, I do. I don’t understand.
(Not expecting you know what could be causing this but just wanted to double check.)
Yes, ProtonNet Shield generally offers more effective performance with fewer issues compared to Nord Threat Protection. Users often report that ProtonNet Shield functions better and provides smoother browsing experiences. Meanwhile, Nord Threat Protection has been known to encounter problems with ad blocking functionality. Overall, ProtonNet Shield seems to be a more reliable choice for users seeking robust protection and smooth operation.
Albania
Cambodia
Laos
Myanmar
Macau
Madagascar
Maldives
Russia