Neither on Proton nor* Nord have I ever once had speeds anywhere close to what I am supposed to be getting.

Any review website will tell you that you should expect a 10-30% drop in speeds on VPN through the Proton or Nord servers at major cities, but I always get at least a 90% drop.

I don’t think it’s my ISP, because I’ve done traveling with random providers via coffee shops and hotels and it’s always the same 30-60 Mbps cap.

Is everyone just chronically lying, via articles and anecdotal user reviews? Is there some conspiracy to ensure my personal speeds are lower than anyone else’s on either provider’s VPN?

Both possibilities seem absurdly unlikely so there must be something else at play, right? I wouldn’t even know where to begin to troubleshoot this other than the switching servers, providers, and speed test tools dozens of times like I already have.