There are quite a few text equivalents. text-generation-webui looks and feels like Automatic1111, and supports a few backends to run the LLMs. My personal favorite is open-webui for that look and feel, and then there is Silly Tavern for RP stuff.
For generation backends I prefer ollama due to how simple it is, but there are other options.
A VPN is still a good choice, in fact if you setup your own VPN on a VPS that is an even safer choice because then you (sorta) control the certificate used for encryption. True, your hosting provider could still obtain that cert if they really wanted to, and they still have the data on your IP using it and for how long / how much, but it would make obtaining your data a targeted attack.
But there are cons to setting up your own, such as misconfiguration exposing you, or just the setup time in general.