this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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Privacy

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VPN Comparison (lemmy.nz)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by Charger8232@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 

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.
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[–] nothrone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Never heard of NymVPN. Does anyone use them?

I use Mullvad, and I really trust their devs. Not really looking to change, but having more options is always good.

[–] Brunette6256@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

Yeah me neither. This kinda feels like a nymvpn ad

[–] Nelots@piefed.zip 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why is proton consistently red in the pricing category despite being cheaper than (or on par with) other options like mozilla which is consistently yellow? Am I misreading this as green = good, red = bad?

[–] Charger8232@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

That seems to be a bug. That's my bad. Thanks for catching that! I'll fix it soon and edit the post.

Edit: Fixed! Sorry about that.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I have never heard of NymVPN

[–] FutileRecipe@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Most people haven't, till they have.

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 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.

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

no love for windscribe? :(

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

CEO is a jackass but the product is fantastic and has a great free tier, although P2P/torrenting was removed from the free tier unfortunately I believe

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 months ago

CEO is a jackass but the product is fantastic

evergreen

[–] apotheotic@beehaw.org 1 points 10 months ago

Why is proton VPN excluded from the winners for open source, license, and based on, despite having the exact same values populated as the other 4 winners?

[–] shut@lemmy.pt 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] lumen@feddit.nl -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why? They (used to) push disgustingly deceptive marketing and had an embarrassing server breach.

[–] notarobot@lemmy.zip 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] lumen@feddit.nl -1 points 10 months ago

No, only some of their clients are.

[–] Rose@lemmy.zip 1 points 10 months ago

Why is being on the Google Play store a feature worth highlighting? To use an F-Droid expression, that would be an anti-feature.

[–] lemmyknow@lemmy.today 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Lemmchen@feddit.org 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Data retention laws of your ISP.

[–] lemmyknow@lemmy.today 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What can they collect, seeing as HTTPS is common nowadays? I mean, they could have DNS wueries, I guess. But then how does custom DNS vs VPN compare?

[–] lumen@feddit.nl -1 points 10 months ago

Assuming every connection you make is encrypted with TLS (HTTPS) or otherwise encrypted:

If you use encrypted custom DNS, your ISP sees only the IP addresses you connect to. If you use unencrypted DNS or ISP-provided DNS, they see the hostnames plus the IP addresses.

[–] crunchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Are any of these good options for port forwarding? I'm currently using PIA and I'd rather not.

[–] Charger8232@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

Proton VPN supports port forwarding. IVPN and Mullvad VPN do not. Mozilla VPN and NymVPN don't explicitly state whether or not they do from what I found, so I'm not sure.

[–] skoberlink@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh boy, seems I missed something again. What's wrong with PIA? I've been using them forever.