Thoughts on VPN providers?
Thoughts on VPN providers?
What's everyone's opinion on a VPN provider? I've used Nord for a long time, but my subscription is up next month and I'm exploring my options. I use a vpn 24/7 on my laptop and most of the time on my phone as does much of the family.
Requirements:
- Support for family plan/multiple devices
- Apple Ecosystem - macOS/iOS clients (Linux nice to have)
- Fast enough to always be running on the device
- Easy to switch between servers and countries
- Not on a lot of deny lists
I did a couple searches here and was surprised I didn’t come across this question before. I hope it’s not asked too often!
E: Currently leaning towards Proton
Mullvad has been very good for me.
I've got Mullvad on my Android and a Linux virtual machine for when I need a textbook that's overpriced. That would be all of them.
Scholar based and knowledge pilled.
I really like mullvad but I unfortunately had to switch because they removed port forwarding. I first switched to Airvpn which is decent but has a max bandwidth of around 600 Mbits/s and I wanted 1000 at minimum but optimally 2000+. Proton VPN fits that requirement well. Unfortunately port forwarding is annoying because they give you a new port every time you connect.
Fortunately there are forks of the VPN app that automatically change the port configuration in qbittorrent. I'm pretty sure I use this one: https://github.com/ravesheep/ProtonVPN-windows
There are similar solutions for Linux.
ProtonVPN
I've been on Proton for years and I've had a Visionary account for years. Proton's price doesn't really go up, but the quality and features does immensely. They give me extra storage every year. I get more VPNs, more password managers, more and more and more. IMO they have a track that shows they care about privacy and want to make things better.
Thanks for the input! I was leaning towards Proton already, just wanted to see if there might be something else I didn’t know about.
Yeah I Second that
They give like 500 gb of e2ee cloud storage and I haven't even touched it. I feel ashamed. Last time I plaid with it it was very fast and easy to use
Mullvad all the way
I see a lot of support for Mulvad but they don't own their hardware afaict. How can you trust that the hosting provided doesn't have backdoor access? Azire for example owns, collocates and minimize their hardware (driverless etc.)
They own some of their servers and rent others. From their FAQ:
All of our VPN servers are encrypted and are either owned by us or dedicated servers that we rent.
- Our rented servers are all dedicated, meaning they are not shared with anyone else. We do not use virtual servers.
- With the servers that we own, we have physical control over these, which means they tend to be faster and more secure.
When connecting, you can filter to only show owned servers.
I find it always weird how people don't trust their provider (in some cases reightly so) but then trust a random VPN provider in central asia.
A random vpn in asia won't sue me for torrenting.
Ok, fair point.
I use Mullvad and Proton. I have a grandfathered Proton
UltimateVisionary plan so I use theirs when I need the port forwarding. I had just started my privacy journey with Proton and didn't sign up anonymously. Mullvad is my daily driver paid with XMR.I've been very happy with proton. I hear good things about mullvad as well.
Mozilla, because:
- rebranded Mullvad
- funds Mozilla
- can buy a year subscription
Why not just mullvad?
Their privacy approach is top notch
Because:
- Mozilla needs money, and I’m assuming there’s a financial incentive for them
- buying Mullvad one month at a time is annoying as shit
- a years subsection is half price
- it’s pretty much the same thing. I just had to change my Mullvad public key with my Mozilla one and my connection still worked.
AirVPN is pretty nice, they offer DNS and port forwarding services as well which is quite convenient if you need a human readable hostname for a device over the internet.
Got a few years for a really good price a while ago too, they occasionally have good sales.
I can also recommend AirVPN. I’ve been using it for several years now. I have it on my iMac and iPhone and make use of both the port forwarding and dns. They have their own client (Eddie) but you can use 3rd party clients too. I used the openVPN client for a while and am currently using wireguard.
I use ivpn, because you can remain completely anonymous. Even pay in cash if you choose.
Here is a good overview: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/11IZdVCBjVvbdaKx2HKz2hKB4FZ_l8nRJXXubX4FaQj4/htmlview
Doesn't the VPN own your traffic though?
Private VPN seems the only real way
Depends. What are you planning on using a VPN for?
Internet things.
For anonymous proxy (which is what you seem to mean instead of VPN) I just keep using Tor for almost everything. Sure, some services do block it - more than your usual commercial offering. But TBF that mostly saves me time from tying to deal with them.
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/
I start any research journey at privacy guides, they always have a good explanation of why they came to their decisions, and links to discussions to get into the nitty-gritty
It’s Proton for me me hands down