The PVPN client performance is stellar, but I seek similar performance for whole home protection by setting up PVPN in a pfSense VirtualBox VM on a separate laptop which doesn't do much else. I've used PVPN via that setup for years. Running speed tests on the same machine as where the pfSense/PVPN VM is running, I have found to be disastrous: incredibly low throughput, no matter what PC it's running on.

No VPN: 95Mbps. PVPN client: 85Mbps. PVPN+pfSense: 50Mbps (worst case). Those are download speeds given by OpenSpeedTest run from a different PC on the LAN than where the pfSense VM is. Wiregard in client, OpenVPN in pfSense (that can't be worth much).

I started debugging my pfSense configuration awhile back, but didn't find the issue. I used the guide available on the ProtonVPN website to configure pfSense (available for pfSense 2.7, as I recall). A key thing, though, is that when I upgraded pfSense to version 2.8.1 from 2.7.x, I saw a decrease in throughput (download and upload). That said, while the pfSense upgrade caused some degradation, prior to the upgrade the throughput was also concerning at 30% or more decrease in throughput over using no VPN.

Any suggestions likely to greatly improve the PVPN throughput when setup in pfSense are appreciated. Also, notes about your experience with router setup of PVPN are appreciated. Better documention from Proton for seting up PVPN with routers and comparisons to the client would be nice.