My subrsiption with surfshark is ending soon and I was wondering if there was something better around the same price. There are a lot of ads about many VPNs but a lot of them don’t look so “safe and private” as they want you to think so it’s hard to really figure it out. I don’t want to spend too much since I don’t use them very often but I kinda like the “change catalog of netflix” thing and to be safe while doing some “”“”“”“shady”“”“”" stuff
With VPNS i usually vouch for two services: Mullvad and Proton.
Mullvad is a no-bullshit VPN as described before, it just works and it’s cheap as hell. It’ll let you do your netflix hopping, but for any skullduggery I believe they’re killing their port forwarding, so I wouldn’t really recommend it for that front. You’d be better off subscribing to a usenet index for that and then using mullvad on the side instead of ARRing.
Proton is amazing but only truly worth it if you’re using the suite-- Emails, drive, VPN, the whole 9 yards. It’s a bit costly but no one does it like them. They also have a solid free tier for the VPN if you’d like to try them. And they do port forwarding (as of this comment).
Haven’t tried expressVPN but I’ve heard lots of good things about their audits. I’d feel comfortable with them but I can’t give any pointers.
TL:DR: Mullvad for simplicity and price, Proton for features & using their Suite, something like Express for something that just does VPN and nothing else.
I steer clear of Nord & Surfshark for personal reasons. VPNS that do too much sponsor marketing outside of network/privacy communities strike me as suspicious IMO.
Yup I got the whole Proton suit mainly for email and calendar, but use the rest too for specific use-cases.
I also like that Proton has a few VPN servers with adblocker and tracking blocking built in, so you can use the default DNS and have the same settings as other users which helps with avoiding fingerprinting while still having an easy system wide adblocker and tracking blocker.
I use the free tier of Proton VPN primarily for travel. Probably the only free VPN I trust, but there is a paid version for faster speeds and more features.
MullvadVPN is great. It’s a no-bullshit VPN.
I use Proton. May be a bit overkill for what you’re looking for if you want just a VPN - Proton includes email, a calendar, and cloud storage - all encrypted. Their VPN client supports port forwarding and split tunneling. They categorize their servers to show which are best for torrenting and/or streaming. Some of their servers also serve as end points for the TOR network.
I had a few different ones (Surfshark, Mullvad, Vypr), but in the end I just really liked Proton the most. It is not the cheapest, but the UI of their software is easy, I can use it on all my devices (including fire stick), it works well with streaming services like Netflix and I recently upgraded to pay 2€ more per month and now I got a cloud drive of 500GB, some mail adresses and other stuff on top. I can recommend it because for me it just works flawlessly and the speed is good.
I have used ProtonVPN and ProtonMail for years now and I absolutely love their service.
Used to use Mullvad but since their port forwarding fiasco I need to switch.
(I get that they had people abusing that system, but as a privacy based service they should expect the same pitfalls as every other privacy based service, like Tor, Matrix, etc. All you can really do is keep whacking the mole, or shut it down for everyone incl. the people using it for it’s intended purpose too whom you had advertised port forwarding to, who wouldn’t have bought your service if it didn’t have port forwarding to begin with.)
So now I’m looking at IVPN or Proton. Does anyone have experience with IVPN or know how trustworthy they are? I’m wary on Proton after Protonmail gave that French activist’s IP to their Feds, and they have a free tier which usually on a VPN means they sell your data, but afaik they are the only two that’ll let me PF and I have a need, a need to seed.
Afaik Proton only logs stuff and gives that to the feds if and after they get a coord order from the Swiss juristiction, in which case any provider would have to do that or they’ll be the one taken offline with criminal charges instead. I recall Proton even being quite firm in requiring that order before doing so.
So basically, don’t do criminal stuff and you’ll be fine. Or at least, don’t rely soley on a VPN to hide your criminal stuff 🙃.
As far as the free tiers of their services, they have the same policies but are much more limited. Pretty sure they just pay them from paying users, and use them in hope people trying it become paying users. While it’s good to be wary of any free service, especially but not limited to VPNs, I don’t think Proton specifically is an issue.
Personally, I’ll also be wary for anything that’s promoting a lot trough influencers and social media btw. Similar to free services, it’s often a sign they’re not that trustworthy and upstanding.
VPNs are for “illegal stuff.” Namely piracy. That and monotoring of your digital things can be done in connection with real world “crimes” like drug use or activism, see: that aforementioned French activist. :upsidedownface:
That may be, but the only confirmation I have of this is your assumption, which is hardly confirmation at all, unless you own Proton.
True, though word of mouth has to come from somewhere, and I’d rather trust a guy with a legit article (hopefully one that says “IVPN servers raided, nothing found”) than “GeekFeed’s top 10 ‘no log’ VPNs 2023 1. Nord 2. ExpressVPN ad that looks like it’ll give me CyberGonorrhea 3. Proton…” Those podcast ad VPNs may be fine to trust for a shaver or some undies but I’m not using my VPN to watch Japanese Netflix, I’m sharing copywritten material in a country that frowns upon such actions.
You may just luck into the sale though, because they may be the one I trust most out of my 2-3 whole options all said and done. I’ll make sure to pass on your u-name so you get commission if I do. Like I said though I may just go VPS once I really look into all that, I’m sick of these companies’ bullshit.
In terms of privacy, Mullvad VPN is the one that considered the most private by the community.
A. WireGuard.
B. Cross-platform.
C. No need for Email to register.
D. Let you pay with cash.
E. Don’t have affiliated videos amd commercials.
F. Support port-forwarding.G. Had no scandals over the past decade.
Stolen from Reddit - link to archive.org - to make sure that Reddit won’t make money out of it :3
E: unfortunately F is no longer true :/
F. is no longer true. They recently removed support for this after lots of people abused the feature.
Can anyone comment on NordVPN?
I’m a 4 year user, but will cancel. Their app in just non stop abusing my phone’s notification system to try and upsell their other products. This is MY phone, not their personal marketing billboard.
Mullvad is really good.
