Business VPN & Zero Trust Access · head-to-head
Cloudflare Zero Trust vs Proton VPN for Business
As of 6 Nov 2026, the panel rates Cloudflare Zero Trust 3.5/5 and Proton VPN for Business 3/5 in Business VPN & Zero Trust Access. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 6 of the 6 judges pick Cloudflare Zero Trust and 0 pick Proton VPN for Business. Cloudflare Zero Trust scores higher on 5 of 7 criteria (Logs, audit trail & incident response, Identity, access policy & device posture, Access model & connectivity, plus 2 more). Proton VPN for Business scores higher on 2 of 7 criteria (Pricing transparency and European sovereignty). Provenance — Cloudflare Zero Trust: Rest of world; Proton VPN for Business: UK / wider Europe. Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made.
Proton VPN for Business
UK / wider EuropePanel rating
Sovereignty: not determined
The short answer
Five criteria lean Cloudflare Zero Trust and two lean Proton VPN for Business — that split is the answer here. Four criteria go to Cloudflare by six judges to zero — access and connectivity 7.3 to 5.7, identity and policy 7.7 to 6.0, visibility and audit 7.2 to 5.0, deployment and administration 6.7 to 5.2 — and architecture and assurance runs 6.5 to 5.7 with three judges leaning Cloudflare and three ties. Proton takes pricing transparency 7.3 to 4.0, six judges to zero, on four public tiers from VPN Essentials at €6.99/user per month to Workspace Standard at €12.99/user per month against Cloudflare's "Annual custom price per user" Contract Plan. Sovereignty goes Proton's way 6.2 to 5.7, with three judges leaning Proton, one Cloudflare, two tying. Weighted totals span 6.1 to 7.0 for Cloudflare and 5.3 to 5.9 for Proton. No overall winner: the benches lean differently by criterion.
Choose Cloudflare Zero Trust if
- You need deny-by-default, per-application access into your own network rather than whitelisting a dedicated exit IP at the perimeter — access and connectivity leans Cloudflare Zero Trust six judges to zero, 7.3 to 5.7.
- Your auditors ask what is retained and for how long: Cloudflare Zero Trust states admin logs kept eighteen months on every plan and access logs up to 180 days on Enterprise — though requests matching a Bypass policy are not logged — while the Proton verdict reports opt-in monitoring with retention periods that are not published; visibility and audit is 7.2 to 5.0, six judges to zero.
- Your identity stack runs on Microsoft Entra ID, Google, Okta or GitHub and you need SCIM revocation that forces re-attestation — identity and policy is 7.7 to 6.0, six judges to zero.
- You require documented encryption — the verdict credits MASQUE over TLS 1.3 with hybrid ML-KEM — and a published subprocessor list; architecture and assurance is 6.5 to 5.7 with three judges leaning Cloudflare, three ties, and zero leaning Proton.
- Your users should reach internal apps from a browser without installing VPN clients — the bench credits agentless browser access, and deployment and administration leans Cloudflare Zero Trust 6.7 to 5.2, six judges to zero.
Choose Proton VPN for Business if
- You need a per-user price on the page before committing: four public tiers from VPN Essentials at €6.99/user per month, minimum 2 users, to Workspace Standard at €12.99/user per month — pricing transparency leans Proton VPN for Business six judges to zero, 7.3 to 4.0.
- Your procurement must compare vendors on published numbers; Cloudflare Zero Trust's Contract Plan is an 'Annual custom price per user', and its verdict reports we found no public per-user price for paid tiers or add-ons.
- You lease dedicated IPs for partners to whitelist and want the cost stated in advance — Proton publishes dedicated IPs at +€39.99/month per IP.
- Sovereignty is your deciding criterion and the Geneva entity weighs in your favor: three judges lean Proton on sovereignty, 6.2 to 5.7, with Proton AG in Geneva; note the verdict leaves where account data and logs are hosted an unanswered question, and the captured sovereignty attributes read 'unknown' for both products.
Read this comparison as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The bench's picks
Same scores, different priorities: each judge's weighting applied to both products. The split is the finding.
- The IT Lead Cloudflare Zero Trust Proton VPN for Business picks Cloudflare Zero Trust
- The DevOps Engineer Cloudflare Zero Trust Proton VPN for Business picks Cloudflare Zero Trust
- The MSP Technician Cloudflare Zero Trust Proton VPN for Business picks Cloudflare Zero Trust
- The Operations Manager Cloudflare Zero Trust Proton VPN for Business picks Cloudflare Zero Trust
- The Information Security Officer Cloudflare Zero Trust Proton VPN for Business picks Cloudflare Zero Trust
- The Skeptic Cloudflare Zero Trust Proton VPN for Business picks Cloudflare Zero Trust
Criterion by criterion
| Criterion | Cloudflare Zero Trust | Proton VPN for Business |
|---|---|---|
| Access model & connectivity | 3.5 of 5 | 3 of 5 |
| Identity, access policy & device posture | 4 of 5 | 3 of 5 |
| Logs, audit trail & incident response | 3.5 of 5 | 2.5 of 5 |
| Deployment, API & administration | 3.5 of 5 | 2.5 of 5 |
| Architecture, reliability & security assurance | 3.5 of 5 | 3 of 5 |
| European sovereignty | 3 of 5 | 3 of 5 |
| Pricing transparency | 2 of 5 | 3.5 of 5 |
| Criterion | Cloudflare Zero Trust | Proton VPN for Business | The bench leans |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access model & connectivity | Cloudflare Zero Trust, 6 of 6 judges | ||
| Identity, access policy & device posture | Cloudflare Zero Trust, 6 of 6 judges | ||
| Logs, audit trail & incident response | Cloudflare Zero Trust, 6 of 6 judges | ||
| Deployment, API & administration | Cloudflare Zero Trust, 6 of 6 judges | ||
| Architecture, reliability & security assurance | Cloudflare Zero Trust, 3 of 6 judges | ||
| European sovereignty | Proton VPN for Business, 3 of 6 judges | ||
| Pricing transparency | Proton VPN for Business, 6 of 6 judges |
Stars show the bench average per criterion; the lean counts which product each judge scored higher. Open a judge's tab for their reasoning on both sides.
Sovereignty, side by side
| Dimension | Cloudflare Zero Trust | Proton VPN for Business |
|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | Not determined |
| Hosting location | Not determined | Not determined |
| Hosting options | Not determined | Not determined |
| Open source | Not determined | Not determined |
| Data processing agreement | Not determined | Not determined |
| Transfer impact assessment | Not determined | Not determined |
Facts, side by side
Only facts both products carry under the same definition — anything else would not be a fair row.
| Compliance · DPA | data processor or sub-processor · yes1 | yes2 |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance · ISO 27001 | ISO 27001:2022 · yes3 | yes4 |
| Compliance · SOC 2 | SOC 2 Type II · yes3 | yes5 |
| Legal · Entity | Cloudflare, Inc. · 101 Townsend St., San Francisco, California 941071 | Proton AG · Route de la Galaise 32, 1228 Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland6 |
| Legal · Governing law | San Francisco County, California · California1 | courts of the Canton of Geneva · Switzerland7 |
| Subprocessors · Zendesk | Zendesk, Inc. · Customer support and account management · United States, European Economic Area, Japan, Australia8 | Zendesk, Inc. · customer support data · United States · Standard Contractual Clauses · Binding Corporate Rules · Certifications9 |
Questions about Cloudflare Zero Trust and Proton VPN for Business
Which is better, Cloudflare Zero Trust or Proton VPN for Business?
As of 6 Nov 2026, the panel rates Cloudflare Zero Trust higher: 3.5/5 against 3/5. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 6 of the 6 judges pick Cloudflare Zero Trust and 0 pick Proton VPN for Business. Which one fits depends on the criteria that matter to you; the table on this page shows both side by side, and each judge’s reading has its own page. Both were scored by the same AI bench under the same rubric, from public evidence only, as the methodology describes.
Is Cloudflare Zero Trust or Proton VPN for Business European?
Cloudflare Zero Trust is not European by provenance (Rest of world). Proton VPN for Business is European (UK / wider Europe). Provenance is read from each company’s own legal pages: who builds it and who owns it.
Do Cloudflare Zero Trust and Proton VPN for Business have a free plan?
As of 6 Nov 2026, Cloudflare Zero Trust’s own pages state a free plan; Proton VPN for Business’s pages as captured do not. Each product page links the pricing page it was read from.