By offering free options, the company can reach more people, especially now that there's a lot more interest in using VPN all over the world. In the US, the new FCC chairman and various Senators want to kill net neutrality in addition to nullifying rules that protect user data. UK Prime Minister Theresa May wants to regulate the internet. People in China, Egypt and other places where the internet is heavily censored also need VPNs to get around restrictions, while others need the service to keep their info secure and private.

If you decide to stick with ProtoMail's service as your primary VPN provider after using it for a while, you can always choose to pay later to help the company continue offering its free services. ProtonMail says it relies on user upgrades to keep the company running, because (in its own fighting words) it doesn't "abuse user privacy to sell advertisements" like "Google and Facebook."