Vivaldi

What Is Vivaldi?

If you’re tired of browsers that treat “privacy” as a setting you have to hunt down (or an extension stack you have to maintain), Vivaldi is built for the opposite workflow: you start with a browser that’s already packed with controls, and you decide what gets enabled. The headline appeal is simple: lots of power-user features built in (so you install fewer extensions), plus privacy tooling that’s actually part of the product rather than an afterthought.

What makes Vivaldi distinctive in a privacy-tools context is that it tries to solve “browser privacy” holistically: blocking trackers/ads at the browser level, offering privacy-focused settings, and shipping an integrated VPN option (provided through Proton VPN) so you can mask your IP address inside the browser without installing a separate VPN app.

Company-wise, Vivaldi is an independent browser company based in Norway (with ties to Iceland as well), which matters if you care about where your browser vendor sits legally and culturally.

Vivaldi Features and Performance

The core of Vivaldi is Chromium-based. That’s a practical win for compatibility (sites tend to “just work,” and the extension ecosystem is huge), but it also means you’re fundamentally running a Chromium-family browser with Vivaldi’s feature layer on top. Vivaldi itself explicitly frames its product around having “tools” built in that other browsers usually require extensions for.

Built-in VPN: what it is (and what it isn’t)

Vivaldi includes “Proton VPN for Vivaldi,” which is an integration provided via a partnership between Vivaldi Technologies and Proton AG. You connect using a Vivaldi account, and it’s available for free with optional paid upgrades for additional Proton VPN features.

Protocol-wise, Proton states it uses strong VPN protocols including WireGuard and OpenVPN (these are the protocols you should expect to see associated with the Vivaldi integration).

Two important reality checks:

• Scope: Vivaldi’s own FAQ describes the built-in VPN feature as operating “as a secure web proxy for Vivaldi web traffic, rather than a VPN for every app on the device.” In plain terms: it’s aimed at protecting traffic inside the Vivaldi browser, not turning your whole computer into a VPN-routed device.
• Platform availability: Proton’s support page is explicitly about integration into the Vivaldi desktop browser. If you’re expecting this to automatically protect other devices (or every app), this isn’t that.

Tracker + ad blocking (browser-level)

Vivaldi ships a built-in Tracker and Ad Blocker and documents it as a replacement for ad-blocking extensions for many users (“using blocker extensions is no longer necessary,” in their wording). Whether it fully replaces a best-in-class blocker for you depends on your threat model and tolerance for site breakage—but the key point is: it’s not an afterthought; it’s a first-class feature with per-site controls.

Vivaldi also includes an “abusive ad-blocker” setting (separate from general tracker/ad blocking) that can be toggled in Privacy and Security settings, and the help docs recommend leaving it enabled.

Sync with end-to-end encryption (E2EE)

Vivaldi Sync is positioned as end-to-end encrypted: the help documentation states that the data to be synced is encrypted end-to-end. Vivaldi also describes a “backup encryption key” as an alternative method to decrypt your Sync data, reinforcing that encryption is central to how Sync is designed.

However, Vivaldi has also published a real-world Sync privacy incident report affecting Snapshot (test) users, where they explain that Chromium Sync history, by default, does not use end-to-end encryption—and that this mismatch contributed to what went wrong. The takeaway isn’t “don’t use Sync,” it’s “Vivaldi’s public posture includes owning mistakes—and the implementation details matter.”

Performance expectations

Vivaldi doesn’t publish a single “speed claim” you should trust as a universal benchmark; real-world performance depends heavily on your system, extensions, and the sites you use. Practically, because it’s Chromium-based, you can expect modern web compatibility—and the built-in blocker can reduce page weight and third-party requests on ad-heavy sites, which often improves perceived speed. The VPN side is more variable: Proton VPN’s free tier is widely described as more limited (including inability to select locations in some contexts), and free-tier VPN performance can be constrained by server load.

Pricing and Plans

Browser pricing

Vivaldi is distributed as a no-cost browser (“no cost” / freeware in third-party summaries, and consistently positioned by Vivaldi as a free browser). For VPNSpotter’s database purposes, you’ve marked the pricing model as free, and that matches how it’s commonly presented.

VPN pricing inside Vivaldi (Proton VPN integration)

The integrated VPN experience is free to start: Vivaldi’s help page says Proton VPN is integrated into Vivaldi, letting you connect “for free,” with the option to upgrade to a paid plan for extra features.

Exact paid prices can change by region and promotion and weren’t reliably confirmed from the sources we pulled here, so we’re not going to make up numbers. What we can state confidently is the structure:

• You get a free tier through the Vivaldi integration.
• You can upgrade to a paid Proton VPN plan to access more features and broader server access. Proton’s own support page for Vivaldi calls out premium features available with a paid plan (for example: “Secure Core,” “split tunneling,” “auto connect,” and “secure streaming”) in the context of Proton VPN on Vivaldi.

Refund terms for the paid VPN component depend on Proton’s policies and your purchase path. Proton’s Terms of Service notes that if you subscribed through a third-party intermediary, you should refer to that intermediary’s refund policy. This makes it especially important to know whether you’re upgrading through Proton directly or via another channel.

Privacy and Security Assessment

Jurisdiction: Norway

Vivaldi describes itself as an independent browser company based in Norway (and Iceland). Your database lists Norway as jurisdiction; that’s consistent with Vivaldi’s own company information.

Jurisdiction is not a magic privacy guarantee or a privacy doom sentence—what matters is what data is collected, what’s logged, and what’s technically possible to see. Here’s what we can ground in Vivaldi’s own materials:

• Vivaldi publicly claims it does not track what you do, where you go, or how you use the browser, while still collecting some broad, non-personal data like general country-level location (“we will only know that we have a user in France,” in their example). That’s a strong claim, and it’s on Vivaldi to live up to it.

Sync privacy model (and retained metadata)

Vivaldi Sync is documented as end-to-end encrypted, but Vivaldi also publishes a Sync Privacy Policy that explicitly lists metadata they store around encrypted entries (for example: timestamps for starting Sync and last connection, entry types, client identifiers, and created/modified times). They also state user data is kept for up to a year from last interaction with the Sync service or until deletion is requested. If your threat model includes metadata minimization, read this carefully.

Vivaldi’s published incident write-up about the Snapshot Sync privacy issue is a positive sign in one narrow sense: it’s detailed and specific about what failed and why, and it explicitly discusses the pitfalls of Chromium Sync defaults around history encryption. It’s also a reminder that privacy architecture can degrade when upstream assumptions leak into downstream products.

Open-source posture (mixed)

If you only trust software you can audit end-to-end, Vivaldi won’t fully satisfy you.

Vivaldi’s help page is blunt: the browser contains Chromium source code plus changes, and they make their changes to Chromium available under the applicable open-source license.

But Vivaldi also maintains a proprietary layer—commonly described as the UI layer being closed-source. Vivaldi has also published a breakdown (in their own blog, in a non-English post we surfaced) describing most of the code as Chromium open source, some portion as their own open-source changes, and a smaller portion as closed-source UI code. Bottom line: you can inspect a lot, but not all.

VPN privacy: separate vendor, separate policy

The integrated VPN is provided through Proton VPN (Proton AG), not Vivaldi itself. Vivaldi explicitly states the VPN feature is provided through that partnership. That means the VPN component’s privacy posture ultimately depends on Proton’s systems and policies (and on what the integration actually routes, per Vivaldi’s “secure web proxy” framing).

Strengths and Limitations

Strengths

• Built-in tracker/ad blocking reduces reliance on extensions and gives you per-site controls out of the box.
• Integrated Proton VPN option makes it easy to mask your IP for browser traffic without installing a separate VPN app.
• Sync with end-to-end encryption is the stated default model for synced data (with encryption keys/passwords under user control).
• Chromium compatibility means fewer broken sites and access to a large extension ecosystem (useful even for privacy hardening).

Limitations

• The “built-in VPN” is not a device-wide VPN. Vivaldi’s own FAQ frames it as a secure proxy for Vivaldi web traffic, not all apps.
• Not fully open source. Vivaldi publishes Chromium changes, but a portion (notably UI) remains closed.
• Sync stores metadata. Even if content is end-to-end encrypted, the Sync privacy policy lists metadata retained and a retention window (up to a year after last interaction).
• There has been at least one Sync privacy incident (Snapshot users). Vivaldi documented a case where browsing history E2EE behavior didn’t match expectations due to Chromium Sync defaults.

Who Should Use Vivaldi?

Good fit

1. Privacy-conscious power users who want browser-level tracker/ad blocking and deep customization without bolting on ten extensions.
2. Users who want “VPN for browsing” convenience and are okay with the VPN being scoped to Vivaldi traffic (secure proxy behavior) rather than the whole device.
3. People who sync across devices but still want E2EE as the stated model for synced data (while understanding metadata is still stored).

Not a great fit

1. Anyone who needs a full-device VPN for all apps, torrents, games, or system-wide protection—Vivaldi’s integrated option is not positioned as that.
2. “Fully open-source or nothing” users who require the entire browser stack (including UI) to be auditable under a true open-source license.
3. Metadata-minimizers who consider timestamps, client identifiers, and entry-type metadata unacceptable even when the content is encrypted.