I’m thinking about paying for a VPN, I currently don’t use one.
I’d like to use Mullvad but they don’t seem to have regional prices, while Proton does.
I wonder if Proton is still a reliable option, Proton is 60% cheaper in my country, probably because regional pricing (but I didn’t check if it’s really the case).
If anyone has any other suggestion I’d like to hear it.
I would recommend mullvad.
the ceo of proton did idicate support of the trump and the republican party and while they backtracked and apologized and all that, is it out that atleast some in the company think like that and i dont trust them anymore.
and trust is number 1 priority for vpn.
Mullvad because it accepts cash payments.
I used to have Mullvad and switched to Proton because I use pretty much their entire suite…
If you don’t need port forwarding, I think Mullvad is superior in everything. Such a great service, highly recommend it.
I personally prefer the Mullvad client since, at least on MacOS, it allows you to exclude specific apps from the VPN, while the ProtonVPN client does not! I still use ProtonVPN instead though, since it’s also significantly cheaper for me.
Both options are good. I think for the most part it boils down to wanting a single product or suite of products.
While you certainly can get just one proton service, the idea of having an easy entry point into multiple privacy focused solutions is what they are going for.
The pro argument for that is cheaper overall, simpler to get into and mange, etc. The con argument is an eggs in one basket philosophy isn’t ideal because you can have a single point of failure. This is all subjective to your personal threat model.
Proton had a Black Friday sale and that’s the reason it prevailed over Mulvad. Every penny matters when you’re a pensioner.
Mullvad VPN is more private but I find I’m being asked to prove I’m human more often. Proton VPN I don’t trust with anything like piracy because they’re a large company with too much to lose by being overly private.
EDIT: Oh, and reminder that you should use the Mullvad browser too if you want to keep anything private.
What about AirVPN? I haven’t chosen any VPNs yet, mostly because I’m still not sure which to go with, but I never see anyone talk about Air, even though I once heard Proton or Air were the best choices.
Why don’t you use a decentralized VPN like NymVPN? It’s impossible for the company or anyone to take logs because your traffic is routed over several nodes. It’s like Tor but also adds noise to data and harder to deanonymize
Moved from Proton to Mullvad to Windscribe
Proton kept getting worse and is moving towards a walled garden.
Mullvad seemed great on the private payment front. Their apps are pretty solid. The device limit was too low for me. For 6-10 devices the price doubles.
Windscribe won me over with their build a plan option. Their apps aren’t the most visually appealing but get the job done.
How is proton moving to a walled garden?
A la carte pricing has gone out the window in favor of bundles. This enables the same subsidization model of business used by Apple, Google, etc. Even when you pay, they display ads and reminders to get you to upgrade to higher tiers. Drive launched in beta only for paid users. Drive now encourages the use of their proprietary document format. They hand out storage bonuses for each year of membership. That’s not a sustainable long-term practice and purposefully creates stickiness. Generally speaking, they don’t have easy export tools, so they’re not very interoperable. Forwarding emails sent to @proton.me or @protonmail.com addresses to a new inbox is not possible unless you’re a paying customer, which makes switching more difficult.
Does anyone here regard ivpn as a good vpn as well?
Vote for the unlisted AirVPN because extremely easy to use, very moderate pricing, and specifically why I needed it, port forwarding.
Any reason Private Internet Access (PIA) isn’t in the running? I’ve been using it for years now with no complaints or issues.
Owned by an ad-targetting company, which itself is owned by an Israeli billionaire with ties to the military.
Oof, seriously? I had no idea. Fuck.
Edit - just looked it up, Kape Technologies via parent company owned by Ted Sagi.
Why do you want a VPN? Is it just for some light piracy? Staying safe on public wifi? Or do you actually NEED to maintain your privacy, with real consequences if you can’t?
If you need true privacy, the answer is Mullvad. But there’s also more required than just switching on a VPN if you want privacy. If you want a convenient and easy VPN that’s part of a bigger privacy-focused suite of tools, then I’d recommend Proton. They make some pretty good products.
Why do you want a VPN? Is it just for some light piracy? Staying safe on public wifi? Or do you actually NEED to maintain your privacy, with real consequences if you can’t?
Nice try, FBI.
Not your problem.
It’s kind of sad, that people still believe that VPN is a safe option. Sure, it ads a layer, but anyone who wants to know who you are, can find out by your fingerprints, your accounts, anything you put out there. So if you do anything but light surfing, then you are not anonymous with VPN.
people still believe that VPN is a safe option
What does that sentence even mean without context?
Safe against whom? I’m pretty convinced a VPN is safe against :
- your boss or manager if you somehow browse on your corporate network
- your flatmates or family member if you browse at home and do not necessary trust them or whomever setup the router
- your school
- the manager of the cafe you are using WiFi on
I’m pretty convinced might be safe against larger scale surveillance :
- your ISP if it is not doing deep packet inspection (and that’s pretty much per country basis AFAICT)
I’m pretty convinced might NOT be safe against professional individual surveillance :
- state level professionals using exploits and actually knowing your name, not your nickname
- your VPN provider or the cloud provider you rely on to install the backend side of Wireguard or OpenVPN
So… no I don’t think anyone can make your VPN pointless. Clearly the random person sitting next to me in a cafe can not. Only few people with the technical expertise or power can do that. None of that matters though if you already volunteer your information elsewhere publicly on private platforms like Instagram or YouTube though.
You certainly are “pretty much”… :-)
So, what do you do, since you don’t trust your family? Seems pretty much suspect there… or pretty much paranoid.
You are not safe against any of those you mention. Don’t you know what VPN does, and does not?
You are pretty much NOT safe against large scale surveillance.
Thanks for backing me up, with the last thing you wrote. And then please go read up on what VPN actually does, and does not.
alright then, keep your secrets
I always keep my secrets. :-)
I have also linked to a couple of articles that touch on what I’m talking about…
You were given a list of scenarios above that list where vpns are useful. It seems you’re the one who don’t know what you’re talking about.
I was given a list where someone thought it would be useful… Now go read up on VPN, and you’ll see why that list was a “pretty much” wrong. ;-)
Under no circumstance does that mean it is not worth getting one. Particularly dependent on where one lives.
It certainly does - if you don’t know how to actually use it in a proper way, because then it becomes totally meaningless to even have VPN… No matter where you live. Please read up on what it does and does not!
https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/7-dangerous-vpn-myths-you-probably-believe
https://www.tomsguide.com/features/are-you-really-invisible-when-you-use-a-vpn
Yes locks on your door are pointless because if someone wants to break into your house they’re going to do it once way or another, especially if you leave the window open
This is a dumb take.
You are right, your take is really dumb. So why do you share it?
A dumb take is, to pay for something you might get nothing from. But hey, you do you… VPN-providers are happy for people like you.
A dumb take is, to pay for something you might get nothing from
And which VPN provider is it you’re getting “nothing” from? There seems to be a budding market for VPN’s out there, lots of people are paying for them and continue to do so, why do you think that is? Because the whole world is stupid and it’s a pointless waste of money? Or because they are actually in fact getting some kind of use from them?
VPN’s have a myriad of uses, you’re focusing on some ambiguous nation-state attacker tracking you down for whatever reason. Meanwhile, quite a lot of users would just like to watch porn without having to submit ID. I’d say they’re getting plenty of use out of their VPN for that.
Do take the time to read the comments, so you get the context.
As I already said, if you don’t know how to keep your usage of the internet private, then you will not be private with a VPN either. VPN doesn’t keep you private. It will help you to attain a little more privacy, but only is you use it right.
Please don’t tell me what I am focusing on, when I haven’t even said it… Making straw man arguments is low. Lying is low…
Please don’t tell me what I am focusing on, when I haven’t even said it
I literally quoted you, so don’t try playing the “I never actually said that” card.
It’s ironic that you’re now complaining about context and strawmen when you yourself started it with the whole “anyone who wants to know who you are…” argument. This mysterious “anyone” is the ultimate strawman because they’re anonymous and all encompassing. Meanwhile, you have zero idea what anyone wants from their VPN’s so you’re making the broad, sweeping statements while lacking any context yourself.
Facebook got my precise location just using my IP, I decided to create a fake account to use FB market place, they warned me about an “unknown login”, it’s the first time I’ve seen this, usually websites only know approximate location, but this time just by knowing my IP they hit exactly the small town where I live, instead of near towns which is the normal. I suspect they had my IP from other devices allowing location in the same network (same wifi), then they could safely associate that IP with my exact location even tho I didn’t enable any GPS any time.
