VPN Comparison

After making a post about comparing VPN providers, I received a lot of requested feedback. I’ve implemented most of the ideas I received.

Providers

Notes

  • I’m human. I make mistakes. I made multiple mistakes in my last post, and there may be some here. I’ve tried my best.
  • Pricing is sometimes weird. For example, a 1 year plan for Private Internet Access is 37.19€ first year and then auto-renews annually at 46.73€. By the way, they misspelled “annually”. AirVPN has a 3 day pricing plan. For the instances when pricing is weird, I did what I felt was best on a case-by-case basis.
  • Tor is not a VPN, but there are multiple apps that allow you to use it like a VPN. They’ve released an official Tor VPN app for Android, and there is a verified Flatpak called Carburetor which you can use to use Tor like a VPN on secureblue (Linux). It’s not unreasonable to add this to the list.
  • Some projects use different licenses for different platforms. For example, NordVPN has an open source Linux client. However, to call NordVPN open source would be like calling a meat sandwich vegan because the bread is vegan.
  • The age of a VPN isn’t a good indicator of how secure it is. There could be a trustworthy VPN that’s been around for 10 years but uses insecure, outdated code, and a new VPN that’s been around for 10 days but uses up-to-date, modern code.
  • Some VPNs, like Surfshark VPN, operate in multiple countries. Legality may vary.
  • All of the VPNs claim a “no log” policy, but there’s some I trust more than others to actually uphold that.
  • Tor is special in the port forwarding category, because it depends on what you’re using port forwarding for. In some cases, Tor doesn’t need port forwarding.
  • Tor technically doesn’t have a WireGuard profile, but you could (probably?) create one.

Takeaways

  • If you don’t mind the speed cost, Tor is a really good option to protect your IP address.
  • If you’re on a budget, NymVPN, Private Internet Access, and Surfshark VPN are generally the cheapest. If you’re paying month-by-month, Mullvad VPN still can’t be beat.
  • If you want VPNs that go out of their way to collect as little information as possible, IVPN, Mullvad VPN, and NymVPN don’t require any personal information to use. And Tor, of course.

ODS file: https://files.catbox.moe/cly0o6.ods

    • dogs0n@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      9 hours ago

      It’s not entirely a big deal to me.

      I think I agree with the staff reply on this thread: https://airvpn.org/forums/topic/56799-audits/

      Our software is free and open source, while we repute at the moment not acceptable to provide external companies with root access to our servers to perform audits which can not anyway guarantee future avoidance of traffic logging or transmission to third parties. On the contrary, we deem very useful anything related to penetration tests. Such tests are frequently performed by independent researchers and bounty hunters and we also have a bounty program.

  • utopiah@lemmy.ml
    0·
    17 hours ago

    Since you do not seem to list self-hosting options, e.g. WireGuard or OpenVPN, then IMHO it’d be good to at least have a line on each about what’s the actual backend, e.g. does service X runs on WireGuard, OpenVPN, something else, something proprietary that has been audited by 3rd party if so whom and when.

    Edit: suggested self-hosting (but not at home) WireGuard in the previous thread https://lemmy.ml/post/37270537/21536054

  • Sadness Nexus@lemmy.ml
    0·
    19 hours ago

    From what I know, the only free VPN worth using is Proton because they don’t keep logs on their free tier either.

  • Chivera@lemmy.world
    0·
    24 hours ago

    I got Mozilla VPN back when it launched. I got it at $4.99/month. I only use it for viewing and downloading “free” media online. Should I switch?

    • dogs0n@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      9 hours ago

      Mozilla VPN is just Mullvad, so you are on a very good vpn service.

      As long as you are happy, I don’t see why you should swap.

      (Going to mullvad directly could be slightly beneficial if you want a generated account that has no direct metadata to link to you, using a card to pay would negate that benefit, but theres other options… in the end you are using a good service already)

  • stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    1 day ago

    Last time I said it was hard to figure out if this was some kind of malice or just someone without much experience/knowledge.

    I been thinking about what this post and the one before it actually are though. They’re not disinformation, I don’t think they’re misinformation although I think that argument could be made if there was actual intent (and a person could also make the argument that there is intent).

    This just kind of seems like white noise or what would be called slop if it were generated by ai.

    It’s not useful in making a decision.

    A vpn is a tool and you use the right tool for the job. A chart comparing the various similarities and differences between a box and open end wrench, flare nut wrench, socket set, power drill, impact driver and torque wrench would be useless for decision making about what tool to buy because they’re for different jobs.

    If you need to take the lug nuts off a truck the right tool is an impact, if you need to replace brake lines you’re gonna use a flare nut wrench.

    It’s not useful to compare pia and mullvad. If all you need is a cheap way to reliably bypass geofencing then pia is the right tool. If you need deniability and trust then mullvad is the right tool.

    It makes no sense to compare air and nord. If you need the cheapest per device service for bypassing content blocks then the tool is nord. If you need port forwarding for torrents, soulseek and usenet all at once then the tool is air.

    The problem with posts like this is that they don’t really provide any useful understanding or decision making process and wouldn’t be useful from an educational perspective like the comparison between various wrenches made above (if it were in some kind of Tools for Dummies publication) because they’re not even contextualized as such.

    A better start for this kind of post would be “here are some reasons to use a vpn service” or “here are some actual important differences between different vpn services apps”, not weather they’re available on Jim’s cut rate Secure I Promise ™ alternative android App Store.

    • hellinkilla [they/them, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      0·
      21 hours ago

      Last time I said it was hard to figure out if this was some kind of malice or just someone without much experience/knowledge.

      Totally disagree with the first few paragraphs. Someone makes a post you feel has inadequate depth and you think they’re the goddamned CIA? I don’t see any basis for the hostile tone.

      If you need port forwarding for torrents, soulseek and usenet all at once then the tool is air.

      But like it’s nice to be able to have a reference to quickly exclude certain options without having to wade through all their various websites. If you already know that you need port forwarding, then a chart like this will help you exclude several mainstream options. If there is some other criteria you already know about it could save you a lot of time.

      A better start for this kind of post would be “here are some reasons to use a vpn service” or “here are some actual important differences between different vpn services apps”

      Those do exist elsewhere and I don’t think there is much wrong with summarizing the current state of things for an informed audience. We are on lemmy here! I wouldn’t mail this chart out to the whole neighbourhood or anything, it’s probably not a good very first intro for most people. Although even for a person just getting started, having the column of criteria on the left could be useful to point out “what are the things to consider”. Like maybe you wouldn’t even guess that the number of devices would be limited.

      Long narrative comparisons can be hard to follow. They are good for understanding the differences but then once you are having an understanding how do you pick? It’s very convenient if someone else goes to the trouble to sift through the information. On wikipedia there are some subjects that have tables comparing things and I find them very helpful. Otherwise I’d just have to spend hours making my own tables.

      BTW wikipedia has a table comparing different kinds of wrenches so obviously someone thought it would be useful!!

      The main issue is that the information could become out of date or erroneous in the first place so you need to verify for yourself whatever is key to your decisions. That’s just the nature of third party info.

      • stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
        0·
        19 hours ago

        So like I said, I don’t think the post is malicious.

        I tried to be careful not to take a hostile tone. It’s possible you’re correctly identifying a critical tone, because my comment was intended as criticism of the post.

        There are ways of presenting factual information that are not helpful or useful and actually serve the opposite purpose. You certainly don’t need to use prose to present information in a useful way, but consider how much closer to the old car paint color versus mileage chart (or whatever example they used to teach you about uncorrelated data in school) the posters chart is than the Wikipedia wrench table you linked.

        The Wikipedia wrench table is in the context of “tools for dummies” that I said might be appropriate for that type of presentation, just as an aside.

        The whole point of using some kind of chart or table is to make understanding easier, not more difficult. The posted chart does the latter. I think its because the op doesn’t understand both what they’re trying to say or the information they’re trying to show to convey it and because they chose a really excessively dimensional way to do so. A flowchart, infographic or anything other than a three dimensional chart would be better but since it’s so unclear what they’re trying to express, except possibly how much they love nymvpn and how people should really take a look at that previously underrepresented option, I can’t really make a recommendation.

        • hellinkilla [they/them, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          0·
          13 hours ago

          OK well then I should divulge to you full disclosure that I think you, like OP, are also probably not a hostile actor who is commenting to fuck with me specifically or ?lemmy users? in general. More likely someone who’s got a bit spun up their head. But I can’t say for sure…

          As it happens, last time I was looking at different VPN vendors I had to spend a ton of time basically creating an abbreviated version of this chart that had the items most salient to my use case. To sift through the websites, forums, support sections etc, because the information isn’t clearly presented was annoying. They are all trying to emphasize their strengths to make a sale based on their marketing strategy.

          I can say that this chart, exactly as it is, would have saved me significant time had it been available. I found similar but they were old. And I looked at it to see if the conclusion I came to is still the right one for me— it is. I can clearly see the required information.

          • stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
            0·
            4 hours ago

            Good! You’re on a public forum and people do that shit! Our instance is slightly better than the other Reddit offshoots but most of them haven’t kicked the social media curse and everything you read on lemmy needs to get the sidest of ways glances.

            I have trouble taking your statement that you can see the required information seriously when the required information literally isn’t there. Important stuff like weather a service accepts cash anonymously, is owned by what company and what that company’s affiliations are (talking about kape and israel here, not the proton red herring) and how forwarded ports are allocated are not included in the chart.

            Of course, that kind of information doesn’t fit neatly into a table so it’s another example of the format of the data being inadequate.

            I can believe that a broad generalized table like this is useful in the context of learning the ropes of what’s out there in terms of vpn services, but it isn’t being presented in that way. If this kind of table were around years ago when I was getting my feet under me I would have made bad choices based on it.

            My comments saying “hey, this is bad and not something to use” are not coming from my seat of power at the player haters annual dinner and awards ceremony but from clear recognition of misleading information based on experience.

  • Echolynx@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    1 day ago

    Mullvad also ran some pretty quirky ads on our public transit. I hadn’t been that familiar with them, but it did heighten my awareness, and they seem pretty fine.

    • InnerScientist@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 day ago

      Yeah you can’t, tor is a completely different protocol and the only way to use tor with a wireguard client is with a server in the middle that routes the internal wireguard traffic into tor.

  • dirtySourdough@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 day ago

    OP this is a big improvement from your previous post. It’s an excellent starting point for folks who are looking to start using a VPN. There’s a lot of constructive criticism in here, which is good, but might be discouraging. Just know that this is already very useful for many people.