VPN Comparison

I made a spreadsheet comparing different open source VPN providers.

Part 2 here

Providers

Notes

  • Please do not start a flame war about Proton.
  • Please do not start a flame war about cryptocurrencies. Monero is the only cryptocurrency listed because of its privacy.
  • The very left column is the category for each row, the middle section is the various VPN providers, and the right section is which VPNs are the best in each category.
  • IVPN has two differing plans, which is why “Standard” and “Pro” are sometimes differentiated.
  • For accounts, “Generated” means a random identifier is created for you to act as your account, “Required” means you must sign up yourself. Proton VPN allows guest use under specific conditions (e.g. installed from the Google Play Store), but otherwise requires an account.
  • Switzerland is seen as more private than Sweden. Gibraltar is seen as privacy neutral.
  • All prices are in United States Dollars. Tax is not included.
  • Pricing is based on the price combination to achieve the exact time frame. For example, Proton VPN does not have a 3 year plan but you can achieve 3 years by combining a 2 year plan with a 1 year plan.
  • The availability section is security based. Availability is framed around a GrapheneOS and secureblue setup.
  • The Proton VPN Flatpak is unofficial, but based on the official code.
  • Availability on secureblue is based on the ujust install-vpn command. Security features must be disabled on secureblue in order to use the GUI for IVPN and Mullvad VPN, but not for Proton VPN. Mozilla VPN and NymVPN are available as Flatpaks, which are safer than layering packages.
  • I wanted to include more categories, such as which programming languages they are written in, connection speed, and security, but that became far too difficult and complex, so I decided to omit those categories.

Takeaways

  • NymVPN is very very new, but it’s off to a strong start. It wins in almost every category. I actually hadn’t heard of it until I started this project.
  • If you want a free VPN, Proton VPN is the only one here that meets that requirement.
  • If you want to pay week-by-week, IVPN is the only one that allows that.
  • If you’re paying month-by-month on a budget, Mullvad VPN is the cheapest option.
  • NymVPN is the cheapest plan for anything past 1 month.
  • If you want to use Accrescent as your main app store, IVPN is the only VPN available there for now.
  • If you want to pay for a bundle of apps, including a VPN, Proton sells more than just a VPN.
  • Mozilla VPN is terrible. The only thing it has going for it is a verified Flatpak, but NymVPN also has that so it doesn’t even matter.
  • Imhotep@lemmy.world
    6·
    2 months ago

    ProtonVPN has started to become blocked on tons of websites. I have to switch servers all the time, to the point I won’t be able to keep a VPN connection up like I used to.

    I’ve read Mullvad has worsened as well. There seems to be a general ban on VPN use (there was always some of course)

    My last hope: non profits who offer VPN. They keep logs, don’t allow torrenting, and require a real name to subscribe. Very few server choices, if any.

    I’m… fine with that. I just want privacy. No surveillance. And I trust the non profit. Plus I torrent on a VPS anyway

    What I would like to see are local VPNs, with a small enough pool of users on each server to not get flagged. A rotation between servers from time to time. Compliant with the law of course (as long as the law doesn’t require total surveillance, evidently). The goal is to hide everyone’s activity from the providers and websites (yes, I know, fingerprinting)

    But maybe there’s some other existing tool/service I’m not aware of?

    • Ratte@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 months ago

      Does using a VPS truly enhance safety while torrenting? Isn’t it still possible for downloads and uploads to be traced back to your identifiable IP address, especially considering that the VPS provider logs your IP and email details?

      • Imhotep@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 months ago

        VPN on VPS (easy to do with gluetun)

        Basically you use a container that’s a VPN connection and connect other containers to it.

        • Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          2·
          2 months ago

          Exactly this, the commenter above even mentioned they have a VPS already, what’s stopping them from (this is just an option) slapping tailscale on there, enabling it as an exit node and being done with it? Would literally take 5 minutes and suddenly your traffic is coming from a datacenter and not your home IP

          • Imhotep@lemmy.world
            1·
            2 months ago

            Both comments are me. Configuring Tailscale (or Headscale?) is on my to-do.

            To be clear, connecting to the VPS is not what I use for the anonymizing part, it’s the gluetun container that connects to ProtonVPN servers. This way I can still access my VPS with its real IP. Not sure if there was a confusion there.

            Simply using my VPS as relay would still attach my browsing to a single IP I’m the sole user of… or not? I do not know how that works.

        • Ratte@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 months ago

          Thank you for clarifying. Does using a VPN on a VPS offer the same level of privacy as connecting a VPN container to a torrent container from a home connection? I’m curious about the advantages of using a VPS in this context.

          • Imhotep@lemmy.world
            1·
            2 months ago

            No advantages privacy-wise, but it’s like a seedbox! I keep the torrent client running. Also I’m on a limited mobile data plan on my router at home, so this helps.

            When I found out you could get a free 200GB VPS (look up free tier vps) - and because I had another paid VPS already anyway - I decided to make a seedbox. It’s not a ton of storage but it works really well, very happy with it.

  • pineapple@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    Nymvpn seams great! I’ve never heard of it either. I just hope it stays around and gets a name for itself.

    • unexpected@forum.guncadindex.comEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Same here… but I don’t know what I think about vpns that say around a long time. You can’t help but wonder that the reason they are still around is because they got co-opted.

  • pound_heap@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    5·
    2 months ago

    This is great, thanks for sharing! You’ve got a few useful feedback points, let me add one more: does a provider have an onion address. This allows decoupling of payment from usage. Not a big thing, but good to know.

  • RaoulDook@lemmy.worldEnglish
    30·
    2 months ago

    What about logging policies? Seems like that would be an important category to visit - which providers store logs or don’t etc. I’ve heard of some that use RAM-only logging that allegedly never gets stored on disk.

    • Starkon@lemmy.ml
      3·
      2 months ago

      Even so, you never knowif they’re really no log. What guarantees that apart from a verbal promise?

      • PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        9·
        2 months ago

        Best way I know is to observe them being unable to comply with legal demands to supply data when they receive them. From what I’ve heard Mullvad has passed that test, but I’ve never tried to follow up and find details.

      • RaoulDook@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        There is no guarantee unless you could personally audit their facilities and inspect what they did with your account etc. But I would still choose one that states they have a good policy versus one that says nothing on the subject.

  • lemmyknow@lemmy.today
    21·
    2 months ago

    Okay, what exactly are the benefits of a VPN for the average user (non-corporate), besides pretending to be somewhere else?

  • superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    Would Nym work with Glueten? It seems bewz so its not listed on their github but it supports wireguard so maybe it does.

    • dogs0n@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      2 months ago

      As long as you can generate a wireguard config that works, for example, on your desktop/main pc with wireguard directly, then Gluetun should have no issue (as far as im aware).

      Gluetun specific provider support is usually just there to get setup faster (I think so it can automatically get configs for certain countries, etc).

  • scytale@piefed.zipEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    Wow, Nym’s payment model past month-to-month looks good. I don’t really need port forwarding, so the advantage I see they have over Mullvad is the decentralized nature of their servers. Mullvad does have multi-hop but it goes through Mullvad owned or rented servers. Does anyone know if Nym really does use servers that aren’t leased/rented by them for decentralization? Otherwise, they are no different from Mullvad and only the payment model is better.

    • Clark@lemmy.ml
      1·
      2 months ago

      Nym pays users to be a relay as far as I know. There are 5 relays or 2 relays with your preference (depends on the speed and security you want). Maybe they own some servers that I don’t know but their encryption techniques are quite advanced. There are articles on their websites that they cannot log anything.