Proton's full suite of services has been great for me and I have had no issues whatsoever with Proton VPN. Sure the paid version is way better (that's what I use) but I used the free version for a while first. I can't think of many other free offerings that have a proven track record of caring about your data. If all you care about is getting around certain online Acts - proton free is perfect. For me - the paid version is exceptional.